EMC Backup and Recovery for Oracle Database 11g Data Warehouse

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EMC Backup and Recovery

for Oracle Database 11g Data Warehouse

A Detailed Review

EMC Information Infrastructure Solutions

Abstract

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EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

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Executive summary

Business case Exponential data growth, changing regulatory requirements, and increasingly complex IT infrastructure all have a major impact on a business’s data protection strategy. In Oracle data warehouse environments, backup and recovery of Oracle databases are a vital part of this strategy, and place ever-increasing demands on the IT infrastructure to meet business objectives.

• Recovery time objectives (RTOs) continue to decrease while the need for precise recovery point objectives (RPOs) continues to increase, demanding quicker recovery times, with little or no data loss.

• The massive increase in the volume of data being stored calls for: − much improved storage utilization

− more efficient use of both infrastructure and people

− solutions that reduce the impact of backup and recovery on production environments

• It is not uncommon for organizations to routinely exceed their backup window or even have a backup window that takes up most of a day. Such long backup operations leave little margin for error and any disruption can place some of the data at risk of loss.

• Backup and recovery administration also presents greater challenges as data volumes grow and more complex infrastructures are put in place, with multiple and diverse management interfaces.

• In recent years, increased corporate governance and new statutory and

regulatory requirements are driving the need for businesses to encrypt their data at rest so that it cannot be accessed on the existing system or in any other environment without first decrypting it.

Because of the demands generated by data growth and the RTO/RPO requirements in Oracle database environments, it is critical that robust, reliable, and tested backup and recovery processes are in place. Enterprises need solution architectures that encompass the best of what EMC and Oracle can offer, and that keep the total cost of ownership as low as possible.

Product

solution This white paper describes a backup and recovery solution for an Oracle Database 11g data warehouse environment on Symmetrix®_{VMAX™ storage. Backup of the} two-node RAC production environment is offloaded to a proxy host. The proxy copy is created using an EMC®_{Symmetrix TimeFinder}®_{clone copy of the database. The} cloned database is mounted to the proxy as a single instance.

EMC NetWorker®_{manages and controls the backup process, which is executed on} the proxy node using Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN). NetWorker then directs the backups over NFS (network file system) to an EMC Data Domain® DD880

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Key benefits The solution described in this white paper provides the following benefits: • _{Reduced storage footprint and TCO}

Deduplication dramatically reduces storage footprint when compared to

traditional backup to tape or disk-based backup without deduplication. Reducing the amount of data stored offers the opportunity to improve storage utilization, to achieve cost savings in relation to hardware acquisition, power, space, and cooling, and to implement longer retention policies.

• _{Non-disruptive backup}

Offloading backup overhead to TimeFinder clones and to a dedicated backup host minimizes the impact of the backup process on production environments and eliminates the problems associated with short backup windows.

• _{Integration with Oracle backup architectures}

Data Domain deduplication and NetWorker management integrate seamlessly with Oracle components such as Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and RMAN. This enables EMC solutions to be non-disruptively introduced into existing Oracle backup architectures, with little or no change required to backup processes or scripts.

• _{Reduced management complexity}

NetWorker’s centralized automation capabilities for backup and recovery reduce the administrative burden on database administrators while allowing them to retain control of the restore process.

• _{Encryption of data at rest}

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Introduction

Purpose This white paper describes a solution for optimizing backup and recovery strategies for Oracle Database 11g data warehouse environments deployed on Symmetrix VMAX storage platforms. The white paper presents the solution architecture and demonstrates the benefits of using EMC Data Domain, EMC Symmetrix TimeFinder, and EMC NetWorker to provide the backup and recovery infrastructure.

Scope The scope of this white paper is to:

• Document details of the backup and recovery infrastructure and strategy for the solution

• Describe the Data Domain and NetWorker configuration used for the solution • Present the results of the solution validation and testing

• Identify the business benefits of the solution

Audience This white paper is intended for EMC employees, partners, and customers, including Oracle database administrators, who want to understand how the solution described in this white paper can benefit an organization’s backup and recovery strategy. It is assumed that the reader has a general knowledge of the EMC and Oracle products used in the solution.

