In this post I will show you how to configure backup for Oracle Database in Cloud. First of all, make sure you use Oracle Storage Cloud Service and you set the replication policy. Open the following link, scroll down to Oracle Storage Cloud Service section and click “Set Replication Policy” link:

https://myservices.em2.oraclecloud.com/mycloud/faces/dashboard.jspx?showOld=true

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select the data center and click Set

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, open Oracle Database Cloud Service and create a new service. The GUI has changed and we have only 3 steps to create a database in the cloud. Provide the service name, software version and edition, upload SSH public key and click Next

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to enable the automatic backup of the database in the cloud, you have to create a cloud storage container. Before creating a cloud storage container, switch to Oracle Storage Cloud Service details and get the REST Endpoint:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, open https://storageconsole.em2.oraclecloud.com/ link, provide the Service REST Endpoint and login to Oracle Storage Cloud Service:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Create a new storage container:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the second screen of database service creation page, select “Both Cloud Storage and Local Storage” option as a Backup Destination, provide cloud storage container name, username and password and click Next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review the configuration and click Create button.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After creating the service successfully, open it and click on Administration section. From the Backup tab click on Backup Now button to create a backup of the database. You can use RMAN and schedule your own backups as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Backup Now and check the log file for more information:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you switch to the storage container, you will see bunch of files created

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open RMAN and run LIST BACKUPSET SUMMARY command to get list of backupsets:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now let’s try to recover the database to the specific point in time using DBaaS wizard. For this, create a new table with some data, get the current SCN number and drop the table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, switch to DBaaS backup page, click Recover, provide the SCN number and click Recover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The recover process will run in the background automatically. Check alert.log file of the database for more information:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the recover process is completed successfully login to the database and query the table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can also take backup and recover the database from command line interface using bkup_api utility. Now let’s delete all backups, take a new backup and try the recovery.

Delete all available RMAN backups:

RMAN> delete backup;

 

Use bkup_api utility with bkup_start parameter to take a backup from CLI:

[root@srvtest spool]# /var/opt/oracle/bkup_api/bkup_api bkup_start

DBaaS Backup API V1.5 @2016 Multi-Oracle home

DBaaS Backup API V1.5 @2015 Multi-Oracle home

-> Action : bkup_start

-> logfile: /var/opt/oracle/bkup_api/log/bkup_api.log

UUID d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb for this backup

** process started with PID: 16524

** see log file for monitor progress

————————————-

[root@srvtest spool]#

 

 

Check the log file for more information:

[root@srvtest spool]# tail -f /var/opt/oracle/bkup_api/log/bkup_api.log

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:36:58 ** process started with PID: 16524

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:36:58 ** see log file for monitor progress

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:36:58 ————————————-

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:36:58 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb Checking if TESTDB resource is available

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:36:58 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb has a lock TESTDB

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:36:58 UUID d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb written with PID 16524

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:36:58 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb The process is no longer running removing

lock

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:36:58 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb registering request into the database

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:37:00 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb current backups 0

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:37:00 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb command /home/oracle/bkup/TESTDB/obkup -dbname=TESTDB

 

 

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:38:51 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb@ backups after execution 4

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:38:51 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb rman tag TAG20161213T123750

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:38:51 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb rman tag TAG20161213T123729

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:38:51 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb rman tag TAG20161213T123758

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:38:51 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb rman tag TAG20161213T123834

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 12:38:51 d6bf0bde-c130-11e6-8534-c6b0e87f74cb Backup succeded TAG20161213T123834

 

 

Now having valid backups, let’s create a new table, drop it and recover it using dbaascli utility.

 

[oracle@srvtest opc]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL> create table mytable2 as select * from dba_objects;

Table created.

 

SQL> select count(1) from mytable2;

  COUNT(1)

———-

     88911

 

SQL> select current_scn from v$database;

CURRENT_SCN

———–

    1333654

 

SQL> drop table mytable2 purge;

Table dropped.

