Oracle backup requirements and considerations

Use application backups to protect Oracle Database on Windows, Linux, and Solaris platforms. Application backups ensure database consistency, whereas file-level backups of the Oracle server are likely to contain database inconsistencies since only data that has been flushed to disk is included.

With Oracle protection, the Unitrends agent leverages Oracle’s Recovery Manager (RMAN) utility for backup and recovery jobs to:

• Ensure a consistent database snapshot is captured.
• Perform standard Oracle database backup operations, such as saving redo logs and quiescing buffers.

The agent invokes commands on the Oracle server and supplies RMAN a Samba share target (/backups/rae/<client_name>/<instance>) so that jobs save directly to the backup appliance.

Oracle protection requirements and considerations vary by platform and Oracle Database version. See the following for details:

These requirements must be met for Oracle protection:

Oracle Requirement

Description

Oracle server

Oracle platform, agent, server, and credential requirements are described below.

Platform

Verify the server is running a supported Windows, Linux, or Solaris version listed in the Unitrends Compatibility and Interoperability Matrix.

Agent

Install the applicable Unitrends agent as described in Installing the Unitrends agent.

The agent must have access to the Samba share on the Unitrends appliance to perform backup and recovery operations:

• SMB 2.0 – The SMB 2.0 security option is enabled by default on Unitrends appliances that were originally imaged or deployed with version 10.4.8 or higher. For Windows servers, SMB 2.0 must be enabled. For Oracle on Solaris, Samba must be enabled and a Samba key must be added for the backup appliance (see Oracle on Solaris 11 for details).
• SMB 1.0 – The SMB 1.0 security option is enabled by default on appliances that were originally imaged or deployed with a pre-10.4.8 version. For Windows servers, SMB 1.0 must be enabled. For Oracle on Solaris, Samba must be enabled (see Oracle on Solaris 11 for details).

Note:   Upgrading from a pre-10.4.8 version does not change the SMB 1.0 setting. (To configure your appliance to use SMB 2.0, see How Unitrends supports SMBv2.)

Oracle server

Add the Oracle server to the Unitrends appliance as described in To add an agent-based asset.

Credentials

Configure trust credentials for each application instance you wish to protect as described in Managing asset credentials.

• For Windows, the credential user must be a member of the ora_dba group.
• For Linux and Solaris, the user must be a member of the group that owns the Oracle database instance.
• For additional considerations, see Guidelines for creating Oracle credentials.

Instances

The following requirements apply to all Oracle instances. (See additional requirements for Oracle on Windows, Linux, and Solaris below.)

• Must be online and in OPEN status.

Modes such as MOUNTED, NOT MOUNTED, and SHUTDOWN are not supported.

• Must be running and configured in ARCHIVELOG mode. This enables archiving (backup) of the Oracle redo log which guarantees you can recover all committed transactions, and also enables Unitrends to back up the database while it is open and in normal system use. Archived redo log files are deleted from Oracle each time a full backup completes successfully. This keeps the logs from overrunning tablespace.
• Each Oracle SID on an Oracle server must be unique.
• Each instance must have a defined Oracle Home and only one Oracle Home per instance.
• Instances containing non-UTF-8 compatible characters are not supported.
• Oracle database instances must be deployed using the File System storage type. Other configurations are not supported.
• Oracle databases must be configured as single instances. Clustered configurations, such as Oracle single-server Real Application Clusters (RAC) and Oracle multi-server RACs, are not supported.

Oracle on Windows

Version must be 19c, 18, 12c, or 11g.

Oracle on Linux
• Version must be 19c, 12cM, or 11g.
• Must install the Oracle Dependency as described in Installing and updating the Linux agent.