Terminology This white paper includes the following terms and acronyms.

Term Definition

BCT Oracle Block Change Tracking DD Encryption Data Domain Encryption NMO NetWorker Module for Oracle RMAN Oracle Recovery Manager

RPO Recovery point objective – the maximum acceptable time period between the last available consistent image and a disaster or failure

RTO Recovery time objective – the maximum acceptable time to bring a system or application back to operational state after a failure or disaster

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Key technology components

Overview This section provides an overview of the key components of the solution: • EMC Symmetrix VMAX

• EMC Data Domain DD880 • EMC NetWorker

• EMC Symmetrix TimeFinder • EMC PowerPath®

• Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 2

EMC Symmetrix VMAX

The EMC Symmetrix VMAX is a high-end, enterprise storage array comprising a system bay and separate storage bays. The system scales from a single high-availability (HA) node configuration to eight-node configurations with up to 10 storage bays. Each VMAX Engine contains two Symmetrix VMAX directors with extensive CPU processing power, physical memory, front-end ports, and back-end ports.

Symmetrix VMAX systems deliver scalable performance that meets the most

demanding access, protection, and distribution requirements. They provide three-tier storage within a single array. Enterprise Flash Drives (EFDs), Fibre Channel (FC) drives, and Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drives are all supported, as well as an extensive range of RAID types.

EMC Data

Domain DD880 EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems dramatically reduce the amount of disk storage needed to retain and protect enterprise data, including Oracle databases. With Data Domain systems, backup data requires a storage footprint that is 10 to 30 times smaller, on average, than that required by the original data set. The deduplicated data can be stored locally for immediate restores and longer-term retention on disk, and can be efficiently replicated and retrieved over existing networks for streamlined disaster recovery and consolidated tape operations. The Data Domain DD880 appliance is the industry’s highest throughput, most cost-effective, and scalable deduplication storage solution for disk backup and network-based disaster recovery (DR).

The high-throughput deduplication rate of the DD880 is enabled by its CPU-centric Data Domain Stream-Informed Segment Layout (SISL) scaling architecture. SISL identifies 99 percent of duplicate segments in RAM, inline, and stores only unique data to disk. It also ensures that all related segments are stored in close proximity on disk for optimal reads. The storage of unique data is invisible to backup software, which sees the entire virtual file system.

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Inline encryption seamlessly integrates with the high-speed, inline deduplication process used in Data Domain storage systems, encrypting data before it is written to disk. Similar to the advantages of inline deduplication, inline encryption requires minimal resources to provide fast, reliable, and secure backup and recovery. Data Domain systems integrate seamlessly into Oracle architectures, supporting existing backup strategies, including Oracle RMAN, with no changes to scripts, backup processes, or system architecture. Data Domain systems also integrate seamlessly into NetWorker environments as the storage target for backups.

EMC NetWorker EMC NetWorker software comprises a high-capacity, easy-to-use data storage

management solution that protects and helps to manage data across an entire network. NetWorker simplifies the storage management process and reduces the administrative burden by automating and centralizing data storage operations.

NetWorker product components

The NetWorker product suite includes the following components:

• _{NetWorker client – Communicates with the NetWorker server and provides} backup and recovery functionality for the node on which it resides. It is installed on all nodes that are backed up to the NetWorker server.

• _{NetWorker storage node – Data can be backed up directly to devices that are} attached to a NetWorker server or to a NetWorker storage node, which is a storage device physically attached to another computer whose backup operations are controlled by the NetWorker server.

• _{NetWorker server – The host running the NetWorker server software, which} contains the online indexes and provides backup and recovery services to the clients on the same network.

