RMAN + Netapp (NAS) to clone - Help Me, Obi-Wan

Question

I have database PROD instance that runs on linux server #1.
I have database DEV instance runs on linux server #2.
The databases for both instances live on a Netapp NAS (in different directories, of course). Everything is 11gR2.
The backup method is a hot backup using a Netapp snapshot, not RMAN.
In the past, I've cloned PROD to DEV manually. Now the dev team wants to automate this so it can be run as a script (i.e., run a script and DEV is wiped out and replaced with a copy of PROD renamed to DEV).
I'm wondering if it would be easiest to do this with RMAN DUPLICATE, even though I'm not using RMAN to backup. The DBs are about 300GB and will probably grow a bit more.
I'd like to avoid having to create an RMAN backup of 300GB and then another 300GB for the datafiles as part of the cloning process, if that is possible. As you can probably tell, I am not the world's greatest RMAN expert - just looking for the easiest path.
Is this a good approach? Any gotchas?

Answer 1

If you want to take the Netapp snapshot approach, it is very fast and easy to script.
copy PROD's /etc/oratab file over to DEV as "/etc/oratab.PROD"
make a copy of DEV's /etc/oratab as "/etc/oratab.DEV"
make a pfile of PROD's spfile/init file and put it on DEV as /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/DEV/dbs/PROD_to_DEV.ora
modify the pfile as needed (lower memory params if dev has less resources for example)
create symlinks on DEV to mimic prod:
ln -s /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/DEV /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/PROD
ln -s /u01/app/oracle/admin/DEV /u01/app/oracle/admin/PRODBasically all you need to do is start the snapshot up as prod and run "NID" to change the DB from PROD to DEV.
This can be scripted like this (you'll most likely need to modify the skeleton script to fit your environment):
#!/bin/bash
cp /etc/oratab.PROD /etc/oratab;
export ORACLE_SID=PROD;
export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/PROD;
sqlplus '/ as sysdba' << EOF
startup mount pfile='/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/DEV/dbs/PROD_to_DEV.ora';
quit
EOF
/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/DEV/bin/nid target=/ DBNAME=DEV<<EOF
Y
EOF
cp /etc/oratab.DEV /etc/oratab;
export ORACLE_SID=DEV;
export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/DEV;
sqlplus '/ as sysdba' << EOF
startup mount pfile='/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/DEV/dbs/initDEV.ora';
create spfile from pfile='/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/DEV/dbs/initDEV.ora';
shut immediate;
quit
EOF
sqlplus '/ as sysdba' << EOF
startup mount;
ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS;
quit
EOFThat's really all you need to do on the DB conversion side. It's fairly simple to script up the taking of the netapp snapshot and mounting it on DEV and then calling the above DB conversion script.