About NetBackup for Oracle operations
The following lists what occurs when you initiate RMAN:
The NetBackup Oracle policy can contain one or more client names and one or more backup scripts to execute.
Note:
Oracle 11g R2 Grid Infrastructure (CRS) includes the Single Client Access Name (SCAN) feature. This feature allows a single host name to resolve to multiple IP addresses each assigned to a different physical node in a cluster. Ensure that the client that appears in the NetBackup Oracle policy is not a SCAN. Also, ensure that any NB_ORA_CLIENT or CLIENT_NAME provided by the client host in the backup request is not a SCAN. These names must reliably resolve on both the master server and the media server to a client host IP address. This IP address allows the server processes to connect to the client host from which the backup request originated. If the SCAN is used in a NetBackup policy, this abstraction of the client name leads to backup and restore jobs failing. The backup and restore jobs may fail with a status 54. The client side fails with status 6 (backup) or status 5 (restore).
The NetBackup master server uses the automatic schedules in the Oracle policy to determine when the scripts in the backup selections are run on clients.
The NetBackup scheduler starts one Automatic Backup job for each client in the policy. The jobs for multiple clients can run concurrently. The scheduler executes each script on each client in the specified sequence. All the scripts for one client are run in the same automatic job.
The backup scripts start RMAN.
If an automatic schedule and script do not exist in the policy, a process on the client can still initiate RMAN when necessary.
The following lists what occurs when RMAN requests the backup:
RMAN connects to the appropriate Oracle database instance(s) for the backup. Hence, the script may execute on one host, but the backup may take place on a different host.
RMAN allocates one or more channels according to the backup script.
RMAN sends one or more backup pieces on each channel, in sequence.
Each channel interacts with NetBackup for Oracle and sends a user-directed backup request to the NetBackup master server for each backup piece.
Each request becomes a separate NetBackup Application Backup job. Hence there can be one Application Backup job queued or active, concurrently, per allocated channel.
RMAN can send one or more of the variables NB_ORA_CLIENT, NB_ORA_POLICY, and NB_ORA_SCHED to the NetBackup master server.
If RMAN does not send NB_ORA_CLIENT, the client name is used.
If RMAN does not send NB_ORA_POLICY, the master server selects the first Oracle policy it finds for the client.
If RMAN does not send NB_ORA_SCHED, the master server selects the first Application Backup schedule in the policy.
The NetBackup master server must be able to match any requested client name, Oracle policy and Application Backup schedule, or the job fails.
The following lists how NetBackup receives the data from RMAN:
The Application Backup jobs activate and the NetBackup media server processes which connect to the provided client name to receive the data. Hence, the client name that is sent in the user-directed request must bring the data connection back to the requesting host.
RMAN sends the appropriate data on the appropriate channel, and the data is transferred to storage.