Oracle Backup

You can use Veeam Agent for Linux to create transactionally consistent backups of Veeam Agent machines that run the Oracle database system.

NOTE

You can use Veeam Explorer for Oracle to restore Oracle databases from a Veeam Agent for Linux backup. For information about item-level recovery of Oracle systems, see the Restoring Oracle Items section of the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.

Requirements and Limitations for Oracle Processing

Oracle Database versions 11g – 21c are supported for all operating systems supported by Veeam Agent for Linux. To learn more, see System Requirements.
Automatic Storage Management (ASM) is not supported.

Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) are not supported.

Oracle Grid Infrastructure is not supported.

Oracle Database Express Edition (XE) is not supported.

SAP on Oracle is not supported.

Oracle Database architectures with Data Guard are not supported.

Authentication Methods

Veeam Agent for Linux can connect to the Oracle database system and perform Oracle archived logs backup and delete operations using one of the following account types:

System account — Veeam Agent uses the account of the machine OS. To connect to the Oracle database system, the account must be a member of the group that owns configuration files for the Oracle database (for example, the oinstall group).
Oracle account — Veeam Agent uses the Oracle account. To connect to the Oracle database system, the account must have SYSDBA rights.

How Oracle Processing Works

To ensure that the backed-up data is in the consistent state, Veeam Agent for Linux performs the Oracle database system processing using an internal component: oralib. To process the database system, Veeam Agent performs the following operations:

When the backup job starts, Veeam Agent obtains information about Oracle databases that run on the Veeam Agent machine.
Veeam Agent connects to the Oracle database and operates depending on the database state and mode:

Shutdown state
Backup state
Running database in ARCHIVELOG mode
Running database in NOARCHIVELOG mode

After Veeam Agent for Linux finishes database system processing, Veeam Agent proceeds to the next step of the backup process. To learn more, see How Backup Works.

Processing of Database in Shutdown State

If the Oracle database is shut down, Veeam Agent skips it and tries to connect to the next Oracle database if there are multiple database instances on the machine. The skipped Oracle database will be included in the backup. You cannot restore such Oracle database as an independent item using Veeam Explorer for Oracle. To restore such database, you must restore the entire volume that contains the database. To learn more about restoring volumes, see Volume-Level Restore.

Veeam Agent displays a warning message about the database that is shut down in the job session logs. The backup job does not fail.

Processing of Database in Backup State

If the database is in the backup state, depending on the selected Oracle Processing option, Veeam Agent performs application-aware processing differently:

If the Oracle processing is set to Require successful processing, the backup job will fail.
If the Oracle processing is set to Try application processing, ignore failures, Veeam Agent will skip the database that is in the backup state and if there are multiple databases in the system, will try to connect to the next database. The skipped database will not be included in the backup.

Processing of Running Database in ARCHIVELOG Mode

If the Oracle database is running in the ARCHIVELOG mode, the Oracle database system keeps archived logs that allow to recover all committed transactions of the database. To learn more, see Oracle documentation.

If the database operates in the ARCHIVELOG mode, Veeam Agent performs the following operations:

Veeam Agent switches the database to the backup mode. Veeam Agent changes the database state using the Oracle functionality.
Veeam Agent creates a snapshot of the volume.
Veeam Agent returns the database to the initial state.

Processing of Running Database in NOARCHIVELOG Mode

If the Oracle database is running in the NOARCHIVELOG mode, the Oracle database does not create archived logs. Logs that are created before the database is switched to NOARCHIVELOG remain untouched. In this mode, you can restore the database only to the state in which the database is contained in the restore point. You cannot recover transactions subsequent to that full database backup.

If the database operates in the NOARCHIVELOG mode, Veeam Agent performs the following operations:

Shuts down the database using the Oracle functionality.
Creates a snapshot of the volume.
Returns the database to the initial state.

Archived Log Processing

In the ARCHIVELOG mode, the Oracle database system stores database archived logs to a certain location on the machine that runs the database system, as specified by the database administrator. Veeam Agent allows you to set up the following ways of archived logs processing:

Delete logs older than the specified time (in hours). After the backup job completes, Veeam Agent deletes archived logs that are older than the specified time from the Veeam Agent machine. This helps make sure that logs do not overflow the storage space on the processed machine.
Delete oldest logs larger than the specified size (in GB). After the backup job completes, Veeam Agent checks whether the total size of archived logs exceeds the specified size. After that, Veeam Agent deletes oldest archived logs that exceed the specified size from the processed machine. This helps make sure that logs do not overflow the storage space on the Veeam Agent machine.
Do not delete archived logs. Log files remain untouched on the Veeam Agent machine.

Veeam Agent processes archive logs via Oracle Call Interface (OCI).

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