BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE Backups in One Run (SAP Library - SAP Database Guide: Oracle (BC-DB-ORA-DBA))

BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE Backups in One Run

Use

You can execute the database backup using BRBACKUP and the backup of the offline redo log files using BRARCHIVE in a single run. You can use this option to make more effective use of the increasing capacity of storage devices, such as tapes and disks. It also makes an unattended backup easier, since after a backup with BRBACKUP, the BRARCHIVE run is started automatically. You can now perform this procedure in the DBA Planning Calendar of the Computing Center Management System (CCMS)

There are the following options for performing the backup in one run:

BRBACKUP starts BRARCHIVE, using brbackup -a. For tape backups, the tapes are managed by BRBACKUP. For more information, see -a|-archive.

BRARCHIVE starts BRBACKUP, using brarchive -b. For tape backups, the tapes are managed by BRARCHIVE. For more information, see -b|-backup.

We recommend the first option (brbackup -a). For tape backups, BRBACKUP uses the tapes defined in volume_backup. To execute the backup, BRBACKUP:

Checks the volume label

Backs up the tape header files (.tape.hdr0, init_ora, init_sap)

Backs up the database files (but does not save logs)

Calls BRARCHIVE

Then BRARCHIVE:

Writes the offline redo log files to tape after the backed-up database files (without checking the label and without header files)
Backs up all logs (that is, for BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE)

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

Example

This is an example of a BRBACKUP command for unattended online backup with two tape devices. The database files are backed up first and then the offline redo log files are copied to the same tapes.

brbackup -m all -t online -c -a -ssd -c

For more information, see BRBACKUP command -a|-archive.

If you run the tape administration using brarchive -b, the tapes defined in volume_archive are used. The only change to the backup is the sequence in which the data files and the offline redo log files are written to tape. In this case the logs are backed up by BRBACKUP at the end.

Example

This is an example of a BRARCHIVE command for offline backup with one tape device. The offline redo log files are backed up on tape first and then the database files are copied to the same tape.

brarchive -sd -c -b -t offline -c

For more information, see BRARCHIVE command -b|-backup.

You can also perform a combined BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE run to several tape devices in parallel. For more information, see Parallel Backup.

Note

Starting BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE in sequence with BACKINT, or to disk, only means that BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE run together. It does not automatically mean that the backup is made to the same volume. If you are using BACKINT, you can do this with BACKINT tools in some situations.