Veeam Backup & Replication 12
Veeam Explorers User Guide
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Considerations and Limitations

This section lists considerations and known limitations of Veeam Explorer for Oracle.

General

  • When Veeam Explorer for Oracle is installed on a server on which both Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 are installed, the notification settings will be inherited from the Veeam Backup & Replication Global Notification settings.
  • [Data recovery to Linux server] You can recover data over SSH only — recovery using Linux Management Agent is not supported.
  • [Data recovery to Linux server] Data recovery with Veeam Explorer for Oracle is not supported if the SQL*Plus environment on the target Oracle server is configured to use glogin.sql or login.sql profile files. For details, see the Configuring SQL*Plus section of the SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference.
  • [Data recovery to Linux server] Recovery of databases that resided in an encrypted file system on the original server is not supported. In particular, encrypted LVM volumes are not supported.
  • [Data recovery to Microsoft Windows server] Veeam Explorer for Oracle does not support data recovery using a group Managed Service Account (gMSA) to connect to the target server.
  • Veeam Explorer for Oracle does not support recovery of encrypted Oracle databases.
  • To recover Oracle data from a restore point containing a shut-down Oracle database, you can use heuristic analysis. In this case, the restore point must be created without application-aware processing. For details, see Exploring Non-Application Enabled Backups.
  • Veeam Explorer for Oracle does not support heuristic analysis of backups made with Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows or Veeam Agent for Linux. If you use a Veeam Agent backup job or policy to back up a shut-down Oracle database, you can restore the Oracle database using Veeam Agent functionality: volume-level restore, file-level restore or bare metal restore.
  • Veeam Explorer for Oracle does not support data restore, data publishing, instant recovery and export of refreshable pluggable databases (PDBs). To restore refreshable PDBs, use Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN.
  • Restore, publishing, instant recovery, and export operations of Oracle data from replicas can only recover your data to the latest state of the selected restore point. Replication jobs do not copy Oracle archived logs so data recovery to a point-in-time state is not supported.
  • When recovering your Oracle data from CDP replicas, consider the following limitations:
  • Restore, publishing, instant recovery, and export operations of Oracle data from CDP replicas can only recover your data to the latest state of the selected long-term restore point. CDP policies do not copy Oracle archived logs so data recovery to a point-in-time state is not supported.
  • When you recover your data from CDP replicas, you can only use long-term (both application-consistent and crash-consistent) restore points. Short-term restore points are not supported.
  • You can recover your data from a CDP replica if its CDP policy is currently running. During recovery, the CDP policy does not create new long-term restore points and does not delete existing ones. Short-term restore points are still created.
  • You cannot restore application items from a CDP replica in parallel with guest OS file restore, SureReplica, and failover.
  • Mount of Btrfs and ZFS disks will fail if you want to perform instant recovery, data restore or data publish to the original server. The issue occurs due to a restriction for mounting 2 Btrfs or ZFS disks with identical IDs to the same machine (the Btrfs and ZFS disks have the same IDs on the backup and the original server).

Note that Btrfs volumes on a backed-up Veeam Agent machine must have identifiers in the UUID format in the fstab configuration file.

  • Mount operations with FUSE are not supported on kernel versions 4.0.0 – 4.1.33. Make sure to upgrade the kernel to version 4.1.37 or later.
  • Veeam Explorer for Oracle supports SSH fingerprint validation of Linux machines used as target and staging Oracle servers. For more information on how to configure this feature, see the Linux Hosts Authentication section of the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.

