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Use

This section gives you basic information to develop a careful approach to backing up your Oracle database.

Prerequisites

When designing your approach to backup, archive (that is, backup of offline redo log files), restore, and recovery, consider the following:

  • You design an approach based on the needs of your company. You ask yourself questions such as:

    • What level of availability do you require from the database?

    • How long can you afford to shut down the SAP System in the event of data loss? Some backup approaches require a longer restore and recovery time than others.

    • Can you afford to lose data at all? If not, consider high availability solutions for Oracle such as Oracle standby databases.

  • You carefully test your approach before your SAP System goes live, and again after any changes have been made to the approach.

  • You document your approach in a plan and make sure that all relevant people know the procedures to follow in the event of problems.

Process

  1. You identify what needs to be backed up.

    Normally, you back up the complete database and the redo log files.

  2. You identify the database backup type that you require.

    Normally, you perform an online and complete backup.

  3. You work out a backup cycle. We recommend a minimum cycle of 14 days, although 28 days is preferable. For example, with a 28-day cycle, you reuse the backup media after 28 days.

    Recommendation

    We recommend that, if possible, you perform at least one offline backup per cycle. It is even better if you perform backups more often (for example, weekly) if possible. Use incremental backup for larger databases. However, if an offline backup is not possible, online backups are fully acceptable.

  4. You schedule regular backups.

    Recommendation

    We recommend that you schedule regular backups with the DBA Planning Calendar, using the action patterns available there. There are action patterns for different requirements to cover the main aspects of database administration, including backup.

  5. You verify the:

    • Backup tape readability, that is, a check on the contents of the media after the backup

    • Database block consistency, that is, a check on the database itself

    If possible, run both types of verify daily, otherwise preferably weekly. At the least, be sure to run a verify once in each backup cycle.

    You can back up the database and then verify both the backup media and the database using a single BRBACKUP command, brbackup -w use_dbv|use_rmv. The -w use_dbv option is also available in the action patterns of the DBA Planning Calendar. Be aware that a verify considerably extends backup run times.

    To only verify database block consistency (that is, without a database backup), use the command brbackup -w only_dbv|-w use_rmv.

    To verify table and index structures, use the command brconnect -f stats -v.

    To verify the backed up offline redo log files, use the command brarchive -w use_rmv.

    Caution

    Verification of backups is very important to enable you to recover from catastrophic database failure, especially for production databases.

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