The ability for the ZDLRA to create archive backups was added with release 21.1 and I wrote a blog post (here) on how to do this. I recently noticed that the latest plugin for ZDLRA (13.5.1.0.0) allows you to dynamically schedule your archival jobs from EM Cloud Control.
In this blog post I will go through how to use this new feature.
First the release that I am using for this is
- EM Cloud Control 13.5.0.19
- Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance Plugin Release 13.5.1.0.0
Where to find the feature:
If you have the correct plugin, you will notice that there is a new choice in the "Recovery Appliance" pull down menu provided by the plugin.
There is an entry for "Archival Backups" that appears just below "replication". When you chose this option it will bring up a new window that you can use to prepare to create an archival backup.
Notice that there is nothing listed here. I did create an archival backup earlier, but it isn't listed.
In order to create an archival backup, Click on the "Create Archival Backup" button and continue to one of the next sections. You can either create a "one-time" archival backup, or schedule a recurring backup. The default is to create a recurring scheduled backup
Create a recurring scheduled Backup:
Protected Databases
I am going to create a recurring scheduled backup for my database "testdb". I can choose only one database.
Recovery Point Time
- This should be for every month. I chose every month individually, and I ensure that I chose all 12 months.
- This should occur on the "last" day of the month
- The recovery point should be 11:00 PM based on the browser time (I can also chose the DB time, or UTC).
- I want to set the restore point prefix to be "MONTHLY_KEEP_BACKUP_". The job will affix the timestamp to the end of the the prefix
Retention Time
- Keep this backup for 3 years (I can also choose a time period based on months or weeks).
Properties
- Use the attribute set "TESTDB" that I created earlier.
- Leave the default format of the backup pieces, but I can change the format if I'd like to.
- I am setting not setting encryption algorithm on (I would need to for a copy-to-cloud job).
- I am not setting a compression algorithm on.
My screen for creating the recurring backup looks like the image below.
Once I complete everything I can click on OK, and it will submit my schedule to run.
Viewing recurring scheduled Backup Procedures:
The recurring backups are not scheduled as jobs, they are scheduled as Procedures because they have a few steps to execute.
You can find these scheduled backups in EM Cloud Control under Enterprise --> Provisioning and Patching --> Procedure Activity.
At this point, I scheduled 2 jobs (actually procedures) , prior and you can see them in this section.
In order to see more detail on these 2 procedures I can select one of them and click on the "Reschedule" button at the top of the list of procedures.
I know the first procedure is for executing scheduled archival backups for TESTDB because the name of the procedure contains TESTDB followed by the timestamp.
Below is what it shows it when I choose to reschedule it.
You can see that during this test, I created a monthly schedule that creates a new backup at 7:00 AM PT on the 10th of the months listed. During my test I did not include all months, and those that I included, I did not choose them in order.
When I go back to the list of procedures, and drill into the procedure, I can see there there are just a couple of steps, and I can't see any detail as to what the steps do.
Viewing executed scheduled Backup Procedures:
In order to view any executed scheduled backup you would look in the same place as you do for schedule procedures. Along with the 2 scheduled procedures I had above, I also had one of the actually execute and I see it in the list.
You can see that the first scheduled job had successfully executed, now let's take a look at the executed step and output.
If you click on the highlighted "Run" name, you can drill into the procedure and steps. Below is what I see for the step detail for this execution.
Below is what the output of the last step looks like.
You can see all of the attributes that were set when I created this procedure, and you can see the actual command that executed to create the archival backup.
Create a One-time only archival Backup:
Similar to creating an recurring backup, you go the "Create Archival Backup" section within the ZDRLA plugin.
Protected Databases
I am going to create a One-time archival backup for my database "testdb". I can choose only one database.
Create Archival Backup For
Within this section there are 3 choices
Point-in-Time : Using a date picker choose the point in time you want to create the archival backup as of.
SCN : Enter the SCN you want to use. The text tells the range of SCN numbers you can use.
Restore Point : Enter the restore point from the drop down menu.
Retention Time (same as recurring backups)
- Keep this backup for 3 years (I can also choose a time period based on months or weeks).
Properties (same as recurring backups)
- Use the attribute set "TESTDB" that I created earlier.
- Leave the default format of the backup pieces, but I can change the format if I'd like to.
- I am setting not setting encryption algorithm on (I would need to for a copy-to-cloud job).
- I am not setting a compression algorithm on.
Click "OK" after filling in all of the detail, and submit the job.
Viewing archival Backups:
In the window that you choose the "Create Archival Bucket" you can view existing backups. In order to view the backups, you must first choose the "Protected Database" you want to view the backups for. Below is what you would see once a backup is initiated.
Summary:
You still might find it easier to create the archive log yourself using the PL/SQL package. This can be done either manually or through scripting. The GUI gives you nice way to schedule individual database jobs, but for 100's, or 1000's of databases with varying requirements, scripting can be more flexible.
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