• _{NetWorker Management Console – All NetWorker servers and clients are} managed from the NetWorker Management Console. The Console also provides reporting and monitoring capabilities for all NetWorker servers and clients.

NetWorker Module for Oracle

NetWorker application modules build on the core NetWorker infrastructure to provide online protection and recovery for a wide range of business applications. NetWorker Module for Oracle (NMO) is the plug-in for NetWorker clients that backs up and restores Oracle database objects.

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EMC Symmetrix TimeFinder

EMC Symmetrix TimeFinder software provides powerful replication capabilities for creating local point-in-time snapshots (TimeFinder/Snap) and complete data clones (TimeFinder/Clone) on Symmetrix array storage. The local copies are independent of hosts and operating systems, applications, and databases.

TimeFinder/Clone creates high-performance, full-volume copies of production data, with minimal impact on application and host performance. These copies are immediately available for read and write access and can be used to offload backup overhead from the production environment.

EMC

PowerPath EMC PowerPath is server-resident software that enhances performance and application availability by supporting multiple I/O paths to logical devices and intelligently distributing I/O requests across all available paths. PowerPath also provides automatic failover in the event of a hardware failure by automatically detecting the path failure and redirecting I/O to another path.

Oracle Database 11g R2 Enterprise Edition

This white paper presents a backup and recovery solution for Oracle Database 11g R2 data warehouse environments. The solution takes advantage of many features of Oracle 11g R2, including Real Application Clusters (RAC), Automatic Storage Management (ASM), and Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN).

In Oracle 11g R2, Oracle ASM and Oracle Clusterware have been integrated into a single set of binaries and named the Oracle Grid Infrastructure. This now provides all the cluster and storage services required to run an Oracle RAC database. Oracle ASM has also been extended to include support for OCR and voting files to be placed within ASM disk groups.

Oracle Recovery Manager

RMAN is a command-line and Oracle Enterprise Manager-based tool for backing up and recovering Oracle databases. It is designed to work intimately with the database server, providing block-level corruption detection during backup and restore. During RMAN backup and restore operations, the NetWorker Module for Oracle (NMO) acts as an intermediary between the NetWorker server and RMAN, enabling RMAN operations to be managed and controlled from NetWorker.

Oracle Block Change Tracking

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Use case architecture and design

Use case

architecture EMC solution use cases are designed to reflect and validate real-world deployments. This section provides information about the use case developed and executed to validate the solution described in this white paper.

Figure 1 depicts the overall physical architecture of the use case.

Figure 1. Use case architecture

The production environment consists of a two-node Oracle 11g RAC cluster that accesses a single production database on a Symmetrix VMAX storage system. TimeFinder replication software provides local, full-volume, point-in-time copies of the production environment on the Symmetrix VMAX.

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Similarly, in environments where the production system is under a heavy load at all times, backup windows can become increasingly elongated due to system resource availability.

This solution leverages TimeFinder replicas to offload backup operations to a separate backup server. Backups are performed on TimeFinder clones that are mounted to the proxy server as single database instances. This frees production CPU and memory resources to focus on serving transactions and reduces the time required to perform backups by taking advantage of the additional server and storage resources of the proxy host.

Backup is executed on the TimeFinder clone using RMAN, which is controlled and managed by EMC NetWorker and NMO.

NetWorker directs the backups over NFS to an EMC Data Domain DD880

deduplication appliance backup target. The backup data is deduplicated inline, as it is written to the device in real time, dramatically reducing the amount of disk space required by the backup. NetWorker enables directed restores to be sent to the proxy server or directly to the production RAC nodes.

NetWorker and the Swingbench benchmarking software are deployed on individual virtual machines on a single VMware ESX server.

Figure 2 provides a high-level overview of the interaction between the various components of the solution and the backup data flow.

