Oracle Copy Data Management

Commvault’s solutions for Oracle have multiple protection methods to suit different types of deployments and to suit the preferences of DBAs who manage the life cycles of databases and their copies. The Copy Data Management capabilities are also built into these backup and recovery solutions. The DBA or DevOps tasks are easier when you can do database copy provisioning and database protection with the same product, while reducing the number of copies and storage required. You can create copies of databases, called Instant Clones, that have the following benefits:

• Provision a thin copy of a production database for development or test purposes.

• Manage instant clone provisioning and end-to-end life cycle management. For more information, see Managing Oracle Clones.

Key Features

• Forever incremental backups to facilitate faster backups, even for very large databases

• Reduce the amount of storage used for copies stored in the Commvault disk library

• One-step cloning process

• Create multiple clones from the same snapshot

• Automatic clone creation and cleanup according to user-configured expiration time

Copy Data Management Capabilities

The following table lists the copy data management capabilities that you can use for various database environments.

Backup Methods

Snapshot Using Storage Array's Capability

If your production database is on a snapshot-capable volume and the array has the hardware capability to create clones, you can use this option.

RMAN Image Copy to NFS ObjectStore

This option uses the Oracle image copy feature to create a snapshot of an Oracle database without having to create the snapshot on the primary storage. You can use this feature in the following cases:

• When the primary database storage resides on volumes that cannot be snapped.

• When you want to use Commvault disk library for the image copy backups.

The Oracle image copy feature does the following:

• Protects any database independent of the primary storage type or server type (physical or virtual machine)

• Creates backups in the native format, which means that you can rapidly recover the data

• Does not force users to place the database in hot backup mode

When you use this feature, the Commvault software uses RMAN to back up the incremental database changes to an image copy volume that can be snapped, and then takes a snapshot of the volume. The volume is an NFS ObjectStore. For more information about the NFS ObjectStore, see Getting Started with NFS ObjectStore.

RMAN Image Copy to Snapshot-Capable Storage Array

This option uses the Oracle image copy feature to create a snapshot of an Oracle database without having to create the snapshot on the primary storage. You can use this feature in the following cases:

• When the primary database storage resides on volumes that cannot be snapped but you have a snapshot-capable volume for the target of the RMAN image copy operation.

• When you want to use less expensive storage for the copy.

The methods used to make an Oracle image copy to a snapshot-capable storage array are similar to those used for making an image copy to the NFS ObjectStore. The difference is that the target of the image copy is a snapshot-capable storage array rather than the NFS ObjectStore.

Backup Copy Interfaces

The backup copy operation copies data from a snapshot to the Commvault disk library, where it can be stored for long term retention. Three backup copy interfaces are available and you can select the interface that meets the business requirements for the data's protection.

Volume Copy Using Block-Level Backup

Volume copy using block-level backup is used for making forever incremental backups. The backup copies can then be used as the source for creating the database clones.

These backups work as follows:

• If you do not have a full backup, the software performs a full backup for the first incremental backup. The first full backup is the master copy of the database.

• All subsequent incremental backups contain only the changes from the last backup, regardless of the type.

The volume copy using block-level backup integrates snapshot technology with efficient block storage mechanisms for faster backups. The backups are faster and use less storage because only the volume blocks that contain changed data are backed up, rather than the entire database.

If you need to create a new full or master backup, for example to meet compliance standards, you can create a full backup by running a synthetic full backup.

This option is only supported on the following operating systems:

• All supported Linux versions

• All supported AIX versions

File System

For more information about File System backup copy operations, see Oracle IntelliSnap - Backup Copy. Backup copies made using this method cannot be used for instant clone operations.

RMAN

For more information about RMAN backup copy operations, see Oracle IntelliSnap - Backup Copy. Backup copies made using this method cannot be used for instant clone operations.

Backups or Backup Copies That Can Be Used for Clone Operations

An Instant Clone can be created from any of the following backups or backup copies.

• An IntelliSnap snapshot of production storage or of image copy storage, including an NFS ObjectStore snapshot.

• A block-level backup copy of an IntelliSnap backup.

When you create a clone, you can specify a reservation period. When the reservation period expires the software automatically shuts down the clone database and frees up all resources.

Instant Clone creation is supported for Oracle 11g and more recent versions.