Cloud Computing &Oracle -3

GETTING STARTED WITH CLOUD BACKUP
-----------------------------------
Sign up for Amazon S3 Service
The first step in getting started with the Oracle Secure Backup Cloud module is to
sign up for Amazon S3. This can be done by visiting the Amazon S3 website
(http://aws.amazon.com/s3). Upon successful registration, users will be
provided a pair of access identifiers called the Access Key ID and the Secret Access Key.
These access identifiers can be retrieved from the Amazon S3 web site by hovering
the mouse over the “Your Web Services Account” button on the upper right hand
side corner of the page and then clicking on the “AWS Access Identifiers” link.

Register for an Oracle.com or Oracle Technology Network (OTN) Account
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Oracle.com or OTN account is required to install the Oracle Secure Backup
Cloud module. New accounts may be created by visiting the OTN website
(http://otn.oracle.com) and clicking on the “Sign In/Register for Account” link at
the top of the page.

Install the Oracle Secure Backup Cloud Module
----------------------------------------------
The next step is to download the Oracle Secure Backup Cloud module install tool
from OTN, and run it to install and configure Cloud backups. The install tool is
pre-packaged with the AMIs provided by Oracle to ease Oracle software
deployment on Amazon EC2. Therefore, if the database being backed up is
running on Amazon EC2, there is no need to download the install tool – it can be
found in the /home/oracle/scripts/osbws directory.
The install tool can be invoked as follows:

$java -jar osbws_install.jar -AWSID -AWSKey
-otnUser -otnPass -walletDir -configFile -libDir
-proxyHost wwwproxy.
smallcompany.com

Oracle Secure Backup Database Web-Service Install Tool
OTN userid is valid.
AWS credentials are valid.
Creating new registration for this S3 user.
Created new log bucket.
Registration ID: 0f0a8aac-dad0-6254-7d70-be4ac4f112c4
S3 Logging Bucket: oracle-log-jane-doe-1
Create credential oracle.security.client.connect_string1

OSB web-services wallet created in directory
/orclhome/dbs/osbws_wallet.
OSB web-services initialization file /orclhome/dbs/osbwst1.ora
created.

Downloading OSB Web Services Software Library.
Downloaded 13165919 bytes in 204 seconds.
Transfer rate was 64538 bytes/second.
Download complete.
Extracted file /orclhome/lib/libosbws11.so

As can be seen from the above sample output, the install tool automatically
performs all the required steps to install and configure the Cloud backup module –
including downloading the software, creating a wallet containing the user’s AWS
identifiers, and creating the Cloud backup configuration file.
More details on how to run the install tool and the description of all of its
arguments can be found in the install tool readme document.

Configure Recovery Manager (RMAN) Settings
---------------------------------------
This optional, but highly recommended, step stores the configuration information
for the Cloud Backup module in the RMAN repository so that it does not need to
be specified each time a backup is invoked.

RMAN> configure channel device type sbt parms
'SBT_LIBRARY=/orclhome/lib/libosbws11.so
ENV=(OSB_WS_PFILE=/orclhome/dbs/osbwst1.ora)';

using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
new RMAN configuration parameters:

CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' PARMS
'SBT_LIBRARY=/orclhome/lib/libosbws11.so
ENV=(OSB_WS_PFILE=/orclhome/dbs/osbwst1.ora)';

new RMAN configuration parameters are successfully stored

Once the above step is completed, the system is fully configured for Cloud
backups. Cloud Backups can now be performed using the same RMAN commands
you usually use.

Similarly, all Cloud backup operations will be catalogued by RMAN in the same
manner as local disk or tape backups are, thereby ensuring a completely transparent
and seamless restore/recovery process. In another words, when a restore/recover
operation is initiated, RMAN and Oracle Secure Backup Cloud module will
automtically restore the required data from the Cloud - without requiring any
special user intervention.

Oracle recommends the following to optimize the
------------------------------------------------
• Use multiple RMAN channels. Prior to Oracle Database 11g, each datafile
could only be backed up by one RMAN channel. Consequently, the
effective degree of parallelism is limited by the number datafiles in the
database. Oracle Database 11g however has intra-datafile parallelism
capability that allows multiple channels to backup a single file in parallel.

• Compress your backups and use the new Oracle Database 11g Fast
Compressed Backup feature. Compared to pre-11g backup compression,
Oracle Database 11g Fast Backup Compression is significantly faster and
more efficient (in terms of CPU overhead).
• Consider making full database backups once a week and perform
incremental backups during the weekdays. This will results in faster
backups and may help save significant amount of network bandwidth. Use
the RMAN Block Change Tracking feature to optimize the performance
of your daily incremental backups.

Cloud Computing &Oracle -2

Cloud Backup Benefits
---------------------
Oracle’s Cloud backup functionality provides the following advantages over
traditional tape-based offsite backups:
• Continuous Accessibility, Faster Restores: Backups stored in the
Cloud are always accessible – much in the same way local disk backups
are. As such, there is no need to call anyone, and no need to ship or load
tapes before a restore can be performed. Administrators can initiate
restore operations using their standard tools (Enterprise Manager, scripts,
etc.) just as if the offsite backup was stored locally. This can help make
restores faster and reduce down time from days to hours/minutes in many
cases.

• Better Reliability: Storage Clouds are disk based and thus inherently
more reliable than tapes. Additionally, the Cloud vendors typically keep
multiple redundant copies of data for availability and scalability purposes.
reduction in backup size is directly realized as an increase in backup performance.
• Unlimited Scaling and No Up-front Capital Expense: The Cloud
provides virtually unlimited capacity with no up-front capital expenditure.
Consequently, users need not worry about provisioning adequate tapes or
local storage to hold the required backup data. The Cloud scales seamlessly
and users pay only for what they use, when they use it.

