As you know, ZDLRA is one appliance dedicated to provides you zero data loss in several (planned and unplanned) outages. All the backups are stored inside of the delta store to be processed, and they are deconstructed, meaning that the rman backup set does not exist (as is the formal backup set file).
But sometimes we need to copy/extract some backups outside of ZDLRA and copy it to the filesystem. Maybe because some regulations/compliances need to store for long-term/archival purposes. But some caveats are important to be explained.
The DBMS_RA.COPY_BACKUP (and COPY_BACKUP_PIECE) procedure allows us to copy backups sets from one library to another one. But also allow us to copy to disk, extracting it from ZDLRA.
As you can see in the reference, if we define the “template_name” as null, the backupset is exported to a filesystem mounted at ZDLRA. So, it an easy way that allows us to export backupsets from ZDLRA. The way to do that is to specify the “format” parameter using the same rules/definition as rman and pointing to fs.
Look below some backups for datafile 1 that are stored at ZDLRA:
RMAN> list backup of datafile 1 summary device type sbt_tape;
List of Backups
===============
Key TY LV S Device Type Completion Time #Pieces #Copies Compressed Tag
------- -- -- - ----------- ------------------- ------- ------- ---------- ---
9372 B 0 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 19:37:39 1 1 YES TAG20201004T193527
9562 B 1 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:07:03 1 1 YES TAG20201004T200657
9637 B 0 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:07:03 1 1 YES TAG20201004T200657
9832 B 1 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:19:10 1 1 YES COPYBKP
9845 B 0 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:19:10 1 1 YES COPYBKP
9928 B 1 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:23:36 1 1 YES TAG20201004T202331
10083 B 0 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:23:36 1 1 YES TAG20201004T202331
RMAN> list backup of datafile 1 tag 'COPYBKP';
List of Backup Sets
===================
BS Key Type LV Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
------- ---- -- ---------- ----------- ------------ -------------------
9832 Incr 1 80.00K SBT_TAPE 00:00:02 04/10/2020 20:19:10
BP Key: 9833 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: YES Tag: COPYBKP
Handle: VB$_1918343643_9831I Media:
List of Datafiles in backup set 9832
File LV Type Ckp SCN Ckp Time Abs Fuz SCN Sparse Name
---- -- ---- ---------- ------------------- ----------- ------ ----
1 1 Incr 2591788 04/10/2020 20:19:08 NO /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL19C/system01.dbf
BS Key Type LV Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
------- ---- -- ---------- ----------- ------------ -------------------
9845 Incr 0 323.84M SBT_TAPE 00:00:02 04/10/2020 20:19:10
BP Key: 9846 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: YES Tag: COPYBKP
Handle: VB$_1918343643_9831_1 Media:
List of Datafiles in backup set 9845
File LV Type Ckp SCN Ckp Time Abs Fuz SCN Sparse Name
---- -- ---- ---------- ------------------- ----------- ------ ----
1 0 Incr 2591788 04/10/2020 20:19:08 NO /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL19C/system01.dbf
RMAN>
As you can see above I have two backups with the tag COPYBKP for datafile 1. Two virtual backups generated by ZDLRA.
So, I will copy these (and all with the same TAG) to a folder inside of ZDLRA. This is a local folder existing in both nodes of ZDLRA and can be an NFS mount point as well. So, to do that, I connected to the ZDLRA database and called the COPY_BACKUP:
SQL> BEGIN 2 DBMS_RA.COPY_BACKUP( 3 tag => 'COPYBKP' 4 , format => '/radump/copybkp_%d_%U' 5 , template_name => NULL 6 ); 7 END; 8 / PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. SQL>
And at “/radump” folder for ZDLRA now we have the backup sets from rman:
[root@zdlras1n1 ~]# ls -lh /radump/copybkp_* -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 218M Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_24vc5961_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 168K Oct 4 20:30 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_5gvc595s_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 160K Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_5hvc595t_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 216K Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_5ivc595u_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 112K Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_5kvc5961_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 48K Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_5lvc5962_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 208K Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_5ovc5964_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 48K Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_5pvc5965_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 48K Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_5qvc5966_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 3.7M Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_7ivc595u_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 453K Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_8svc596e_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 1.2M Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_bqvc5966_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 356M Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_f1vc595t_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 2.3M Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_h9vc5965_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 1.6M Oct 4 20:30 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_j8vc5964_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 194M Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_qlvc5962_1_2 -rw-r----- 1 oracle dba 767M Oct 4 20:29 /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_u0vc595s_1_2 [root@zdlras1n1 ~]#
