Backing up SAP data with RMAN

Backup Exec integrates with RMAN, an Oracle utility that does the following:

  • Manages backup operations

  • Creates backups of database files

To back up SAP data using RMAN, the Backup Exec Oracle Agent is required, and the Remote Agent Utility must be run first.

See About the Remote Agent Utility for Windows Systems.

You must modify the rman_send parameters in the Init<SID>.sap file as follows: 

  rman_send =  ( "channel sbt_1 'NBBSA_SAP_AGENT_CONFIG_PATH=<INI file   Path>'")

where <INI file path> is the full path for the biparam.ini. For example: C:\oracle\ora92\database\biparam.ini.

See Configuring biparam.ini for the SAP Agent.

Ensure that the ini file path mentioned in the parameter ‘util_par_file’ in the init<sid>.sap is the same path specified in the rman_send command.

For backups and restores jobs done using RMAN, Symantec Backup Exec does not honor the configuration parameter (-r option) passed from BRBACKUP or BRRESTORE.

Update init<SID>.ora as follows: 

  control_file_record_keep_time <n>, (say n = 45)

This parameter controls the minimum number of days that a reusable record is kept in the control file.

To do an online backup, type the following command: 

      brbackup -d rman_util  -t online -m all

To do an offline backup, type the following command: 

      brbackup -d rman_util -t offline -m all

Note:

Before doing restores make sure that the database is in the mount state.

Before running online backup jobs, run the following scripts: 

  $ORACLE_HOME\rdbms\admin\catalog.sql  $ORACLE_HOME\rdbms\admin\catspace.sql  $ORACLE_HOME\rdbms\admin\catproc.sql

These scripts will configure the database for an online backup. If the database is not configured properly, the job could fail.

If you get the following error: 

  RMAN-00571:   ===========================================================  RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS   ===============  RMAN-00571:   ===========================================================  ORA-06550: line 1, column 7:    PLS-00201: identifier 'DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE.SET_CHARSET' must be   declared    ORA-06550: line 1, column 7:    PL/SQL: Statement ignored    RMAN-04015: error setting target database character set to   WE8MSWIN1252

Run the following scripts: 

  $ORACLE_HOME\rdbms\admin\catalog.sql  $ORACLE_HOME\rdbms\admin\catspace.sql  $ORACLE_HOME\rdbms\admin\catproc.sql

After running the scripts, run the backup job again.

Backing up SAP data with RMAN