Snap Creator 3.5.0c: NTAP_CONSISTENCY_GROUP_SNAPSHOT and ORACLE Backup with META_DATA_VOLUME

[f_duranti]

Hi, I'm trying to better understand how to backup database consistently and in a good way and I'm testing version 3.5.0 META_DATA_VOLUME.

My backup are configured so that I backup oracle database online and they have a data volume, an online log volume and a archive log volume.

This is the configuration interested:

SNAME=online

VOLUMES=itromfs20:tst_oradata,tst_oralog,tst_oraarch

#VOLUMES=itromfs20:tst_oradata,tst_oralog

NTAP_DFM_DATA_SET=itromfs20:SC_ORA_ONLINE/tst_oradata,tst_oralog;itromfs20:SC_ORA_ONLINE_ARCH/tst_oraarch

VALIDATE_VOLUMES=DATA

META_DATA_VOLUME=itromfs20:tst_oraarch

SC_AGENT=10.90.199.1:9090

NTAP_CONSISTENCY_GROUP_SNAPSHOT=Y

APP_NAME=oracle

APP_IGNORE_ERROR=N

ORACLE_DATABASES=tstsid:oracle

ORACLE_HOME=/oracle/product/11.2.0/db

CNTL_FILE_BACKUP_DIR=/oraarch/back

ARCHIVE_LOG_ONLY=N

ORACLE_EXPORT_PARAMETERS=Y

ARCHIVE_LOG_ENABLE=Y

ARCHIVE_LOG_RETENTION=1

ARCHIVE_LOG_DIR=/oraarch/tstsid/

ARCHIVE_LOG_EXT=dbf

Doing a snapcreator -action snap with this configuration options i get this starting error:

[Thu Nov 17 20:53:45 2011] ERROR: [scf-00148] Consistency Group snapshot is not supported with the META_DATA_VOLUME option

Then the backup go on, it will go on with backing up with Consistency:

########## Starting Consistency Group Snapshot for itromfs20 ##########

[Thu Nov 17 20:53:48 2011] INFO: Starting NetApp Consistency Group Snapshot online-hourly_20111117205345 for volumes tst_oradata,tst_oralog,tst_oraarch on itromfs20

[Thu Nov 17 20:53:50 2011] INFO: NetApp Consistency Group wafl sync for itromfs20 volumes tst_oradata,tst_oralog,tst_oraarch succeeded!

[Thu Nov 17 20:53:50 2011] INFO: NetApp Consistency Group Start for itromfs20 volumes tst_oradata,tst_oralog,tst_oraarch succeeded!

########## Committing Consistency Group Snapshot for all filers ##########

[Thu Nov 17 20:53:51 2011] INFO: Commiting NetApp Consistency Group Snapshot for itromfs20 succeeded!

[Thu Nov 17 20:53:51 2011] INFO: Creation of NetApp Consistency Group Snapshot online-hourly_20111117205345 on itromfs20 Completed Successfully

But when snapcreator try to create a backup of the archivelogs the snapshot of that volume is already done:

########## Creating meta data snapshot for itromfs20:tst_oraarch ##########

[Thu Nov 17 20:53:52 2011] INFO: Creating NetApp Snapshot for tst_oraarch on itromfs20

[Thu Nov 17 20:53:52 2011] ZAPI: The specified snapshot already exists

[Thu Nov 17 20:53:52 2011] ERROR: [scf-00013] NetApp Snapshot Create of online-hourly_20111117205345 on itromfs20:tst_oraarch failed! Exiting

I've tried to remove the metadata volume from the VOLUMES:

VOLUMES=itromfs20:tst_oradata,tst_oralog

But in this case the backup will stop with the error:

########## Parsing Environment Parameters ##########

[Thu Nov 17 20:57:47 2011] ERROR: [scf-00148] Consistency Group snapshot is not supported with the META_DATA_VOLUME option

[Thu Nov 17 20:57:47 2011] ERROR: [scf-00146] The META_DATA_VOLUME parameter is defined but filer:volume specified does not match what is configured in VOLUMES parameter, please check configuration

Is this normal? Probably if it will just do the backup of VOLUMES in a consistent snapshot and then backup META_DATA_VOLUME as a separate volumes at the end it will work correctly.

Any of those 2 things will be probably good:

1) consider META_DATA_VOLUME as an extention of VOLUMES (so it's not needed to define it 2 times

2) remove the META_DATA_VOLUME list from the volume to "Snapshot with Consistency"

Is this the correct behaviour and i should NOT use CONSISTENCY with Oracle Backup for some reasons?

Thanks

Francesco

[f_duranti]

Any suggestion on tris one?

[Clemens_Siebler]

I see your point, I'm also not sure if the current implementation makes perfect sense. Currently it's implemented the following way:

• The meta data volume needs to be defined via META_DATA_VOLUME and also in the regular VOLUMES parameter.
• Snapshots are performed on the VOLUMES (without the META_DATA_VOLUME) and after the unquiesce of the database, then the META_DATA_VOLUME get its snapshot.
• It seems that with consistency groups, it automatically snapshots all VOLUMES and then SC is unable to snapshot the META_DATA_VOLUME, as the snapshot name already exists.

This implies that the meta data needs always to reside on a separate volume. I'll see what we can come up with!

[ktenzer]

You should see this error message somewhere in the log (at beginning)

[Thu Nov 17 20:53:45 2011] ERROR: [scf-00148] Consistency Group snapshot is not supported with the META_DATA_VOLUME option

Snap Creator does not support CG snapshots using the META_DATA_VOLUME option at this time. This is something we are working on but due to complexity was not something we could solve easily.

The only reason you would need CG snapshot for oracle is if you are using ASM and if you cant use SnapDrive. If this is case you would need to build two config files one for logs and one for data and for logs use ARCHIVE_LOG_ONLY option. Otherwise simply dont use CG you dont need it.

Regards,

Keith