Notes on NetBackup for SAP instant recovery restores

An SAP database instance generally contains three instances of control files. These reside in the following data and archive log directories:

UNIX or Linux:

…/saparch/cntrl/cntrlSID.dbf
…/sapdata1/cntrl/cntrlSID.dbf
…/sapdata2/cntrl/cntrlSID.dbf

Windows:

…\saparch\cntrl\cntrlSID.dbf
…\sapdata1\cntrl\cntrlSID.dbf
…\sapdata2\cntrl\cntrlSID.dbf

If the data files in sapdata1 and sapdata2 directories are on one volume, a snapshot of this volume contains these control files. However, at the time of the restore, brrestore provides only data files for restore and not control files. Therefore, the instant recovery with rollback method fails. For the rollback method, the files in the snapshot and the files in the restore file list should match. In this case, the files do not match, so instant recovery rollback restores method fail.

To avoid this problem, move the control files under locations sapdata1 and sapdata2 to some other location after you install your SAP database instance. First stop the database, then move the control files to different locations, adapt the profile file or spfile accordingly, and restart the database.