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Oracle Requirements: IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management 2.2.27

Detailed System Requirements


Abstract

This document details the backup and restore requirements for Oracle Database for IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management 2.2.27.

Content

Note:

This document is divided into linked sections for ease of navigation. Use the following links to jump to the section of the document that you require:



 

General

  •  IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management installs an agent on application servers when they are registered. Some anti-virus software might flag or attempt to remove the agent software. If you run anti-malware software application servers, exclude the installation path of the IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent.

  • For Linux-based and AIX-based systems, the agent installation directory must be excluded for any anti-virus software scans. Add this path to the exclusion list for all anti-virus software that is installed on the application server. For Oracle, InterSystems Caché and IRIS, and SAP HANA:

    /tmp/cdm_guestapps_username

    Where cdm_guestapps_username is the username of the account used to register the application server in IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management.

  • IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management support for third-party operating systems, applications, services, and hardware depend on the respective vendor. If a third-party product or version moves into extended support, self-service support, or end-of-life, IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management supports the product or version at the same level as the vendor. See also IBM Support General Guidelines and Limitations - IBM support for software on unsupported operating systems



 

Configuration

Supported platforms and configurations

Table 1: Oracle configuration requirements
Oracle Configuration
  • Oracle 11g R2, 12c R2, or 18c [1] [13] configured as:
    - Stand-alone on ASM or File Systems [2, 3]
    - RAC on ASM [2, 3, 4, 5]
  • Oracle 18c configured as:
    - Stand-alone or RAC on ACFS [2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 18]
  • Oracle 19c configured as:
    - Stand-alone or RAC [17,21]
  • Oracle 21c configured as:
    - Stand-alone on ASM
Storage system
  • IBM Storage Virtualize Software 7.3.x, 8.1.x (beginning with 8.1.2), 8.3.x, 8.4.x, 8.5.x, 8.6.x, 8.7.0.x, 8.7.3.x, 9.1.0, 
  • - IBM SAN Volume Controller [19]
    - IBM Storwize [19]
    - IBM FlashSystem [19]
  • NetApp ONTAP Storage Systems running the following versions [14][15]:
    - Data ONTAP 8.1.x, 8.2.x in 7-mode
    - Data ONTAP 9.0.x - 9.10.x
    - Clustered Data ONTAP 8.1.x, 8.2.x, 8.3.x, 9.4.x
  • Pure Storage running Pure REST API version 1.0 - 1.16
    - FlashArray//c
    - FlashArray//m
    - FlashArray//x
    -   FlashArray 4xx series
  • Dell PowerMax Storage [22]
    - Dell PowerMax 2000 (Firmware : 5978.714.714) 
    - Dell PowerMax 2500 (Firmware : 6079.275.0) 
    - Dell PowerMax 8000 (Firmware : 5978.714.714) 
    - Dell PowerMax 8500 (Firmware : 6079.275.0)
        Dell Unisphere version - 10.1.0
Server types of Operating Systems* Storage Configuration
Physical [6]
  • AIX 6.1 TL9 [8]
  • AIX 7.1 [8] 
  • AIX 7.2 [8, 18, 20]
  • AIX 7.3 [8, 18, 20]
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux / CentOS 6.5 [9]
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux / CentOS 7.0 [9]
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x [9]
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.x [9]
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0 SP4 [9]
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.0 [9]
  • Fibre Channel [18]
  • iSCSI [18]
  • NFS
Virtual (VMware) [6, 7, 10, 11, 12]
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux / CentOS 6.5 [9]
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux / CentOS 7.0 [9]
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x [9]
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.x [9]
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0 SP4 [9]
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.0 [9]
  • Physical RDM backed by Fibre Channel or iSCSI disks attached to ESX [18]
  • VMDK (dependent and independent disks) on VMFS datastores (Fibre Channel or iSCSI) or NFS datastores [18]
  • iSCSI disks directly attached to guest operating system [18]
  • NFS share mapped directly to the guest

Notes:

