SAP on Oracle Application backup policy

[kanand72]

Using V12...I have created a SAP on Oracle Application Backup policy and am able to trigger a SAP Oracle BRTOOLS backup from the veeam B&R console. Earlier we used to do this BRTOOLS backup from SAP.

The issue is when we do it from SAP end, we are able to select the backup type as ONLINE_CONS. ( this is the -t parameter in the brbackup command that gets generated) ( -t online_cons ) . This backup is the online consistent backup that is recommended by SAP.

When I fired it from Veeam B&R, the backup type selected is online. ( -t online ).
SAP recommends to use online_cons and only that is supported for restoration of database.

So how can we change it in the backup from Veeam B&R console ?

Regards
Anand

[PetrM]

Hello,

There is no way to change it from Veeam B&R console but the currently used method is fully supported by SAP as all other parameters that are listed on this page. Moreover, Veeam Plug-in for SAP on Oracle is officially certified by SAP. You can safely use our policy and you should not worry about any restore scenarios. If you would like, you may test backups and restores and let us know if something goes wrong.

We can consider an option for "online_cons" backup type in the policy settings as a potential improvement for one of our future versions but ETA will be determined later.

Thanks!

[kanand72]

Thanx for the reply Petr...
Let me try the backup and restore and I will come back.

Would be grateful if you could consider option for "online_cons" backup type in the policy settings as a future enhancement.

Anand

[kanand72]

Hi Petr,
I conducted a test backup and tried to restore.
What I did was fire the backup from Veeam B&R console. And when the backup was going on, I generated 4 archive log files ( as will happen during production database backup ). These 4 files were not backed up since the backup type was set to online instead of online_cons.

When I tried to restore them through SAP BRTOOLS, it asked for those 4 archive log files. Since those 4 files were backed up in a later job, BRTOOLS was able to restore them.
But in a disaster scenario where we are left with only the original backup, not having those log files might lead to a scenario where restore might not be possible....

Regards
Anand

[PetrM]

Hi Anand,

The policy itself backs up offline redo logs periodically, you can set the desired interval in the policy settings, there is no need to trigger log backups manually. Also, I'm not sure that I clearly understand the case that you're trying to avoid: even if you don't have some log backups for some reason, restore from the last successful backup should anyway work (f.g. brrestore -b last -m all).

Thanks!

[kanand72]

Hi Petr,
Assume that the policy backs up the archive logs every 30mins.
I have a backup taken at say 10:15 . During the time the backup is taken, assume 5 archive logs get generated.
After the backup comepletes , there is a disaster and we need to rebuild from the DB backup only as the log file backup which was to be fired later would not have run.
when we try to restore from the backup, it will ask for the log files which we dont have and restore will fail.
This is the scenario I want to avoid.

If we take a backup with online_cons, the log files generated during the course of the backup will also get saved in that backup itself and it can be restored.

[PetrM]

Hi Anand,

I understood the request and we'll consider the implementation of this functionality in our future releases depending on the complexity and the number of similar requests. On the other hand, I'm not sure that this very last log which was not backed up because of disaster would be required during restore. Anyway, the restore from the last successful backup will work. Moreover, we checked all possible cases in our lab including the disaster scenarios and all test cases required for the certification and we couldn't reproduce this issue.

May I ask you to try this in your lab, to reproduce the error during restore and open a support case and share its ID so that we can have a look at debug logs and your environment?

Thanks!

[kanand72]

Sure Petr..I will try it today.
What I propose is to run a backup and when the backup is running, generate a few archive logs.
Then copy the VM ...delete the oracle files including the log files.
And then try to restore using BRTOOLS .
I shall report back .

Regards
Anand

[kanand72]

Hi Petr,
I tried and it failed.
Raised a support case : Case #06100030

[kanand72]

Hi Petr,
Can you please check on the case Case #06100030.....Looks like support are not able to make any headway....

Thanx

[PetrM]

Hi Anand,

Ok, I asked the support team leaders to prioritize your request and probably escalate it.

Thanks!

[PetrM]

Hi Anand,

@kanand72 we've managed to reproduce the issue that you described above in our lab. As per your suggestion, we'll be leveraging the "online_cons" parameter. The fix will be included in one of the next upcoming patches. Many thanks for your cooperation! Your feedback really helps us to improve the product!

Thanks!

[kanand72]

Thanx for the feedback Petr..

Regards
Anand