Figure 2. Use case overview diagram

DPA

Clone

Symmetrix VMAX

Proxy backup server Data Domain DD880

Inline deduplication Oracle Database 2-node RAC VMware ESX server NMO Swingbench RMAN catalog NMO mount clone NetWorker / RMAN backup Swingbench load Production Clone

NetWorker backup and recovery management

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The RAC nodes communicate with each other through a dedicated private network. This cluster interconnection synchronizes cache across various database instances between user requests.

A 10 GbE backup network is enabled by two high-density 10 GbE dual-speed switches, to provide redundant paths to the Data Domain appliance. An FC SAN for

server-to-storage connectivity is provided by two 8 Gb FC switches. EMC PowerPath is used to intelligently manage the I/O paths to each device in the environment.

Use case

objectives The purpose of this use case is to define a working infrastructure for an Oracle RAC environment with an Oracle 10 TB data warehouse database deployed on VMAX storage, and to demonstrate the benefits of offloading backups to a proxy host using TimeFinder clones and of deduplicating the backup data using Data Domain. The objectives of the use case testing were to:

• Demonstrate the dramatic reduction in the amount of disk storage needed to retain and protect enterprise data with Data Domain.

• Demonstrate the reduction of backup impact on the production server achieved by offloading the backup to a proxy server, enabled by TimeFinder clones and NetWorker.

• Show how target-based deduplication over IP fits into existing Oracle backup architectures with little or no change to processes or scripts.

• Compare the backup storage footprint of a deduplicated 10 TB Oracle data set, which retains four weeks of backups, to the same data set and retention policy, and its footprint, when stored on disk.

• Demonstrate the ease of use of the DD Encryption feature.

Use case

profile Table 1 presents the use case profile.

Table 1. Use case profile

Profile characteristic Value

Database characteristic Data warehouse

Benchmark profile Swingbench DSS benchmark

Workload profile Sales History workload

Database size 10 TB

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Hardware

resources Table 2 shows the hardware environment for the solution.

Table 2. Use case hardware resources

Equipment Quantity Configuration

Storage array 1 Symmetrix VMAX, Enginuity™ 5874, 2 x VMAX 64 GB engines

Oracle database

server 2 Linux server with: _•_{4 x quad-core CPUs} • 96 GB RAM

• 2 x dual-port 8 Gb HBAs • 2 x 10 GbE NICs

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5

• Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition R2 (with Oracle RAC and ASM) • EMC Solutions Enabler 7.1 Proxy backup server 1 Linux server with:

• 4 x quad-core CPUs • 96 GB RAM

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5

• Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition R2 (with Oracle RAC and ASM)

• Solutions Enabler 7.1 Deduplication

appliance 1 Data Domain DD880 _•_{2 x 10 GbE optical NICs}

• 2 x SAS HBAs (disk connectivity) • 3 x ES20 disk shelves

• 48 x 1 TB disks Infrastructure

management host 1 VMware ESX server with: _•_{Quad-core CPU} • 96 GB RAM

• Microsoft Windows 2008

• Symmetrix Management Console 7.2 • Solutions Enabler 7.1

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Software

resources Table 3 shows the software used for the solution.

Table 3. Use case software resources

Software Configuration

Oracle Database 11g Release 2

(11.2.0.1.0) 2-node RAC with ASM and Oracle ASMLib 2.0.4-1 Red Hat Linux 5.5 Server version for x86_64 – installed on all

physical and virtual servers Data Domain Operating System

(DDOS) Version 4.8.1.0.

Microsoft Windows 2008 SP1 Deployed on the virtual machines running Swingbench and NetWorker

VMware vSphere 4 • ESX 4.1 server • vCenter Server 4.1

Swingbench 2.3 DSS benchmark

PowerPath 5.3 Installed on all Red Hat Linux hosts NetWorker 7.6 server, storage

node, and client Installed on a Windows Server 2008 Enterprise virtual machine NetWorker Module for Oracle 5.0 Installed on all Red Hat Linux nodes Solutions Enabler 7.1.1.0 Installed on all Red Hat Linux nodes Symmetrix Management

Console 7.2 Installed on infrastructure management host

Backup

strategy The solution implements a differential incremental backup strategy, which uses a combination of level 0 (full) backups, level 1 (incremental) backups, and Oracle Block Change Tracking (BCT).

