HPE Reference Architecture for Comprehensive Oracle Backup, Restore and Disaster Recovery using HPE RMC and HPE StoreOnce

Reference Architecture

Reference Architecture

Contents Executive summary ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Solution overview ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Solution components ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 4

Hardware ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Software ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

HPE Recovery Manager Central 3.0.0 for Oracle ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Snapshots ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 6 Backup and protection policy ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Oracle backup methods using HPE RMC-O ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 9

Test configuration and deployment ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Deploying RMC ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 10 Licensing ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 RMC-O configuration ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 10 Register Oracle servers ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 10 Micro Focus Data Protector configuration ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 10

Test scenarios ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 No impact production backup of Oracle DB using RMC ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Database cloning and using it as dev/test environment ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Restore directly from snapshot......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Express Protect of Oracle database ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 15 Restoring snapshots to the same or another HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage ......................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Backup and restore using Micro Focus Data Protector (RMAN) ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Oracle RMAN backups using RMC-O ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20 RMC-O and HPE StoreOnce deduplication ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22 RMC catalog protection using StoreOnce .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 23 Disaster recovery using StoreOnce Catalyst Copy and HPE RMC catalog protection .................................................................................................................................................. 24 Analysis and recommendation .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 26

Summary ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 29 Appendix A: Bill of materials ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 30 Resources and additional links ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 32

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Executive summary The demands for Oracle database implementations continue to escalate. Faster transaction processing speeds, scalable capacity, and increased flexibility and protection of data are required to meet the needs of today’s business. In the day-to-day management of Oracle database environments, administrators need to be able to protect their business-critical Oracle database without impacting performance, which is always challenging. It gets worse when faced with unrelenting data growth, stringent SLAs, and increasingly in both physical and virtualized environments. Traditional hierarchical backup approaches can’t deliver the agility, affordability, and quick protection businesses demand.

Server-centric traditional backup processes can impact application performance with data typically flowing through the application and backup server. Backup server infrastructures introduce escalating cost and complexity with the need to disruptively acquire and manage additional servers, software licenses, and networking equipment as application data grows.

When it comes to best practice data protection for your Oracle database, no single snapshot or backup technology can provide the complete solution. Snapshots and backups have different yet complementary roles to play for availability, backup and disaster recovery.

This paper presents a solution for comprehensive Oracle Backup, Restore and Disaster Recovery using HPE Recovery Manager Central for Oracle (HPE RMC-O). Its capabilities include: minimal impact of a backup on a production database, creating a test/dev environment using a database clone, backing up using Micro Focus Data Protector*1 and Oracle RMAN, granular recovery of data files and tablespaces using Data Protector and RMAN, demonstrating HPE StoreOnce deduplication and replication technologies. This paper will help to understand the best practices for setting up a backup/recovery and disaster recovery solution for Oracle database to achieve minimum RTO.

Target audience: This paper is intended for IT decision makers, administrators and Oracle DBAs looking for Oracle database backup/recovery and disaster recovery solutions using HPE Recovery Manager Central for Oracle. The target audience is expected to have a basic knowledge of Oracle database, Micro Focus Data Protector, Oracle RMAN, HPE 3PAR StoreServ and HPE StoreOnce.

Document purpose: The purpose of this document is to showcase a Reference Architecture for comprehensive Oracle Backup, Restore and Disaster Recovery using HPE Recovery Manager Central, highlighting recognizable benefits to technical audiences.

This Reference Architecture describes solution testing performed in January 2017.

Solution overview Protect your business-critical applications like Oracle database without impacting performance using HPE RMC. HPE RMC facilitates data protection for HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage by integrating with HPE StoreOnce systems. This automated, non-intrusive software combines the simplicity and performance of snapshots with the reliability and cost effective retention of deduplicated backups. Administrators can be assured of recovery from application-consistent snapshots on the primary storage system as well as application-consistent backups on the HPE StoreOnce system.

RMC offers application integration through a series of licensable application components. HPE RMC for VMware (RMC-V) enables VMware® administrators to protect VMware Virtual Machine Disks (VMDKs) and data stores, using application-consistent snapshots for rapid online recovery. HPE RMC for SQL (RMC-S) allows Microsoft® SQL Server administrators to protect Microsoft SQL Server instances and databases with application-consistent recovery points. HPE RMC for Oracle (RMC-O) allows Oracle database administrators to create, schedule and manage Oracle-application consistent snapshots on an HPE 3PAR StoreServ.

Additionally, the optional RMC Express Protect feature offers a second-tier of data protection by facilitating direct backup from the supported primary storage system to HPE StoreOnce systems. Backups to HPE StoreOnce are self-contained volumes, deduplicated to save space, and can be used to recover back to the original or to a different primary storage system, even if the original base volume is lost.

1 * This is a trademark that is owned by Micro Focus International PLC or one of its affiliates. All third-party marks are property of their respective owners.

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Figure 1 shows the solution diagram which illustrates the components that are involved in Oracle database backups using HPE RMC-O. It consists of the HPE RMC appliance, Oracle Server, Backup server and Data Protector servers. All the servers are connected with HPE StoreOnce and HPE 3PAR StoreServ through fibre channel.

Catalyst Items

Catalyst Store

Catalyst Items

Catalyst Store

3PAR StoreServ Disk Array HPE StoreOnce Backup System

vCenter Administrator RMC UI

LANFC

NIC

HBA Replication

Oracle Server Mount ServervCenter Server, RMC, Data Protector

NIC NIC

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HBAHBAHBA

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HPE StoreOnce Backup System

Virtual volume

s Snapshots

Figure 1. Logical solution diagram of Comprehensive Oracle Backup, Restore and Disaster Recovery using HPE RMC

Solution components The sections below describe the hardware and software components that are used during testing.

Hardware HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 server The test bed is comprised of three HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 servers; each server consists of:

• 2 x Intel® Xeon® E5-2650 v4 16-core processors with a clock speed of 2.1GHz

• 512GB of memory

• 2 x HPE 1.2TB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in DP ENT SC HDD

• HPE embedded 4x1GbE, plus 2-port 10GbE FlexibleLOM

For more details about HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen9 servers, refer to http://h20195.www2.hpe.com/V2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=c04346247

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HPE 3PAR StoreServ HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage offers the performance and flexibility that you need to accelerate new application deployments, including server virtualization, cloud, and IT as a Service (ITaaS). With HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage, you can serve unpredictable and mixed workloads, support unstructured and structured data growth, and meet both file and block storage needs.

The modular HPE 3PAR StoreServ architecture can be scaled from 1.2TB to 1.2PB, making the system deployable as a small or very large centralized system. Until now, enterprise customers were often required to purchase and manage at least two distinct architectures to span their range of cost and scalability requirements. HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage is the ideal platform for virtualization and cloud computing environments. The high performance and scalability of the HPE 3PAR StoreServ architecture is well-suited for large or high-growth projects and consolidation of mission-critical information, demanding performance-based applications and data lifecycle management.

For more details on product ranges, see hpe.com/storage/3par

HPE StoreOnce HPE StoreOnce is designed to cater to the needs of all types of customers from entry-level to large-scale enterprises. HPE StoreOnce Backup systems deliver scale-out capacity and performance to keep pace with shrinking backup windows, reliable DR, simplified protection of remote offices, and rapid file restore to meet today’s SLAs. The models vary by capacity and connectivity protocol. Customers can start out by purchasing a single HPE StoreOnce base unit/couplet, and then expand with additional couplets and expansion shelves. These units deliver cost-effective, scalable, disk-based backup with deduplication for long-term, on-site data retention.

HPE StoreOnce offers significant savings in storage costs because of deduplication and allows customers to keep pace with increasing data growth. A further advantage of deduplication is that it enables low-bandwidth replication allowing for off-siting of data in a very cost-effective and efficient way. Each HPE StoreOnce unit can support any mix of virtual tape library (VTL), NAS (CIFS and NFS) and HPE StoreOnce Catalyst stores—to allow it to function in the widest range of environments/usage models and with the widest range of software.

For more details on product ranges and compatibility, see HPE StoreOnce overview, hpe.com/storage/storeonce, and HPE StoreOnce Compatibility Guide, hpe.com/info/ebs.

Software • Oracle 12c – Version 12.1.0.2.0

• Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) – Version 7.2

• VMware vSphere 6.0

• HPE Recovery Manager Central 3.0.0

• Micro Focus Data Protector 9.08

• HammerDB v2.17 – Used as a workload driver

HPE Recovery Manager Central 3.0.0 for Oracle HPE Recovery Manager Central for Oracle (RMC-O) is a data protection solution that provides rapid recovery from point-in-time snapshots of an Oracle database. RMC-O allows Oracle database administrators to create, schedule, and manage snapshots on HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage systems.

The RMC-O Express Protect feature provides a second-tier of data protection with backup of Oracle database volumes located on HPE 3PAR StoreServ to HPE StoreOnce systems. Backups to HPE StoreOnce are self-contained volumes, de-duplicated to save space, and can be used to recover to the original or to a different 3PAR StoreServ array. You can use RMC-O with either HPE StoreOnce, Micro Focus Data Protector, Veritas NetBackup, or Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) to protect and restore snapshots created by RMC-O.

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Figure 2 shows the solution diagram which illustrates the components involved in Oracle database backups using HPE RMC-O. The SAN and management network connections are depicted separately. HPE RMC-O orchestrates the data movement from the HPE StoreServ volumes onto the HPE StoreOnce Backup appliance. If you have a backup server, you may mount snapshots and clone databases on it. If you intend to perform a media backup, RMC-O facilitates independent software vendor (ISV) backup software integration with Micro Focus Data Protector and Veritas NetBackup, as well as many others.

Figure 2. HPE Recovery Manager Central for Oracle deployment

Snapshots RMC-O allows Oracle database administrators to create, schedule, and manage application consistent snapshots on an HPE 3PAR StoreServ array. A database snapshot consists of multiple snapshots of underlying 3PAR virtual volumes used by Oracle datafiles, archive log destination, or both, depending on the option one specifies. RMC-O enables you to create the following types of snapshots:

• Online — A point-in-time image of a database, which is taken while the database is open or online. The database is put in backup mode before the snapshot is created. After the snapshot is complete, the database is taken out of backup mode.

• Offline — A point-in-time image of a database, which is taken while the database is closed or offline.

• Datafile — A point-in-time image of the datafiles of all databases, which is taken while the database is open or online. The database is put in backup mode before the snapshot is created. This backup takes a snapshot of only the datafiles and not archive log destination. A snapshot created with this option is only useful when archive log files generated during the creation of the snapshot are also available.

• Archive log — A point-in-time image of archive log destination of the database, which is taken while the database is open or online.

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After creating a snapshot, you can perform many actions using the Actions menu on the Oracle Databases’ Protection View screen which includes Edit, Mount, Unmount, Remove, Restore, Protect, Clone and Remove Cloned database snapshot as shown in figure 3.

Figure 3. HPE Recovery Manager Central after snapshot operations options for users

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Backup and protection policy A database snapshot consists of multiple snapshots of underlying 3PAR virtual volumes in the same 3PAR array. To store the backup to StoreOnce or any backup media, a backup policy is needed. A backup policy will have details about policy name, backup device details, catalyst login and number of streams as shown in figure 4.

Figure 4. HPE Recovery Manager Central Backup Policy Configuration page

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A backup policy needs to be associated with a protection policy. A protection policy is used to abstract various attributes related to backups, like retention, expiration time, backup vendor and backup policy as shown in figure 5.

Figure 5. HPE Recovery Manager Central Protection Policy configuration page

If you intend to perform Express Protect backups, you may create a single protection policy and associate it with many databases. Once the protection policy is created, you can protect a database using the protection policy and store the backups to HPE StoreOnce.

For more information on HPE RMC backup and protection policy, see the user guide at hpe.com/storage/rmc/docs

Oracle backup methods using HPE RMC-O Another key point is what kind of Oracle backup method will be used. With Oracle, any backup method that does not involve RMAN is called a “user-managed” backup. User-managed Oracle backups are divided into four types:

• Online (hot) backup, in which the database remains online during the backup

• Archive log backup, in which only the Oracle archive logs are backed up (this is only applicable if archiving is enabled for the database)

• Offline (cold) backup, in which the database is shut down prior to the backup (this is required for databases where archiving is disabled to allow proper point-in-time recovery)

• Data file only, in which log files are ignored and only data files are backed up. This type of backup is only valid for recovery when combined with archive log backups

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Test configuration and deployment This section describes the configuration and deployment of required components for the test cases.

Deploying RMC RMC is available as an OVF package for deployment. The RMC OVF template can be deployed in a VMware environment that has vCenter Server configured.

Note RMC-O is part of RMC deployment.

Licensing RMC-O licensing is based on HPE 3PAR StoreServ arrays. HPE Recovery Manager Central for Oracle and HPE 3PAR Virtual Copy licenses must be present in arrays hosting Oracle databases.

Licensing is used to enable HPE Recovery Manager Central for Oracle product functionality. RMC and RMC-O licenses must be installed on HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage systems.

RMC-O configuration Perform the following steps for a first time setup of RMC-O software:

• Install RMC-O client binaries on application and backup servers and ensure all the pre-requisites are met

• Register the server

• Create protection policies

• Register databases

For more information on RMC-O configuration, see the user guide hpe.com/storage/rmc/docs

Register Oracle servers You can register your application database that you want to protect. You can either specify an Oracle SID and then register or allow RMC to register all the databases running on the selected server.

To take snapshots and perform backup operations, the storage must be configured so that all datafiles and archive logs reside on the same HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage. However, the datafiles and archive logs cannot coexist on the same volumes. CONTROLFILE, SPFILE and redo logs cannot be present on datafile volumes or archive log volumes. The same condition is applicable for ASM diskgroups.

There are two types of Oracle servers:

• Application — this server hosts the production database

• Backup — this server supports mounting or cloning of a snapshot or ISV supported backup

For more information on registering the database or backup server, see the RMC-O user guide hpe.com/storage/rmc/docs

Micro Focus Data Protector configuration RMC-O interacts directly with Data Protector to trigger the backup or restore process. RMC-O supports full and incremental level 1 to level 4 backups when performing Oracle RMAN with Data Protector backup of a database. You can also perform a full archive log backup (backup only archive logs) of the database. However, to perform archive log and database backup, you must create a Data Protector Oracle backup specification. For information on how to create a Data Protector Oracle backup specification, see the Data Protector documentation.

RMC-O performs the backup in the following ways:

• Client-side backup — A backup that is initiated from the RMC-O user interface

• Server-side backup — A backup that is initiated from the Data Protector user interface using the Data Protector Cell Manager

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Client-side backup For Oracle RMAN with Data Protector, RMC-O performs the following tasks during client-side backup:

• Creates an online, offline, datafile, or archive log only snapshot for the database or archive log destination.

• Mounts the snapshot on the backup server.

• Starts up a clone database in mounted mode using the mounted snapshot on the RMC-O backup server.

• Calls Data Protector CLI (omnib) to initiate a backup of the clone database.

• Removes the cloned database.

• Unmounts the snapshot.

Server-side backup For Oracle RMAN with Data Protector, RMC-O performs the following tasks during server-side backup:

• Data Protector Cell Manager executes the DP_pre.<backup_specification> script on the RMC-O backup server.

• The DP_pre.<backup_specification> script creates an online, offline, datafile, or archive log snapshot, mounts it on the RMC-O backup server, starts up a cloned database in MOUNTED mode, and then returns control to Data Protector.

• Data Protector executes the RMAN script (defined in the Data Protector backup specification) to back up the cloned database.

• Data Protector executes DP_pre.<backup_specification> on the RMC-O backup server to clean up the cloned database and snapshot.

For more information on Data Protector and RMC-O configuration, refer to the HPE Recovery Manager Central for Oracle user guide at http://h20566.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c05205761

Test scenarios The following use cases were tested with HPE RMC-O and are explained below:

• No impact production backup of Oracle DB using RMC

• Database cloning and using it as dev/test environment

• Restore directly from snapshot

• Express Protect of Oracle database

• Restoring the snapshots to the same or another HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage

• Backup and restore using Data Protector (RMAN)

• Oracle RMAN backups using RMC-O

• RMC-O and HPE StoreOnce deduplication

• RMC catalog protection using StoreOnce

• RMC catalyst copy features

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For all test cases a test database of around 2TB was used with multiple tablespaces created. Snapshots were taken live while the transactions were running to simulate the production environment. Restore time was calculated for full restore and documented to showcase the achievable recovery time objective in case of disaster or failure of the primary site. Table 1 shows the database sizes used for all the test cases. Around 2TB of space was used for data and archive log files.

Table 1. Oracle database size used for testing

Oracle files ASM volume name Size

Oracle Data files DATA 2 * 750GB

Oracle archive log ARCHIVELOG 300GB

Oracle Redolog file REDOLOG 400GB

No impact production backup of Oracle DB using RMC To measure the impact of a backup operation on Oracle transactions, we took an online backup of the Oracle database while transactions were running using the HammerDB load driver tool. Figure 4 shows the impact of the snapshot operation on Oracle transactions.

Based on the graph in figure 6 the transactions were affected for approximately 20 seconds and transaction processing was restored to normal after that. This shows that with minimal impact on a production database, RMC-O was able to take a snapshot and protect the backup using HPE StoreOnce or other backup device.

Snapshot Start Snapshot End

Figure 6. Impact of snapshot operation on Oracle transactions

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Database cloning and using it as dev/test environment Once the snapshot has been taken, we can mount that snapshot on a backup server, or any other server, and clone the database to use it for debug or test purposes. We can also use the mounted database on a backup server to take file or media level backups using many applications like NetBackup and Data Protector. In our test environment the database was cloned from the snapshot within 25 minutes. Figure 7 shows the cloned database on the backup server.

Figure 7. Cloning production database on backup server

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Restore directly from snapshot A database can be restored directly from a snapshot. To restore the database using RMC, go to snapshots, click on action, and click restore. A window appears as shown in figure 8. Click the Yes, Restore button.

Figure 8. HPE RMC Restore Snapshot options

To restore the snapshot, the database must be shut down. While restoring, HPE RMC-O detaches the disks and rolls back the database to the point in time the snapshot was taken. Once restore has completed, rescan the ASM disks and start the database. This can be used to roll back the database.

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Express Protect of Oracle database The RMC Express Protect feature facilitates a flat backup of HPE 3PAR StoreServ snapshot data to an HPE StoreOnce Backup system. This reduces the expense and complexity associated with traditional backup server-centric infrastructures. Flat backup with StoreOnce RMC delivers much faster backups and restores than traditional backup methods. For configuration of Express Protect backup/restore, refer to hpe.com/storage/rmc/docs

HPE RMC allows two types of snapshots: full and auto. With the auto backup feature, only changed data is backed up and stored as a synthetic full backup. We tested both full and auto backup with Express Protect. With auto backup, only changed data will be copied to HPE StoreOnce. To showcase that only changed data will be copied, we took a full backup first, which is shown in the upper portion of figure 9. After the full backup, around 100GB of data was added to the database and then Express Protect was used to take an auto backup. Although it takes a complete snapshot of the data and archive log disks, it only backs up the changed data to HPE StoreOnce as shown in the lower portion of figure 9.

Figure 9. Express Protect auto backup copying only changed data to HPE StoreOnce

Restoring snapshots to the same or another HPE 3PAR StoreServ storage One of the best features of RMC-O is that we can restore the protected backups from StoreOnce to the native HPE 3PAR StoreServ or to a remote HPE 3PAR StoreServ. In case of disaster or hardware failure, when the primary HPE 3PAR StoreServ is not available, we can create the new volumes on a remote HPE 3PAR StoreServ and restore the snapshots there. To do this we would have created the protection policy and protected the snapshot using HPE StoreOnce. For more information on how to create protection policies, refer to hpe.com/storage/rmc/docs. To restore to a remote HPE 3PAR StoreServ, in HPE RMC, go to the Databases page, click on Protection view and click on Protects. Select the StoreOnce protection, click on Actions and select Restore as shown in figure 10.

Figure 10. Restoring database from StoreOnce Express Protect

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Figure 11 shows the new window where we need to select the HPE 3PAR StoreServ and volume details. Select Restore Express Protect to another volume, provide the volumes and storage system details and click on Restore.

Figure 11. Restore Operation to “Restore Express Protect to another volume”

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The restore operation was successful and the Oracle database was bought up on an alternate server within 28 minutes as shown in figure 12.

Figure 12. Restore job summary for Oracle database restore

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Backup and restore using Micro Focus Data Protector (RMAN) Micro Focus Data Protector integration with HPE RMC-O helps us to back up the database using DP RMAN scripts. Using Data Protector, RMAN helps to take multi-stream backups to HPE StoreOnce or any other backup media. To perform the backup operation using Data Protector, HPE RMC-O mounts the snapshot and clones the database on the backup server. Using DP RMAN scripts, Data Protector takes a backup of the cloned database without impacting the production database. Since it clones and brings up the database on the backup server, it verifies the crash consistency of the snapshot. Instead of storing the entire snapshot to a catalyst store, it stores only the database files, which makes recovery easy and fast. Also Data Protector supports four levels of incremental backups which helps to reduce the restore time. For more information on how to configure backup using RMC and Data Protector, refer to hpe.com/storage/rmc/docs. Figure 13 shows a DP RMAN protection policy which shows the option for full or four incremental backup types.

Figure 13. Protecting a backup using RMAN DP and HPE RMC-O

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Data Protector (RMAN) provides granular recovery of a database at the datafile and tablespace level as shown in figure 14. We can also restore the database to an alternate server.

Figure 14. HPE Recovery Manager Central – Restore Options using Data Protector (RMAN)

With incremental backups, restore operations will be faster and more simple compare to full restores.

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Oracle RMAN backups using RMC-O RMC-O is capable of taking database backups using RMAN scripts. This helps Oracle DBAs take backups using RMAN and store them in any backup device. In our testing, we created an NFS share on StoreOnce and mounted it on a backup server. Using RMC-O, the RMAN backup was taken by creating the backup policy and protection policy. Using RMAN we can take multiple channel backups and restore. Figure 15 shows how to protect the snapshot using RMAN backup, after backup and protection policies have been created. RMC-O with RMAN backups provide full, incremental and cumulative incremental backup options. Incremental and cumulative incremental backups will reduce the time and space required for backup operations.

Figure 15. HPE Recovery Manager Central - Protect the snapshot using RMAN backup

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For restoration we need to mount the HPE StoreOnce NFS share on the Oracle server and restore from the RMC-O GUI. Note that the NFS mount directory name should be the same as the NFS mount point used for the backup. Database restoration operation can be full, datafiles only or tablespace only as shown in figure 16.

Figure 16. HPE Recovery Manager Central – Restore Options using Oracle RMAN

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RMC-O and HPE StoreOnce deduplication RMC works mainly based on snapshot technology. It takes snapshots of the database LUNs, and backs those up to the HPE StoreOnce Catalyst store using the protection policy specified. Each snapshot size will be the same as the size of the LUN. To avoid unnecessary copy of the data and to save backup device space, HPE StoreOnce uses deduplication technology to reduce the backup size and store the backup files optimally in StoreOnce. HPE StoreOnce systems with StoreOnce Catalyst is the only disk-based federated deduplication solution providing seamless backup and recovery. Figure 17 shows that although more than 6 full backups (each of 1TB size) have been taken by HPE StoreOnce, the space requirement on HPE StoreOnce has been reduced by a factor of 5. With a large number of backups, HPE StoreOnce deduplication technology can reduce the amount of backup data you need to store by up to 90 percent.

Figure 17. HPE StoreOnce deduplication capabilities

Using the Catalyst Copy feature of HPE StoreOnce, you can copy only the deduped backups to a secondary HPE StoreOnce site to make your environment disaster tolerant.

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RMC catalog protection using StoreOnce RMC-O stores all the metadata information about the backups in its appliance server. For disaster recovery and high availability purposes you can protect the backups using the catalog protection feature. Go to RMC, click on catalog protection, and create a catalog protection by providing the StoreOnce catalog details, login, and password as shown in figure 18.

Figure 18. HPE RMC catalog protection options

When disaster occurs, protected metadata can be imported to a new RMC appliance.

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Disaster recovery using StoreOnce Catalyst Copy and HPE RMC catalog protection For disaster recovery needs, RMC also supports StoreOnce Catalyst Copy for copying Express Protect backups to one or more remote StoreOnce appliances. RMC and the StoreOnce Catalyst Copy feature allow copying the HPE StoreOnce Catalyst from the primary HPE StoreOnce to the secondary HPE StoreOnce by configuring Catalyst Copy. Figure 19 shows how data volumes are DR protected using two HPE StoreOnce systems.

Figure 19. HPE RMC catalyst copy map view

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Oracle data volumes have been protected using StoreOnce Express Protect on the primary site HPE StoreOnce. Using the Catalyst Copy feature, a backup has been copied to the secondary site HPE StoreOnce. In case of disaster, install a new HPE RMC appliance on the secondary site, import the RMC metadata stored in the secondary StoreOnce to the new appliance using Restore Catalog as shown in figure 20.

Figure 20. HPE RMC Restore Catalog options

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Once you import the catalog, the appliance will reboot. After reboot you can see all the protected backups in the secondary site HPE RMC appliance under the Databases page as shown in figure 21.

Figure 21. Database snapshots and backups visible after catalog import at secondary site

Snapshots backed up on StoreOnce are self-contained volumes that can be restored back to the secondary HPE 3PAR StoreServ array in the event of a disaster.

Analysis and recommendation There are three key methods to back up and restore:

• Server-centric traditional backup method: Which connects to the application server with data typically flowing through the application and backup server. This will have an impact on the performance of the application.

• RMC Express Protect: This facilitates the backup of HPE 3PAR StoreServ snapshot data to an HPE StoreOnce Backup system directly. This has very minimal impact on the performance of the application.

• RMC Snapshot with ISV backup method: This method takes the backup of the application using HPE 3PAR StoreServ snapshot from HPE RMC, clones the database on the backup server, and using ISV backup (Data Protector/NetBackup/RMAN) backs up the data to HPE StoreOnce. This will also have minimum impact on the performance of the application. But the time taken to backup and restore will be more compared to Express Protect.

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Both backup and restoration were tried using snapshots with ISV backup and Express Protect to compare the time taken for backup and restore. Figure 22 shows the time taken for around 2TB database size. Backup/timings has been normalized to compare the results.

Figure 22. Backup time (normalized) comparison for Express Protect and Traditional backup methods

What we have noticed is the Express Protect backup to HPE StoreOnce takes significantly less time compared to snapshots with ISV backups. This is because snapshots with ISV backups using DP and Oracle RMAN have overhead associated with mounting the database on the backup server and copying the individual files to HPE StoreOnce. The RMC Express Protect feature facilitates the flat backup of HPE 3PAR StoreServ snapshot data to the HPE StoreOnce Backup system. This reduces the expense and complexity associated with traditional backup server-centric infrastructures. Flat backup with StoreOnce RMC delivers faster backups compared to traditional backup methods.

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Also we tested database restoration using Express Protect restore and using snapshot with ISV backup. Figure 23 shows the comparison of the time taken to restore a database using both methods.

Figure 23. Restore time (normalized) comparison for Express Protect and Traditional backup methods

Express Protect restore is 4 times faster than the snapshot with ISV restore method. With HPE RMC-O, we can reduce the recovery time of the database, which makes it well suited for business-critical applications, which have stringent recovery time objectives (RTO). Applications which don’t have stringent RTO/RPO requirements and need granular level recovery of the database may go with snapshot with ISV backup.

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The HPE StoreOnce deduplication feature helps to reduce the backup space consumed due to frequent full or incremental backups. Most of the business-critical applications, having low recovery point objectives (RPO), need frequent backups of the data which requires more space on backup devices. HPE StoreOnce Catalyst store and deduplication technology reduce the consumption of backup device space by only copying the changed blocks. With an increasing number of backups, the deduplication ratio also increases. The graph in figure 24 shows the relationship between the number of backups and the deduplication ratio.

Figure 24. Relation between number of backups and deduplication ratio

With an increased number of backups, the deduplication ratio also increases. A larger number of backups results in more duplicated data, which will be deduplicated to a higher degree, resulting in a reduction of the space consumed on the backup device. With a sufficient number of backups, using deduplication technology can reduce the amount of backup data space you need by up to 90 percent.

Summary Customers who run critical production applications on Oracle databases cannot afford to have any performance impact with their applications while running backups. Be it for data protection, retention, or replication, the operations need to be carried out without any impact to the business-critical implementations that may span petabytes of storage. HPE has an integrated end-to-end solution for such demanding workloads and makes sure that customer data is protected and replicated for addressing critical backup recovery and disaster recovery scenarios.

By leveraging snapshot based backups that are truly integrated with Oracle databases, we eliminate server-centric traditional backup processes that can impact application performance with data typically flowing through the application and backup server. By using a storage based replication approach for data replication across sites, the true integration follows for the disaster recovery scenario as well.

HPE, by combining their portfolio of products, truly demonstrates the power of converged infrastructure with the right integration for protecting customer data and hence their critical business. This helps our customers to achieve their RPO and RTO goals with ease of operations on a day-to-day basis.

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Reference Architecture Page 30

Appendix A: Bill of materials Table 2 lists the major components used for testing. Additional spare parts are not covered in this list.

Note Part numbers are at time of testing and are subject to change. The bill of materials does not include complete support options or other rack and power requirements. If you have questions regarding ordering, please consult with your HPE Reseller or HPE Sales Representative for more details: hpe.com/us/en/services/consulting.html

Table 2. Bill of materials

Qty Part number Description

HPE DL380 Gen9 24SFF CTO servers

3 767032-B21 HPE DL380 Gen9 24SFF CTO Server

3 767032-B21 ABA U.S. - English localization

3 817943-L21 HPE DL380 Gen9 E5-2650v4 FIO Kit

3 817943-B21 HPE DL380 Gen9 E5-2650v4 Kit

48 805353-B21 HPE 32GB 2Rx4 PC4-2400T-L Kit

6 718162-B21 HPE 1.2TB 6G SAS 10K 2.5in DP ENT SC HDD

3 665243-B21 HPE Ethernet 10Gb 2P 560FLR-SFP+ Adptr

3 749974-B21 HPE Smart Array P440ar/2G FIO Controller

3 727250-B21 HPE 12Gb DL380 Gen9 SAS Expander Card

3 733660-B21 HPE 2U SFF Easy Install Rail Kit

6 AJ764A HPE 82Q 8Gb Dual Port PCI-e FC HBA

3 720478-B21 HPE 500W FS Plat Ht Plg Pwr Supply Kit

3 BD505A HPE iLO Adv incl 3yr TSU 1-Svr Lic

Reference Architecture Page 31

Qty Part number Description

HPE 3PAR StoreServ and HPE StoreOnce

1 H6Z13A HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8440 4N Fld Int Base

2 H6Z00A HPE 3PAR 8000 4-pt 16Gb FC Adapter

28 K2P98A HPE 3PAR 8000 600GB SAS 15K SFF HDD

12 K2P88A HPE 3PAR 8000 480GB Non-AFC SFF SSD

1 L7B93A HPE 3PAR 8440 OS Suite Base LTU

320 L7B94A HPE 3PAR 8440 OS Suite Drive LTU

20 E7Y71A HPE 3PAR 8000 SFF(2.5in) Fld Int Dr Encl

240 K2P98A HPE 3PAR 8000 600GB SAS 15K SFF HDD

120 K2P88A HPE 3PAR 8000 480GB Non-AFC SFF SSD

2 E7Y71A HPE 3PAR 8000 SFF(2.5in) Fld Int Dr Encl

24 K2P98A HPE 3PAR 8000 600GB SAS 15K SFF HDD

16 K2P88A HPE 3PAR 8000 480GB Non-AFC SFF SSD

2 E7Y71A HPE 3PAR 8000 SFF(2.5in) Fld Int Dr Encl

28 K2P98A HPE 3PAR 8000 600GB SAS 15K SFF HDD

12 K2P88A HPE 3PAR 8000 480GB Non-AFC SFF SSD

1 K2R29A HPE 3PAR StoreServ RPS Service Processor

1 BD362A HPE 3PAR StoreServ Mgmt/Core SW Media

1 BD363A HPE 3PAR OS Suite Latest Media

1 BD365A HPE 3PAR SP SW Latest Media

8 QK734A HPE Premier Flex LC/LC OM4 2f 5m Cbl

12 E7V95A HPE 10m Mini SAS HD Active Optical Cable

2 BB915A HPE StoreOnce 5100 48TB System

The HPE StoreOnce QuickSpecs can be viewed as HTML at: http://h20195.www2.hpe.com/V2/gethtml.aspx?docname=c04328820

Reference Architecture Page 32

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© Copyright 2017-2018 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

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a00005188enw, June 2018, Rev. 1

Resources and additional links HPE Reference Architectures hpe.com/info/ra

HPE Recovery Manager Central documentation hpe.com/storage/rmc/docs

Contact Hewlett Packard Enterprise hpe.com/contact

HPE Servers hpe.com/servers

HPE Storage hpe.com/storage

HPE Networking hpe.com/networking

HPE Technology Consulting Services hpe.com/us/en/services/consulting.html

RMAN backup oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/availability/rman-overview-096633.html

Oracle backup methods https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14220/backrec.htm

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