Common Features of BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE (SAP Library - SAP Database Guide: Oracle (BC-DB-ORA-DBA))

Common Features of BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE

Use

This section describes the common features of BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE. You can call these tools as follows:

Directly from the UNIX command level, using the SAPDBA menu – see Database Backup with SAPDBA, Backup of the Offline Redo Logs Files with SAPDBA

From the SAP System, using the Computing Center Management System (CCMS)

BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE do not use a graphical user interface in a UNIX environment. You can run them in any UNIX window and under any shell.

Both programs use standard commands for backing up the relevant files on a volume:

cpio or dd for backup to tape, cp or dd for backup to disk if you are working with file systems.
dd for backup of raw devices on tape or disk

You must configure BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE, using the parameters in the initialization profile init<DBSID>.sap.

The default configurations of both programs often require online user interaction. You can also run the programs without interaction, as described in Unattended Backup.

BRBACKUP saves database objects as follows:

Data files of the database
Control file
Online redo log files

You can also use BRBACKUP to back up non-database files and directories. See Backing up Non-Database Files and Directories.

BRARCHIVE normally archives the online redo logs that Oracle backs up in the archiving directory (offline redo log files) to tape. It is also possible to back up the offline redo log files to disk for special purposes.

BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE also back up the following files to the volume (when database objects or offline redo log files are backed up) or to the directory named in backup_root_dir for a backup of database files to disk:

A copy of profile init<DBSID>.ora, init<DBSID>.dba

A copy of profile init<DBSID>.sap

The main log of SAPDBA reorg<DBSID>.log, the structure log struct<DBSID>.log

The detail BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE log

The summary BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE log

The logs are saved on every volume (for example, tape) used for the backup. As a result, you can still determine the contents of the volume, even when the database and file system logs from BRBACKUP or BRARCHIVE have been lost.

BRCONNECT monitors the database during a BRBACKUP process. BRTOOLS is called internally by BRBACKUP and BRRACHIVE. You cannot call BRTOOLS directly yourself.

For more information, see:

Supported Backup Media

Backup with Automatic Tape Changers