An incremental backup strategy has as its starting point a level 0 backup, which backs up all blocks in the database. An incremental backup at level 0 is identical in content to a full backup but, unlike a full backup, is considered part of the

incremental backup strategy.

An incremental backup at level 1 backs up only blocks changed after a previous incremental backup. A level 1 backup can be cumulative (including all blocks changed since the most recent level 0 backup) or differential (including only blocks changed since the most recent level 1 backup). Incremental backups are differential by default, and this is the type implemented in the use case.

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Figure 3. Backup strategy

Note

When using a deduplication appliance such as Data Domain, it is often

recommended to run only full backups since only the unique data will be stored. However, with a large database such as that deployed in this use case, the length of the backup window can often make this impractical. Therefore, an incremental backup strategy is often implemented to meet requirements.

RMAN

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Oracle Database design

Oracle

Database configuration

For the solution use case, the data warehouse was deployed on a two-node Oracle 11g R2 RAC database with clustered storage managed by Oracle ASM.

Swingbench database schema

The Swingbench Datagenerator and benchmarking toolset were used to populate and stress test the Oracle database. The Sales History schema for the use case is a traditional data warehouse star/snowflake schema, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Sales History schema

Swingbench Datagenerator was used to create the Sales History schema and to populate the 10 TB database with semi-random data. A custom script was developed to generate a change in the data of 1 percent between backups.

ASM

diskgroups For this use case, the Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant was used to create the ASM disk groups. • A disk group (CRS) was created, with normal redundancy, for CRS and voting

files, which, as of Oracle 11g R2, can be stored within an ASM disk group. • Following EMC recommended best practice for ASM, standard disk groups were

created, with external redundancy, as follows: DATA (datafiles and control files), REDO (redo logs), and FRA (archived log files).

• As this is a DSS database, with both index creation and select queries

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• Oracle ASM has a limit of 63 disk groups per ASM instance. One disk group, CRS, was used for Oracle Clusterware files, and four disk groups were created to hold standard database files. Therefore, 58 disk groups were available for other database or database objects.

ASM disk group /tablespace mapping

Table 4 maps the Oracle ASM disk groups to the database tablespaces and files. Table 4. ASM disk group/tablespace mapping

ASM disk group Tablespace

+DATA SH_DATA SH_INDEX SYSAUX SYSTEM UNDOTBS1 UNDOTBS2 USERS +TEMP TEMP

+FRA _{As of Oracle Database 11g R2, FRA is known as the Fast} Recovery Area (previously Flash Recovery Area). The archive logs were placed here. The database parameter db_recovery_file_dest was set to use the ASM disk group +FRA with a usable size of 1 TB.

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Configuring Data Domain for NetWorker access

Data Domain

configuration overview

A Data Domain system integrates into a NetWorker environment as the storage destination for directed backups. In this solution, the Data Domain system was configured as a number of NFS shares, with the shares configured in NetWorker as advanced file type devices (adv_file). This takes advantage of the speed of disk and easily integrates with a previously configured NetWorker environment.

All Data Domain systems run the DD OS. This provides both a command line interface (CLI) and the EMC Data Domain Enterprise Manager web-based GUI for performing configuration, management, and monitoring operations.

For general Data Domain installation and configuration information, consult the Data Domain installation and administration guides listed in the References section of this white paper. For worked examples of Data Domain installation and configuration, consult the EMC Proven Solution Guides listed in the References section.

Use case Data Domain configuration

NFS shares for NetWorker storage nodes

When integrating a Data Domain appliance for use in an environment that also has NetWorker and RMAN deployed, it is best practice to create multiple NFS shares on the appliance, one for each of the NetWorker backup streams.

