DDBEA to RMAN AGENT Migration guidelines

Summary: The following knowledge base article provides guidelines when migrating from Oracle Backups from DDBEA to RMAN Agent. From version 19.13, the database app agent no longer supports Oracle RMAN backups. Customers are advised to use the Oracle RMAN Agent for all future backups. The database app agent can continue to be used for restores. ...

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Instructions

Main Topics

Install RMAN Agent
DDboost storage Unit considerations
Migrate RMAN Backup/Restore scripts to an RMAN Agent script
Retention Considerations
Restore Considerations
Crosscheck and deletions
Managing DDBEA Backups

Install RMAN Agent

Install the RMAN Agent according to the RMAN Agent Documentation.

The following videos can be used as examples.

Dell EMC PowerProtect Oracle RMAN Agent: How to Install and Configure the Oracle Server: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgKt8OQgCxk&t=10s
How to install and register Oracle RMAN Agent for Linux in PowerProtect Data Manager 19.x: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB6jgh8otVs&t=4s
Dell EMC PowerProtect Oracle RMAN Agent: How to Configure Data Domain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t_wjqYMkv4
Dell EMC PowerProtect Oracle RMAN Agent: How to Run a Backup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E-4GS_SHis&t=1s

If Protectpoint or Storage Direct (Oracle proxy) workflows are in use, do NOT migrate to the RMAN Agent product. The Protectpoint or Storage direct workflow is not available in RMAN Agent. Unless the goal is to migrate to regular RMAN oracle backups.

How to recognize if a proxy workflow is in used.
Check if the rman script contains the following syntax:

…
BACKUP PROXY ONLY …
…

Run a FULL RMAN Agent backup including archivelogs and controlfile to migrate completely to the RMAN Agent.

DDboost storage Unit considerations

It is recommended to use a new Boost Storage Unit for the RMAN Agent.
The RMAN Agent storage Unit should have enabled or not Oracle app-optimization depending on the setting on the DDBEA Storage unit. If DDBEA has it enabled, then the RMAN Agent should enable it too. This ensures deduplication is consistent in the transition of one product to the other and there is not an increase of space usage on Data Domain.
If Data Domain space usage is not an issue, it is recommended to enable the feature in the RMAN Agent boost storage unit as it ensures the best possible deduplication rates. The increase in space usage is less than the actual size of the database.

How to set and check if Oracle App-optimization

Set Oracle App-optimization

mtree option set app-optimized-compression oracle1 mtree /data/col1/orcl-16k-x4-mre-07-sip1-1dfae

Check if Oracle App-optimization is enabled.

mtree option show mtree /data/col1/orcl-16k-x4-m-re-07-sip1-1dfae
Name                                                          Option                                   Value
-----------------------------------------                  -------------------------                -------
/data/col1/orcl-16k-x4-m-re-07-sip1-1dfae app-optimized-compression oracle1

A value of oracle1 means is Oracle App-optimization is enabled.

Migrate RMAN Backup/Restore scripts to an RMAN Agent script.

The RMAN scripts can be migrated from DDBEA to RMAN Agent. This is done by changing the allocate channel statements to use the RMAN Agent library and the environment required by this product.

Example:

DDBEA
…
ALLOCATE CHANNEL C1 DEVICE TYPE SBT_TAPE PARMS 'BLKSIZE=1048576, SBT_LIBRARY=/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/lib/lib64/libddboostora.so, SBT_PARMS=(CONFIG_FILE=/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/config/oracle_backup.cfg)' FORMAT '%d_%U’;
…

RMAN AGENT
…
 ALLOCATE CHANNEL CH1 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' TRACE 5 PARMS 'BLKSIZE=1048576, SBT_LIBRARY=/home/oracle/opt/dpsapps/rmanagent/lib/libddobk.so, ENV=(STORAGE_UNIT=oracle, BACKUP_HOST=10.10.10.xxx, RMAN_AGENT_HOME=/home/oracle/opt/dpsapps/rmanagent)’;

The same change must be done if channels are configured automatically in the rman configuration.
Rman command "show all;" shows if automatic channels are in used.

