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Veritas NetBackup™ for Oracle Administrator's Guide

Last Published: 2018-09-17

Product(s): NetBackup (8.1.2)

About NetBackup for Oracle with Snapshot Client

To use NetBackup for Oracle with Snapshot Client, NetBackup Snapshot Client and NetBackup for Oracle must both be licensed and installed.

Before you use NetBackup for Oracle with Snapshot Client, confirm that your platform is supported.

See Verifying the operating system and platform compatibility.

A snapshot is a disk image of the client's data that is made almost instantaneously. When it is used with NetBackup Snapshot Client, NetBackup for Oracle can back up Oracle objects by taking snapshot images of the component files. Later, it backs up the snapshot version to the storage unit.

Snapshot backup captures the data at a particular instant without having caused significant client downtime. Client operations and user access continue without interruption during the backup. The resulting capture or snapshot can be backed up without affecting the performance or availability of the database.

The following NetBackup Snapshot Client features are available for use with NetBackup for Oracle.

Table: Snapshot Client features used with NetBackup for Oracle

Feature	Description
Instant recovery	This feature enables instant recovery of backups from disk. It combines snapshot technology with the ability to do rapid disk-based restores. NetBackup creates the image without interrupting user access to data. Optionally, the image is retained on disk as well as backed up to storage. Instant recovery enables block-level restores. The maximum number of instant recovery snapshots to be retained at one time is calculated per client and database name. With the remote_vxfs method, the number of snapshots to be retained at one time is calculated per client, database name, and NetBackup appliance.
Off-host backup	An off-host backup shifts the burden of backup processing onto a separate backup agent, such as an alternate client. This shift reduces the effect on the client's computing resources ordinarily caused by a local backup. The backup agent reads the data from the client disk and writes it to storage. On UNIX, an off-host backup can also be directed to a NetBackup media server, or third-party copy device.
Block-level incremental backup	On UNIX, a Block-Level Incremental (BLI) Backup uses the change tracking capabilities of the Veritas File System (VxFS) Storage Checkpoint feature. In a BLI backup, only the changed blocks of data are backed up, not the entire file or file system. A BLI backup saves time, decreases the amount of backup media that is required, and significantly reduces CPU and network overhead during backups. You can perform a BLI backup with or without RMAN.
Proxy copy	A proxy copy is a special type of backup in which the NetBackup for Oracle agent manages the control of the data transfer. During the backup and restore operations, the proxy copy enables the agent to manage the entire data movement between the disks that contain the data files and the storage devices that NetBackup manages. Backups and restores remain tightly integrated with Oracle and its catalog, greatly simplifying administration tasks.
File-based operations	Oracle provides the list of files that require backup or restore to NetBackup for Oracle with Snapshot Client. More information is available. See NetBackup for Oracle file-based operations.
Stream-based operations	Stream-based operations are the standard NetBackup implementation of conventional NetBackup for Oracle backup and restore. More information is available. See NetBackup for Oracle stream-based operations.