To recover a database from a QR Volume with archive log backups.
Perform a QR Recovery to recover the point-in-time Oracle data from your QR Volumes. Refer to Recovering QR Volumes for procedures on performing a QR Recovery.
After recovering the point-in-time Oracle data from your QR Volumes, access the CommCell Console, right-click the instance of the Oracle iDataAgent, click All Tasks and then click Restore.
From the Oracle Restore Options (General) dialog box, select Restore Archive Log and clear the Restore Data checkbox. Click Advanced.
From the Restore tab of the Oracle Advanced Restore Options dialog box, under the Restore Archive Log - By Log Time options, clear the Start checkbox then click End and select the date and time that the most recent archive log backup completed. Click OK.
Start or schedule the restore. The restore job will begin and you can track the status of the job in the Job Controller window. After the job completes, all the archive logs are restored to the specified point-in-time.
After the archive logs have been restored, right-click the instance of Oracle iDataAgent, click All Tasks and then click Restore.
From the Recover tab of the Oracle Advanced Restore Options dialog box, under the Recover options, click Point in Time and select the date and time equal to the last logs backup time. Click OK.
Start or schedule the restore. The recovery job will begin and you can track the status of the job in the Job Controller window. After the job completes, the database will be recovered to the specified time, and the state of the Oracle database will change from MOUNTED to OPEN. This will result in all the archived logs being applied towards the instance.
If the database recovery fails with an error indicating that it was unable to find an archive log then continue on with this procedure, otherwise this task is complete.
Right-click the instance of Oracle iDataAgent, click All Tasks and then click Restore.
From the Recover tab of the Oracle Advanced Restore Options dialog box, under the Recover options, click Point in Time then select the date and time to which you want to recover the database.
From the Options tab of the Oracle Advanced Restore Options dialog box, select No Re-do Logs and then click OK.
Optionally for Oracle RAC, from the Oracle Restore Options (Stream) dialog box, set the instance restore order per stream allotment.
Start or schedule the restore. The recovery job will begin and you can track the status of the job in the Job Controller window. After the job completes, the Oracle database will be recovered to the specified time, and the state of the Oracle database will change from MOUNTED to OPEN.
Apply Transaction Logs to an Oracle Database on a recovered QR Volume without Archive Log Backups
Before You Begin
Before starting restore operations, review these prerequisites and operational procedures.
To recover a database from a QR Volume without archive log backups.
From the CommCell Console, right-click the instance of Oracle iDataAgent, click All Tasks and then click Browse Backup Data.
Select your browse options and click OK to continue. See Browsing Data for a list of customized browse operations and their step-by-step instructions. If you accept all defaults, you will be browsing the latest backups for the selected data.
From the Browse window, expand the Snapshot of your Oracle instance, select the entire instance and then click Recover All Selected.
From the Specify Database State dialog box, select NO. The databases will be restored in the OPEN state.
The recovery job will begin and you can track the status of the job in the Job Controller window. After the job completes, the Oracle database will be recovered to the last successful QR Volume update, and the state of the Oracle database will change from MOUNTED to OPEN. Archive logs cannot be applied after this point.
Convert a QR Volume into a Primary Volume
Once a QR Volume has been recovered, you may decide to continue running the
application from that volume on a permanent basis. In that case, you will
probably want to reconfigure QR Agent to treat that volume as the primary
volume.
To convert a QR Volume into a
primary volume:
Use the QR Volume Details screen to
identify the QR Policy and Scratch Volume Pool associated with the QR
Volume.
Go to the Scratch Volume Pool in the CommCell Browser and find the
destination volume.
Right-click on the destination volume and select Release
from the drop-down menu. This will cause the QR Volume association to be
removed from the volume, and the destination volume itself will be removed from
the Scratch Volume Pool.
Reconfigure the QR Agent subclient content to reflect the new primary
volume, and remove the old primary volume from the subclient.