If you have selected the more secure, manual validation in the Veeam Backup & Replication console, consider the following:

  • If the target server is unknown or its fingerprint cannot be recognized, you will be able to proceed with the recovery operation after you manually validate the fingerprint in the Veeam Backup & Replication console.
  • The validation process matches the fingerprint only with the network identifier of the Linux machine (its IPv4 address, IPv6 address, FQDN, or hostname) used in the respective Veeam Explorer for Oracle session. If you use 2 different network identifiers of the same unverified server in 2 recovery sessions (for example, its IPv4 address in one recovery session and its hostname in another), you will need to perform 2 separate fingerprint validations. No further validations are necessary if you reuse a validated network identifier in another recovery session.
  • [For data recovery to Oracle ASM disks] You cannot specify paths and file names for recovered database files. During recovery, Oracle ASM will automatically create and name the necessary files in the specified disk group using the OMF (Oracle Managed Files) feature.
  • Veeam Explorer for Oracle does not support recovery of Oracle databases deployed on Solaris OS or IBM AIX. You can restore such databases with Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN. For details, see the Restore to Original Server or the Restore to Another Server section of the Veeam Plug-ins for Enterprise Applications User Guide.

Restore from Image-Level Backups

  • Veeam Explorer for Oracle does not support restore using PowerShell Direct, VIX API or vSphere Automation API.
  • 1-Click restore to the original location from storage snapshots is not supported.
  • A point in time restore is not supported for backups stored in the DR site by backup copy jobs and for backups stored in a cloud repository. Such repositories cannot be used as a destination location for archived logs.
  • Restore of databases from the current restore point is only supported for backups created by Veeam backup job, replication job, VeeamZIP and for imported backup and storage snapshots.
  • During restore, temporary files (such as scripts, archive logs and cache files) are created and saved in different locations depending on the operating system of the Oracle machine. Make sure that the volumes where these files are stored have enough free disk space.
  • For Windows machines, cache files are stored on the mount server and the remaining temporary files are stored in the C:\Windows\Temp folder of the target server. For more information on how to configure the mount server and the write cache folder, see the Specify Mount Server Settings section of the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.
  • For Linux machines, temporary files are stored in the /var/tmp or /tmp folder on the target server, depending on which folder has more free space.
  • Before you use Veeam Backup & Replication to back up an Oracle database that was converted from a RAC database to a non-cluster database, make sure to disable all online redo log threads that are managed by other instances. Otherwise, Veeam Explorer for Oracle will not be able to restore the database.
  • Restore to ASM disks with 4K sector size is not supported.
  • If OS authentication on a target Oracle server is disabled, the restore of databases with enabled ASM will not be possible.
  • If OS authentication on a staging Oracle server is disabled, the restore of databases with enabled ASM as of the selected transaction state will not be possible.
  • When restoring from a Data Guard configuration to another server, individual databases from the Data Guard configuration will be restored as standalone Oracle databases, preserving no Data Guard infrastructure. To restore Data Guard infrastructure altogether, use either latest state restore, or point-in-time restore.
  • Make sure that both the backed-up Oracle machine and the target server to which you are restoring have the same OS patch version.
  • Oracle Automatic Storage Management Filter Driver (Oracle ASMFD) is not supported.

Restore from RMAN Backups

Restore of Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC)

To restore RAC databases from RMAN backups, make sure you apply the following restore settings. Otherwise, the databases will be restored as standalone databases.

When you restore RAC databases to Oracle ASM disks, the ASM instance must be running directly on the target server for the restore operation.

Restore of Data Guard Databases

Data restore with Veeam Explorer for Oracle from backups of Data Guard databases created by Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN has experimental support. You can restore Data Guard databases from Veeam Plug-in backups with the following limitations:

  • Restore to original server:
  • You can restore Data Guard primary databases as primary databases only to the original location with the original name and settings.
  • You can restore Data Guard standby databases as standby databases only to the original location with the original name and settings.

A restore operation with different settings will fail due to Data Guard limitations.

  • Restore to another server:
  • Make sure that the copy of the original cluster already exists in the duplicated environment.
  • You must copy the original control file to the target server or recovery catalog of the database which is running in the duplicated cluster. Such a control file must contain information about backups from which the restore is being performed.
  • You can restore Data Guard primary databases as primary databases only with the original name and settings.
  • You can restore Data Guard standby databases as standby databases only to the original location with original name and settings.

