Selecting Volumes Manually (SAP Library - SAP Database Guide: Oracle (BC-DB-ORA-DBA))

Selecting Volumes Manually

Use

You can select the volumes for an Oracle database backup manually. You can do this if the BRBACKUP or BRARCHIVE automatic volume management is deactivated by using the reserved volume name SCRATCH. However, BRBACKUP or BRARCHIVE still checks the expiration period of the volume, and only allows you to use volumes for which the expiration period has ended.

For more information, see Scratch Volume.

Prerequisites

Make sure that initialized volumes are available for the backup.

Determine whether the required expiration period has been configured in profile parameter expir_period and change the value when necessary.

Procedure

You can start the backup with BRBACKUP or BRARCHIVE in one of the following ways:

Using the profile init<DBSID>.sap

Enter one of the following parameter values in profile init<DBSID>.sap:

volume_backup = SCRATCH

volume_archive = SCRATCH

For more information, see volume_backup and volume_archive.

Start BRBACKUP or BRARCHIVE.

Using the option -v SCRATCH

Leave the profile unchanged (a volume pool can be defined).

Start BRBACKUP or BRARCHIVE with the option -v SCRATCH.

Result

BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE request the number of scratch volumes needed for the backup (message BR104I), expired volumes with any name. The volume names in the labels are not changed by the backup operation. Any expired BRBACKUP or BRARCHIVE volumes are accepted. See Volume Expiration Period.

Note

If you use scratch volumes, it might make sense to include the weekdays or days of the month in the volume names. This helps to make the names more meaningful.