  • 1. For Oracle 12c multi-tenant databases, IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management supports protection and recovery of the container database, including all pluggable databases under it. Granular recovery of specific PDBs can be run through Instant Disk Restore recovery combined with RMAN.
  • 2. Stand-alone databases protected by IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management can be recovered to the same or another stand-alone server and to a RAC installation. When you recover from stand-alone to RAC, if the source database uses Automatic Storage Management, then it is successfully recovered to all nodes in the destination cluster. If the source database uses non-ASM storage, the database is mounted only on the first node in the destination RAC. Source disks for stand-alone databases restoring to a virtual RAC environment must be thick provisioned.
    RAC databases protected by IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management can be recovered to the same or another RAC installation and to a stand-alone server. To recover a RAC database to a stand-alone server, the Grid Infrastructure must be installed on the destination server, and an ASM instance must be running.
  • 3. Oracle Data Guard primary and secondary databases support inventory and backup operations. Oracle Data Guard databases always be restored as primary databases without any Data Guard configurations enabled.
  • 4. Oracle Flex ASM is not supported.
  • 5. RAC database recoveries are not server pool-aware. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management can recover databases to a RAC, but not to specific server pools.
  • 6. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management supports recovering databases from a source physical server to a destination-virtual server by provisioning disks as physical RDMs. Similarly, IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management can recover databases from a source-virtual server that uses physical RDM to a destination physical server. However, source databases on VMDK virtual disks can be recovered only to another virtual server and not to a physical server.
  • 7. Oracle data must stay directly on one of the supported Storage Systems listed previously. VADP-based protection of virtual Oracle servers is not supported.
  • 8. On AIX LPAR/VIO servers, Oracle data must stay on disks attached to the server by using NPIV. Virtual SCSI disks are not supported.
  • 9. On SLES 11 SP4, this version of LVM might not be available through the official repositories, in which case, databases running on or recovered to SLES 11 SP4 systems must use ASM or non-LVM file systems only.
  • 10. Masking and DevOps recoveries are not supported on virtual servers.
  • 11. For supported VMware vSphere versions, see in System Requirements: IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management 2.2.27
  • 12. Oracle servers registered as virtual need VMware Tools installed and running.
  • 13. Oracle 12c multithreaded configurations are not supported.
  • 14. Data masking is not supported for Oracle in NetApp storage environments. Masking is not supported on source database on NFS (a copy of which cloned and masked) or source databases on replica copies. Instead of the default mirror copy, you must select a snapshot copy as a replication source.
  • 15. NetApp systems running in 7-Mode are not supported.
  • 16. The ORACLE_HOME directory might stay on ACFS. The data and log directories are required to be on ACFS. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management does not protect the Oracle installation that is contained in the ORACLE_HOME directory.
  • 17. Oracle 19c stand-alone is now supported for AIX 7.3. Oracle 19c RAC is supported for both IBM and Pure Storage Systems.
    More requirements:
    • Oracle database data and the flash recovery area (FRA) must stay on supported Storage Systems. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management can back up archived logs to a supported storage system if they are not already on one.
    • During an Instant Database Restore, there might be failures if the new name specified for the restored database is similar to an existing database differing only by numerical suffix. For clustered instances of Oracle databases, the appliance always uses global database name in the UI. During the inventory and restore processes, individual instances by using the numerical suffixes of the cluster must be correlated to the global database name. This issue appears when, as an example, “Production12” is discovered. Is this “Production12” the instance 12 of the “Production” database, or instance 2 of the “Production1” database, or a database named “Production12.”
  • 18. Oracle ACFS on AIX 7.2 is supported. Oracle ACFS on AIX is not supported for FlashCopy incremental backups and iSCSI protocol.
  • 19. On IBM Systems Storage, condense is run during maintenance jobs.
  • 20. Supported platforms: IBM Power Systems (Little Endian).
  • 21. Oracle Data Guard support for inventory and backup operations only on primary database.
  • 22.For Dell PowerMax Storage:
    • Use separate Storage Groups (SG) for different databases for improved performance.
    • IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management supports one parent SG, and it can contain different child SG for different databases.
    • Keep datafiles and log files in separate SG.
    • When using Parent SG with child SGs, use separate child SGs for data and log.
    • For Instant Disk Restore, Host on Dell PowerMax array must have at-least one Masking View created for itself, even if the host is a part of a hostgroup having active Masking View.
    • Oracle 19c RAC configuration is now supported on the DELL PowerMax storage system.
    • Oracle 21c RAC configuration is not supported on the DELL PowerMax storage system.
    • For remote replication feature, please create and map the host to the remote array and have at least 1 masking created using it. The portgroup used in the masking view created by the user will be used by the CDM restore job while creating masking view to map the restored volumes to the host on the remote array.
    • NFS share mapped directly to the VMware guest is not supported.
  • 23. CDM does not support multiple DBs with same db_name (but different db_unique_name), as it relies on db_name to uniquely identified the Oracle home belonging to the database (instance) 
  • 24. User should make sure that Oracle parameters (texts) do not exceed the recommended size by Oracle.  e.g. CDM workflow may fail when the size of ‘_fix_control’ parameter exceeds 255 characters.
  • 25. In Oracle RAC configuration, the cluster database restore will create only a single instance and the restored instance is not registered as a cluster resource. 
  • 26. When the Prepare scripts option is chosen the files will be copied to the CDM appliance under /data/log/ecxdeployer/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<random generated string> folder. The actual value can be seen in the Instant disk restore job logs in the line prior to prepare scripts which says ECX log dir = /data/log/ecxdeployer/<YYYY-MM-DD>/<random generated string>.
  •      Note: To run these scripts, they need to be copied from this folder of the CDM appliance to any preferred location on the Oracle Server.
  •      In order to execute the scripts, follow these steps as an Oracle user:
         a. Export the Oracle SID as the SID used during recovery.
         b. When executing an SQL script, login to SQLPlus using sqlplus / as sysdba. You can then run the script: @<location in oracle server>/Step-<number>_<operation>.sql
         c. When executing an RMAN script, login to RMAN using rman target=/. You can then run the script as, @<location in oracle server>/Step-<number>_<operation>.rman.
Note: If you are using IBM Storage Systems running IBM Spectrum Accelerate level 11.5.3 or later, including FlashSystem A9000/A9000R and IBM XIV Storage Systems use IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management 2.2.13.