The directory tree structure of Data Domain systems has /backup as the root.

Sub-directories can be created below /backup. These sub-directories are then mounted as

NFS and CIFS shares on the client hosts (that is, the RAC nodes and proxy node). For the use case, these hosts are also configured as NetWorker storage nodes. As the use case uses four RMAN channels, four NFS directories were created as NFS shares on the Data Domain appliance (/backup/mp1 to /backup/mp4). Four

NFS directories were also created for the proxy server (/backup/pmp1 to /backup/pmp4).

Appropriate mount points were created on the proxy backup server, and the NFS shares were then mounted to that server.

Figure 5 lists the NFS shares created.

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CIFS share for NetWorker server

In the use case, the NetWorker server component was deployed on a Microsoft Windows 2008 server and used CIFS as its file sharing protocol. This requires a CIFS share to be created on the Data Domain appliance for use by the NetWorker server. Users can create the share with the Data Domain Enterprise Manager CIFS Configuration Wizard or using the Data Domain OS CLI.

On the Windows server, the /backup/cmp directory was created as the mount point

for the CIFS share, and permissions were changed to grant full privileges on the directory to all users (by default, the directory owner is root).

Data Domain Encryption

Enabling inline encryption is a simple two-step process. First, add the license for the encryption feature, and then enable encryption. Once encryption has been enabled, all new data written to the appliance is encrypted; data previously on the appliance is not encrypted.

Figure 6 shows how to check that encryption is enabled.

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Configuring NetWorker

NetWorker

configuration overview

All NetWorker configuration tasks are managed through the Administration window

of the NetWorker Management Console. This section provides an overview of the main steps involved in configuring NetWorker for the use case:

• Configure the NFS and CIFS shares as advanced file type devices (adv_file). • Configure the backup job for level 0 (full) backups.

• Configure the backup job for level 1 (incremental) backups.

NetWorker

components The following table lists the NetWorker software components installed for the use case and the nodes on which they were installed. Table 5. NetWorker components

Location NetWorker components

NetWorker server NetWorker server

NetWorker Management Console Oracle RAC nodes NetWorker storage node

NetWorker Client NMO

Proxy backup server NetWorker storage node NetWorker Client NMO

Configuring adv_file type devices

After the Data Domain NFS shares have been mounted on the proxy backup server, each of the shares needs to be configured as an adv_file type device using

NetWorker’s Create Device option.

The required settings are as follows:

• _{Name: The full path to the share. Because the share is a remote device, the} name must be preceded by rd, as shown in the following example:

rd=tce-r910-ora1.emcweb.ie/mnt/bump1 • _{Media type: This is set to adv_file.}

• _{Access: Set to give root access on the device.}

• _{Target sessions and Max sessions: These are set to 1.}

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Figure 7 shows the adv_file devices and corresponding read-only devices created for the use case.

Figure 7. List of adv_file devices created for the use case

Configuring the

backup jobs Two NetWorker backup jobs need to be created for the differential incremental backup strategy applied in the use case • One to perform a level 0 (full) backup at weekends

• One to perform a level 1 (differential incremental) backup on weekdays The Client Backup Configuration wizard was used to configure these jobs with the following main steps:

1. Specify the backup application. 2. Specify the database details. 3. Specify the RMAN backup options.

When the wizard starts, it presents a list of available applications that represent the NetWorker modules that are installed on the client. For tight integration of NetWorker and Oracle RMAN, NMO is installed on each NetWorker backup node, and is

available for selection in the application list, as shown in Figure 8. Selecting the Oracle option defines Oracle as the backup configuration type.

