Version 1.

1
July 2024

Oracle Data Protection

Deployment Using Cohesity
Oracle Adapter
Options and Instructions to Deploy Cohesity Data
Protection for Oracle Servers

ABSTRACT
The document provides a workflow to help deploy Oracle Data Protection using Cohesity Oracle
Adapter for a customer's environment.
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Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 4
Oracle Data Protection Methods ................................................................................... 4
Deciding an Oracle Data Protection Method ................................................................ 4
Select a Deployment Option .......................................................................................... 5
Oracle Adapter Considerations ..................................................................................... 6
Using Cohesity Oracle Adapter ............................................................................. 7
Install Oracle Adapter .................................................................................................... 7
Register Oracle Source ................................................................................................. 8
Creating an Oracle Protection Group .......................................................................... 12
To Create an Oracle Protection Group ........................................................................................ 12

Backup Database......................................................................................................... 20
Recover Database ....................................................................................................... 21
Alternate Database Recovery ..................................................................................................... 25
Overwrite Original Database ....................................................................................................... 26
Create Cohesity View with DB Files ............................................................................................ 26
Instant Recovery......................................................................................................................... 29
Container Databases (CDB) and Pluggable Databases (PDB) .................................................... 30
Oracle Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) ................................................................................. 30

Clone Database ........................................................................................................... 30

Performance and Troubleshooting ...................................................................... 33
Performance Considerations ....................................................................................... 33
Troubleshooting Tips ................................................................................................... 34
To Download a Debug Log ......................................................................................................... 34

Troubleshooting Tools ................................................................................................. 36

The sbt_perf_test usage Tool ..................................................................................................... 36
Sample init file for database w2cdbbr1 (initw2cdbbr1.ora) ........................................................... 37
Duplicate set example if source database is built using OMF ...................................................... 38
Duplicate set example if source database is NOT built using OMF .............................................. 38

Appendix: Product Documentation ...................................................................... 39

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Your Feedback .................................................................................................... 40

About the Authors ................................................................................................ 40
Document Version History ................................................................................... 40

Tables
Table 1: Oracle Data Protection Selection ......................................................................... 5

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Introduction

This document provides a step-by-step guide for customers to deploy the Oracle Data Protection
using Cohesity Oracle Adapter for their environment.

Oracle Data Protection Methods

The Cohesity Oracle solution extends the scalability of Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) and
provides the features and tools needed for automating backups, recoveries, and managing your
data within a single pane of glass.
Cohesity offers three backup methods:
• Cohesity Oracle Adapter
• Cohesity Oracle SBT Plug-in
• RMAN NFS Target
This guide is focused on the beneficial use of Cohesity Oracle Adapter.
Cohesity Oracle Adapter: Cohesity Oracle Adapter integrates with RMAN to provide application-
consistent backup and recovery for Oracle databases. The adapter provides a unified user
interface allowing users to manage and provision all the Oracle database protection services,
supporting Oracle single instance, RAC, or Oracle Multitenant databases. Additionally, Cohesity
Oracle Adapter provides an incremental forever backup approach eliminating the need for regular
expensive full backups.

Cohesity Oracle RMAN SBT Plug-in: The Cohesity Oracle SBT Plug-in allows you to use
Cohesity on-premises or multi-cloud data platform as target storage for backing up Oracle
databases. For more details, see Oracle Data Protection Deployment Using Cohesity Oracle SBT
Plug-in.

Cohesity Oracle RMAN NFS Target: Cohesity can be presented as an NFS volume to be used as
inline-deduplication Oracle databases backup target. Oracle RMAN can use the Cohesity on-
premises or multi-cloud data platform as a deduplication target and automatically leverage
Cohesity's QoS policy for optimal data tiering as well as global deduplication and compression to
reduce secondary storage consumption. For more details, see Oracle Data Protection Deployment
Using RMAN NFS Target.

Deciding an Oracle Data Protection Method

The decision on which method to use for data protection of Oracle on Cohesity depends on the
operating system, Oracle configuration, and type of database. For self-managed Cohesity
deployments either on-prem or in the cloud, use the following decision process to choose an
Oracle Data Protection Method.
You might choose the Oracle Adapter if you:
1. Want a fully automated data protection method for Oracle databases.