 

Oracle Support for VMware virtual machines

For Oracle servers running as VMware virtual machines, UUID must be enabled to run Oracle-based backup functions. To enable power off the guest machine through the vSphere client, then select the guest and click Edit Settings. Select Options, then General under the Advanced section. Select Configuration Parameters..., then find the disk.EnableUUID parameter. If set to FALSE, change the value to TRUE. If the parameter is not available, add it by clicking Add Row, set the value to TRUE, then power on the guest.

Oracle support for VMware virtual machines requires Oracle data and logs to be stored on VMDK virtual disks or physical RDMs. Virtual RDM disks are not supported. The VMDKs must stay on a datastore created on LUNs from supported Storage Systems. Similarly, the physical RDMs must be backed by LUNs from supported Storage Systems.

Note: For Oracle RAC clustered nodes running vSphere 6.5 or later, if an existing shared SCSI controller is not found, IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management automatically enables the “multi-writer” sharing option for each shared virtual disk.


 

Restore Jobs

If the xfsprogs package version on the destination server is between 3.2.0 and 4.1.9, the restore process might fail when you restore a database or file system from an XFS file system. To resolve the issue, upgrade xfsprogs to version 4.2.0 or later.



 

Software

  • The bash and sudo packages must be installed. Sudo must be version 1.7.6p2 or later. Run sudo -V to check the version.

  • Python version 3.x must be installed.
    It might be necessary to add your python3 binary file location to the system PATH or to create a symbolic link. For example, if your python3 is installed at /opt/freeware/bin, you need to create a link as follows:

    ln -s /opt/freeware/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python3

    On AIX systems, it might be necessary to rerun any AIX inventory jobs.

  • RHEL/CentOS 6.x only: Ensure that the util-linux-ng package is up to date by running:

    yum update util-linux-ng

    Depending on your version or distribution, the package might be named util-linux.

  • RHEL/CentOS 7.3 or later: A required Perl module, Digest::MD5, is not installed by default. Install the module by running:

    yum install perl-Digest-MD5

  • Linux only: If data stays on LVM volumes, ensure that the LVM version is 2.0.2.118 or later.
    To check the LVM version and if necessary to update the package, run:

    lvm version
yum update lvm2

  • Linux only: If data stays on LVM volumes, the lvm2-lvmetad service must be disabled as it can interfere with IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management's ability to mount and resignature volume group snapshots or clones.
    Run the following commands to stop and disable the service:

    systemctl stop lvm2-lvmetad
systemctl disable lvm2-lvmetad

  • Additionally, disable lvmetad in the LVM config file. Edit the file /etc/lvm/lvm.conf and set:

    use_lvmetad = 0



 