These files are all the backup set with tag COPYBKP and you can see that the catalog was updated too. Now we have two copies of these backup sets:
RMAN> list backup of datafile 1 summary device type sbt_tape tag 'COPYBKP';
List of Backups
===============
Key TY LV S Device Type Completion Time #Pieces #Copies Compressed Tag
------- -- -- - ----------- ------------------- ------- ------- ---------- ---
9832 B 1 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:30:08 1 2 NO COPYBKP
9845 B 0 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:29:26 1 2 NO COPYBKP
RMAN> list backup of datafile 1 summary device type sbt_tape;
List of Backups
===============
Key TY LV S Device Type Completion Time #Pieces #Copies Compressed Tag
------- -- -- - ----------- ------------------- ------- ------- ---------- ---
9372 B 0 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 19:37:39 1 1 YES TAG20201004T193527
9562 B 1 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:07:03 1 1 YES TAG20201004T200657
9637 B 0 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:07:03 1 1 YES TAG20201004T200657
9832 B 1 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:30:08 1 2 NO COPYBKP
9845 B 0 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:29:26 1 2 YES COPYBKP
9928 B 1 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:23:36 1 1 YES TAG20201004T202331
10083 B 0 A SBT_TAPE 04/10/2020 20:23:36 1 1 YES TAG20201004T202331
RMAN> list backupset 9832;
List of Backup Sets
===================
BS Key Type LV Size
------- ---- -- ----------
9832 Incr 1 80.00K
List of Datafiles in backup set 9832
File LV Type Ckp SCN Ckp Time Abs Fuz SCN Sparse Name
---- -- ---- ---------- ------------------- ----------- ------ ----
1 1 Incr 2591788 04/10/2020 20:19:08 NO /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL19C/system01.dbf
Backup Set Copy #1 of backup set 9832
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time Compressed Tag
----------- ------------ ------------------- ---------- ---
SBT_TAPE 00:11:00 04/10/2020 20:19:10 YES COPYBKP
List of Backup Pieces for backup set 9832 Copy #1
BP Key Pc# Status Media Piece Name
------- --- ----------- ----------------------- ----------
9833 1 AVAILABLE VB$_1918343643_9831I
Backup Set Copy #2 of backup set 9832
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time Compressed Tag
----------- ------------ ------------------- ---------- ---
SBT_TAPE 00:11:00 04/10/2020 20:30:08 NO COPYBKP
List of Backup Pieces for backup set 9832 Copy #2
BP Key Pc# Status Media Piece Name
------- --- ----------- ----------------------- ----------
10203 1 AVAILABLE /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_5gvc595s_1_2
RMAN> list backupset 9845;
List of Backup Sets
===================
BS Key Type LV Size
------- ---- -- ----------
9845 Incr 0 766.46M
List of Datafiles in backup set 9845
File LV Type Ckp SCN Ckp Time Abs Fuz SCN Sparse Name
---- -- ---- ---------- ------------------- ----------- ------ ----
1 0 Incr 2591788 04/10/2020 20:19:08 NO /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ORCL19C/system01.dbf
Backup Set Copy #2 of backup set 9845
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time Compressed Tag
----------- ------------ ------------------- ---------- ---
SBT_TAPE 00:10:18 04/10/2020 20:29:26 NO COPYBKP
List of Backup Pieces for backup set 9845 Copy #2
BP Key Pc# Status Media Piece Name
------- --- ----------- ----------------------- ----------
10154 1 AVAILABLE /radump/copybkp_ZDLRAS1_u0vc595s_1_2
Backup Set Copy #1 of backup set 9845
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time Compressed Tag
----------- ------------ ------------------- ---------- ---
SBT_TAPE 00:10:18 04/10/2020 20:19:10 YES COPYBKP
List of Backup Pieces for backup set 9845 Copy #1
BP Key Pc# Status Media Piece Name
------- --- ----------- ----------------------- ----------
9846 1 AVAILABLE VB$_1918343643_9831_1
RMAN>
Look above that for bs 9832 and 9845 now we have two copies. But the caveat here is that these copies have the same retention that the original backup set. If you are thinking to use the COPY_BACKUP as one way to have archival backups stored outside they are not the best option. They will be deleted from the rman catalog after the RECOVERY_WINDOW of it expired. And if you try to extend this time window frame, you will affect all the backupsets and probably impose pressure of used spaced for ZDLRA. The best option is to use the KEED backups for rman.
If you want to copy just one backup set you can use the DBMS_RA.COPY_BACKUP_PIECE, it will work ate the same way as COPY_BACKUP. Another option is to copy between libraries/tapes to improve the consolidation of the tapes. I already show how to do this in one previous post.
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Dear,
A good story, but can it also be used in combination with “move_backup”?
Due to lack of space on the zdlra, we want to keep the long kept only externally (nfs).
Hi,
Yes, this I will cover in my next posts (that will be released in the next week). Stay tuned.
Best regards.