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2. Don’t want to write, manage, or update RMAN scripts.

3. Want incremental-forever backups (no need for Periodic fulls).
4. Want instant recovery of your Oracle databases.
5. Want to create near-instant, zero-cost clones of your Oracle databases for non-prod use cases.
6. Want advanced, centralized management, and reporting of your Oracle backups.

Select a Deployment Option

Use the table below to choose a Deployment Option for Oracle Data Protection based on your
environment.

Table 1: Oracle Data Protection Selection

MULTI-
OPERATING SINGLE STANDBY / ORACLE
RAC TENANCY
SYSTEM INSTANCE DATAGUARD TDE
(CDB/PDB)

Linux (RHEL, Centos,

OEL 6/7/8), Oracle Adapter*,
(SuSE/SLES 11, 12, RMAN SBT, or RMAN NFS Target
15)

Oracle
Windows Adapter
(2012, 2012 R2, 2016, RMAN SBT, RMAN SBT, or RMAN SMB Target
2019) or RMAN
SMB Target

Oracle Adapter,
AIX
RMAN SBT, or RMAN NFS RMAN SBT, or RMAN NFS Target
7.1, 7.2
Target

HPUX
(All)

Solaris
RMAN NFS Target
(All)

Other DB and OS (Ex

- Oracle 10, RHEL 5)

* CDB/PDB supports only 6.6.0x and later.

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* Oracle supported by version (Oracle Adapter (11gR2 and above), SBT (11gR2 and above),
RMAN-NFS (all versions)
* See Cohesity Software Support Matrix to validate your specific configuration details.

Oracle Adapter Considerations

Cohesity Oracle Adapter uses RMAN incremental merge backup method, which is an incremental
forever technology. It supports all sizes of databases. However, incremental forever does not mean
it is always faster than full backup. It depends on the database size, change rate, and your
Cohesity platform. If a customer is expecting Oracle Adapter backup to be faster than full backup,
then use the following size recommendations as general guidance. If the database size is not in
this range, more tuning on agent or platform will be required.
The following databases are ideal candidates to use Oracle Adapter:
• You can use Cohesity Oracle Adapter for all the supported configurations irrespective of the
database size.
• Databases with a change rate greater than 3 - 5 TB between successive backups may need
additional configurations in the adapter. Cohesity recommends customers to contact Cohesity
to get the additional tuning parameters reviewed.
• Automatic scheduling of database backups with out-of-box parallelism to meet backup SLA.
• Both databases and the Cohesity cluster are in the same facility, either both on-prem or in
cloud. Cohesity recommends the source and Cohesity cluster should be in the DC for best
performance.
• A cold database backup is not supported by the Oracle Adapter.
• Cohesity adapter before 6.6.0c doesn’t support concurrent database and archive logs backup
tasks. Not too frequent archive log backups. Consider running the archive log once every two
hours or four hours.

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Using Cohesity Oracle Adapter

This section focuses on the Cohesity Oracle Adapter option. The Cohesity Oracle Adapter
integrates with Oracle Recovery Manager to provide application-consistent backup and recovery
for Oracle databases. The adapter provides a unified user interface allowing users to manage and
provision all the Oracle database protection services, supporting Oracle single instance, RAC, or
Oracle Multitenant databases.

NOTE: The instructions in this document are for version 6.6, however, some screenshots have been taken
using version 6.5.1.

Install Oracle Adapter

1. Review and validate all prerequisites are met:
a) Supported Versions
b) Additional Prerequisites
c) See Ports used for Oracle Adapter and confirm that required ports are open for
communication with the Cohesity cluster.

There are several commands to test whether the ports are open. Depending on what
packages are installed on the server, the following commands can be used to test whether
the ports are open or not.

