In this first configuration option, all six components are installed on the same machine in your enterprise, as shown in Figure 3-1.

The advantage of this installation, in addition to requiring only a single computer, is that it provides higher performance than a backup over the network. The main disadvantage
of this configuration is the risk of it being a single point of failure.

Figure 3-1. Configuration Option 1—Single System

In this configuration, five of the six components are installed on the same machine—the Enterprise Backup Utility and its Backup Catalog, the Oracle7 RDBMS, NetWorker client, and BusinesSuite Module for Oracle. The NetWorker server is installed on a separate machine, as shown in Figure 3-2. Here, your Oracle7 Server is a remote NetWorker client.

The advantage of this configuration is that it provides some independence for your NetWorker server and the NetWorker indexes while it maintains the independence of having your backups on a separate machine. The disadvantage of this configuration is the risk of the Backup Catalog being unavailable in a disaster recovery scenario on your Oracle7 Server platform. Should the Backup Catalog become unavailable during a system failure, you would need to recover the Backup Catalog before you could recover your Oracle7 database.

Figure 3-2. Configuration Option 2—Separate NetWorker Server

In this third possible configuration, five of the six components are again installed on the same machine—the Enterprise Backup Utility, Oracle7 RDBMS, BusinesSuite Module for Oracle, NetWorker client, and NetWorker server. The Enterprise Backup Utility Backup Catalog is installed on a separate machine, as shown in Figure 3-3. This installation is one of those recommended by Oracle.

Figure 3-3. Configuration Option 3—Separate EBU Backup Catalog

One advantage of this configuration is the location independence of the Enterprise Backup Utility Backup Catalog. Another advantage is that the backup of the Oracle7 database is local to the NetWorker server, which generally gives higher performance than backups over the network. The disadvantage of this configuration is the additional maintenance required for the machine hosting the Backup Catalog.

Another configuration option recommended by Oracle is shown in Figure 3-4. In this configuration, the Enterprise Backup Utility, Oracle7 RDBMS, NetWorker client, and BusinesSuite Module for Oracle are all installed on the same machine, while the Enterprise Backup Utility Backup Catalog and NetWorker server are both installed on a separate machine.

Figure 3-4. Configuration Option 4—Separate NetWorker and Backup Catalog

The principal advantage of this configuration is the location independence of both the Backup Catalog and NetWorker server from the Oracle7 database server machine. The availability of both the Backup Catalog and NetWorker server is critical in being able to perform a restore operation. The disadvantages of this configuration are the additional maintenance required for the machine hosting the Backup Catalog and NetWorker server, as well as the potential performance loss during backups over the network.

In the most complex of the five possible configurations, the components are installed on three separate systems, as shown in Figure 3-5.

Here, the Enterprise Backup Utility, Oracle7 RDBMS, NetWorker client, and BusinesSuite Module for Oracle are all installed on the same system. The Enterprise Backup Utility Backup Catalog is installed on a second system, and the NetWorker server is installed on a third system. In this type of three-system installation, each system has a well-defined role in the backup scheme. This installation is also one of the configurations recommended by Oracle.

The advantage of this configuration is the independence of the Backup Catalog and NetWorker server from the Oracle7 database server. The disadvantage is the additional maintenance required for all three systems, plus the potential performance loss during backup over the network.

Figure 3-5. Configuration Option 5—Three Separate Servers

Each of the five possible configuration options presented above has its advantages and disadvantages. The level of protection you can afford depends on both your available resources and your priorities.

For sites with a small backup window, where performance is critical and backups over the network are undesirable, Silicon Graphics recommends configuration Option 3, shown in Figure 3-3. For sites where rapid restore of the Oracle7 server will be critical in a disaster recovery scenario, Silicon Graphics recommends either Option 4 (Figure 3-4) or Option 5 (Figure 3-5). These Options are also recommended for sites that back up more than one database using the Enterprise Backup Utility.

Oracle Corporation recommends that any given site have only one Backup Catalog database per enterprise.

You must install the Oracle7 Enterprise Backup Utility executables one per Oracle database instance. That is, for every database that operates under a different oracle owner account on the same machine, you must install a separate copy of the Enterprise Backup Utility executables. Note that you do not need a separate installation of the Enterprise Backup Utility executables if all Oracle7 databases on a particular machine operate under the same oracle owner.

You need to install BusinesSuite Module for Oracle only once per system, regardless of how many separate Enterprise Backup Utility installations may be on that machine. The BusinesSuite Module for Oracle also supports concurrent backup of separate databases on the same system using separate Enterprise Backup Utility instances.

Before performing backup or restore operations on your database, you must register it in the Backup Catalog database. Refer to the Oracle7 Enterprise Backup Utility Administrator's Guide Release 2.0 for a detailed description of registration, in the section “Registering a Target Database” on page 2-5.

Here is a sample script, called register_db:

register
db_name = “TARGET01”
oracle_sid = “TARGET01”
oracle_home = “/oracle”
pfile = “?/dbs/[email protected]”, “?/dbs/[email protected]”
log = “/oracle/obackup/logs/register.log”

To run obackup using the register_db command script, enter the following command as oracle owner:

% obackup register_db

When an Oracle registration script completes successfully on a system, you see the following type of output from it:

Oracle7 Enterprise Backup Utility: Release 2.1.0.1.2
Copyright (c) Oracle Corporation 1979, 1996.  All rights reserved.
CORE Version 3.5.3.0.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 3.2.3.0.0 - Production

Once a target database has been initially registered, if the Enterprise Backup Utility finds that the Backup Catalog configuration is outdated prior to an online backup, it will automatically update it before starting the backup of the target database. This autoconfiguration feature requires that the target database be online and does not apply to offline backups.

If you are conducting offline backups and the target database configuration changes, be sure to run the REGISTER command manually to update the Backup Catalog. The types of changes that require updating of the Backup Catalog include