 

SQL> exit

 

Now use dbaascli utility and provide the SCN number to perform SCN based incomplete recovery:

[root@srvtest opc]# dbaascli orec –args -scn 1333654

DBAAS CLI version 1.0.0

Executing command orec –args -scn 1333654

–args : -scn 1333654

 

OREC version: 16.0.0.0

 

Starting OREC

Logfile is /var/opt/oracle/log/TESTDB/orec/orec_2016-12-13_13:41:18.log

Config file is /var/opt/oracle/orec/orec.cfg

 

DB name: TESTDB

OREC:: RUNNING IN NON DATAGUARD ENVIRONMENT

OREC:: Verifying scn validity…

PITR using SCN: 1333654

OREC:: Catalog mode:  Disabled

OREC:: Checking prerequirements before recovery process.

OREC:: DB Status : OPEN

OREC:: Changing instance to MOUNT stage.

OREC:: Shutting down the database… Completed.

OREC:: (RMAN) Startup MOUNT… Completed.

OREC:: Checking for PDBs directories.

OREC:: Checking for REDO logs.

OREC:: Restablishing DB instance to the original stage.

OREC:: Shutting down the database… Completed.

OREC:: Starting up database… Completed.

OREC:: Testing RMAN connection.

OREC:: Verifying backups dates ..

    :: OK

OREC:: Performing PITR using SCN number 1333654 …

INFO : DB instance is up and running after recovery procedure.

OREC:: Completed.

 

[root@srvtest opc]#

 

 

Now connect to the database and check if the table is recovered:

[oracle@srvtest opc]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL> select count(1) from mytable2;

  COUNT(1)

———-

     88911

 

SQL>

 

The database backups are also stored in the flash recovery area in the database host:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to change the automatic backup schedule, edit /etc/crontab file with a root user. Below you can see the current schedule of the database backup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can use a DBaaS backup wizard, DBaaS command line interface commands and RMAN to perform backup and recovery for Oracle Database in Cloud

In this step by step tutorial, we will create a clone database for the development or testing purposes. Using Oracle Database Cloud service you don’t need to configure and run DUPLICATE command of RMAN and create a clone of production database for developers team. All you need is to create a snapshot of your production database and clone it in a few minutes.

So first of all, let’s create a new database. Open cloud.oracle.com, login with your credentials and create a new database service. Please check my previous blog posts to create a new database service:

kamranagayev.com/2016/12/05/step-by-step-guide-to-create-an-oracle-database-in-the-cloud/

kamranagayev.com/2016/12/06/step-by-step-guide-create-a-primary-and-standby-database-in-the-cloud/ 

 

After successully creating a new database open it and select Administration section

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before creating a snapshot of the database, login to the database and create a new table, insert one row and commit the transaction. We will check this table after cloning the snapshot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, switch to the Snapshots tab, click “Create Storage Snapshot” button and provide the name of the snapshot. Don’t click Create button

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the snapshot of the database is taken, the database is placed into the backup mode. To test it, open SQL connection, click on Create button to create a snapshot and switch to the SQL session and run a command. The session will hang

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the snapshot is created, click on the menu icon on the right and choose Create Database Clone to create a clone database from the snapshot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, provide the service name and the database name for the clone database and create it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After few minutes the clone database will be created

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now login to the clone database and check the table that was created before

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first table was created before the snapshot and thus it’s there. But the second table was create after creating a snapshot and is not available.