Here are the examples to run the commands assuming one of the Cohesity node VIPs is
10.99.1.65.

nc -zv 10.99.1.65 11113

curl -XGET 10.99.1.65:11113/flagz
telnet 10.99.1.65 11111
nmap -Pn -p 11111 10.99.1.65

2. Determine which Operating System account will run the Cohesity agent on the Linux Oracle
server:
a) Run as root (recommended): Having root run the Cohesity service requires the minimum
amount of changes to the sudoers file. For more information, see Running Agent with
ROOT.
b) Run as a non-root user: Running as a non-root user requires modifications to the sudoers
file. See Sudoers Permissions for Service Account User for commands required for the
non-root user to be allowed to run as root.

i. If the account chosen is a service account that does not own the Oracle binaries, this
account must belong to an OS group that enables the account to hold SYSDBA or

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SYSBACKUP privileges as defined here: Running Agent with OS Service Account

User.

NOTE: AIX can only be installed as a ROOT user.

ii. For more information about configuring sudoers for use with the Cohesity Oracle
Adapter, see Sudoers List for Cohesity’s Oracle Adapter.

3. Download and install the Agent.

a) In the Cohesity home page, select Data Protection > Sources.
b) Click Download Cohesity Agent near the top-right of the page.

i. Linux: Offers both script installer and RPM options. The script installer option is the
recommended approach. For more information, see Install the Linux Agent.

ii. AIX: Offers the Java Agent. For more information, see Install the AIX Java Agent.

iii. Windows: see Install the Windows Agent.

c) Copy the Agent to the Oracle server and complete the installation.

Register Oracle Source

Registering Oracle is a two-step process. You first must register it as a physical server, then as an
Oracle server.
To register Oracle source as a Physical Server:
1. In the Cohesity Dashboard, select Data Protection > Sources, then click Register > Physical
Server from the drop-down menu.

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2. In the Hostname field, add the Server Name or IP Address.

If you prefer a configured interface group, you can select it here, else, Cohesity uses Auto
Select by default. Click Register.

NOTE: To register an Oracle RAC, use the scan-name or scan-ip for the source registration. Similarly,
for registering an Oracle Veritas Cluster Server (VCS), use the virtual resource name or virtual IP for
source registration.

3. In the Sources page, select the Physical Server (e.g., oraeast) from the list, click the ellipsis

icon ( ) at the right, and then select Register as Oracle Server from the menu.

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4. Select the Authentication Type for the database server as either OS Authentication or
Database Authentication.
For most implementations, OS Authentication will be leveraged. See Oracle Authentication
Method Requirement table for authentication requirements by specific operations.

If Database Authentication is selected, enter the Username and Password of the database
account.

NOTE: For Database Authentication, a database account with either SYSDBA or SYSBACKUP
privileges must exist in all databases on the server being registered. Individual database accounts for
separate databases residing on a single database server are not supported.

5. Click Register to complete the Oracle Source registration.

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6. Once the Source has been registered, select the source to verify that all databases are
successfully discovered.

When first selecting the source the default view is the Protected Objects screen, which will not
show any objects since a Protection Group has not been created yet.

7. Click the All Objects button to see the databases that have been discovered.

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TIP: Click on the eyeball icon next to the database to view the details of the database such as Archive
Log Enabled (Required), BCT Enabled (Recommended), Database Type, Oracle Home, etc.

NOTE: If no databases are discovered or if databases are missing from the Oracle source, see
Troubleshooting Tips for more information.

Creating an Oracle Protection Group

A Protection Group uses the schedules and settings defined in the policy to determine when and
how backups are captured, archived, or replicated.

To Create an Oracle Protection Group

1. From the main dashboard, select Data Protection > Protection, click Protect in the upper
right-hand corner and select Databases > Oracle Database to start the Protection Group
creation.

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2. Select the Oracle databases that you want to protect. All Oracle Servers that are registered
with the Cohesity cluster are displayed and individual databases can be selected. Click the
pencil/edit icon to the right of a database being selected to configure specific options for the
selected database.

3. Upon clicking the pencil/edit icon, the Options screen appears allowing you to configure
Oracle channels and to manage the archive log deletion.

4. By default, Cohesity selects the number of default RMAN channels for protection using the
following logic:
RMAN channels = MIN(2* # of Cohesity nodes, 2* # of target server CPU)

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To modify the default, click Select specific node(s) and modify the number of Channels to
allocate (e.g., 5 in this example).

