Oracle Database migration to a remote Data Protector cell--Best practices

Recommendations

This is a summary of the recommendations described along this paper:

• Verify and document your Recovery Plan regularly

• Always enable CONTROL FILE AUTOBACKUP

• Use a Recovery Catalog in your environment

• Plan a RESTORE VALIDATE on a regular basis.

Limitations

This is a summary of the issues that were discovered during the white paper investigation:

• Currently, it is not possible to restore the DP-managed Control File to a server where the Oracle

integration has not been configured previously

– The current Oracle integration requires the instance to be configured, although it is a file system

restore. By default, the Oracle instance configuration files on the cell manager are accessed to

retrieve instance specific information, as login, ORACLE_HOME and so on.

– For the disaster/migration scenarios discussed here, it means, the DP managed Control File

cannot be used for the initial restore, but we need to rely on the RMAN Control File backup.

– The problem has been addressed to the LAB and has been investigated. The fix will be released

in the next future.

• Exported media from a File Library can only be imported into a Jukebox, and not on a file library.

This needs to be taken into account when planning a migration.

• Only RMAN knows which Oracle objects are stored on which backup sets. This limitation becomes

critical in the situation where neither Control File autobackup nor Recovery Catalog is used.

• When using Object Copy or Device Mirroring be aware that, if the original tape expired or was

exported, the media ID stored by RMAN (original) may point to a tape that contains other backups.

This needs to be taken into account when selecting the media to be used in the migration. RMAN

stores in its catalog the media ID of the original tape, and does not know about object copies.

Summary

Disaster recovery involving Oracle databases is a task that requires careful planning. Data Protector

Catalog information and Oracle control files availability are crucial to have a successful restore.

On the other hand, if the required configuration steps have been followed, the whole process can be

achieved very smoothly.

HP Software Data Protector jointly with Oracle databases is your best bet for a successful

database migration.