As you see, it’s very easy to create a clone database using snapshots in Oracle Cloud. By having a trial account you are provided 500Gb of free space. Each database service consumes 150Gb space, so having 1 production db (150Gb), 1 snapshot (150Gb) and 1 clone database (150Gb) you can easily test the clone database creation with your trial account

 

In this guide, I will show you how to create a primary and standby database in the cloud. Login to your cloud account, switch to the Oracle Database Cloud Service page and create a new service. Select “Oracle Database Cloud Service” as a subscription type and click Next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select a database release and click Next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select “Enterprise Edition – Extreme Performance” as a Software Edition and click Next

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Provide the service name, SSH public key and select “Standby Database with Data Guard” option, select “High Availability” and click Next

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review the configuration settings and click Create to create a primary and a standby database

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a few minutes the primary and standby database will be created successfully

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the service name (srvdg) to open the home page of both databases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now open two different Putty executables and connect to the both machines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connect to the both databases and check the DB_UNIQUE_NAME parameter. PRODDB_01 is set to the primary database, PRODDB_02 for the standby database. Also check LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_2 parameter on the primary database. As you see, archived log files are shipped to the standby database using PRODDB_02 service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now let’s test the functionality of the standby database. First of all, open an alert.log file of the standby database, switch the log file on the primary database and check if the log file is applied

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now perform a switchover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Switch the log file and see if it is applied to the new standby database

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It worked. Now switch back

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you see, it’s very easy to create a database with its own standby database in the cloud!

In this blog post I will share the steps to create an Oracle Database in Cloud. We will create a database service, create a second database in the same machine in a silent mode, access to the cloud machine with SSH and monitor the database with OEM.

First of all, make sure you have an Oracle account. Open oracle.com and click on Register link to get a free oracle account. Next, open cloud.oracle.com, select “Compute” from Infrastructure menu and click “Try It” button to get a free trial account for 1 month. Next, login with your oracle account and register for cloud account. Make sure you don’t apply with generic email addresses like hotmail, gmail and etc. Instead, use your company address.

After successfully registering you will get an email with your credential information. Click on the link specified in the email, provide username/password and login to your cloud account. Click Oracle Database Cloud Service link.

 

 

 

Click on the link under “My Service URL” to access list of cloud services you have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you haven’t signed in yet, sign in page will appear. Use the username and password provided in the email you got during the registration and login

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, Oracle Cloud Services dashboard will appear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To create and manage database instances, click on the “Open Service Console” menu of the Database tab as shown below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this page you will get list of database services. Here, I have two database services (myfirstdb, myseconddb). I have 7.5G memory and 150gb of storage provided for each service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Delete on the drop down menu for each service and delete both services.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After successfully deleting available instances, click on “Create Service” button to create a new database instance:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select “Oracle Database Cloud Service” option to create a database using a wizard. For the billing frequency you have two options: Hourly and Monthly. It doesn’t make sense when you use a trial account. So select any of them and click Next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the software release you have 3 options: 11.2, 12.1 and 12.2. Choose any of them and click Next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a software edition, you have 4 options:

Standard Edition

Enterprise Edition

Enterprise Edition – High Performance

Enterprise Edition – Extreme Performance

To get more information and features that each edition provides, check the following documentation:

 

Home / Cloud / Oracle Database Cloud Service/ Using Oracle Database Cloud Service/ About Database Cloud Service Database Deployments/ Oracle Database Software Package

https://docs.oracle.com/cloud/latest/dbcs_dbaas/CSDBI/GUID-660363B8-0E2F-4A4F-A9BD-70A43F332A16.htm#GUID-6C0B1E17-98A5-4522-A3B9-36EFA05E64F9

Select “Enterprise Edition” option and click Next

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the next page you will be asked to provide a SSH Public Key for the cloud service. For this, use Putty Key Generator executable to generate a SSH public key. Click on Generate button, move your mouse over the blank are to generate some action.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The SSH key will be generated as follows. Provide a password and click on “Save private key” button to save this key as a private key

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To save a key as a public key, copy the text and save it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Provide this file for the “SSH Public Key” field of the database service creation wizard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Provide the service name, database storage, select necessary compute shape and click Next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review the information and click Create button to create a service

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click “In Progress” link to check the service creation progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a while, the service will be created successfully.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on proddb link to open the service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before trying to connect to the database in the cloud from outside, you should enable dblistener security rule. Open “Oracle Database Cloud Service” dashboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on Network tab