• Reduced Tape Backup and Offsite Storage Cost: Since Cloud backup
reduces or eliminates the need for tapes, this can lead to significant savings
in tape backup software licensing/support and offsite tape storage costs.
• Quick Provisioning of Test and Dev Environments: As Cloud
Backups are accessible from anywhere via the Internet, they can be used to
quickly clone databases to create custom test, dev, or QA environments.
For instance, Cloud Backups stored in Amazon S3 can be cloned to
machines running in Amazon EC2 by running a simple script that is
included in the Oracle-provided Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). An
AMI is a virtual machine image that allows quick provisioning of a preinstalled
and pre-configured Oracle database environment on Amazon
EC2.

Cloud Computing &Oracle -1

Complete Data Security and Privacy with Built-In Encryption
---------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle Secure Backup provides the ability to encrypt backups to ensure data
security and privacy.While most Storage
Cloud vendors provide robust security to ensure that only authorized users can
access data, Oracle Secure Backup’s ability to encrypt data at its source

Intelligent, Network-Optimized Backup
----------------------------------------
Network bandwidth consumption and the time required to complete backups can
be another major concern while backing up databases to the Cloud, over the public
Internet.Intelligent, Network-Optimized Backup
Network bandwidth consumption and the time required to complete backups can
be another major concern while backing up databases to the Cloud, over the public
Internet. The Oracle Secure Backup Cloud module features a rich set of capabilities
to intelligently minimize the volume of backup data and also to compress backups.

Oracle Secure Backup is tightly integrated with the Oracle Database engine, Oracle Secure Backup can identify unused space (blocks) within the database and skip backing it up. Since database administrators typically allocate more space than they actually use, to provide headroom for future growth, this can lead to a substantial reduction in both backup size and time.

Additionally, starting with Oracle Database 11g,
Oracle Secure Backup can also eliminate committed undo data from backup by
identifying and backing up only the “active” undo data (i.e. undo data related to
transactions in progress at the time of backup). Database undo sizes typically range
from 10 to 100s of GB and this optimization can also lead to significant
improvements in backup performance.
It is important to note that both unused space and undo data backup optimization
are unique features of Oracle Secure Backup and are not available with any other
backup product.



With Oracle Secure Backup Cloud module, users can also utilize RMAN’s rich
compression capabilities. This includes the Oracle Database 11g Fast Compressed
Backup feature, which normally requires the Advanced Compression option.cost. Compression typically results in a 50% reduction in backup size.
When transmitting backups over slower networks, such as the public internet,any

 

 -------------------

Cloud Computing &Oracle

• Oracle software can now be licensed for the Cloud
– Amazon EC2 supported today
• Database, Middleware, Grid Control
– EE: Each virtual core counted as a physical x86 core (EE)
– SE/SE1 license based on the EC2 instance size
• 0-4 virtual cores = 1 processor (socket)
• >4 virtual cores = each 4 virtual core counted as a
processor (socket)
• Oracle Enterprise Linux
– Each EC2 instance is counted as a “System”
• Can buy new licenses or use existing ones
• Customers with ULAs can use EC2 without any
additional license

Deploying Oracle Software in the Cloud
--------------------------------------
• Pre-configured virtual machine images (AMIs) available for EC2
• Consists of Oracle Enterprise Linux + Oracle DB + APEX
– No RAC support currently (EC2 does not support clusters)
• Fully configured hardware and Oracle environment in less than 30 minutes

Oracle Secure Backup Cloud
--------------------------
Using the newly introduced Oracle Secure Backup
Cloud module, it is now possible to send local disk backups directly to the Storage
Cloud for offsite storage purposes. The Cloud backup module is a part of the
Oracle Secure Backup product family. Oracle Secure Backup is Oracle’s next generation
tape backup management solution and it now provides customers the
flexibility to back up data to either tape or the Cloud.

The Oracle Secure Backup Cloud module can also be used to stream backups
directly to the Cloud. This is particularly useful when the database is also running in the Cloud, using services such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

The Oracle Secure Backup Cloud module is implemented using the Oracle
Recovery Manager (RMAN) SBT interface. The SBT interface allows external
backup to be seamlessly integrated with RMAN. Consequently, the Oracle
Secure Backup Cloud module can be used to back up all supported versions of
Oracle Database i.e. Oracle Database 9i Release 2 or higher. In addition, database
administrators can continue to use their existing backup tools – Enterprise
Manager, scripts, etc. – to perform Cloud backups.



Oracle Secure Backup Cloud module is currently available for Linux and Windows
(32-bit only) platforms.

Oracle Sysdate Problem

When One Day my Oracle (working) database was stuck , I restarted Oracle database through OS Service instead of restarting Server Machine. From then onwards 'sysdate' was not working. Whenever I was querying

Select Sysdate from dual;

Output was ---- 23/06/2008 12:03:19 PM

Then wandering through Google i found it can be overcome by Altering FIXED_DATE parameter by running command as SYSDBA

ALTER SYSTEM SET FIXED_DATE='2008-06-25 10:06:09 AM' ;

From then onwards whenever i use this query

Select Sysdate from dual;
Output was ---- 25/06/2008 10:06:09 AM

This made me crazy for more than 2 days .After restarting Server Machine on 28th and then ALTERING FIXED_DATE TO NONE (ALTER SYSTEM SET FIXED_DATE=NONE).

After then Select Sysdate from dual; gives

Output was ---- 28/06/2008 12:06:09 PM

Thus next day i checked sysdate it was working fine as of OS date.

and thus the crazy days come to an end