Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 20
Oracle Secure Backup
Protecting and securing data is a core responsibility of a DBA. DBAs must be proficient in B&R skills. As shown in
Chapters 17 through 19, you can use RMAN to manage and automate the backup of Oracle databases. RMAN is easily
configured to back up and restore database files to and from disk.
Most production database environments will have an additional requirement of storing database backups
on tape. If your database server experiences a complete failure, you can use tape backups to restore and recover.
Furthermore, tape backups are easily transported outside the data center to provide additional protection in the event
that an entire data center experiences a complete failure (such as a tornado or flood), the idea being that the tapes are
safely stored off-site and can be brought back when disaster strikes.
To this end, Oracle offers a centralized tape backup solution, Oracle Secure Backup (OSB). This tool is a
full-feature enterprise backup management system that automates the tape backup and restore of OS files. More
important to you as the DBA, OSB can also be configured as a media management layer with RMAN. This means that
you can implement RMAN and OSB together for the backup and restore of database files directly to and from tape.
There are myriad tape management solutions available. Why consider OSB? OSB is particularly compelling if one
of your main goals is database backups to tape. Because OSB is an Oracle product, it is tightly integrated with RMAN.
OSB is aware of the Oracle database file format and can take advantage of block-level validation, encrypting backups
as they are written to tape, integration with Oracle's Enterprise Manager, and so on.
OSB Editions and Features
There are two different editions of OSB:
•
Oracle Secure Backup Express
•
Oracle Secure Backup
The Oracle Secure Backup Express edition is free (well, “free” when you purchase a license for the Oracle
database). This edition contains core features, such as backup and restore of OS files and RMAN integration, but is
limited to use on a single host with one directly attached tape device.
The Oracle Secure Backup edition requires an extra license and is well suited for tape backup and restore in
a distributed server environment with heterogeneous filesystems (Linux/Unix, Windows, and network-attached
storage). The Oracle Secure Backup edition contains the following additional features not available with the
Express edition:
•
Backup and restore of database files in RAC environments
•
Integrated with Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control (with Oracle Database 10g Release 2
and higher)
•
Supports multiple tape drives
•
Encrypted tape backups
