Backing up Oracle in an SAP environment

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IBM® Storage Protect Snapshot integrates with multiple components when you back up an Oracle in an SAP environment database.

For volume group snapshot, refer Configuring Storwize family and SAN Volume Controller dynamic target allocation (SVCDTA).

The following table summarizes the commands that are associated with backing an SAP database with Oracle.
Table 1. Summary of backup commands

Summary of backup commands

Snapshot backup (disk only) Back up to an IBM Storage Protect server
From production database (tape only) Integrated with snapshot From existing snapshot
brbackup -d util_vol ... brbackup -d util_file ...

brbackup -d util_vol1

fcmcli -f tape_backup2, 3
Note:
  1. The IBM Storage Protect Snapshot profile parameter TSM_BACKUP must be set to one of the following options: YES, MANDATE, or LATEST, and the offload agent (tsm4acs) must be running in daemon mode on the production server.
  2. The profile parameter TSM_BACKUP must be set to one of the following options: YES, MANDATE, or LATEST, and the offload agent must not be running in daemon mode.
  3. The fcmcli -f tape_backup operation must be issued from the production system.

For snapshot backups with IBM Storage Protect Snapshot, brbackup is called with option -d util_vol or -d util_vol_online.

The following parameters are used in the SAP BR*Tool configuration files init<SID>.sap in the following scenarios.
backup_type
Identifies the default type of the database backup. This parameter is used by brbackup.
backup_dev_type
Determines the backup medium that is used. The default is tape. To create a snapshot backup by using IBM Storage Protect Snapshot, this parameter must be set to util_vol or to util_vol_online.
backup_mode
Identifies the scope of the backup. This parameter is only used by brbackup. The default is all; however, if the parameter must be set to all and Oracle RMAN is used, an incremental offload to an IBM Storage Protect server backup cannot be created. When the backup_mode parameter must be set to all, a backup of all data files is completed by using the backint interface.

For an incremental offload to an IBM Storage Protect server backup of an SAP with Oracle database by using Oracle RMAN, set the BR*Tools option for the backup_mode parameter to full.

util_par_file
Specifies the path to the profile (sent to backint by using the -p parameter). Typically this profile is the IBM Storage Protect for Enterprise Resource Planning .utl file.
util_path
Specifies the path to the backint executable file. If not specified, the backint executable file in /usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/exe/run directory is used.
util_options
Specifies extra option arguments, which are appended to the backint call.
util_vol_access
Specifies the accessibility of snapshot backup volumes. This parameter must be set to none on the production server. When the SAP BR*Tools are installed on the backup server, the parameter must be set to mount there.
util_vol_unit
Specifies the smallest unit that can be backed up with a snapshot or clone.
util_vol_nlist
Specifies a list of non-database files or directories that are on the database disk volume. To disable SAP BR*Tools from checking for more files, specify util_vol_nlist = no_check. In addition to copying extra files on the database disk volume, IBM Storage Protect Snapshot overwrites those files during restore processing.
Important: For all backup scenarios with snapshot technology with IBM Storage Protect Snapshot and by using certain storage systems, the snapshot backup requires available space on the target storage pool so that it can create the snapshot. If there is not enough storage space available, you can increase the capacity on the requested storage pool, or free up some items that are using existing capacity. Check the message for the exact amount of storage space that is required.
An SAP BR*Tools brbackup operation with the option -d util_vol or -d util_vol_online is split into three phases as follows:
  1. A snapshot backup of the Oracle database files as a volume backup with snapshot functionality.
  2. A backup of the Oracle control files as a file backup.
  3. A backup of the configuration and log files as a file backup.