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Specifying the database information

After Oracle is selected as the backup application, it is necessary to configure NetWorker access to the database being backed up and to the RMAN catalog for the database. This involves specifying the Oracle installation directory, and the target database and RMAN catalog credentials, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. NetWorker Client Backup Configuration wizard – database information

Specifying the RMAN backup options

As part of the backup configuration, the wizard creates an RMAN backup script that NetWorker runs during the backup process. The options to be included in the RMAN script are specified in two wizard windows. The main options are as follows:

• _{Number of channels: The number of RMAN channels being used. For the use} case, the number selected was 4.

• _{Backup Type: For the use case this is set to Differential incremental backup.} When creating the full backup job, the Level required is 0. When creating the

incremental backup job, the Level required is 1.

• _{Backup format: Use to specify the RMAN backup format.}

• Backup tag: Use to assign a tag to the backup set for ease of reference.

• _{Filesperset: This parameter determines whether RMAN multiplexing is enabled} or not. For the use case, multiplexing was disabled (Filesperset=1) as it has a negative effect on deduplication.

The Back up the control file and Back up the archived redo log options were

both selected for the use case so that the control file and archived redo logs were included in all backups.

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Figure 10. NetWorker Client Backup Configuration wizard – RMAN options

Figure 11 shows the backup configuration summary for both the Level 0 and Level 1 backup jobs created for the use case, including the RMAN backup scripts.

Figure 11. Backup configuration summaries Full backup summary

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Testing and Validation

Testing and

validation overview

The following tests were carried out on the Oracle data warehouse backup and recovery infrastructure:

• Backup from production and proxy nodes • TimeFinder clone copy from production • Data-at-rest encryption

• Data Domain deduplication • Data restore

Backup from production and proxy nodes

Level 0 (full) backups were run on the production RAC nodes, with no Swingbench load, in order to establish the baseline backup window. Then level 0 backups were run on the production RAC nodes under Swingbench load; in this case the backup window was 70 percent longer than the baseline window.

To reduce the backup window, all backups were offloaded to a proxy node utilizing TimeFinder clones. Figure 12 shows the timelines for taking a backup from the production RAC nodes under load and no load conditions, and for taking a clone of the production database and backing it up from the proxy node.

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Figure 13 shows a backup from the proxy node in progress.

Figure 13. Backup from proxy node

Data-at-rest

encryption Enabling DD Encryption had a negligible effect on the duration of a level 0 backup in this environment, as shown in Figure 14.

. Figure 14. Data-at-rest encryption

Data Domain

deduplication By eliminating redundant data segments, the Data Domain system allows many more backups to be stored and managed than would normally be possible for a traditional storage server. While completely new data has to be written to disk whenever discovered, the variable-length segment deduplication capability of the Data Domain system makes finding identical segments extremely efficient.

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Figure 15. Storage space saving percentage

The “Pre-Comp” series on the chart shows the data written to the DD880 over the four-week period – this is also referred to as the logical capacity. The “Post-Comp” series tracks the unique data stored on the DD880 after inline deduplication. The “Reduction %” series shows the percentage reduction in storage space required after compression.

The chart demonstrates that approximately 50 TB of data was backed up over the four-week period and that deduplication resulted in a storage capacity saving of 84 percent. This saving corresponds to a deduplication factor (deduplicated size/original size) of 6.3:1, as shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16 also shows a higher rate of increase in the deduplication factor at the weekends as compared to the other days of the week. This is because level 0 (full) backups occur only at the weekend, while level 1 (incremental) backups occur on the other days. When level 1 backups are run, only changed data is sent to the

appliance, and this results in a much lower deduplication factor increase on those days.

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Note

The database daily change rate was ≈1 percent. Archived log files and control file were also backed up, resulting in a slightly higher change rate.

Archive redo logs are not good candidates for deduplication, as they typically contain only unique data. Much better deduplication rates, in the order of 20x, can be

achieved if these logs are backed up separately.