Retention Considerations
RMAN Agent and DDBEA rely on Oracle RMAN retention policy so there are no changes required in this area other than to allocate correctly the maintenance channel to run rman delete obsolete / crosscheck commands.

DDBEA uses ddbmadmin to list and delete backups outside of RMAN workflow. The equivalent command in RMAN Agent is ddutil. Check the documentation on how to use ddutil if the retention was enforced in DDBEA by running ddbmadmin instead of Oracle RMAN retention policy.

Restore Considerations
Restores using the RMAN Agent are done by allocating the channels, this is explained in the "Migrate RMAN Backup/Restore scripts to RMAN Agent" section.
It is recommended to do a FULL backup including controlfile and archive logs once the RMAN Agent is installed.
If a full backup is not done, the restore may need a portion of a backup created with DDBEA. Another portion must be created with the RMAN Agent. The solution in this case is to allocate channels for both solutions.

Example

run {
…
ALLOCATE CHANNEL CH0 DEVICE TYPE SBT_TAPE PARMS 'BLKSIZE=1048576, SBT_LIBRARY=/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/lib/lib64/libddboostora.so, SBT_PARMS=(CONFIG_FILE=/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/config/oracle_backup.cfg)' FORMAT '%d_%U’;

ALLOCATE CHANNEL CH1 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' TRACE 5 PARMS 'SBT_LIBRARY=/home/oracle/opt/dpsapps/rmanagent/lib/libddobk.so, ENV=(STORAGE_UNIT=oracle, BACKUP_HOST=10.10.10.xxx, RMAN_AGENT_HOME=/home/oracle/opt/dpsapps/rmanagent)’;
…
}

Run a FULL RMAN Agent backup including archivelogs and controlfile to migrate completely to the RMAN Agent.

Crosscheck and deletions.

Crosscheck, and deletions affect operations to Data Domain. It is recommended to run these operations separately for DDBEA and RMAN Agent backups.

For DDBEA use: crosscheck backup completed before <date_before_migration>
For RMAN Agent use: crosscheck backup completed after <date_of_migration>

If it is necessary to crosscheck all backups in one go, allocate maintenance channels for both products in the same rman script.
This should only be done for the period of time where DDBEA backups are still under retention.

Example

run {
…
ALLOCATE CHANNEL CH0 DEVICE TYPE SBT_TAPE PARMS 'BLKSIZE=1048576, SBT_LIBRARY=/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/lib/lib64/libddboostora.so, SBT_PARMS=(CONFIG_FILE=/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/config/oracle_backup.cfg)' FORMAT '%d_%U’;

ALLOCATE CHANNEL CH1 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' TRACE 5 PARMS 'SBT_LIBRARY=/home/oracle/opt/dpsapps/rmanagent/lib/libddobk.so, ENV=(STORAGE_UNIT=oracle, BACKUP_HOST=10.10.10.xxx, RMAN_AGENT_HOME=/home/oracle/opt/dpsapps/rmanagent)’;
…
}

NOTE:

If the crosscheck is part of the rman backup script, then it is recommended (not mandatory) to use syntax: "crosscheck backup completed after <date_of_migration>" as that will NOT marked as expired previous DDBEA backups.
If DDBEA backups are not relevant anymore, only allocate RMAN Agent channels.

