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
About Veritas Database FlashSnap
Chapter 5
68
About Veritas Database FlashSnap
Veritas Database FlashSnap helps to create a point-in-time copy of a database for
backup and off-host processing. Database FlashSnap allows you to make backup copies
of your volumes online with minimal interruption to users.
• “Solving Typical Database Problems with Database FlashSnap” on page 68
• “About Database FlashSnap Applications” on page 69
• “Using Database FlashSnap” on page 69
• “Using Database FlashSnap Commands” on page 70
• “Using Database FlashSnap Options” on page 71
Veritas Database FlashSnap is included with HP Serviceguard for Oracle RAC.
Database FlashSnap lets you capture an online image of an actively changing database
at a given instant, known as a snapshot. You can perform backups and off-host
processing tasks on snapshots while providing continuous availability of your critical
data. Database FlashSnap commands can be executed from the command-line.
Veritas Database FlashSnap offers you a flexible way to efficiently manage multiple
point-in-time copies of your data, and reduce resource contention on your
business-critical servers.
Database FlashSnap allows database administrators to create a consistent copy of a
database without root privileges by creating a snapshot. A snapshot copy of the database
is referred to as a database snapshot.
You can use a database snapshot on the same host as the production database or on a
secondary host sharing the same storage. A database snapshot can be used for off-host
processing applications, such as backup, data warehousing, and decision-support
queries. When the snapshot is no longer needed, the database administrator can import
the original snapshot back to the primary host and resynchronize the snapshot to the
original database volumes.
Database FlashSnap can significantly reduce the time it takes to backup your database,
increase the availability of your production database, and still maintain your production
database’s performance.
NOTE To use Database FlashSnap, you must have HP Serviceguard for Oracle RAC on all
systems on which you intend to use Database FlashSnap.
To use Database FlashSnap, you must first configure the volumes used by the database.
NOTE For SG Oracle RAC database, when you issue the commands, replace $ORACLE_SID with
$ORACLE_SID=instance_name and provide the instance name on which the instance is
running.
Solving Typical Database Problems with Database FlashSnap
Database FlashSnap is designed to enable you to use database snapshots to overcome
the following types of problems encountered in enterprise database environments: