Veritas Storage Foundation 5.0 for Oracle RAC Configuration Guide Extracts for HP Serviceguard Storage Management Suite, Second Edition, May 2008

Using FlashSnap for Backup and Recovery
Cloning a Database (dbed_vmclonedb)
Chapter 5
107
Cloning a Database (dbed_vmclonedb)
Veritas Storage Foundation lets you create a clone database using snapshot volumes.
You can use snapshots of a primary database to create a clone of the database at a given
point in time. You can then implement decision-support analysis and report generation
operations that take their data from the database clone rather than from the primary
database to avoid introducing additional burdens on the production database.
A clone database can also serve as a valid backup of the primary database.
You can also back up the primary database to tape using snapshot volumes.
The resynchronization functionality of Database FlashSnap allows you to quickly
refresh the clone database with up-to-date information from the primary database.
Reducing the time taken to update decision-support data also lets you generate analysis
reports more frequently.
Topics in this section include:
• “Using Database FlashSnap to Clone a Database” on page 107
• “Shutting Down the Clone Database and Unmounting File Systems” on page 112
• “Restarting a Clone Database” on page 112
• “Recreating Oracle Tempfiles” on page 113
Using Database FlashSnap to Clone a Database
In a single-host configuration, the dbed_vmclonedb command creates a clone database
on the same host. The command can also be used to shut down the clone database and
unmount its file systems. When creating or unmounting the clone database in a
single-host configuration, -r relocate_path is required so that the clone database’s file
systems use different mount points than those used by the primary database.
When used in a two-host configuration, the dbed_vmclonedb command imports the
snapshot disk group SNAP_dg, mounts the file systems on the snapshot volumes, and
starts a clone database. It can also reverse the process by shutting down the clone
database, unmounting the file systems, and deporting the snapshot disk group. When
creating the clone off host, -o sfdbvol=vol_name is required
WARNING When creating a clone database, all Storage Checkpoints in the original
database are discarded.