Oracle 12c - RMAN cross platform restore

[symon_braunbaer]

Dear Experts,

I would kindly like to ask you, if anyone has already gathered experience with the new RMAN cross

platform restore feature of Oracle 12c ?

We will need to make a hardware move from Solaris x86_64 to Solaris SPARC. During my research,

I found Note 1848918 - SAP System Copy on Oracle Solaris with Oracle Database

which is even more confusing, as it says:

"The Backup/Restore procedure also available for a homogeneous system copy can not be used due to different endianness of the mentioned platforms."

This is perfectly true, as Solaris x86_64 is little endian and SPARC is big endian.

Furthermore, the note says exactly the opposite:

"With Oracle Database 12c SAP permits the use of Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) for Cross platform backup/restore as mentioned in SAP note 105047"

I have also checked Note 105047, but that note couldn't be more general in the explanation !!

Furthermore, I would kindly like to ask, if anyone knows some documentation or procedure on how

to perform such a cross-platform restore using RMAN ? I didn't find anything, I only found guidance

on the approach, if using RMAN directly:

Transporting Data Across Platforms

But anyway, I wasn't able to find a word about doing this with BRBACKUP / BRRESTORE...

Many thanks for enlighting me!

[Former Member]

Hello Symon,

I am a Product Manager at Oracle for "Oracle Optimized Solutions" and particularly the Oracle Optimized Solution for SAP.  I am currently working with a team of engineers and we are testing and documenting the Best Practices for Migrating SAP Systems to Oracle Infrastructure.

As part of this effort, we have already published a couple of articles on the topic and one of the articles coming in the near future (I cannot commit to a date) is focusing on migrating an Oracle Database using "Oracle RMAN Cross-Platform BACKUP and RESTORE" and should directly answer most of your questions. I will try to post a link here once the article is published but you should also keep an eye on the article page if you can.

Best Regards,

Pierre

[harisastri]

Hi Pierre

When are going to post the document for cross platform migration in SAP systems? We are eagerly waiting for it.

Regards

Suresh

[Former Member]

see this link https://community.oracle.com/docs/DOC-999530 and also this one based on 11g: https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-35664

regards

Abdel

[Former Member]

Hi Suresh,

The content for the Cross Platform migration article is currently being developed and tested by the engineers. It should become available in just a few weeks.

Best,

Pierre

[harisastri]

Hi Pierre

Could you please update the status of cross platform migration article?

Regards

Suresh

[Former Member]

Hi Suresh,

Certainly. We are currently planning on publishing the rest of the articles around Oracle OpenWorld timeframe, possibly before, but I cannot guarantee. Hopefully that will work for you.

Best,

Pierre

[Former Member]

Hi Suresh,

The RMAN Cross Platform DB migration article has been published today. I hope this is helpful to you.

Best,

Pierre

[fidel_vales]

Hi,

yes, it is a bit confusing but lets try to interpret it

• the note 1848918 indicate that solaris to solaris is consider by SAP as homogeneous system copy (important to avoid the presence of a certified consultant)
• The note 1848918 was written before 12c so the options available for this were:

1) classic R3load

2) O2O/Triple-O or whatever is his current name (1508271)

• Backup Restore were not permitted (still there are lots of customers not using RMAN)

After 12c was released, it was added the Cross platform backup/restore from it. You can use it.

If we take a look at the note 105047:

Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN)


Use of RMAN for backup, restore, and recovery allowed
12c. Cross platform backup/restore permitted

From my point of view, is clear, you can use  Cross platform backup/restore. Then it can be used. But

• not sure if permitted for heterogeneous system copies (certified consultant is needed and usually they have no experience whatsoever with DB specific tools)
• permitted for homogeneus system copy, including the solaris - solaris.

I have not tested it as I do not have access to machines with different endians. sorry.

What kind of documentation are you looking for? SAP? or Oracle (you pointed to it)?

AFAIK, currently there is no specific SAP documentation about this feature.

[symon_braunbaer]

Hi Fidel,

many thanks for the answer. You are making a brave statement based on almost everything which I have been reading as well 🙂

The first thing I would like to mention is your 4th bullet. Solaris x86_64 <-> SPARC is not an OS/DB migration, as both the OS and the DB remain unchanged. This is mentioned in the notes we both cited here and also in the TADM70 OS/DB migrations certification book. I know this, because I am a certified OS/DB migration consultant.

My goal here is, if possible, to use RMAN in order to save time and do these moves in our usual maintenance windows and not waste whole weekends for DB exports/imports, which can go wrong in many points.

I would be happy to read ANY documentation about it, based on BR*Tools (SAP systems). As it is not clear if one has really to do it at RMAN level with the convert from clause or BRRESTORE is dealing with this automagically 🙂

P.S.: Of course I will try it as soon as I can, but I still don't have a SPARC zone in order to test this...

[stefan_koehler]

Hi Symon,

> I would be happy to read ANY documentation about it, based on BR*Tools (SAP systems). As it is not clear if one has really to do it at RMAN level with the convert from clause or BRRESTORE

Here are some official examples by Oracle (starting with slide 13): http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/availability/rman-12c-2030185.pdf

In the past i have done several cross platform RMAN migrations for large SAP Oracle databases, but haven't done this with 12c yet. However the incremental feature is nothing new in general (procedure was available for Exadata migration before) and you just have to test it once to identify possible bugs.

Regards

Stefan

[symon_braunbaer]

Thanks Stefan,

these are quite the same commands which I found. Just my thoughts are going in direction of what to do with SAP systems - as good practices are pointing to using BRBACKUP and BRRESTORE for such operations. And my questions, if anyone knows, would be:

1) If it's even possible to do a cross-platform restore with BR*Tools

2) If there are some special options or settings, or the BRRESTORE standard command syntax works also if the target system is on different platform.

As for trying - I can try it in the next weeks between 2 little endian platforms. About Solaris SPARC, I have no idea when I will get the SPARC zone which has been promised to me.

Thank you!

[stefan_koehler]

Hi Symon,

> Just my thoughts are going in direction of what to do with SAP systems - as good practices are pointing to using BRBACKUP and BRRESTORE for such operations.

Sorry, i may not get the problem here. What is wrong with native RMAN in/for SAP environments or migrations? Why do you insist on BR*Tools so much?

You want to use some advanced Oracle migration methods and with all respect to the BR*Tools - they are invented for SAP administrators with less or no database knowledge.

Regards

Stefan