Scenario

Customer installed RMAN Agent on April-4-2023
The rman script to do crosscheck for the RMAN Agent would look like

run {

ALLOCATE CHANNEL CH1 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' TRACE 5 PARMS 'SBT_LIBRARY=/home/oracle/opt/dpsapps/rmanagent/lib/libddobk.so, ENV=(STORAGE_UNIT=oracle, BACKUP_HOST=10.10.10.xxx, RMAN_AGENT_HOME=/home/oracle/opt/dpsapps/rmanagent)’;
…
backup database ..
...
crosscheck backup completed after ’04-APR-23’;
}

The RMAN script for DDBEA would look like.

run {
ALLOCATE CHANNEL CH0 DEVICE TYPE SBT_TAPE PARMS 'BLKSIZE=1048576, SBT_LIBRARY=/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/lib/lib64/libddboostora.so, SBT_PARMS=(CONFIG_FILE=/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/config/oracle_backup.cfg)' FORMAT '%d_%U’;
crosscheck backup completed before ’04-APR-23’;
}

RMAN uses the date format specified in the NLS_DATE_FORMAT parameter, which is DD-MON-YY in the previous example.

Managing DDBEA Backups

How to find what clients have done DDBEA Backups for a particular DDboost Storage unit

Display all clients for the given device path.
ddbmadmin -i -z <config_file_path> [-D 9]

Example
/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/bin/ddbmadmin -i -n oracle -z /opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/config/oracle_backup.cfg

List of clients for device path /rman:
client = testdb_client
...
Client = oracle.test.lab

NOTE: If multiple Boost storage units were used for DDBEA backups, then this command has to be run with the config files that have configured those boost units.

How to check if there are still DDBEA backups for a particular client
Display the information for save sets by save time range.

/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/bin/ddbmadmin -s [-t] [-b <start_time>] -e <end_time> -n oracle -z <config_file_path> [-D 9]

Example

./ddbmadmin -s -n oracle  -e tomorrow -z /opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/config/oracle_backup.cfg
Client = oracle.test.lab, date and time = 03/17/2023 08:39:06 AM (1679056746), size = 3132120592, name = RMAN:ORCL21C_m91n8m50_3785_1_1, Data Domain retention = not set.
Client = oracle.test.lab, date and time = 03/17/2023 08:39:41 AM (1679056781), size = 663753856, name = RMAN:ORCL21C_ma1n8m6d_3786_1_1, Data Domain retention = not set.
Client = oracle.test.lab, date and time = 03/17/2023 08:39:48 AM (1679056788), size = 520097848, name = RMAN:ORCL21C_mb1n8m6k_3787_1_1, Data Domain retention = not set.

NOTE: This command displays info for the client specified in the config_file. If no client is specified, the backups for the hostname from where this command is run are shown.
This command may need to be run from the different clients that were doing DDBEA backups.

How to delete Backups from DDBEA if those are no longer needed.

Delete the save sets within the save time range.

ddbmadmin -d [-t] [-c] [-b <start_time>] -e <end_time> -n <application> -z <config_file_path> [-D 9] [-c]

Example:

/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/bin/ddbmadmin -d -n oracle  -e tomorrow -z /opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/config/oracle_backup.cfg

The specified end time is later than the current time.
Save set information:

Client = oracle.test.lab, date and time = 03/17/2023 08:39:06 AM (1679056746), size = 3132120592, name = RMAN:ORCL21C_m91n8m50_3785_1_1, Data Domain retention = not set.
Client = oracle.test.lab, date and time = 03/17/2023 08:39:41 AM (1679056781), size = 663753856, name = RMAN:ORCL21C_ma1n8m6d_3786_1_1, Data Domain retention = not set.
Client = oracle.test.lab, date and time = 03/17/2023 08:39:48 AM (1679056788), size = 520097848, name = RMAN:ORCL21C_mb1n8m6k_3787_1_1, Data Domain retention = not set.
Client = oracle.test.lab, date and time = 03/17/2023 08:39:51 AM (1679056791), size = 19923276, name = RMAN:c-2323869396-20230317-00, Data Domain retention = not set.

NOTE: This command deletes backups for the client specified in the config_file. If no client is specified, backups for the hostname from where this command is run, are deleted.
This command may need to be run from the different clients that were doing DDBEA backup with their config files.

Article Number: 000211408

Article Type: How To

Last Modified: 29 May 2023

Version: 3

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