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NOTES:

• The above example illustrates channel allocation for a standalone Oracle server. In a
RAC environment, all nodes of the RAC are displayed, and channels can be allocated
over individual RAC nodes.
• If Oracle Standard Edition is installed, Oracle will not allow multiple RMAN channels, so
setting this to a number higher than 1 will not increase the number of RMAN channels.

• DB Authentication must be configured to use multi-channel (see step 5), multi-node

RMAN channels in a RAC protection group as shown below (10.19.2.100):

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5. To configure archive log deletion for the database, enable the Delete Archive Log toggle and
click Save. Cohesity will not delete the archive logs by default.

NOTE: Once archive log deletions are enabled, they are configured to be kept on disk for one day
and then deleted. To change this setting and have the archive logs deleted immediately after being
protected, change this value to 0 as shown above.

You must set the archive log deletion setting for each database.

6. Enter a Name for the Protection Group.

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7. Select an existing policy for the Protection Group or click Create Policy to define a new one.

NOTE: There are several options available when creating a Policy. For more information, see
Create or Edit a Standard Policy.

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8. Specify the Log Backup schedule and retention for the database logs.

NOTE: If a daily incremental backup is configured, there will be an option in the Protection Group
creation screen to select the Start Time (not shown). If the interval is less than 24 hours, the start time
will not be configurable, and the backups will run based on the number of hours set between backups
in the policy.

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9. Next, configure any Additional Settings that you want for the Protection Group.

NOTE: The Oracle Adapter leverages NFS mounts on Linux/AIX. The additional settings have an
option as to whether or not these NFS mounts should persist on the database server once the jobs
have completed. By default, the NFS mounts are set to persist. If you want to remove these mounts,
set the Persist Mountpoints option to No.

For more information see, Protect Oracle Database.

10. Click Save.

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Backup Database
Database backups and log backups run off the schedules determined by the policy assigned to the
Protection Group. If you want an ad-hoc backup, use the Run Now option.
To Run an Ad-hoc Backup:

1. Hover the cursor over the desired Protection Group, click the ellipsis icon ( ) and select Run
Now from the menu.

2. In the Run Now options screen, you can go with the default option Backup all Objects in the
Protection Group or select Backup only selected Objects in the Protection Group.

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3. Additionally, the default Backup Type is Incremental, but you can run either a Full or Log
backup from here as well.

NOTE: While the Protection Group is actively backing up the databases, job details can be viewed within
the UI by selecting the Protection Group then selecting the desired backup run, and then selecting the
desired database.
See Troubleshooting - Backups for details on where to find logs that will assist in resolving any issues
arising during backup.

Recover Database
There are several options offered when recovering Oracle Adapter backups.
• Recover the database back to its original location.
• Recover the database as a new database on the same server or to an alternate server.
• Recover the native RMAN backup to a mounted view.
• Recover an individual pluggable database.
• Perform an ‘instant recovery’ which creates a database clone on the Cohesity cluster and
migrates the database back to primary storage while the database is online.

To Recover a Database
1. From the main dashboard, navigate to Data Protection > Recoveries.

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2. Click Recover and select Databases > Oracle from the drop-down menu.

3. Search for the database to be recovered by entering the name (partial or full name), then select
the database and click Continue.

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4. Once the recovery point-in-time is set, the number of streams used for the restore can be
configured, same as with the backup. If a customer is recovering to a RAC environment, you
can define multiple channels over multiple nodes to optimize the time taken to recover the
database.

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5. Select the desired Recovery Option.

o Alternate Database
o Overwrite Original Database
o Create Cohesity View with DB Files
For more information about specific recovery options, see Recover Oracle Database.

NOTE:
• When restoring Oracle databases, recovering to an alternate platform (i.e. AIX > Linux) is not
supported because an RMAN Convert is needed for this type of operation.
• Oracle recovery to later versions is not supported because an Oracle upgrade would be required
prior to opening the databases.

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Alternate Database Recovery

When recovering a database as an ‘Alternate Database’, the RMAN Duplicate process is invoked,
restoring the protected database as a completely new database with a new Database ID (DBID).
You can recover the database to the same or an alternate server and the entire process will be
managed by RMAN, removing any administrative actions from the end user.
1. Enter the values for both the Oracle Home and Base Directory fields for the destination
Oracle installation.

NOTE: These values can be determined by echoing the $ORACLE_HOME and $ORACLE_BASE
environment variables in the destination Oracle environment.

2. Enter the Database Name.

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NOTE:
• The database name must conform to Oracle rules for naming instances (max of 8
alphanumeric characters).
• RAC restores to Alternate Databases will be restored as standalone instances. RAC can
be restored through a single node via configured channels option.

Overwrite Original Database

The Overwrite Original Database option recovers the database back to its original location. There
are no additional details required to be provided by the user.
RAC restores the database using the Overwrite Original Database option and will be recovered
as RAC. Overwriting the original database destroys the original database.

Create Cohesity View with DB Files

While both the Alternate Database and Overwrite Original Database options recover the
database as a whole, there are situations where a user may want to recover a tablespace, one or
more datafiles, some archive logs, a controlfile, or an spfile. For this granularity requirement, the
native RMAN backup can be made available to the user via an NFS mount using the Create
Cohesity View with DB Files option.

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NOTE: This process is extremely fast as it does not physically move any data.

To Create a Cohesity View with DB Files option:

1. Select Create Cohesity View with DB Files.
2. Search for and specify the Oracle Host destination server (which must be registered with the
Cohesity cluster).
3. Enter the name of the View to be created.
4. Click Recover.

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5. Once completed, start your own RMAN session and run an RMAN ‘catalog’ command so that
RMAN is aware of the backup.
6. You can then run any RMAN script against this backup.

NOTE: when using the recovery to a view option, there will be one NFS mount for every node in the
Cohesity cluster. All the mounts point to the same View and contain identical contents. The RMAN
“catalog start with” command should be used to ensure all mount paths are cataloged.

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Instant Recovery
Instant Recovery is a new feature introduced in Cohesity version 6.6 that builds off of our clone
capabilities (discussed in the next section). This recovery option gives users rapid access to the
database via a clone operation. The database initially resides on the Cohesity cluster, but then the
datafiles are migrated back to primary storage without taking the database instance offline. This
outcome is very similar to the VMWare vMotion process.
To initiate Instant Recovery:
1. Select Instant Recovery as the Target.

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2. Choose either Instant Migration or Manual Migration.

a) Instant Migration. Will begin the datafile migration as soon as the database instance is
brought online, without any further interaction from the user.

b) Manual Migration. Will start the migration process at a later time specified by the user.
The migration job will show up in the Recoveries area of the UI. When ready to start the
manual migration, the user must initiate the migration from the job in the recoveries list.

NOTE: Instant Recovery relies on Oracle’s Online datafile move functionality, which was made
available in 12c, so only databases that are on Oracle 12c and later can leverage the Instant Recovery
option.

Container Databases (CDB) and Pluggable Databases (PDB)

Starting version 6.6, users can browse individual pluggable databases (PDBs) for recovery into the
original container database or into an alternate container database. You can also recover the
container database.

Oracle Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)

Cohesity supports protection and recovery of Oracle databases that are encrypted via TDE.
Cohesity does not manage the TDE keystore, but provides the ability to specify Shell Environment
variables to allow the restore to find the TDE keystore information and successfully restore and
access the database.

For more information, see Recover Oracle TDE Database.

Clone Database
Users almost always create non-production or “lower tier” databases from backups of production
databases. As databases increase in size, this process consumes significant resources, both
times to complete the process, and storage on the destination database servers.
The database clone capability allows users to stand up clones of their production databases in a
fraction of the time that it would take to run a traditional restore. Additionally, with the clone
process, there are no extra storage requirements on the destination database servers as the
database is running as a snapshot on the Cohesity cluster. Clones are meant to be temporary
databases that are refreshed often with the latest data from production.

