Authentication Against Database

When you configure Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN, you can choose between the operating system authentication and database authentication methods to connect to the database you plan to back up.

When you use operating system authentication, you can connect to the server and to the database using only the OS user credentials.
When you use database authentication, you can connect to the server using OS user credentials and to the database using database user credentials.

Veeam Plug-in stores all specified credentials in the Veeam Plug-in configuration file.

Important

All target databases must be active on the Oracle server. If any of the selected databases are not active, connection attempts will fail.

For more information on setting authentication methods, see Configuring Plug-in on Linux and Unix or Configuring Plug-in on Microsoft Windows.

Required Privileges

Based on the authentication method, the user accounts that you use to perform RMAN backup and restore operations must have the required privileges. See the following examples about what privileges are required for each user account.

Example 1. Using the Operating System Authentication Method

In this example, the OS user account oracle needs to configure Veeam Plug-in and perform backup and restore operations. The following list includes all operations that the OS user account needs to perform and what privileges are required for those operations:

To configure Veeam Plug-in and update Oracle instance settings, the OS user account must have SYSDBA privileges.
To start RMAN scripts at the OS level, the OS user account must have SYSDBA privileges.
To connect to the Oracle database and retrieve its properties at the OS level, the OS user account must have SYSDBA privileges.
To perform backup and restore operations in the RMAN environment, the OS user account must have SYSBACKUP privileges.

Considering these privilege requirements, you can connect to the Oracle database using the following command:

oracle> rman target / as sysbackup

Example 2. Using the Database Authentication Method

In this example, there are the OS user account oracle and 2 database user accounts dbuser1 and dbuser2. The OS user account oracle starts the RMAN scripts as a background process. The database user account dbuser1 performs the Veeam Plug-in configuration, while the database user account dbuser2 performs backup and restore operations. This user account flexibility allows for a more efficient user access level management.

The following list includes all operations that the database user accounts need to perform and what privileges are required for those operations:

To configure Veeam Plug-in with dbuser1 and to update Oracle instance settings, the database user account must have SYSDBA privileges. The credentials provided in the configuration tool wizard will be stored in veeam_config.xml configuration file.
To perform backup and restore operations in the RMAN environment with dbuser2, the database user account must have SYSBACKUP privileges.
To start RMAN scripts with oracle at the OS level, no specific privileges are required for the OS user account.

Considering these privilege requirements, you can connect to the Oracle database using the following command:

oracle> rman target dbuser2