Subclients - SAP for Oracle

Things to Consider when Creating and Configuring SAP for Oracle Subclients

Overview

The following table shows subclient creation and configuration details specific to the SAP for Oracle iDataAgent.

Agent	Type of Data	Default Subclient created during install of the Agent	Supports Default Subclient	Supports User Defined Subclient	Contents of the default subclient when user-defined subclient is present	Other Types of subclients supported by the Agent	Notes
SAP for Oracle iDataAgent	Oracle databases/ datafiles/ tablespaces	No	Yes	Yes	database objects not assigned to other subclients, unless otherwise configured*	None	Default subclient is created when the instance is configured *See Caution Against Re-configuring Default Subclient Content.

Before you back up data, you must define the data that you want to back up, and how this data should be backed up. This is done by creating one or more subclients for the database you are backing up. For the SAP for Oracle iDataAgent, a subclient defines:

Whether a backup will be offline or online
Whether the entire database will be backed up as a whole, or only a subset of objects within the database

Depending on your needs, you can create multiple subclients for one or all of the following:

Online Databases, with or without archive logs
Online Subsets, with or without archive logs
Offline Databases
Selective Online Full Backups

Subclient Content

From the CommCell Console, the SAP for Oracle iDataAgent is designed to back up SAP for Oracle data files (*.dbf) and archived redo log files. After you install an SAP for Oracle iDataAgent, a default subclient is created by the system only after you first configure an SAP for Oracle database instance from the CommCell Console. Since an SAP for Oracle instance references a database, the default subclient includes the entire database associated with that instance. However, you can use the CommCell Console to create user-defined subclients to include only some of the database content by configuring the Subclient Properties (Content) tab. Any content that is not included in the user-defined subclients will remain in the default subclient.

When you configure subclient content, you click the Subclient Properties (Content) tab for the subclient to view the eligible data for inclusion in the subclient content. You then select an option to include one of the following in the subclient content: online database, offline database, one or more online subsets of the database, or archive log files. You can also choose to include selective online full backups for the subclient.

If you opt to include just online subsets in the subclient content, you click the appropriate option and then select the desired table spaces and data files to configure the content for the subclient. Once you do this, the subclient content may be displayed as follows:

In this example, suse11GR1 is the name of the instance, and this instance includes a single database. The database includes six table spaces out of which two of the table spaces have been included in the subclient content. \

When creating user-defined subclients, it is recommended that you create a separate user-defined subclient for the archive log files. Also, make sure to use separate storage policies for data backup, which is set at the subclient level and log backup, which is set at the instance level.

A useful way to distribute subclient content for this iDataAgent is to create separate user-defined sublients for frequently used table spaces and also for log files. For example, if the EXAMPLE and USERS dbspaces shown above undergo frequent changes, you can create a separate subclient for each table space. For example:

User-defined subclient: Test1
Content:

EXAMPLE
User-defined subclient: Test2
Content:

USERS

It is recommended that you create a separate user-defined subclient for the log files on the client. For example:

User-defined subclient: Logs
Content:

(all the archive log files)

Distributing the client data using subclients in this way can help improve backup performance by distributing the workload on the client into logical groupings.

Filtering

Data protection filtering is not applicable for this agent.

Wildcards and Regular Expressions

Wildcards and regular expressions are not supported for this agent when defining subclient content.

Considerations

For more information, see Things to Consider when Creating and Configuring SAP for Oracle Subclients.

Configurable Properties

Once installed, the agent is configured and is therefore able to manage the data or volumes on the client computer. However, you can change certain aspects of the subclient configuration to manage the data in the manner that best suits your needs.

You can view or change the subclient configuration from the Subclient Properties dialog box. The following information can be configured.

Activity Control

You can enable or disable all operations for this CommCell object and all objects below it. For more information, see Activity Control.

Archive Log Destinations for Backup and Deletion

You can specify the location from where the archive logs will be backed up. You can also specify the location from where archive files will be deleted. Either option allows you to create more than one schedule with different log destinations on the same subclient.

See Select Archive Log Destinations for Backup or Deletion for a step-by-step procedure.

Content/Databases

You can define the content of the subclient. Most agents include a configure button that displays a dialog where you can add or modify the data included as subclient content. For a step-by-step procedure, see Configure Subclient Content.