Data restore To validate the restore and recovery process all datafiles were deleted from the database. A full restore and recovery was then performed using RMAN in conjunction with NetWorker, as shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17. Restore operation

Data Domain Stream-Informed Segment Layout (SISL) technology ensures balanced backup and restore speeds. Figure 18 shows the restore time for all datafiles within the database. This demonstrates the efficiency that Data Domain appliances offer when restoring deduplicated data.

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Recommen-dations The following recommendations arise from the testing carried out for the use case: _•_{Use TimeFinder/Clone copies to offload backups from production RAC nodes to}

a proxy host.

• Create an NFS share on the Data Domain appliance for each NetWorker adv_file type device.

• Set the number of RMAN channels to match the number of NetWorker adv_file used.

• Set the Target sessions and Max sessions attributes of each NetWorker adv_file to 1.

• Set RMAN parallelism to match the number of channels. • Set the fileperset parameter to 1.

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Conclusion

Summary This white paper details an Oracle Database infrastructure design using an EMC Symmetrix VMAX array, EMC Data Domain DD880, and EMC NetWorker. Also included are various test results, configuration practices, and recommendations.

Key points Traditional hardware compression provides substantial cost savings in Oracle environments. However, in this solution, data deduplication has been shown to significantly reduce the amount of data that needs to be stored over an extended period of time. This offers cost savings both from a management standpoint and in the numbers of disks or tapes required by a business to achieve its long-term backup strategy.

Data deduplication can fundamentally change the way organizations protect backup and nearline data. Deduplication changes the repetitive backup practice of tape, with only unique, new data written to disk. The test results show that, in an environment utilizing RMAN incremental backups, a data deduplication ratio of over 6:1, resulting in an 84 percent saving in the storage required to accommodate the backup data, makes it economically practical to retain the save sets for longer periods of time. This reduces the likelihood that a data element must be retrieved from the vault. Both of these factors can significantly improve the RTO.

Although cost savings are generally not the initial reason to consider moving to disk backup and deduplication, financial justification is almost always a prerequisite. With the potential cost savings of disk and deduplication, the justification statement becomes, “we can achieve all of these business benefits and save money.” That is a compelling argument.

The solution meets the business challenges in the following manner: • _{Agility: Keep applications up 24x7}

− Faster backup and restore – meet more aggressive backup windows, and restore your key applications in minutes, not days

− Reduced backup windows – minimize backup windows to reduce impact on your application and system availability

• _{Protection: Protect business information as an asset of the business} − Reduced business risk – restore data quickly and accurately with built-in

hardware redundancy and RAID protection

− Reduced backup windows – minimize backup windows to reduce impact on your application and system availability

− Data-at-rest encryption – for physical security, business confidence, and legal compliance

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In summary, utilizing the solution components, in particular Symmetrix technology, EMC Data Domain, and EMC NetWorker software, provides organizations with the best possible backup solution to prevent both user and business impact.

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References

Proven Solution Guides

For additional information, see the Proven Solution Guides listed below.

• EMC Backup and Recovery for Oracle 11g OLTP Enabled by EMC CLARiiON,

EMC Data Domain, EMC NetWorker, and Oracle Recovery Manager using Fibre Channel – Proven Solution Guide

• EMC Backup and Recovery for Oracle 11g OLTP Enabled by EMC CLARiiON,

EMC Data Domain, EMC NetWorker, and Oracle Recovery Manager using NFS – Proven Solution Guide

Product

documentation For additional information, see the product documents listed below. _•_{Data Domain OS Initial Configuration Guide}

• Data Domain OS Administration Guide

• EMC NetWorker Release 7.6 Installation Guide • EMC NetWorker Release 7.6 Administration Guide

• EMC NetWorker Module for Oracle Release 5.0 Administration Guide • EMC NetWorker Module for Oracle Release 5.0 Installation Guide

Other

documentation For additional information, see the documents listed below. _•_{Oracle Database Installation Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2) for Linux}

• Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2) for

Linux

EMC Backup and Recovery for Oracle Database 11g Data Warehouse