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you click on Network tab, you will get list of security roles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the menu icon for ora_p2_dblistener role and select Update.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enable the status of this security role

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enable the ora_p2_dbconsole security role to get access to OEM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, let’s connect to the database from SSH. Provide the private key that was saved above

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Provide the IP of the virtual machine that is provided in the main page of the database cloud service and click Open.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Provide username as “oracle” and password that was provided when generating a private key using PuTTy Key Generator tool and login to the server where the database is running.  Connect to SQL*Plus and run SQL commands:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No open tnsnames.ora file and add the following entry:

 

tnsnames.ora

PRODDB =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 141.144.32.70)(PORT = 1521))

(CONNECT_DATA =

(SID = PRODDB)

)

)

 

Open a command prompt, login to the database in the cloud and run SQL commands:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To open an OEM, click on the menu icon on the Database Cloud Service home page and select “Open EM Console”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Provide the username and password and login

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After creating and configuring a database using a wizard, I decided to create a new database in a silent mode in the same machine as follows:

 

 

[oracle@proddb dbhome_1]$ dbca -silent -createdatabase -gdbname mydb -templatename /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/assistants/dbca/templates/General_Purpose.dbc -sid mydb -syspassword oracle -systempassword oracle -emConfiguration none -datafileDestination /u02/app/oracle/oradata/mydb -memoryPercentage 40

 

Copying database files

1% complete

3% complete

11% complete

18% complete

26% complete

37% complete

Creating and starting Oracle instance

40% complete

45% complete

50% complete

55% complete

56% complete

60% complete

62% complete

Completing Database Creation

66% complete

70% complete

73% complete

74% complete

75% complete

76% complete

77% complete

88% complete

99% complete

100% complete

Look at the log file “/u01/app/oracle/cfgtoollogs/dbca/mydb/mydb.log” for further details.

[oracle@proddb dbhome_1]$

 

Check if the database is up and running and connect to it:

 

[oracle@proddb dbhome_1]$ ps -ef | grep smon

oracle    7040     1  0 11:40 ?        00:00:00 ora_smon_mydb

oracle    7226  2625  0 11:40 pts/1    00:00:00 grep smon

oracle   11837     1  0 10:30 ?        00:00:00 ora_smon_PRODDB

[oracle@proddb dbhome_1]$ export ORACLE_SID=mydb

[oracle@proddb dbhome_1]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

 

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.4.0 Production on Sat Dec 3 11:40:39 2016

Copyright (c) 1982, 2013, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connected to:

Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0 – 64bit Production

With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL>

 

Run free command to check the free space of the machine. We have 2 databases running on this machine, so we have only 1g free memory.

[oracle@proddb dbhome_1]$ free

total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached

Mem:       7397060    6295684    1101376     266948      66356    1364664

-/+ buffers/cache:    4864664    2532396

Swap:      4194300      29916    4164384

[oracle@proddb dbhome_1]$

After having a database service with the specific parameters, you can change the parameters anytime. Let’s add 2gb free space to the machine. Switch to the home page of the database cloud service, click on the menu icon and choose “Scale Up/Down” link

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Provide size of the new space and click “Yes, Scale Up/Down Service” button

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The host will reboot and the required space will be added :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new space is mounted to the new mount point (u05):

 

[oracle@proddb ~]$ df -kh

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/xvdb3             25G   12G   12G  51% /

tmpfs                 3.6G     0  3.6G   0% /dev/shm

/dev/xvdb1            477M  148M  300M  34% /boot

/dev/xvde1             59G  7.4G   49G  14% /u01

/dev/mapper/dataVolGroup-lvol0

25G  3.8G   20G  17% /u02

/dev/mapper/fraVolGroup-lvol0

6.8G  2.1G  4.4G  32% /u03

/dev/mapper/redoVolGroup-lvol0

26G  3.1G   22G  13% /u04

/dev/xvdg1            2.0G  3.1M  1.9G   1% /u05

[oracle@proddb ~]$