Connectivity

  • The SSH service must be running on port 22 on the server and any firewalls must be configured to allow IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management to connect to the server by using SSH. The SFTP subsystem for SSH must also be enabled.
  • The server can be registered by using a DNS name or IP address. DNS names must be resolvable by IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management.
  • When you register Oracle RAC nodes, register each node by using its physical IP or name. Do not use a virtual name or Single Client Access Name (SCAN).
  • To mount clones or copies of Oracle data, IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management automatically maps and unmaps LUNs to the Oracle servers. Each server must be preconfigured to connect to the relevant Storage Systems at that site.
    • For Fibre Channel, the appropriate zoning must be configured beforehand.
    • For iSCSI, the Oracle servers must be configured beforehand to discover and log in to the targets on the storage servers.



 

Authentication and Privileges

Authentication

  • The Oracle server must be registered in IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management by using an operating system user that exists on the Oracle server (referred to as "IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent user" for the rest of this topic).
  • During registration, you must provide either a password or a private SSH key that IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management use to log in to the server.
  • For password-based authentication, ensure that the password is correctly configured and that the user can log in without facing any other prompts, such as prompts to reset the password.
  • For key-based authentication, ensure that the public SSH key is placed in the appropriate authorized_keys file for the IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent user.
    • Typically, the file is at /home/<username>/.ssh/authorized_keys
    • Typically, the .ssh directory and all files under it need their permissions set to 600.


 

Privileges

The IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent user needs the following privileges:

  • Privileges to run commands as root and other users by using sudo. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management requires these privileges for various tasks such as discovering storage layouts and mounting and unmounting disks.
    • The sudoers configuration must allow the IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent user to run commands without a password.
    • The !requiretty setting must be set.
    • The ENV_KEEP setting must allow the ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID environment variables to be retained.
  • Privileges to read the Oracle inventory. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management requires those privileges to discover and collect information about Oracle homes and databases. To achieve discovery and collection of information, the IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent user must belong to the Oracle inventory group, typically named oinstall.
  • SYSDBA privileges for database instances. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management needs to run database tasks like querying instance details, hot backup, RMAN cataloging, and starting and stopping instances during recovery.
    • To achieve database tasks, the IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent user must belong to the OSDBA operating system group, typically named dba.
    • If multiple Oracle homes each with a different OSDBA group, the IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent user must belong to each group.
  • SYSASM privileges, if Automatic Storage Management (ASM) is installed. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management needs to run storage tasks like querying ASM disk information, and renaming, mounting, and unmounting diskgroups.
    • To achieve storage tasks, the IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent user must belong to the OSASM operating system group, typically named asmadmin.
  • Shell user limits for the IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent user must be the same as those limits for the user that owns the Oracle home, typically named oracle. Refer to Oracle documentation for requirements and instructions on setting shell limits. Run ulimit -a as both the oracle user and the IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent user and ensure that their settings are identical.

For examples on creating a new user with the necessary privileges, see Sample Configuration in Oracle requirements.



 

Discovery

Oracle Home Discovery for Symbolic Links

IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management discovers Oracle installations and databases by looking through the files /etc/oraInst.loc and /etc/oratab, we well as the list of running Oracle processes. When you connect to a database instance to discover its properties, IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management connects by setting the ORACLE_HOME environment variable based on the path that was auto discovered. In some cases, when Oracle databases are used in combination with SAP software for instance, a symbolic link to the Oracle Home path might be created. This link path can then be used by the database administrator to connect to the database.
Consider the following example where the real Oracle Home path can be /u01/app/oracle/product/1210/dbhome_1, while the symbolic link that points to it is /oracle/PRODDB/1210.