Data Encryption

You can enable or disable the encryption of data for transmission over unsecure networks and for storage on media. For more information, see Data Encryption.

Data Transfer Options

Several configurable options to efficiently use available resources for transferring data secured by data protection operations are provided in the subclient. This includes the following:

Enable or disable Data Compression either on the client or the MediaAgent.
Configure the transfer of data in the network using the options for Network Bandwidth Throttling and Network Agents.

Data Paths

You can view the data paths associated with the primary storage policy copy of the selected storage policy or incremental storage policy. You can also modify the data paths for the subclient including their priority. For additional information, see Configuring Alternate Data Paths for Subclients.

Pre/Post Processes

You can add, modify or view Pre/Post processes for the subclient. These are batch files or shell scripts that you can run before or after certain job phases. For more information, see Pre/Post Processes.

You can also change the user account for running Pre/Post processes for data protection operations of agents residing on Windows platforms. These agents include Active Directory, DataArchiver, DB2 on Windows, Exchange, Image Level on Windows, Lotus Notes, NAS, Oracle on Windows, Image Level ProxyHost on Windows, ProxyHost, Quick Recovery Agent, SAP for Oracle on Windows, SharePoint, SQL Server, and Windows File System. For more information, see User Accounts and Passwords.

Storage Policies

You can associate the subclient to a storage policy. For more information, see Storage Policies.

Subclient Name

You can rename a subclient. For a step-by-step procedure, see Rename a Subclient.

User Accounts

The following pertains to SAP for Oracle on Windows:

You can define an account with permissions to execute Pre/Post commands for the agent's archive, backup, or volume creation jobs.

See Oracle iDataAgents: Other User Accounts in User Accounts and Passwords for more information.

Things to Consider when Creating and Configuring SAP for Oracle Subclients

When creating and configuring subclients for the SAP for Oracle iDataAgent, keep in mind the following considerations:

When scheduling backups of multiple subclients simultaneously for the SAP for Oracle iDataAgent, ensure that you don’t include the same datafile or table space in both subclients.
If you are running in NOARCHIVELOG mode, you must backup the database offline. If you are running in ARCHIVELOG mode and database accessibility is a priority, an online backup of the database may be appropriate. If the database must be accessible, and you have a small backup window, you may want to run a series of online backups in which different portions of the database are backed up at different times. You may also want to combine all of these backup types in your backup strategy. Once you have determined your backup needs you can define your backup strategy by creating one or more subclients for the database.
It is recommended that you include the control files with the appropriate database backups.

SAP for Oracle Automatic Subclient Updates:
When new objects are added to databases, the system automatically adds these objects to subclients; you do not have to add them to subclients to ensure that they get backed up. This section explains how the system determines which subclients are assigned new objects.

If a new datafile is added to a tablespace it is assigned to the subclient that contains the tablespace. For example, assume that you have created the following subclients for the accounts database:

on_accounts	An online database subclient that backs up the entire database.
on_user	An online subset subclient that backs up the user tablespace.
on_sys	An online subset subclient that backs up the system tablespace.

Then assume that the datafile users05.dbf is added to the users tablespace. This datafile will be automatically added to the on_accounts, and on_user subclients, but not to the on_sys subclient. This is because the on_accounts and on_user subclients contain the users tablespace, but the on_sys subclient does not.

Subclients must contain the entire contents of a tablespace if you want the system to automatically add a new datafile to the subclient. For example, the on_user subclient must contain the files users01.dbf through users04.dbf if you want the system to automatically add the users05.dbf file. If the on_user subclient only contained the files users01.dbf and users02.dbf, the system will not automatically add users05.dbf to this subclient.

If a new datafile is added to the database, and none of the online subset subclients contain the tablespace for the datafile, the datafile is assigned to the default subclient.

Oracle recommends performing a mandatory Incremental Level 0 backup (i.e., Full backup) after adding new tablespaces and datafiles to the database. If this is not done, the next Incremental backup would fail, because Recovery Manager will not be able to find the parent files for the new tablespaces and datafiles.

Caution Against Re-configuring Default Subclient Content
We recommend that you do not re-configure the content of a default subclient because this would disable its capability to serve as "catch-all" entity for client data. As a result, the likelihood that some data will not get backed up or scanned for archiving would increase.