A synthetic full archive combines all the previous archive jobs that have not met the media retention. The resulting synthetic full archive is identical to all the data being archived in one job. Media retention can be set on the subclient properties and must be configured based on the time that you ant to keep the archived data.
Example: if the media retention is set to 10 years, then a synthetic full job copies all the archive jobs which ran in the last 10 years.
Unlike full and incremental archives, a synthetic full archive does not transfer data from the archive database to the backup media. Therefore, it does not use any resources on the archive database.
Synthetic full archives are media-based; they read data from one media and simultaneously write (restore) the result to the new active media within the same media group. As a result, synthetic full archives require at least two media drives for the same storage policy to be available at the time the job is started. Synthetic full archives cannot be performed on subclients where the storage policy is associated with a stand-alone drive.
An incremental archive can be run either before or after a synthetic full archive.
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Running an incremental archive before the synthetic full ensures that any new or recently changed data is included in the synthetic full.
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Running an incremental archive after the synthetic full ensures that any new or recently changed data since the archive that occurred prior to the synthetic full, but was not included in the synthetic full, is archived by the incremental.
Before You Begin
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Plan your advanced settings. The options are described for the following advanced settings:
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Place the archive database in NOARCHIVELOG mode.
If you cannot place the database NOARCHIVELOG mode, see Skipping the Mode Check on the Archive Database.
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Optional: If you want to create tables for the archived data that have the same same as the source tables, set the sMergeIntoSingleDestTable additional setting. For information, see Allowing the Archived Data and Source Data to Use the Same Table Names.
Procedure
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From the CommCell Browser, expand Client Computers > client > Oracle > instance.
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Right-click the archive_subclient and click Archive.
The Archive Options for Subclient dialog box is displayed.
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Select the backup type and job initiation:
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In the Select Backup Type area, select Incremental.
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In the Job Initiation section, specify whether to run the backup now or if it will be scheduled.
Note: If you selected Schedule, set up the schedule.
For information on configuring a backup schedule, see Schedule Backups.
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Optional: To set advanced backup options, click Advanced.
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Click OK.
You can track the progress of the job from the Job Controller. When the backup has completed, the Job Controller displays Completed.
After your backup job is complete, you can view the backup job history. For more information, see Job History.
Results
For an archive in a parquet format, after the archive completes, there is a directory for each table that has the following format:
/Path for Archive Data Files/numericfolder/Tables/SchemaName.Tablename/YYYY_MM/xxxxxxxxJobID/
The software places one Parquet file for each table in a subdirectory for that table. The folder is called 1.parquet.
For an archive in the XML format, after the archive job completes, there are two files per table placed in this directory. There is an xml file type that is in the <Path for Archive Data Files>/Data directory that has the following format:
<SCHEMANAME>.<TABLENAME>.xml
There is an xsd file type that is in the <Path for Archive Data Files>/Config directory and that has the following format:
<SCHEMANAME>.<TABLENAME>.xsd