Are you an Oracle Database admin who does not trust 3rd party backup applications to backup your Oracle Databases? You spend considerable time writing your own Recovery Manager (RMAN) backup scripts; you don’t want to use other software to backup your databases?

Do you try to store all your backups on one repository; including your RMAN backup?

Within Veeam Update 4, Veeam R&D included an Oracle RMAN integration. Oracle backup is not something new to Veeam backup software; but, the latest update introduces a new feature,  Oracle RMAN integration. With Veeam Update 4, the Oracle Administrator can use RMAN to backup his Oracle databases directly to the Veeam repository. Using Veeam RMAN plugin integration will add the following values:

• Full control and recovery of Oracle databases backup.
• Continue using the same RMAN scripting.
• Consolidate the enterprise backups on the same Veeam backup repository.
• Use Veeam Oracle GUI driven recovery.

I will not pretend that I am an Oracle, or Oracle RMAN, expert. To be honest, this week was the first time I have had any real time with Oracle RMAN; I decided to challenge myself and try the RMAN plugin. To my surprise, the integration is so neat and tidy that I was able to experience RMAN backup for the first time in less than 10 minutes.

I am going to share with you here my experience of deploying and configuring the Veeam RAMN plugin.

So, as usual, let me start with the steps I used to configure and operate the Veeam RMAN plugin

Note: The procedures I am describing here assume that you have an Oracle server installed and configured, or can get access to one. 

Deployment

If you been following my blog posts, you already know that I usually skip the Veeam products deployment process; Veeam R&D works hard to release a product that just works and is easy to deploy.

The deployment of the Veeam RMAN plugin starts by browsing to the Veeam backup and replication ISO in the <Plugin Folder>. Here you will find the Oracle RMAN plugin installation package. Now you select the OS deployment for your Operating System, Windows or Linux, and then run the .exe or rpm/gz file.

In my lab, I deployed the Oracle server on Windows and chose the Windows plugin version. See the illustration below.

Configuration

After the installation process has run and completed successfully, you can start the configuration process. This consists of several easy steps:

First step: Run the RMAN configuration wizard. You will find this on the desktop after the installation has completed.

The wizard will guide you through the configuration, starting with entering the Veeam backup and replication server and credentials to retrieve the repositories to be used for storing the RMAN backup. See the illustration following.

Next step: Select the Repository. In this example below, we have selected RMAN_Repo.

Final step: Select Finish.

RMAN Integration Test – Backup

The steps I have described above are the steps necessary to get you started. As you will have noticed, the steps are straightforward and easy to follow. Now, let’s try the Veeam RMAN plugin. Run the Windows command line rman target / on the Oracle Server and start the RMAN plugin.

From within the RMAN process at the RMAN> prompt, run the command backup database; to start the backup to Veeam Backup Repository:

After the backup starts, you can track the RMAN Backup job from the Veeam Console.

At the example below, you can see the metrics that are available for monitoring the backup.

RMAN Integration Test – Restore

After the backup has completed successfully, you can recover the databases using the RMAN command line, or from Veeam Console. If you chose the Veeam Console method, then you have to browse to the backup repository and right click on the RMAN job to restore it. Yes, it is that simple!

If you prefer the RMAN command line, you can do that too. Follow the instructions at the link here:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/plugins/restore_rman.html?ver=95u4

Conclusion

Honestly, I was surprised at the ease of the experience. I did not imagine that the Veeam RMAN Plugin and integration would be such a walk in the park, especially for someone who has so little experience with RMAN. I hope this blog post will encourage you to try this great Veeam feature.