Oracle on Solaris 11
• Must be version 12c or 11g.
• A Samba client for Solaris must be enabled. See How Unitrends supports SMBv2 for details.
• A Samba key must be added for the backup appliance. To add the key, issue this command (the default password is samba):

smbadm add-key -u samba@<applianceIP>

• Ensure the Solaris client has sufficient memory available. See Oracle Database on Solaris: Backup Fails with Out of Memory for details.
• Full pathname to each Solaris object cannot exceed 1024 characters. For details, see Solaris: File name too long.
Oracle jobs

The following apply to Oracle backup and recovery jobs:

• A given Oracle database can be protected by one Unitrends appliance only and cannot be included in an Oracle Enterprise Manager schedule.
• Free space equivalent to twice the size of the backup is required on the remote share. If adequate space is not available, the backup fails
• Only one backup or restore job per Oracle instance can run at any given time.
• For a given database, any job initiated while another job is in progress will fail. Once the job completes, another can be run for the given database.
• For Oracle on Windows and Oracle on Solaris, Unitrends supports full backups and level 1 incremental backups. The incremental forever backup strategy is not supported.
• For Oracle on Linux, Unitrends supports full backups, level 1 incremental backups, and the incremental forever backup strategy. Additional setup is required to use the incremental forever backup strategy. For details, see Oracle Database: Incremental Forever Schedules on Linux Platforms.

Credentials are required to perform Oracle backup and restore operations. If no credentials are available, or if credentials are incorrect, the job fails with a TNS permission denied error.

Follow the guidelines below when applying Oracle credentials. After reviewing the guidelines, proceed to Managing asset credentials to create and apply credentials.

Oracle platform

Guidelines and requirements

Oracle on Linux or Oracle on Solaris

Apply credentials to each application instance you wish to protect. The credential user must be a member of the group that owns the Oracle database instance.

Oracle on Windows

Choose one of the following strategies:

• If the Windows NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM user is a member of the ora_dba group, you do not need to use Oracle credentials. Oracle backups and restores are performed using the NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM account.
• If you are using the push feature to install and update the Windows agent on the Oracle server, administrative credentials have been applied to the Windows server asset. If this Windows credential user is a member of the ora_dba group, these credentials can be used for Oracle protection as well. If not, you must also apply credentials to each application instance you wish to protect.

Note:  If credentials have been applied to the Oracle server and its application instances, the appliance uses instance-level credentials for Oracle backups and restores. If instance-level credentials are incorrect, the job fails without attempting to use the server-level credential.

• If you are not using the Windows agent push feature, apply credentials to each application instance you wish to protect. The credential user must be a member of the ora_dba group.

After ensuring all requirements have been met, do the following to start protecting your Oracle environment:

Step 1: Install the applicable agent on the Oracle server as described in Installing the Windows agent, Installing and updating the Linux agent, or Installing and updating the Solaris agent.
Step 2: Add the Oracle server to the Unitrends appliance as described in To add an agent-based asset.
Step 3: Run file-level backups to protect the Oracle server, as described in To create a file-level backup job.

Note:  Oracle on Windows – You must use Windows file-level backups to protect the Oracle server. Windows image-level backups cannot be used for Oracle.

Step 4: Run Oracle backups to protect the application, as described in To create an Oracle backup job.

If you have upgraded an existing protected Oracle database instance to a newer Oracle database version, follow this procedure to begin protecting your new instance:

1 Ensure all requirements are met for your new version of Oracle database. See Oracle backup requirements and considerations.
2 Select Options > Inventory Sync to discover the new instance.
3 Schedule and begin running backups of your Oracle new databases as described in Backup Administration and Procedures.
4 (Optional) If you no longer need to backup the older databases, disable or delete backup schedules for the older instance.

This is necessary because Oracle creates a new database instance when you upgrade, and does not remove or overwrite any older instances.

Note:   The appliance does not purge the last successful backup group for the older databases (see Backup groups for details). If you no longer need any backups of the older databases, you can delete them manually.

5 (Optional) Once you have gained the desired retention on your new instance, you can manually delete backups of the older instance.