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Ideal use cases for database clones are:

• Data validation
• Offloading of batch reporting from production servers
• Providing database copies for functional development

• Testing
To initiate a clone:
1. In the Cohesity home page, select Test & Dev.
2. Click the Clone button and select Databases.

3. Search for the database that you wish to use as a source for the clone.
4. On the Details screen, select a point-in-time from which to clone the source database.
5. Enter the Clone Destination details:
a) Destination host
b) Destination Oracle Home
c) Oracle Base Directory

NOTE: There is an option to include clone pre and post scripts. It is often a requirement to remove
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from databases in non-prod environments. A customer can
choose their own masking scripts to be run as post-clone scripts or they can choose to leverage the
DataMasque application available on the Cohesity Marketplace: https://marketplace.cohesity.com/app-
details/datamasque.

NOTE: Clones are not ideal use cases for environments such as pre-prod where the performance
requirements must match the production environment. The clone is a virtualized database running off
the Cohesity cluster and will not have the same performance characteristics as a database running on
primary storage. For performance-sensitive use cases, Cohesity recommends traditional recovery.

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NOTE: While it is possible to stand up multiple clones at the same time on the same destination server
(no additional storage is required for the database) each running Oracle instance does consume memory
and processes. Therefore, it is advisable to monitor the available resources on the destination server to
ensure that multiple Oracle instances can run simultaneously.

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Performance and Troubleshooting

This section gives you an overview of the performance factors and troubleshooting tips that you
need to consider when you use the Cohesity Oracle Adapter for Oracle data protection.

Performance Considerations
Cluster Size
As a general rule, a single RMAN channel writing to a single Cohesity node will provide somewhere
in the area of 125 MB/sec throughput (assuming no bottleneck and no other concurrent workloads).
However, the steady state performance that customers should expect is ~75 MB/sec. Every 4
nodes should yield roughly 300MB/sec, provided there are no bottlenecks in the network pipe and
assuming that the database server has the resources to push the data as fast as Cohesity can
ingest.
Ingest rates for Cohesity nodes vary based on hardware used. All flash arrays have significantly
higher throughput than hybrid nodes, but the per node throughput number mentioned above is a
good starting point. Throughput lower than 75MB/sec, for a single channel, should be investigated
further.
Throughput should be qualified only for full backups

RMAN Channels
Optimize the number of RMAN channels to take advantage of the most Cohesity cluster nodes
while not overtaxing the CPUs on the database server. See Create Oracle Protection Group.

Oracle Block Change Tracking (BCT)

Enabling BCT on the Oracle side will increase the performance of incremental backups. Without
BCT enabled, RMAN has to scan the entire database for changed blocks. However, enabling BCT
allows Oracle to maintain a file that keeps track of the changed blocks. RMAN will leverage this file
instead of scanning the entire database. Additionally, BCT will help the data protection method for
Incrementals.

RMAN Parameters
• Filesperset
For Cohesity Oracle SBT plug-in and RMAN NFS target using RMAN backup set, setting the
RMAN parameter of FILESPERSET=1 will maximize deduplication on the Cohesity cluster. For
Cohesity Oracle Adapter, setting FILESPERSET (via an Oracle Adapter Agent gflag) will not
affect deduplication on the Cohesity cluster, but it may help to tune the performance of the
overall incremental backup time.

• Section Size
In databases that have a datafile that is significantly larger than the other datafiles, a backup
will encounter a “long pole” effect where all of the RMAN channels will be finished backing up
the remainder of the datafiles, which a single RMAN channel will be processing the large
datafile, causing the entire backup to run longer. Using the RMAN SECTION SIZE parameter,
Oracle can break up the datafiles into smaller sizes to allow multiple RMAN channels to back

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up the large datafile in smaller pieces at the same time, and therefore parallelizing the backup
of that datafile to shorten the overall backup time. Additionally, smaller section size may help
to reduce the incremental merge time for larger databases Oracle supports SECTION SIZE
with backupset, as well as image copies (starting from 12c).

NOTE: For Oracle Adapter, please request Cohesity Support if you want to change the value of
SECTION SIZE or FILESPERSET when trying to improve backup performance.

Troubleshooting Tips
1. Verify Prerequisites and Review Installation Log.

o Verify all prerequisites in the adapter installation section.

o The installation log will be created in the /tmp directory of the database server.

2. Verify No Other Backups are Running

o Verify that there are no other backups running against the database being protected.
Competing backups will cause RMAN to error if archive logs have been protected and
deleted by another backup.
o If the RMAN backup performance is below the expected number for Cohesity node type
and number of nodes, look at the following factors:
▪ Network bandwidth between Oracle server and Cohesity. The best tool to measure it is
iperf3.
▪ Number of CPUs on Oracle server. Four (4) CPUs is considered to be low.
▪ The primary storage Oracle database is using. Flash storage can provide very high
throughput.
3. Review Debug Logs
As of 6.6, Debug Logs are system generated and can be used to troubleshoot Oracle
database backup, recovery, and performance issues. These logs can be downloaded (backup
logs and restore logs) as a compressed file for both successful and failed recovery job runs.

To Download a Debug Log

From the Cohesity Administration GUI, click the options icon and select Download Debug Logs.
Debug Logs will be downloaded to the local host where the Cohesity Administration GUI browser is
run from.
1. Review RMAN Logs
In 6.5.1, More detailed RMAN logs for backup are available on the database server. By default,
these logs are located on the NFS mount with the RMAN backup. The file is named
rman_shell.INFO. By default, the detailed RMAN logs for recoveries and clones will be found
in the /tmp directory. If the NFS mounts are configured to persist, this log will still be available

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when the backup completes. However, if the NFS mounts are not set to persist, this log will not
be accessible. The following agent gflags can be used to have this RMAN log write to a local
directory. One flag sets the directory and the other sets the retention for these files.

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To specify the directory path:

magneto_agent_debug_tool update-gflag-settings --
agent_gflag_settings=linux_oracle_rman_log_copy_path:<path of desired log
directory> --agent_endpoints=<oracle_source_name> --
agent_gflag_settings_effective_now=true

To specify the number of days retention for RMAN log files:

magneto_agent_debug_tool update-gflag-settings --
agent_gflag_settings=linux_oracle_rman_log_copy_keep_days:<number of days
retention> --agent_endpoints=<oracle_source_name> --
agent_gflag_settings_effective_now=true

2. Review Agent log files

o <agent install dir>/log/*INFO*
o <agent install dir>/log/*ERROR*
If there is an issue with the agent itself, the agent logs can reveal errors and messages from
agent perspective during registration of Oracle source, database recovery, and
backup/restore/clone job runs.

Troubleshooting Tools
This section describes the available troubleshooting tools used on Oracle Linux and AIX servers to
test performance with Cohesity.

The sbt_perf_test usage Tool

This tool writes output to /tmp/trace.txt file:

# Test 10 GB data write/read performance with 4 concurrent processes

./sbt_perf_test --sbt_test_mount_path sac01-ftdcoh2:/ora_sbt_lock --
sbt_test_vips 10.19.2.90 --sbt_test_block_count 40000 --sbt_test_num_channels 4
# Test 2 GB data write/read performance
./sbt_perf_test --sbt_test_mount_path sac01-ftdcoh2:/ora_sbt_lock --
sbt_test_vips 10.19.2.90 --sbt_test_block_count 8000
# Test 2 GB and with source side dedup off
./sbt_perf_test --sbt_test_mount_path sac01-ftdcoh2:/ora_sbt_lock --
sbt_test_vips 10.19.2.90 --sbt_disable_source_side_dedup true --
sbt_test_block_count 8000
# Read throughput

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The tool does write first, then read. If the tool is run with just 1 channel, you can view the
throughput result using the following command. The first line is write throughput. The second line is
read throughput. If there are four channels, you need to change “tail -2” to “tail -8”.

grep Throughput /tmp/trace.txt |tail -2

EXAMPLE: Following is the output example of 4 channels and with source-side depute on. The first
four lines are write throughput per channel. The last four lines are read throughput per channel:

Sample init file for database w2cdbbr1 (initw2cdbbr1.ora)

w2cdbbr1.__data_transfer_cache_size=0
w2cdbbr1.__db_cache_size=7918845952
w2cdbbr1.__inmemory_ext_roarea=0
w2cdbbr1.__inmemory_ext_rwarea=0
w2cdbbr1.__java_pool_size=33554432
w2cdbbr1.__large_pool_size=67108864
w2cdbbr1.__oracle_base='/u01/app/oracle'#ORACLE_BASE set from environment
w2cdbbr1.__pga_aggregate_target=3355443200
w2cdbbr1.__sga_target=10066329600
w2cdbbr1.__shared_io_pool_size=536870912
w2cdbbr1.__shared_pool_size=1476395008
w2cdbbr1.__streams_pool_size=0
*.audit_file_dest='/u01/app/oracle/admin/w2cdbbr1/adump'
*.audit_trail='db'
*.compatible='12.2.0'
*.control_files='/oradata/w2cdbbr1/controlfile/control1.ctl','/oralog/fra/
w2cdbbr1/controlfile/control2.ctl'#Restore Controlfile
*.db_block_size=8192
*.db_create_file_dest='/oradata/w2cdbbr1'
*.DB_CREATE_ONLINE_LOG_DEST_1='/oralog/fra/w2cdbbr1'
*.db_name='w2cdbbr1'
*.db_recovery_file_dest='/oralog/fra/w2cdbbr1'
*.db_recovery_file_dest_size=15162m

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*.diagnostic_dest='/u01/app/oracle'
*.dispatchers='(PROTOCOL=TCP) (SERVICE=w2cdbbr1XDB)'
*.enable_pluggable_database=true
*.log_archive_format='%t_%s_%r.dbf'
*.nls_language='AMERICAN'
*.nls_territory='AMERICA'
*.open_cursors=300
*.pga_aggregate_target=3192m
*.processes=320
*.remote_login_passwordfile='EXCLUSIVE'
*.sga_target=9574m
*.undo_tablespace='UNDOTBS1'

Duplicate set example if source database is built using OMF

# Setting
set newname for database to "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/%b';"

Duplicate set example if source database is NOT built using OMF

# Setting
set newname for database to "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/%b';"
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 1 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/system01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 3 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/sysaux01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 4 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/undotbs01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 5 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/pdbseed/system01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 6 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/pdbseed/sysaux01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 7 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/users01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 8 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/pdbseed/undotbs01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 9 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/w2pdbb/system01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 10 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/w2pdbb/sysaux01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 11 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/w2pdbb/undotbs01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 12 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/w2pdbb/users01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR TEMPFILE 1 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/temp01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR TEMPFILE 2 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/pdbseed/temp01.dbf'";
SET NEWNAME FOR TEMPFILE 3 TO "'/oradata/w2cdbbr1/w2pdbb/temp01.dbf'";
#set until time \"to_date("'2020-08-23 11:30:00','YYYY/MM/DD HH24:MI:SS'")\";
#set until sequence 15 thread 1;

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Appendix: Product Documentation

For in-depth details see the below in the online Help:

• Oracle Adapter Requirements

• Cohesity Oracle Adapter Documentation
• Cohesity Oracle Best Practices

• Oracle Adapter Troubleshooting

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 40

Your Feedback

Was this document helpful? Send us your feedback!

About the Authors

This document was authored by the Database Solution Architecture team of: Diana Yang, Dave Porco,
Sanjay Dhruv, and Matthew Ellis.
Other significant contributors include:

• Scott Lorenz, Solutions Engineer

• Aditya Tandon, Director, Product Management
• Janell Filkin, Implementation Specialist
• Kevin Hill, Mgr, Solutions Architects

• Saad Jafri, Product Solutions Architect

• Sunil Moolchandani, VP, Product Solutions
• Steve Lee, Technical Staff
• Karthick Radhakrishnan, Sr. Manager, Technical Marketing
• Subash Babu, Staff Technology Editor

Document Version History

VERSION DATE DOCUMENT VERSION HISTORY

1.1 July 2024 Republishing

1.0 June 2022 First release

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