Backup and

recovery
Basics of Backup and restoration
Types of recovery
Defining strategy
Starting up and shutting down
80/20 rule
SLA’s
Database backup restoration and
recovery
 Physical files that make up db need to
be backed up
 RMAN or user managed
 Copy files to correct location and let db
recover itself
 Recovery process is starting the
database and making it consistent with
the backed up files
Restoring and Recovering a
Database
Types of failure
 Non media or media/disk failure
 Media failures are most critical.
 To recover:
– Determine what files need recovery
– What type of media recovery is required
– Restore backups
– Apply offline redo logs (archive)
– Restore db to desired point
– Test process often!
Defining backup and recovery
strategy
 Has the following requirements / considerations
– Amount of data that can be lost in event of failure
– Length of time business can run without the DB
– Can DB be offline to perform backup and how long
for?
– Types of resources available to perform backup/
recovery
– Procedures for undoing changes to DB
– Cost of buying and maintaining HW and additional
backups V cost of replacing or recreating data
Losing data in DB failure
The amount of data that can be lost in a failure
helps determine the backup and recovery
strategy that is implemented
 Cold backups with no archive of redo logs
– Updates since the last backup will be lost. The
frequency of cold backup dictates the amount of
data lost.
 Hot or cold backup with archiving of redo logs
– No updates lost as long as all redo logs are kept
since the last backup.
Surviving without the DB in a
DB failure
 The amount of time a business can survive
without the DB is dependent on the type of
business.
 Mean time to recover (MTTR) is obtained
during testing of failure scenarios.
 If MTTR > business survival time then backup
and recovery time should be re-addressed.
Online backup
 There are two types of backup: offline and
online. They are referred to as cold and hot.
 Offline (cold) are done when the database is
closed. The downtime is related to database
size and normally runs for several hours.
 Online (hot) are done when the DB is open
but can affect performance.
 Archiving must be turned on for the hot
backup.
Undoing changes to DB
 There are 3 primary ways of undoing changes to the
DB which do not involve backups
 Manual
– Re executing code to rebuild data, dependent on the
sophistication of the code releases and the configuration of
the management control of the application (used in
warehousing systems).
 Oracle log miner – querying the redo logs to recover
the changed/dropped data.
 Flash back query – query undo segments to recover
the changed/dropped data.
Log miner
 Oracle utility allows you to generate
the insert, delete and update
statements from the change vectors
in redo logs
 Logminer packages
– Sys.dbms_logmnr_d.build – builds
DD externally
– Dbms_logmnr.add_logfile – access
to desired redo log
– Dbms_logmnr.start_logmnr – starts
logminer session
DD access
 To fully translate the contents of the redo
logs, logminer requires access to data
dictionary.
 Dbms_logmnr_d.build extracts DD
information to a flat file or the redo logs in 9i
 More data can be found in oracle
documentation e.g. Oracle9i Database
Administrator's Guide – Chapter 9
Flash back
 Works of the undo data and lets the user see
a read consistent view of the database in the
past. It is easier than logminer.
 Only transactions committed can be viewed.
 User can specify the read only view based on
system time or a system change number
(SCN).
 Enables at session level.
 Max of 5 days back.
Cont ..
 DBA must set the under retention interval long
enough to be able to reconstruct the snapshot.
Alter system set undo_retention =
<seconds>;
 Max is 5 days
 Requires execute permission on
DBMS_flashback
Execute dbms_flashback.enable_at_time(sysdate-1/24);
 Just remember to disable afterwards
Setting archive mode

 Alter database archivelog (or

noarchivelog)
 Sends files to location in init.ora file
for log_archive_dest
 Default is off
 Select name, logmode from
v$database;
Cont ..

 Change or add init.ora parameter

1. Log_archive_start = true
2. Startup mount
3. Alter database archivelog
4. Alter database open
Archive log list to check its logging
Starting up a database
Startup [option]

 Options available will determine state of

database
– Open enables users to access db
– Mount mounts DB for certain DBA activities
– Nomount starts BG processes but does not
allow access
– Exclusive permits only current instance to
access the DB
Start up errors

ORA-12547: TNS: lost contact

Or
ORA-09352:windows 32-bit two task
driver unable to spawn new oracle task

These are common errors and mean that

the oracle services in the control panel
have not started.
 Shutdown
Shutdown [option]
 Options
– Normal default –waits for current
sessions & transactions to
end forces a check point and
closes files
– Transactional – waits for current transaction to
finish before closing.
– Immediate – forces check point and closes files
– Abort – shuts down no save or close
80/20 rule
 Rule conceived by Vilfredo Pareto
 Minority of causes produce the majority of
results
 Achieved by doing as much work as possible
up front – in the design phase
 Set realistic expectations
– Reasonable response times
– Majority of efforts in tuning improves response time
– Response time = work time + wait time
Improving response time
 Improve either work time or wait time
 Improvement is driven by need to have
transactions finish faster
 Tune component with the longest time
– E.g.: if 20% of the time is spent with the CPU
processing data and 80% due to delay in
processing then improving CPU time will have less
effect than reducing processing time
 Governed by an SLA (service level
agreement)
SLA’s
 How many transactions should be completed per min?
 How many users should be connected at peak times?
 How many concurrent transactions are expected at
peak time?
 What times of the day are considered for online use
only?
 What is that batch processing window?
 What is the expected response time for online
processes?
 How much system resource should be available during
peak time? – define margin of error