A restore operation with different settings will fail due to Data Guard limitations.

Restore of Oracle Databases

  • Before you restore an Oracle database from an RMAN backup to another server, make sure that the account used to connect the plug-in on the target server to the backup server and backup repository meets the following requirements:
  • The account must either have the Veeam Backup Administrator, or both the Veeam Backup Operator and Veeam Restore Operator roles. You can also use the account under which the backup was created. For more information on how to assign Veeam Backup & Replication roles, see the Users and Roles section of the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.
  • The account must have access permissions to the backup repository where the backup is stored. For more information, see the Access and Encryption Settings on Repositories section of the Veeam Plug-ins for Enterprise Applications Guide.

If the account does not meet these requirements, you must configure the plug-in on the target server with the credentials of an account that meets the requirements or with a recovery token. You can do this by running the following command on the target server:

OracleRMANConfigTool --set-auth-data-for-restore

For more information about this command, see the Restore to Another Server section of the Veeam Plug-ins for Enterprise Applications Guide.

  • When restoring to another server with the original name and settings, consider the following:
  • The Oracle home and Oracle directory structure must remain the same.
  • You must copy the original control file to the target server or recovery catalog of the database which is running in the duplicated cluster. Such a control file must contain information about backups from which the restore is being performed.
  • For Oracle ASM, the file system structure of the restored database must remain the same.
  • With Veeam Explorer for Oracle, you can restore entire multitenant container databases (CDBs); restore of individual pluggable databases (PDBs) is not supported. To restore individual PDBs, use Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN.
  • To restore your database with a different name and settings, you must use a server parameter file (SPFILE) for the database and set CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP to ON before backup. For more information, see the Oracle Environment Planning section of the Veeam Plug-ins for Enterprise Applications Guide.

Publish

  • Make sure that the target Oracle server to which you publish your databases is of the same version as the database in the backup.
  • Make sure that the volume with the write cache has enough free disk space to store the changes of the published database.
  • For Windows machines, the write cache is stored on the mount server. You can configure the mount server in the backup repository settings. For more information, see the Specify Mount Server Settings section of the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.
  • For Linux machines, the write cache is stored in the /var/tmp folder on the target server.
  • If the database that you publish is part of the ASM group, make sure that the target Oracle server also has an ASM group properly configured.
  • Publishing the entire Oracle Data Guard configuration is not supported. Individual databases from the Data Guard configuration can be published as standalone Oracle databases, preserving no Data Guard infrastructure.

Instant Recovery

  • For Oracle Database 12c, instant recovery is supported starting from version 12.2.0.1.0.211019.
  • Instant recovery is supported for image-level backups only. You cannot perform instant recovery from RMAN backups.
  • Make sure that both the backed-up Oracle machine and the target server to which you are restoring have the same OS patch version.
  • Instant recovery of the entire Oracle Data Guard configuration is not supported. Individual databases from the Data Guard configuration can be recovered as standalone Oracle databases, preserving no Data Guard infrastructure.
  • Instant recovery of SAP on Oracle is not supported.
  • If you plan to perform scheduled or manual switchover, make sure that the volume with the write cache has enough free disk space to store the changes of the published database.
  • For Windows machines, the write cache is stored on the mount server. You can configure the mount server in the backup repository settings. For more information, see the Specify Mount Server Settings section of the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.
  • For Linux machines, the write cache is stored in the /var/tmp folder on the target server.
  • During the instant recovery process, Veeam Explorer for Oracle requires 512 MB of RAM for each database.
  • If you add a new pluggable database to the container during an instant recovery process, the instant recovery session fails.

Export

The databases from the Data Guard configuration are exported as standalone Oracle databases, preserving no Data Guard infrastructure.

Page updated 1/16/2025

Page content applies to build 12.3.1.1139

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