Tag Archives: Database

ZDLRA, 19.2

Last week, at 27/August/2019, ZDLRA team released the new major version 19.2 (19.2.1.1.1) of Recovery Appliance Software. As always, some new features like supported databases, but some downsides too.

The main features for the software side:

  • Support for 19c databases.
  • Improved way to apply the patch (the rpm installation is not anymore manual).
  • Improved way to rollback the patch in some cases.

Other changes that deserve the hint:

  • Runs over 19.4 version of GRID and RDBMS.
  • Runs over Exadata System Software 19.2.3.0.0 (this means OEL 7) for DB and Storage.
  • Updated version for TFA, Exachk, and OEDA; all 19.x version.

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ZDLRA Internals, INDEX_BACKUP task in details

For ZDLRA, the task type INDEX_BACKUP it is important (if it is not the most) because it is responsible to create the virtual full backup. This task runs for every backup that you ingest at ZDLRA and here, I will show with more details what occurs at ZDLRA: internals steps, phases, and tables involved.

I recommend that you check my previous post about ZDLRA: ZDLRA Internals, Tables and Storage, ZDLRA, Virtual Full Backup and Incremental Forever, and Understanding ZDLRA. They provide a good base to understand some aspects of ZDLRA architecture and features.

Backup

As you saw in my previous post, ZDLRA opens every backup that you sent and read every block of it to generate one new virtual full backup. And this backup is validated block a block (physically and logically) against corruption. It differs from a snapshot because it is content-aware (in this case it is proprietary Oracle datafile blocks inside another proprietary Oracle rman block) and Oracle it is the only that can do this guaranteeing that result is valid.

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How to use ZDLRA and enroll a database

ZDLRA it is an Oracle dedicate appliance specialized to manage your backups, but more than that, provide you zero data loss. I already made an introduction about ZDLRA in my previous post and here I will show how to use and enrolling protected database at ZDLRA: enroll database, create policies and access with rman. Understand how to use ZDLRA, at least the starting point.

Every project starts with scope definition, steps, and requirements. It is not different for ZDLRA project, it is a big appliance, expensive, and integrate a lot of things in just one place: backups, archivelogs, redo, replication, and RPO. The requirements vary from project to project, I will not discuss that here. But will show you the tech part about the usage.

The post has two divisions, the first it is the technical part. You can check how to do that. The second contains the information/documentation part, where I will show more details about the steps.

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Understanding ZDLRA

Oracle Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance (ZDLRA) deliver to you the capacity to improve the reliability of your environment in more than one way. You can improve the RPO (Recovery Point Objective) for your databases until you reach zero, zero data loss. And besides that, adding a lot of new cool features (virtual backups, real-time redo, tape and cloud, DG/MAA integration) on the way how you do that your backups (incremental forever), and backup strategy. And again, besides that, improve the MAA at the highest level that you can hit.

But this is just marketing, right? No, really, works pretty well! My history with ZDLRA  starts with Oracle Open World 2014 when they released the ZDLRA and I watched the session/presentation. At that moment I figure out how good the solution was. In that moment, hit exactly the problem that I was suffering for databases: deduplication (bad dedup). One year later, in 2015 at OOW I made the presentation for a big project that I coordinate (from definition implementation, and usage)  with 2 Sites + 2 ZDLRA + N Exadata’s + Zero RPO and RTO + DG + Replication. And at the end of 2017 moved to a new continent, but still involved with MAA and ZDLRA until today.

This post is just a little start point about ZDLRA, I will do a quick review about some key points but will write about each one (with examples) in several other dedicates posts. I will not cover the bureaucratic steps to build the project like that, POC, scope definition, key turn points, and budget. I will talk technically about ZDLRA.

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INDEX_BACKUP task for ZDLRA, Check percentage done

Quick post how to check and identify done for INDEX_BACKUP task in ZDLRA. In one simple way, just to contextualize, INDEX_BACKUP is one task for ZDLRA that (after you input the backup of datafile) generate an index of the blocks and create the virtual backup for you.

Here I will start a new series about ZDLRA with some hints based on my usage experience (practically since the release in 2014). The post from today is just little scratch about ZDLRA internals, I will extend this post in others (and future posts), stay tuned.

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RMAN, Allocate channel, CDB, and CLOSE: bug

Allocate channel for RMAN is used in various scenarios, most of the time is useful when you use tape as device type or you need to use some kind of format. The way to do the allocation not changed since a long time ago, but when you run the database in container mode you can hit a bug that turns your channel unusable. I will show you the bug and how to avoid it with a simple trick.

This bug hit every version since 12 and I discovered it last year when testing some scenarios, but I was able to test and post just recently. It just occurs for CDB databases and exists just one one-off solution published for 12.2. But there is one workaround more useful and works for every version.

The most interesting part is that everything that we made until now when allocate channel will not work. You can search in all doc available for allocate channel since 9i until 19c the first thing that you made after open the run{} is allocate channel. This is the default and recommended in the docs: for 19c, 18c, and 9i.

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Observer, Quorum

This article closes the series for DG and Fast-Start Failover that I covered with more details the case of isolation can leverage the shutdown of your healthy/running primary database. The “ORA-16830: primary isolated from fast-start failover partners”.

In the first article, I wrote about how one simple detail that impacts dramatically the reliability of your MAA environment. Where you put your Observer in DG environment (when Fast-Start Failover is in use) have a core figure in case of outages, and you can face Primary isolation and shutdown. Besides that, there is no clear documentation to base yourself on “pros and cons” to define the correct place for Observer. You read more in my article here.

In the second article, I wrote about one new feature that can help to have more protected and cover more scenarios for Fast-Start Failover/DG. Using Multiple Observers you can remove the single point of failure and allow you to put one Observer in each side of your environment (primary, standby, and a third one). You can read more in my article here.

In this last article, I discuss how, even using all the features, there is no perfect solution. Another point is discussing here is how (maybe) Oracle can improve that. Below I will show more details that even multiple observers continue to shutdown a healthy primary database. Unfortunately, it is a lot of tech info and is a log thread output. But you can jump directly to the end to see the discussion about how this can be improved.

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Exadata X8, Second look

Every year Oracle arrives and release new version of Exadata with a plenty of new things. We have the natural evolution from hardware (more memory, more cpu…) and sometimes news features from software side. The point for this post today it is not about the HW and SW things, but something is hidden in the small lines of the new X8.

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Observer, Where?

Some months ago I got one error with Oracle Data Guard and now I had time to review it again and write this article. Just to be clear since the beginning, the discussion here is not about the error itself, but about the circumstances that generated it.

The environment described here follows, at least, the most common best practices for DG by Oracle. Have 1 dedicated server for each one: Primary Database, Physical Standby Database, and Observer. The primary and standby reside in different data centers in different cities, dedicated network for interconnecting between sites, protection mode was Maximum Availability, and runs with Fast-Start Failover enabled (with 30 seconds for threshold). The version here is 12.2 but will be the same for 19c. So, nothing so bad in the environment, basic DG configuration trying to follow the best practices.

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