1. Support
  2. Knowledge base
  3. 100017751

STATUS CODE 236 or 239 or 245: NetBackup SAP backups with RMAN fail immediately without going active

Article: 100017751
Last Published: 2013-10-03
Ratings: 1 0
Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection

Problem

SAP backups with RMAN are queued but fail immediately with one of these status codes.

Status Code 236: the specified client does not exist in an active policy within the configuration database
Status Code 239: the specified client does not exist in the specified policy
Status Code 245: the specified policy is not of the correct client type

 

Error Message

The dbclient debug log will show the backup parameters that the client is specifying when queuing the backup request to the master server.  Notice the fields for the policy and schedule names.  The client type is the 4th field after the schedule name.  In this example the policy and schedule names are correct, but the client type is '4' (Oracle RMAN) which does not match the policy type on the master server which is '17' (SAP).

<4> sendRequest: sending BACKUP request to bprd
<4> sendRequest:  request = oracle dba myclient myclient myclient </user_ops/file> myPolicy myAppSchedule 7 oracle9 0 4 0 ...

Note: If the policy or schedule fields are set to 'NONE', the master server will try to select an appropriate policy or schedule based on the client name.  If a policy is specified, it must be of type SAP.
 

Cause

RMAN can be started to backup Oracle either directly or under the control of SAP.

The Oracle SBT API does not provide a direct way for Oracle to inform the third-party backup vendor (e.g. NetBackup dbclient) whether RMAN is being initiated from SAP BR*Tools or directly.  This makes it challenging for dbclient to know whether the backup job should be queued to a policy of type SAP or type Oracle.  The configuration must correct to ensure the policy used is of the correct type.
 
 

Solution

When configuring the NetBackup for SAP backups with RMAN, it is necessary to follow the information outlined in the NetBackup SAP administrator guides (see Related Documents below), specifically the "Modifying the Configuration Files" section and the "Modifying the initSID.sap File (NetBackup for SAP on Oracle Databases)" portion.  

Step four in the process indicates the following:

"(Conditional) Specify the rman_parms parameter and set the NB_ORA_SAP environment variable to the value SAP.

Perform this step only if you are using NetBackup for SAP on an Oracle database with RMAN."

The "Conditional" term indicates this step may or may not be necessary, depending on how the local environment is designed.  In this case, to correctly use RMAN with the brbackup and brrestore commands, the initSID.sap file must have the rman_parms parameter configured as outlined in the manual.  Specifically, it should be set up as follows:

rman_parms = "ENV=(NB_ORA_SAP=<path_to_initSID.utl>)"

If the utility file for the environment is called initDATABASE.utl and is located in the /oracle/db directory, the correct information for the parameter is:

rman_parms = "ENV=(NB_ORA_SAP=/oracle/db/initDATABASE.utl)"

This will cause the backup request from the client to the master server to indicate the client type is 17 (SAP) instead of type 4 (Oracle RMAN).

The policy and schedule to use can be specified in initSID.utl file as with other SAP backups.
 

Applies To

NetBackup 6.x and 7.x

 

Was this content helpful?

Article Languages