How to Leverage OSS Storage Gateway for RMAN Backups
December 18, 2019 | 6 minute readIntroduction
One of the primary use case of Object Storage Service (OSS) Storage Gateway is Data Transfer between On-premises applications and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Apart from this, OSS Storage Gateway is a highly usable solution for Backups, Archival and Disaster Recovery. Storage Gateway is the evolution of the Storage Software Appliance which was available with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Classic (OCI-C) and on OCI its enhanced with file-to-object transparency and improved scale and performance.
This blog talks about how OSS Storage Gateway can be used along with RMAN backups to store the backups on OSS instead of tape drives.
Main Article
RMAN has the capability to read/write database backups directly to local or remote region OSS destinations from Bare Metal or Virtual Machine DB system database. Please refer the following documentation link for Backing Up a Database to Object Storage Using RMAN.
On OCI, one of the prerequisite for using OSS as backup destination is DBaaS node's Virtual Cloud network (VCN) must be configured with access to Object Storage. If Public Subnets are configured for the DBaaS nodes, accessing the object storage is pretty straight forward and no additional network configurations are required.
In case the DBaaS nodes are configured with Private network, to enable access to Objects Storage additional network configurations are required.
- For Object Storage access in the same region as the DBaaS system: Oracle recommends using a service gateway. For more information, see Service Gateway for the VCN.
- For Object Storage access in a different region than the DBaaS system: Use an NAT gateway or Use Storage Gateway. Please follow the link to configure NAT gateway for initiating connections to the internet from private subnet.
In this Blog, we will see how to use Storage Gateway to execute RMAN backups to OSS Remote Destinations from DBaaS Nodes configured with Private Subnets.
To demonstrate the usage of Storage Gateway along with RMAN, following cloud components are configured on OCI.
1. Create & Configure a VCN with Public and Private Subnet.
2. Create & Configure a DBaaS VM with Private Subnet.
3. Create & Configure a Compute Instance with Public Subnet
4. Create OSS Bucket in Local and Remote Regions.
1. Create & Configure a VCN with Public and Private Subnet.
a) Create Virtual Cloud Network:
| Property Name | Property Value |
| Name | SG_VCN01 |
| Create in Compartment | <compartment_name> |
| CIDR Block | 10.1.0.0/16 |
| DNS Resolution | Do not select the Use DNS Hostnames in this VCN check box |
| DNS Label | SGVCN01 |
| DNS Domain Name | SGVCN01.oraclevcn.com |
b) Create 1 Private Subnet & 1 Public Subnet under the VCN created in Step 1.a
| Property Name | Property Value: Private Subnet | Property Value: Public Subnet |
| Name | DB_Private_Subnet | SG_Public_Subnet |
| Subnet Type | Availability Domain Specific | Availability Domain Specific |
| Availability Domain | AD-3 | AD-3 |
| CIDR Block | 10.1.20.0/28 | 10.1.10.0/28 |
| Route Table | Default Route Table for SG_VCN01 | Default Route Table for SG_VCN01 |
| Subnet Access | Private Subnet | Public Subnet |
| DNS Resolution | Do not select the Use DNS Hostnames in this VCN check box | Do not select the Use DNS Hostnames in this VCN check box |
| DNS LABEL | dbprivatesubnet | sgpublicsubnet |
| DNS DOMAIN NAME | dbprivatesubnet.sgvcn01.oraclevcn.com | sgpublicsubnet.sgvcn01.oraclevcn.com |
| DHCP Options | Default DHCP Options for SG_VCN01 | Default DHCP Options for SG_VCN01 |
| Security List | Default Security List for SG_VCN01 | Default Security List for SG_VCN01 |
2. Create & Configure a DBaaS VM with Private Subnet.
a) Create a DBaaS instance
| Property Name | Property Value |
| Select a Compartment | <compartment_name> |
| Name your DB System | SG_RMAN_DB |
| Select an Availability Domain | AD-3 |
| Select a shape type | Virtual Machine |
| Select a shape | VM.Standard1.2 |
| Configure the DB System: Total Node Count | 1 |
| Configure the DB System: Oracle Database software edition | Enterprise Edition |
| Choose Storage Management Software | Oracle Grid Infrastructure |
| Configure storage (GB) | 256 |
| Total Storage (GB) | 712 |
| Add Public SSH Keys | <ssh keys> |
| Choose a License Type | <License_Type> |
| Specify the network information | |
| Virtual cloud network in <compartment_name> | SG_VCN01 |
| Client Subnet in <compartment_name> | DB_Private_VPN |
| Hostname prefix | SGRMANDB |
| Host domain name | dbprivatesubnet.sgvcn01.oraclevcn.com |
| Host and domain url | SGRMANDB.dbprivatesubnet.sgvcn01.oraclevcn.com |
| Database name | DB1216 |
| Database Version | 18.0.0.0 |
| PDB Name | <optional> |
| Username | Sys |
| Password | <password> |
| Confirm Password | <password> |
| Select workload type | On-Line Transaction Procession (OLTP) |
3. Create & Configure a Compute Instance with Public Subnet
| Property Name | Property Value |
| Name Your Instance | SG_HOST |
| Choose an operating system or image source | Oracle-Linux-7.7-2019.11.12-0 |
| Availability Domain | AD-3 |
| Instance Type | Virtual Machine |
| Instance Shape | VM.Standard2.4 |
| Configure Networking | |
| Virtual cloud network compartment | <compartment_name> |
| Virtual cloud network | SG_VCN01 |
| Subnet compartment | <compartment_name> |
| Subnet | SG_Public_Subet |
| Assign a public IP address | Yes |
| Boot Volume | Default boot volume size: 46.6 GB |
| Add SSH key | <ssh keys> |
Once the Compute instance is provisioned successfully, Attach a Block Volume created with the following configurations:
| Property Name | Property Value |
| Name | SGDisk01 |
| Create in Compartment | <compartment_name> |
| Availability Domain | AD-3 |
| Size in GB | 600GB |
| Compartment for Backup Policies | <compartment_name> |
| Backup Policy | Bronze |
| Virtual cloud network compartment | <compartment_name> |
| Volume Performance | Balanced |
| Encryption | Encrypt using Oracle-managed keys |
4. Create OSS Bucket in Local and Remote Regions.
| Name | Region | Storage Tier | Visibility |
| rman_local_bucket | Ashburn | Standard | Private |
| rman_remote_bucket | Pheonix | Standard | Private |
4. Install & Configure Storage Gateway with Public Subnet
Follow the steps mentioned below to configure and install Storage Gateway. For this Demo, I used the Compute instance created on OCI (Step 3) to install Storage Gateway and created two Filesystems pointing to Buckets on Local and Remote Object Storage Service.
- Installing Storage Gateway
- Logging In to the Storage Gateway Management Console
- Creating Your First File System
Note: For this Demo, create the file systems for Both Local and Remote Object Storage.
And once the Storage Gateway is created mount the file systems on the DBaaS instances following the steps available in the link pasted below:
Note: For this Demo, Mount the file systems for Both Local and Remote Object Storage.
- RMAN_LOCAL_BUCKET is configured to used the Object storage on Ashburn Region. Storage Gateway Host and DBaaS instances are provisioned on Ashburn region.
- RMAN_REMOTE_BUCKET is configured to used the Object storage on Phoenix Region
Once the steps mentioned in the sections are executed, on the DBaaS instance two NFS mount points will be available and these two NFS mount points are actually pointed to two OSS buckets created on the Local and Remote Region respectively.
[opc@sgrmandb ~]$ sudo mount -t nfs -o vers=4,port=32770 10.1.20.3:/RMAN_REMOTE_BUCKET /RMAN_REMOTE_BUCKET [opc@sgrmandb ~]$ sudo mount -t nfs -o vers=4,port=32770 10.1.20.3:/RMAN_LOCAL_BUCKET /RMAN_LOCAL_BUCKET [opc@sgrmandb ~]$ df -h 10.1.20.3:/RMAN_REMOTE_BUCKET 8.0E 0 8.0E 0% /RMAN_REMOTE_BUCKET 10.1.20.3:/RMAN_LOCAL_BUCKET 8.0E 0 8.0E 0% /RMAN_LOCAL_BUCKET [opc@sgrmandb ~]$
Now RMAN backups can use this Storage Gateway file systems mounted as NFS Mounts on the DBaaS nodes as DEVICE TYPE DISK. This option provides much more flexibility than using the OSS Buckets as DEVICE TYPE SBT when configuring the OSS Buckets for RMAN.
Utilizing some of the RMAN advanced backup features like Backup Duplexing, RMAN backup sets can be copied over to Local and Remote Region OSS buckets mounted via Storage Gateway simultaneously without executing the RMAN Backups multiple times.
RMAN> CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE DISK FORMAT '/RMAN_LOCAL_BUCKET/%U','/RMAN_REMOTE_BUCKET/%U';
RMAN> CONFIGURE DATAFILE BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 2;
RMAN> CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 2;
RMAN> BACKUP AS BACKUPSET DATABASE PLUS ARCHIVELOG;
RMAN> LIST BACKUP SUMMARY;
List of Backups
===============
Key TY LV S Device Type Completion Time #Pieces #Copies Compressed Tag
------- -- -- - ----------- --------------- ------- ------- ---------- ---
10 B A A DISK 17-DEC-19 1 2 NO TAG20191217T205822
11 B F A DISK 17-DEC-19 1 2 NO TAG20191217T205858
12 B F A DISK 17-DEC-19 1 2 NO TAG20191217T205858
13 B F A DISK 17-DEC-19 1 2 NO TAG20191217T205858
14 B A A DISK 17-DEC-19 1 2 NO TAG20191217T210024
15 B F A DISK 17-DEC-19 1 1 NO TAG20191217T210027
RMAN> LIST BACKUP TAG='TAG20191217T205822';
List of Backup Sets
===================
BS Key Size
------- ----------
10 673.67M
List of Archived Logs in backup set 10
Thrd Seq Low SCN Low Time Next SCN Next Time
---- ------- ---------- --------- ---------- ---------
1 1 1936382 16-DEC-19 1984521 16-DEC-19
1 2 1984521 16-DEC-19 2146502 17-DEC-19
Backup Set Copy #1 of backup set 10
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time Compressed Tag
----------- ------------ --------------- ---------- ---
DISK 00:00:10 17-DEC-19 NO TAG20191217T205822
List of Backup Pieces for backup set 10 Copy #1
BP Key Pc# Status Piece Name
------- --- ----------- ----------
13 1 AVAILABLE /RMAN_LOCAL_BUCKET/0aujm83e_1_1
Backup Set Copy #2 of backup set 10
Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time Compressed Tag
----------- ------------ --------------- ---------- ---
DISK 00:00:10 17-DEC-19 NO TAG20191217T205822
List of Backup Pieces for backup set 10 Copy #2
BP Key Pc# Status Piece Name
------- --- ----------- ----------
14 1 AVAILABLE /RMAN_REMOTE_BUCKET/0aujm83e_1_2
RMAN>
Conclusion
This blog talks about one of the many scenarios where OCI object storage can be utilized to achieve Disaster recovery along with OCI PaaS and SaaS offerings. Depending upon the organizations policies & requirement OCI OSS Object storage, Block Storage or File Storage can be used to achieve the Disaster Recovery guidelines using Oracle RMAN.