IBM Support

Oracle server Database backup and restore requirements: IBM Spectrum Protect™ Plus V10.1.2

Preventive Service Planning


Abstract

This document details the Oracle server Database backup and restore requirements for IBM® Spectrum Protect™ Plus V10.1.2

Content

This document is divided into linked sections for ease of navigation. You may use the links below to jump to the section of the document you need.
 

General
Oracle Configuration Requirements
Software
Connectivity
Authentication and Privileges
NFS Requirements
Database Discovery
Block Change Tracking
Log Backup
Sample Configuration of an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Agent User
Oracle Ports
 


General

Before registering each Oracle server in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, ensure it meets the following requirements.
 


Oracle Configuration Requirements

Database Versions

  • Oracle 11g R2

  • Oracle 12c R1

  • Oracle 12c R2

Note:

  • For Oracle 12c multitenant databases, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus supports protection and recovery of the container database, including all pluggable databases under it. Granular recovery of specific PDBs can be performed via Instant Disk Restore recovery combined with RMAN.

  • Oracle 12c multithreaded configurations are not supported.

Operating Systems

  • AIX 6.1 TL9+

  • AIX 7.1+

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux / Centos 6.5+

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux / Centos 7.0+

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0 SP4+

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.0 SP1+

Additional Notes

  • Oracle DataGuard is not supported.

  • Databases must be in ARCHIVELOG mode. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus cannot protect databases running in NOARCHIVELOG mode.

  • RAC database recoveries are not server pool-aware. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus can recover databases to a RAC, but not to specific server pools.


Software

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

  • Python version 2.6.x or 2.7.x must be installed.

  • RHEL/CentOS 6.x only:
    Ensure the util-linux-ng package is up-to-date by running: yum update util-linux-ng.
    Depending on your version or distribution, the package may be named util-linux.


Connectivity

  • The SSH service must be running on port 22 on the server and any firewalls must be configured to allow IBM Spectrum Protect Plus to connect to the server using SSH. The SFTP subsystem for SSH must also be enabled.

  • The server can be registered using a DNS name or IP address. DNS names must be resolvable by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

  • When registering Oracle RAC nodes, register each node using its physical IP or name. Do not use a virtual name or Single Client Access Name (SCAN).


Authentication and Privileges

  • The Oracle server must be registered in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus using an operating system user that exists on the Oracle server (referred to as "IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user" for the rest of this topic).

  • Ensure the password is correctly configured and that the user can log in without facing any other prompts, such as prompts to reset the password.

The IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user must have the following privileges:

  • Privileges to run commands as root and as Oracle software owner users (e.g., oracle, grid) using sudo. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus requires this for various tasks such as discovering storage layouts, mounting and unmounting disks, and managing databases and ASM.

    • The sudoers configuration must allow the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 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 Spectrum Protect Plus requires this to discover and collect information about Oracle homes and databases.
    To achieve this, the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user must belong to the Oracle inventory group, typically named oinstall.

For information about creating a new user with necessary privileges, see Sample Configuration of an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Agent User.
 


NFS Requirements

The Oracle server must have the native Linux/AIX NFS client installed. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus uses NFS to mount storage volumes for backup and restore operations.
During database restore, the Oracle Direct NFS feature is required. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus automatically enables Direct NFS if it is not already enabled.

In order for Direct NFS to work correctly, the executable <ORACLE_HOME>/bin/oradism under each Oracle Home must be owned by root and have setuid privileges. This is typically pre-configured by the Oracle installer, but on certain systems, the binary may not have the necessary privileges. For more information, see the following Oracle Support document: https://support.oracle.com/knowledge/Oracle%20Database%20Products/1430654_1.html.

Run the following commands to set the correct privileges:

  • chown root:oinstall <ORACLE_HOME>/bin/oradism

  • chmod 750 <ORACLE_HOME>/bin/oradism

Note: Replace “oinstall” with the appropriate group that owns the installation.


Database Discovery

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus discovers Oracle installations and databases by looking through the files /etc/oraInst.loc and /etc/oratab, as well as 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 Spectrum Protect Plus can search for alternate locations of these files.

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus discovers databases and their storage layouts by connecting to running instances and querying the locations of their datafiles, log files, etc. In order for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus to correctly discover databases during cataloging and copy operations, databases must be in "MOUNTED," "READ ONLY," or "READ WRITE" mode. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus cannot discover or protect database instances that are shut down.


Block Change Tracking

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus requires Oracle Block Change Tracking to be enabled on protected databases in order to efficiently perform incremental backups. If Block Change Tracking is not already enabled, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus enables it automatically during the backup job.

To customize the placement of the Block Change Tracking file, you must manually enable the Block Change Tracking feature before running an associated backup job. If enabled automatically by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, the following rules are used to determine the placement of the Block Change Tracking file:

  • If the db_create_file_dest parameter is set, the Block Change Tracking file is created in the location specified by this parameter.

  • If the db_create_file_dest parameter is not set, the Block Change Tracking file is created in the same directory as the SYSTEM tablespace.


Log Backup

  • The cron daemon must be enabled on the application server.

  • The IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Agent user must have the necessary privileges to use the crontab command and create cron jobs of its own. Privileges can be granted through the cron.allow configuration file.


Sample Configuration of an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Agent User

The commands below are examples for creating and configuring an operating system user that IBM Spectrum Protect Plus will use to log in to the Oracle server. The command syntax may vary depending on your operating system type and version.

  • Create the user that will be designated as the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user: useradd -m sppagent

  • Set a password: passwd sppagent

  • If using key-based authentication, place the public key in /home/sppagent/.ssh/authorized_keys, or the appropriate file depending on your sshd configuration, and ensure the correct ownership and permissions are set, such as:
    chown -R sppagent:sppagent /home/sppagent/.ssh
    chmod 700 /home/sppagent/.ssh
    chmod 600 /home/sppagent/.ssh/authorized_keys

  • Add the user to the Oracle installation and OSDBA group: usermod -a -G oinstall,dba sppagent

  • If ASM is in use, also add the user to the OSASM group: usermod -a -G asmadmin sppagent

  • Place the following lines at the end of your sudoers configuration file, typically /etc/sudoers. If your 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:sppagent !requiretty
    Defaults:sppagent env_keep+="ORACLE_HOME"
    Defaults:sppagent env_keep+="ORACLE_SID"
    sppagent ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL


Oracle Ports

The following ports are used by Oracle servers. Note that ports marked as Accept use a secure connection (https/ssl).

 

Incoming Oracle Server Firewall Connections
Port Protocol Firewall Rule Service Description
22 TCP Accept SSH Used for SSH data transfer to and from the internal vSnap server.


 

Outgoing Oracle Server Firewall Connections
Port Protocol Service Description
111 TCP vSnap RPC Port Bind Allows clients to discover ports that Open Network Connectivity (ONC) clients require to communicate with ONC servers.
2049 TCP vSnap NFS Used for NFS file sharing via vSnap.
20048 TCP vSnap NFS Mount Mounts vSnap file systems on clients such as the VADP Proxy, application servers, and virtualization data stores.

 

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Document Information

Modified date:
04 September 2018

UID

ibm10718811

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