$ ls -l /oracle/PRODB lrwxrwxrwx. 1 oracle oinstall 1210 -> /u01/app/oracle/product/1210/dbhome_1

When IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management connects to the instance by using the real, auto-discovered path, queries against the database can fail due to the ORACLE_HOME environment variable being incorrectly set. To override the auto-discovered path and force IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management to use the correct symbolic link path, a configuration file must be defined on each Oracle server where symbolic links are in use.
Create or edit if it exists a file named /etc/guestapps_oraHomes.conf. Insert into this file these entries:

# Define one entry per line. 
# Each entry must be in the form: <instanceName> = <oraHomePath> 
# Lines beginning with the '#' character are ignored. 
PRODDB = /oracle/PRODDB/1210 
TESTDB = /oracle/TESTDB/1210

To ensure that the configuration file is readable by the agent user, run the following command:

chmod 644 /etc/guestapps_oraHomes.conf


 

Database Discovery

IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management discovers Oracle installations and databases by looking through the files /etc/oraInst.loc and /etc/oratab, and the list of running Oracle processes. If the files are not present in their default location, the "locate" utility must be installed on the system so that IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management can search for alternative locations of these files.

IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management discovers databases and their storage layouts by connecting to running instances and querying the locations of their data files, log files, and other files. In order for IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management to correctly discover databases during cataloging and copy operations, databases must be in "MOUNTED," "READ ONLY," or "READ/WRITE" mode. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management cannot discover or protect database instances that are shut down.

Databases must be used a server parameter file (spfile). IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management does not support copy operations for databases that are used a text-based parameter file (pfile).


 

ASM Disk Discovery

When IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management mounts snapshots or clones of ASM disks, it configures the disks to set the appropriate permissions required to make them discoverable by ASM:

  • The disk owner and group are set to the owner of the Grid installation and the OSASM group, which are typically grid and asmadmin. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management automatically discovers the appropriate owner and group information on each server.
  • The disk permissions are set to 660.

IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management creates aliases or symbolic links with names that follow a consistent pattern. Ensure that ASM is able to discover the disks mapped by IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management and update the ASM_DISKSTRING parameter to add this pattern.

Linux: IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management creates udev rules for each disk to set the appropriate ownership and permissions. The udev rules also create symbolic links of the form /dev/ecx-asmdisk/<diskId> that point to the appropriate device under /dev.
To ensure that the disks are discoverable by ASM, add the following pattern to your existing ASM_DISKSTRING: /dev/ecx-asmdisk/*

AIX: IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management creates a device node (by using mknod) of the form /dev/ecx_asm<diskId> that points to the appropriate hdisk under /dev. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management also sets the appropriate ownership and permissions for this new device.
To ensure that the disks are discoverable by ASM, add the following pattern to your existing ASM_DISKSTRING: /dev/ecx_asm*

Notes:

  • If the existing value of the ASM_DISKSTRING is empty, you might have to first set it to an appropriate value that matches all existing disks, then append the previous value.
  • If the existing value of the ASM_DISKSTRING is broad enough to discover all disks (for example: /dev/*), you might not need to update it.
  • Refer to Oracle documentation for details about retrieving and modifying the ASM_DISKSTRING parameter.



 

Sample Configuration

The following commands are examples for creating and configuring an operating system user that IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management use to log in to the Oracle server. The command syntax might vary depending on your operating system type and version.

  • Create the user that is designated as the IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management agent user:

    useradd -m cdmagent

  • If you use password-based authentication, set a password:

    passwd cdmagent

  • If you use key-based authentication, place the public key in /home/cdmagent/.ssh/authorized_keys, or the appropriate file depending on your sshd configuration, and ensure that the correct ownership and permissions are set, such as:

    chown -R cdmagent:cdmagent /home/cdmagent/.ssh
chmod 700 /home/cdmagent/.ssh
chmod 600 /home/cdmagent/.ssh/authorized_keys

  • Add the user to the Oracle installation and OSDBA group:

    usermod -a -G oinstall,dba cdmagent

  • If ASM is in use, also add the user to the OSASM group:

     usermod -a -G asmadmin cdmagent

    Note: If on AIX, the append argument (-a) needs to be omitted when you use the usermod command.

  • Place the following lines at the end of your sudoers configuration file, typically /etc/sudoers. If the existing sudoers file is configured to import configuration from another directory (for example, /etc/sudoers.d), you can also place the lines in a new file in that directory:

    Defaults:cdmagent !requiretty
Defaults:cdmagent env_keep+="ORACLE_HOME"
Defaults:cdmagent env_keep+="ORACLE_SID"
cdmagent ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL



 

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Product Synonym

IBM Storage Copy Data Management; IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management; IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management; Featured; 2.2

Document Information

Modified date:
22 October 2025

UID

ibm17243104

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