The Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) is a new backup program in Oracle8. It replaces the Enterprise Backup Utility introduced for Oracle7. You can use it as a command line interface (CLI) or as graphical user interface (GUI) within the Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM).

RMAN uses the SBT interface (System Backup to Tape) to back up to tape devices. External backup tools can implement this interface as a dynamic link library (backup library).

The following components are delivered with the standard Oracle8 installation:

• Recovery Manager with the Oracle SBT interface (System Backup to Tape)
• Backup library and backup tool Networker from the company Legato
• Legato’s BACKINT interface implementation (as of Oracle 8.0.5)

The SAP installation also delivers the following for use with RMAN:

• the SAP backup library and the SAP backup tool BRBACKUP.

The Oracle/SAP installation gives you two options for integrating RMAN (SAP implementation and Legato implementation). As of Release 4.5B, the SAP implementation of the Oracle interface SBT (SAP backup library) is automatically activated with the R/3 installation.

However, you can also use the Legato implementation, or other external backup libraries. These solutions differ in the backup media that they support and the characteristics of the backup programs used.

One important new RMAN feature is the option of making incremental backups. This allows you to change your previous backup strategy and considerably reduce the amount of data to be backed up. RMAN also offers other advantages:

You are subject to the following restrictions when you use the Recovery Manager as CLI or GUI in the OEM.

• RMAN places information about backups in a recovery catalog. For security this catalog is held in a separate database on a separate host. This means more administrative work.
• Restoration or recovery is complicated in a disaster situation (loss of production database and recovery catalog). It is often only possible with the help of Oracle Support. Without the recovery catalog data, RMAN cannot recover the database automatically using previous backups.

The database user making the backups currently needs the SYSDBA authorizations. SYSOPER authorizations are not sufficient.

For more information on Oracle RMAN, see the Oracle8 documentation.

The integration of the Oracle Recovery Manager into the SAP tool BRBACKUP adds security and flexibility to important functions in existing backup strategies and tools:

• The recovery catalog is not used. The backup information is stored in the control file. After the backup, the control file is also backed up. In a restoration, the control file is imported first, followed by the data files.
• The integration of RMAN into BRBACKUP also guarantees integration into the R/3 System (CCMS).
• BRBACKUP tape management functions as previously (when using the SAP backup library).
• You can still use the BACKINT interface with external tools.
• The SAPDBA user interface is unchanged, however, it has been extended with new options.
• All previous SAP backup strategies are supported while using RMAN. Exceptions: RMAN is not relevant for offline redo log backups with BRARCHIVE, standby database backups and split mirror backups.

For more information on backing up the Oracle database with RMAN, see: