Symantec Backup Exec: backing up Oracle installed on Linux

    Backup Exec is a reliable enterprise-level backup system. The installation and configuration of this product has already been described earlier on the hub, there are no difficulties, everything is simple and intuitive. The big plus of this backup tool is that this program can backup almost all the software used in the enterprise, we list the main copying options:
    • It can copy Windows, Linux, Macintosh;
    • VMWare and ESX
    • Active Directory domains
    • System state
    • Microsoft Sharepoint farms
    • Microsoft Exchange
    • MSSQL and Oracle databases, also Oracle Real Application Clusters
    • User resources
    • And much more.
    This is not a big list of features, the advantage is that you can replace several utilities with one product and watch all the backups in one place or receive crash messages.
    Product management is intuitive, but there are nuances, in particular, backup and recovery settings for Oracle installed on Linux, here you have to study the documentation to figure it out. I will try to tell you the most basic problems that you may encounter and how to get around them during the backup of Oracle installed on Linux.
    First you need to install the client on a Linux server. The usual way of the menu “Service – Install agents on other servers” with linux does not always work. Therefore, we will install it manually: the BE distribution contains the RALUS_RMALS_RAMS-xxxx.tar.gz archive in the LinuxUnixMac directory. We copy it to the Linux server, unpack it and start it up (installation and configuration is performed as root):

    tar –xzvf RALUS_RMALS_RAMS-xxxx.tar.gz  
    cd RALUS_RMALS_RAMS-xxxx
    ./installralus


    We answer in the affirmative to all questions and indicate the IP server where Backup Exec is installed. During installation, prompts you to create a beoper group. Add immediately to this group the user who runs Oracle on linux. After that, you need to configure the agent to work with Oracle:

    cd /opt/VRTSralus/bin/
    ./AgentConfig
    Symantec Backup Exec Remote Agent Utility
         Choose one of the following options:
         1. Configure database access
         2. Configure Oracle instance information
         3. Quit
         Please enter your selection: 1
    Configuring machine information
         Choose one of the following options:
         1. Add system credentials for Oracle operations
         2. Edit system credentials used for Oracle operations
         3. Remove system credentials used for Oracle operations
         4. View system credentials used for Oracle operations
         5. Quit
         Please enter your selection: 1
         Enter a user name that has local system credentials: <имя пользователя под которым работает oracle>
         Enter the password:
         Re-enter password:
         Validating credentials.......
         Do you want to use the full computer name/IP address for Oracle operations? (Y/N):Y
         Enter the full computer name or IP address: <hostname сервера Oracle>
         Do you want to use a custom port to connect to the media server during Oracle operations? (Y/N): N
         Commit Oracle operation settings to the configuration file? (Y/N): Y
         SUCCESS: Successfully added the entry to the configuration file.
    Configuring the Oracle Agent
         Choose one of the following options:
         1. Add a new Oracle instance to protect
         2. Edit an existing Oracle instance
         3. Delete an existing Oracle instance
         4. View Oracle instance entries that have been added in the Remote Agent Utility
         5. Quit
         Please enter your selection: 1
         Select an Oracle instance to configure
              Entry 1. <SID базы данных>
              Enter the number 0 to go back
         Enter your selection: 1
         Enter the Oracle database SYSDBA user name: <sys>
         Enter the Oracle database SYSDBA password:
         Re-enter password:
         Validating credentials.......
         Enter the media server name or IP address: <IP сервера Backup Exec>
         Do you use a recovery catalog? (Y/N):N
         Do you want to use a customized job template? (Y/N): N
         Commit Oracle operation settings to the configuration file? (Y/N): Y
         SUCCESS: Successfully added the entry to the configuration file.
    

    When setting up the BE client, the Oracle database server must be running. If a problem occurs:

    oracle: error while loading shared libraries: libhasgen10.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
         Failed to login.
    


    Before setting up the client configuration, you must set environment variables for Oracle. If you encounter such a problem, then when you start the service in the future you will need to set variables.

    --->>>     No Oracle instances were discovered. Do you want to enter one? (Y/N):Y
         Enter the Oracle instance: SM1
    --->>>    The entry could not be validated. Ensure that the instance is configured correctly.
    


    Such a message may occur if you do not have an oratab file, check the rights to it and its contents (SID and path to ORACLE_HOME).
    Client installation and configuration is complete, restart the service and go to the server side BE.

    /etc/init.d/VRTSralus.init restart

    Please note that in order to configure the backup it is necessary that the Oracle database is in archive mode, we check this way:

    SQL> select log_mode from sys.v$database;
    LOG_MODE
    ------------
    NOARCHIVELOG   ---- не подходит исправляем
    SQL> shu immediate
    SQL> startup mount
    SQL> alter database archivelog;
    SQL> alter database open;
    


    On the server side of Backup Exec, we immediately perform such actions (it will help to avoid many problems when connecting):

    Меню > Сервис > Параметры > Oracle > Изменить список > Создать (Указать имя сервера, где установлен Oracle и пользователя под, которым запускается БД).


    Then everything is corny, Menu> File> New> Backup task.
    When you need to configure a hot backup of Oracle Database, you do not need to copy the database (database files) as a folder.

    If everything was done correctly earlier, then the name of your database server will appear in the Linux / Unix servers section, clicking on + next to [ROOT] will ask for credentials, clicking create, specify the credentials of the Linux user under which the database is running. On + Oracle Database, you must also click the create button and specify the data of the database user, namely the sys user, which was specified to the client and who has sysdba authority. Now we can choose the directory to save ORACLE_HOME (uncheck the folder with the database files, you can back up these files when the database is stopped), and check the box next to "Oracle Database" (for "hot" copying). Go through the tabs, everything is clear enough. On the Oracle tab, I recommend checking the "Delete copied log files" checkbox - this will mean that after copying the archive logs to the backup server, they will be deleted from the database server, otherwise you may run out of space on the database disk, and you will have to delete the logs manually. We set up copying to disk or tape on the "Devices and media" tab, set the schedule - click "Run immediately" - a general list of the parameters you set will be generated, check click OK, and we will see the progress in the "Task Monitor" section.



    If your Oracle database is large and frequently used, then it is better to do an additional task to copy only archive logs, thus reducing the time of information loss and the disk space from the database will be cleared more often.

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