FULL HOT Backup failing with a 6 on media management layer....

Question

Hi all,
My thanks in advance for reading and any posts. Appologies for the long post, but wanted to make sure I got all information required into the post
*******************The background*************************
We are currently doing full hot backups of all production databases to tape. The database we use is RAC install (9.2.0.6.0) on Linux Redhat Enterprise 4 (database on OCFS). We use a seperate Solaris 8 box with 2 HP Ultium tape drives over a standard Cat5 line (100mb), we use Veritas Netbackup 5.1 as our media manager and we use an RMAN repositry on another box. Currently the backup is taking on average 17 hours to complete (something that I have been through with Oracle).
We use the below rman script to do the full database backup.
DATE=`date +%m%d%Y-%H%M%S`; export DATE
USER=`id | cut -f2 -d"(" | cut -f1 -d")"`
ORACLE_SID=ausl5; export ORACLE_SID
ORACLE_USER=oracle; export ORACLE_USER
ORACLE_HOME=/u01/oracle/product/9.2.0 export ORACLE_HOME
#delete log files older than 35 days
find /var/adm/netbackup -name "auslive*" -mtime +35 -type f -exec rm {} \;
#if [ "${USER}" = "root" ]
#then
# su - ${ORACLE_USER} "cd /rac/DBA/scripts/BACKUP/" #-c "${CMD_STRING}"
# SUCCESS=$?
#else
# eval "/rac/DBA/scripts/BACKUP"
# SUCCESS=$?
#fi
<<EOF su - oracle
<<EOF1 /u01/oracle/product/9.2.0/bin/rman msglog /var/adm/netbackup/AUSLIVE_b
ackup.${DATE} append
connect target sys/fowler@rman_ausl5
connect catalog rman/rman@rman
#change archivelog all validate;
run {
allocate channel ch1 type sbt_tape PARMS="BLKSIZE=1048576";
#allocate channel ch2 type sbt_tape PARMS="BLKSIZE=1048576";
#allocate channel ch3 type sbt_tape;
CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO 'SBT_TAPE';
CONFIGURE CHANNEL 1 DEVICE TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' MAXPIECESIZE 100000m
CONNECT = 'SYS/fowler@rman_ausl5';
#CONFIGURE CHANNEL 2 DEVICE TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' MAXPIECESIZE 100000m
CONNECT = 'SYS/fowler@rman_ausl3';
#CONFIGURE CHANNEL 3 DEVICE TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' CONNECT = 'SYS/fowle
r@rman_ausl4';
change archivelog all validate;
###=============== Veritas Calls =========================
send "NB_ORA_CLASS=ORAhot_AUSLIVE";
#send "NB_ORA_CLIENT=sunatlsunx008";
send "NB_ORA_CLIENT=sunatlsunx008";
send "NB_ORA_SCHED=full";
###=====================main backup sections =============
backup
incremental level=0
filesperset 15
format "bk_%s_%p_%t"
tag "hot_${ORACLE_SID}_${DATE}"
database;
sql "alter system archive log current";
change archivelog all validate;
backup
filesperset 10
format "ct_%s_%p_%t"
current controlfile;
sql "alter system archive log current";
backup
filesperset 150
format "al_%s_%p_%t"
archivelog all not backed up 2 times;
change archivelog all validate;
backup
filesperset 50
format "al_%s_%p_%t"
archivelog until time 'SYSDATE-4' delete input;
change archivelog all validate;
release channel ch1;
#release channel ch2;
#release channel ch3;
exit
EOF1
EOF
Now due to the backup taking so long, we often have archive log backups that kick off. We generally get Restore Validates of this backup once a week.
*********************************Problem*******************************
Getting to the problem, the media manager generally completes the job with a 6, which in Veritas means that the backup failed to back up the requested files. I guess that this could be something to do with the media manager layer. But myself and my colleagues are of the opinion that this is something to do with the archive log backups running inbetween (hence the change archivelog all validate; appearing so many times in the script).
Has anyone got any ideas?
Thanks again for any posts / ideas,
Mark.

Answer 1

No I mean, it really tries to backup everything; control file, archive logs etc...
Yeah I will admit its a bit strange, didn't code it myself. The idea was to do a bit a of house keeping at the same time with the archived redo logs (hence the file system stuff with the archived redo logs).
You see we thought that this might be causing the issue.
any ideas are welcomed,
thanks again,
Mark.