Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 18
Using Oracle Secure Backup as
a Media Management Layer
RMAN comes preconfigured to work with a single disk channel. To back up and restore from a tape device, you need
to configure a media management layer (MML), which works with the actual storage devices. When you instruct
RMAN to work with a tape device, RMAN sends the media management layer the necessary information so the MML
can send instructions to the actual storage media. In other words, RMAN doesn't deal directly with tape devices.
You can use Oracle's own freely available Oracle Secure Backup (OSB) as your media management layer, or you can
choose to go with a third-party MML. The OSB is an excellent product that can make both database and operating
system file backups. In this chapter, we'll provide recipes for using Oracle Secure Backup as your MML. Your first step
in using OSB as an MML is to install OSB and configure RMAN to work with OSB. Before you can use OSB as your
MML for your database (and file-system) backups, you must first configure RMAN to make backups to OSB. You use
the
sbt_library
parameter in the
allocate channel
or
configure channel
command to specify the path name to
the media management library when you're configuring channels for RMAN to use with OSB. You use values for the
parms
parameter inside a command such as
configure channel
to send instructions to the media manager.
Once you install and configure the OSB media manager library to work with RMAN and your databases, test to
confirm that RMAN can successfully be backed up to the media manager. Make a test backup and restore it before you
start using the media manager with RMAN. After you make the test backups, issue the
list backup
command, which
shows you whether the backup really went to the media manager. The easiest way to perform a backup to OSB is by
configuring automatic sbt channels and setting the default device type to sbt
.
A Quick Introduction
OSB acts as a media management layer for RMAN by providing a built-in media management software library that
RMAN uses to make tape backups. This software library is also called an
sbt interface
. Although it's a free product, note
that OSB provides advantages you can't get from other MMLs, such as the ability to directly make RMAN-encrypted
backups to tape. You can use OSB with Oracle9
i
Database, Oracle Database 10g, Oracle Database 11g, and Oracle
Database 12c.
Advantages of Using OSB
OSB costs much less than other third-party products in terms of license costs. Competing third-party MML products
need you to license each client, such as the host, the application, the storage device, the media server, and the
administrative server, separately. OSB licensing is based strictly on the number of physical tape drives you use, and
you can use an unlimited number of clients without licensing costs.
