Okay -
I'm going to put this to rest but I'm going to reach out here first to see if there is any stone unturned.
I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that it isn't safe to snapshot an Oracle database.
I was trying to use Veeam to backup the database using pre-freeze/post-thaw scripts but Veeam and VMware have each told me that without VSS or shutting down the dbms that I cannot do this. Threads in this forum indicate possible db corruption.
We have virtualized some pre-10.2.0.3 Oracle databases (e.g. no VSS) and hosted them in Win2003EE guest VMs.
It was the right thing to do. And I admit life is peachy but for the backup/DR strategy.
The systems are not easily shutdown for maintenance so hot backups are the norm.
We are:
performing RMAN backups and rounding that out with nightly exports
backing up all guest VMs (including Oracle servers) with Veeam
Excluding the oracle data stores from the Veeam backup
I was digging the incremental block changes and push-button restore of Veeam. But Veeam requires a snapshot of the dbms which Oracle doesn't like.
- so here's my question, more of a head-scratcher.
How do I perform a system level recovery of an Ora server?
While I may have exports and RMAN backups I don't have the actual dbms server backed up, at least not entirely.
Without the oracle data stores there is no target for RMAN to restore.
In fact, without the datastores I don't think VMware will boot the vm guest.
Does it look like this?
1 Restore VM guest to host (missing ora datastores)
2 Create ora datastores
3 Boot VM
4 allocate ora datastores
5 Restore db using RMAN
6 Recover ora db
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
I have alot of experience with Oracle but only 6 months of running hard in VMware. I hate Windows.
Thanks
Rick
