About Oracle Intelligent Policies (OIP)
The Oracle Intelligent Policy (OIP) feature is a method of Oracle policy backup based on Oracle database instances. This method precludes the need to create templates and scripts for your Oracle policies. The OIP feature has the following elements:
You can create a single policy to protect multiple Oracle database instances that are spread over multiple clients.
A discovery service discovers Oracle database instances throughout the NetBackup environment. The service polls the clients every five minutes and sends the discovered instances to an instance repository available to you on the NetBackup Administration Console. You manage instances and instance groups through the NetBackup Administration Console or the nboraadm command.
All instances that you want backed up must be registered with credentials. If multiple instances share the same credentials, you can create an instance group for the set of instances with common credentials.
Multiple instance groups can be created for different sets of instances with different credentials. You can create a default instance group for newly discovered instances to be automatically added to the group, ensuring that new instances are protected.
The database administrator can control all instances and instance group credentials using the nboraadm command on the NetBackup client, which provides improved security throughout the system.
You are not required to know RMAN or to write and use templates and RMAN scripts. Instead, this feature automatically generates the scripts at run-time.
The Job Details in the Activity Monitor lets you view the backup summary, database state, RMAN input, and RMAN output for the OIP. Also, the Activity Monitor includes a new Instances column that shows the instance that the associated policy has backed up.
Enhanced error codes enable faster identification, troubleshooting, and correction of problems. You can easily restart a failed job.
You no longer need to create an application backup schedule. You only need to create automatic backup schedules for the data movement, which simplifies how retention works on the backup pieces.
You can manually back up any number of instances or all the instances.
The OIP automatically selects parameter settings at run-time that enable optimal deduplication.
You can create a new archived log schedule that backs up the archived redo logs within intervals of minutes.
The Oracle Intelligent Policy can protect an Oracle database when the Oracle DBA places database backups in the share on a NetBackup appliance.
The OIP can create and maintain a full set of data file copies in the share on a NetBackup appliance. The Accelerator option is used to update the data file copies using only the changed blocks since the last full backup.
Oracle 12c has introduced container databases (CDB) and pluggable databases (PDB) and they can be protected using the OIP.
Oracle DBAs can use the nboraadm command on the NetBackup client to manage instances, instance groups, and their credentials. This command is particularly useful in environments where the Oracle credentials are known only by the DBAs and not the NetBackup administrators.
The Oracle DBA can use the nboraadm command to start an immediate backup from the client if the NetBackup administrator has given the Oracle DBA proper permissions. The nboraadm command allows the Oracle DBA to immediately protect an Oracle database backup instead of waiting for the NetBackup schedule to protect the database backup. Use nboraadm command with the - immediate option to start a database backup.
You can select Oracle database instances and instance groups to be part of an Oracle backup policy. An Oracle backup policy can be created for the default instance group to ensure that all newly created instances are automatically protected. You can create an OIP in the following ways:
The Policy Configuration Wizard of the NetBackup Administration Console: The wizard guides you through the setup process by automatically choosing the best values for most configurations.
The Oracle Policy utility on the NetBackup Administration Console: The Oracle Policy utility is a set of five tabbed panels. The panels contain all the settings and parameters that are needed to create or change an OIP.