Oracle Apps DBA (Oracle EBS R12)

OS Backup Commands

This article contains a summary of the operating system backup commands you might encounter whilst backing up Oracle databases:

• ntbackup
• tar
• cpio
• dd
• vdump,rvdump,vrestore and rvrestore

 

ntbackup

Under WindowsNT and Windows2000 filesystem backups are done using the ntbackup program. This is a GUI tool with easy to use wizards to get you started, but it is also accessible from the command line. The command line parameters differ between WindowsNT and Windows2000.

Under WindowsNT a typical backup command would look like:

ntbackup backup c:\ /d "Daily Backup" /hc:on /l 
"C:\backup.log" /e /t normal /v
c:\                : The drive to backup.
/d "Daily Backup"  : The name of the backup set.
/hc:on             : Harware compression on.
/l "C:\backup.log" : Location of the logfile.
/e                 : Log exceptions only.
/t normal          : Backup type normal.
/v                 : Verify backup.

Under Windows2000 a similar command would look like:

ntbackup backup c:\ /D "Daily Backup" 
/HC:on /L:s /M normal /P DLT /V:yes /UM
c:\                : The drive to backup.
/D "Daily Backup"  : The name of the backup set.
/HC:on             : Harware compression on.
/L:s               : Summary data only in log.
/M normal          : Backup type normal.
/P DLT             : Media pool assignment (Backup/DLT).
/V:yes             : Verify backup.
/UM                : Unmanaged.

The Windows2000 backup logs always appear in:

C:\Documents and Settings<user-name>Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\WindowsNT\NTbackup\Data

Where user-name is the user who ran ntbackup.

The Windows2000 is rather troublesome regarding reuse of tapes.


Using the following procedure should alleviate most of these problems:

• From the task bar click "Start" -> "Run..."
• Enter "ntbackup" and click "OK".
• From the ntbackup menu select "Tools" -> "Options" and click on the "General" tab.
• Check the "Always move new import mediato the Backup media pool" option and click "OK".
• Exit ntbackup.

If there are still issues you must right-click the appropriate tape drive in "Computer Management" and select the "Mark as clean" option. At this point the tape should be reused properly.

 

tar

The tar command can be used to backup and restore files to another filesystem or an offile storage device:

# Create archive.
cd /u01/app/oracle
tar -cvf /tmp/admin.tar admin
# Restore archive.
cd /tmp
tar -xvf admin.tar

If a full path is used during the archive creation the extract locations are fixed rather than relative. The process is similar when accessing a tape device except the destination is the mounted device:

# Mount and rewind the tape.
mt -f /dev/rmt/2m rew
# Create archive.
tar -cvf /dev/rmt/2m /u01/*
# Restore archive.
tar -xvf /dev/rmt/2m

dd

The dd command is similar to the tar command:

# Mount and rewind the tape.
mt -f /dev/rmt/2m rew

# Create archive.
dd if=/u01/app/oracle/* of=/dev/rmt/2m BS=32K
# Restore archive.
dd if=/dev/rmt/2m of=/u01/app/oracle BS=32K

cpio

The cpio command deals with the standard input so filesystem paths must be piped to it:

# Create archive.
cd /u01/app/oracle
find admin | cpio -oc > /tmp/admin.cpio
# Restore archive.
cd /tmp
cpio -idmv < admin.cpio

If a full path is used during the archive creation the extract locations are fixed rather than relative:

find /u01/app/oracle/admin | cpio -oc > /tmp/admin.cpio

vdump, rvdump, vrestore and rvrestore

Full level 0 backup of a local filesystem (/u01) to a local device (/dev/tape/tape1_d6):

/sbin/vdump -0 -u -f /dev/tape/tape1_d6 /u01

Full level 0 backup of a local filesystem (/u01) to a remote device (server2:/dev/tape/tape1_d6):

/sbin/rvdump -0 -u -f server2:/dev/tape/tape1_d6 /u01

Restore a vdump or rvdump archive from a local device (/dev/tape/tape1_d6) to a local filesystem (/u01):

/sbin/vrestore -xf /dev/tape/tape1_d6 -D /u01

Restore a vdump or rvdump archive from a remote device (server2:/dev/tape/tape1_d6) to a local filesystem (/u01):

/sbin/rvrestore -xf server2:/dev/tape/tape1_d6 -D /u01

Regads,

Sukhwinder Singh


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