Copy Back a QR Volume
To
copy back a QR Volume:
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the QR Agent whose volumes
(including Recovery Points and snapshots) you want to browse,
click All Tasks, and
then click Browse from the short-cut menu.
From the Browse QR
Volumes window,
right-click the
volume (or Recovery Point or snapshot) that you want to copy back, and
then click Copyback to open the
Select Volumes for Copyback dialog box. (If
you want to copy back multiple QR Volumes, highlight all of the volumes you
want to copy back by control-clicking the QR Volumes.)
From the Select
Volumes for Copyback
dialog box, assign a destination volume to each QR Volume you want to copy back.
The destination volume must be larger than the QR Volume.
To assign a destination volume, click on the QR Volume, and then click the
Set Destination button to open the
Select
Destination for Copyback
dialog box.
From the list of volumes in the
Select Destination for Copyback dialog box, select the volume that is to be the
copyback destination. (You can see a list of volumes on a different host by
selecting a different computer in the dropdown Host: list.) Click the
volume you want as the copyback destination and click Select.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 for any QR Volumes that do not have a destination
volume for copyback in the
Select
Destination for Copyback dialog box.
Ensure that all volumes you want to copy back are checked in the Selectcolumn.
Click OK to copy back the volumes. The system displays a progress
bar and copies back the volumes. You can track the progress of the recover
operation from the Job Controller window.
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the
iDataAgent whose data you want to browse,
click All Tasks and
then click Browse from the short-cut menu.
From the Browse window, select the Snapshot data and/or Snapshot directories
(i.e., Snapshot1) that you want
to recover. Right-click the selected snapshot or snapshot directory and
click Recover.
A prompt appears, warning you that the recover operation will unmount the
selected QR Volume and replace it with the original source mount point. If you want to
proceed, click Yes.
The system displays a progress bar and recovers
the volume. You can track the progress of the recover operation from the Job
Controller window.
If you are recovering a database volume, you will be asked if you want to
leave the database in the Loaded state.
If you want to apply logs to the
database after the recovery, click Yes.
If you want to mount the
database after the recovery, click No. You will not be able to
apply logs after the recovery if you click No.
With Oracle, selecting Yes will leave the
database in the mounted state. If you want to put the Oracle database in OPEN (READ
WRITE) mode after the recovery, click No. You will not be able to apply
logs after the recovery if you click No.
From the CommCell Browser, right-click the QR Agent whose volume you want to browse,
click All Tasks and
then click Browse from the short-cut menu.
From the Browse QR
Volumes dialog box,
right-click the
volume that you want to recover and
then click Recover.
A prompt appears, warning you that the recover operation will unmount the
original source volume and replace it with the selected QR Volume. If you want to
proceed, click Yes.
The system displays a progress bar and recovers
the volume. You can track the progress of the recover operation from the Job
Controller window.
When the selected QR Volume is recovered, it is ready for use.
Transfer Data from a QR Volume to a New Primary Volume
In certain disaster recovery scenarios, application data can be accessed from
the associated QR Volume. For example, this may be necessary if the storage
subsystem containing the primary volumes becomes unavailable for any
reason.
Once the primary storage subsystem is available, in most cases it is
desirable to transfer the contents of the temporary QR Volume to a new primary
volume on the primary storage subsystem. This is desirable because the storage
subsystems containing your primary volumes are usually significantly more
powerful and/or more expensive than the storage used for temporary QR Volumes.
To
transfer your data from a temporary QR Volume to a New Primary Volume:
Partition the (new) primary storage device into volumes and add them to
the appropriate Scratch Volume Pools. It may be necessary to re-detect the
devices before they can be added.
Run one or more Create QR Volume jobs to copy data from the temporary
volumes to the permanent volumes.
Convert the new QR Volume(s) (located on the new permanent storage) into
primary volumes, again using the procedure outlined above.
This two-stage procedure may be especially valuable in LAN-only environments,
where it might not be otherwise possible to mount the QR Volumes directly on the
application server.
To recover a database from a QR Volume with archive log backups.