RMAN Duplication to a new host using Veritas Netbackup in Oracle 9i

We use Veritas Netbackup 5.1 as the Media Management Software for creating our production tape backups. Yesterday, I successfully created a RMAN DUPLICATE database on a different host using these tape backups .I am documenting the procedure below

NAMING CONVENTIONS

1)RMAN target = source database of the RMAN backups
2)duplicate database = destination database that needs to be created from the source database backup
3)auxiliary database = duplicate database
6)RMAN repository = separate schema (RMAN catalog) in a separate database that contains source database’s backup details
7)dev7 is the name of the duplicate database to be created
8)Media Manager Server = Netbackup Media Manager Server.
9)Media Manager Client = source database host
10)PROD = source database name
11)DEV = duplicate database name
12)RMANCT = RMAN catalog database name
13)RMANPROD = RMAN catalog repository schema name

CREATE DESTINATION DATABASE osuser and group SIMILAR to SOURCE DATABASE osuser and group

One of the requirements of RMAN duplication using VERITAS NETBACKUP is that the destination database's osuser and group should be similar to what it is in the source database node

e.g If source database ORACLE_HOME owner is oracle:dba, the destination database ORACLE_HOME owner should also be oracle:dba

MAKE BACKUP TAPES accessible to DESTINATION HOST

1)Contact your NETBACKUP system administrators to the source database BACKUP TAPES accessible to DESTINATION HOST

2)Verify by the following command

a) Login oracle@destination_db_host
b) /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bplist -C source_db_host -t 4 -l -R /

The above bplist command should list all the backup sets that are in the RMAN catalog

Prepare Duplicate database

1)Login oracle@destination_db_host
2)Copy the source database's initSID.ora to the destination host and add a new parameter DB_FILE_NAME_CONVERT. For e.g if the source database files are in /oracle/prod/d1 and /oracle/prod/d2 directories and if the corresponding restoration paths in the destination host are to be /oracle/dev/d1 and /oracle/dev/d2 respectively,

DB_FILE_NAME_CONVERT=(/oracle/prod/d1/,/oracle/dev/d1/,/oracle/prod/d2,/oracle/dev/d2/)

3)sqlplus '/ as sysdba'

4)startup nomount

5)Edit the $TNS_ADMIN/tnsnames.ora and add connection descriptors for the source database PROD and its catalog database RMANCT

Run the DUPLICATE command

RMAN always restores from the latest tape backups by default to create new database with the DUPLICATE command.

1)Login to oracle@destination_host

export NB_ORA_CLIENT=source_host

2)Connect to RMAN

rman LOG=/tmp/client/dev.log
connect target sys/***@prod
connect catalog rmanprod/****@rmanct
connect auxiliary /


3)Issue the Duplicate commands

RUN
{
allocate auxiliary channel t1 type 'SBT_TAPE';
allocate auxiliary channel t2 type 'SBT_TAPE';
SEND 'NB_ORA_SERV=media manager server, NB_ORA_CLIENT=source_host';
duplicate
target database to dev
pfile=/ora_base/oracle/devdb/9.2.0/dbs/initdev.ora
logfile
'/oracle/dev/logs/dev_log1.dbf' size 256M,
'/oracle/dev/logs/dev_log2.dbf' size 256M,
'/oracle/dev/logs/dev_log3.dbf' size 256M
}


4)Verify the dev alert log and the RMAN log /tmp/client/dev.log
5) The whole restore process will happen over the network depending on the network speed and the source database size

Restoration of only archive logs from RMAN

1) Login oracle@destination_host
2) select * from v$instance ( it should show ‘MOUNTED’ status)
3) shutdown immediate
4) Login oracle@source_host
5) Restore the archivelog files with a separate RMAN command.

rman
connect target /
connect catalog rmanprod/****@rmanct
run
{
allocate channel t1 type 'SBT_TAPE';
set archivelog destination to '/home/oracle/';
restore archivelog
from time "to_date('09/24/07 8:00:00', 'mm/dd/yy hh24:mi:ss')" until time "to_date('09/24/07 13:00:00', 'mm/dd/yy hh24:mi:ss')";
}

7)Verify the restored archive logfiles in /home/oracle/
8)Copy them to destination node using rcp or scp command
9)Login to destination node oracle@destination_host
10)Mount the destination database dev and recover manually using the 'recover database until cancel using backup controlfile' command
11)Type ‘cancel’ after applying the necessary archive logfiles to make the destination database consistent
12) alter database open resetlogs
13) Create the temporary tablespace

How to create a duplicate database until a specific time in the RMAN repository

The procedure remains the same except one more ‘set until’ command. The set until time command has to be put in the run block just before the duplicate command to create the duplicate database upto a specific point in time.

set until time= "to_date('mm/dd/yyyy hh24:mi:ss', 'MM/DD/YYYY HH24:MI:SS')";

Affect of Duplicate command on Recovery Catalog

There is no affect of duplication on the recovery catalog. RMAN generates a new DBID for the duplicate database. Unless this DBID is registered in the catalog, RMAN does not create or update any records for the newly created duplicate database.

It is not necessary to register the newly created duplicate database in the RMAN catalog unless the newly created duplicate database wants to use RMAN for its own backups