Ubuntu 2014 LTS - (offline vs. online) Backup questions

Hey guys,
I have a brand new Ubuntu LTS machine and can back it up properly.
But I don't understand why the machine is offline within DPM.
What I have is a small test System of Ubuntu Server 04.2014 LTS and i installed the
VSS Snapshot daemon –
"This daemon is required to create live Linux virtual machine backups."
and KVP daemon as well.
Following the TechNet entry:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn531029.aspx
Live virtual machine backup
2012 R2
√ Note 3, 4, 5
So I'm not sure where the Problem is. Shouldn't the machine visible as online due to creation a protection Group of DPM?
Everytime I'm creating a recovery Point and run a backup the machine is still online and I couldn't see an offline behavior which i would expect (save state).
May I understand something wrong? Is there a backup guy here who has more Expertise with Debian and or ubuntu machines and can give me a hint?
P.S.
guest Services are enabled and the usual stuff like rebooting and dynamic Memory seems to be working very well.
I have also an VMM 2012 R2 running but I'm pretty sure there shouldn't be a problem?!

Hi,
<snip>
Everytime I'm creating a recovery Point and run a backup the machine is still online and I couldn't see an offline behavior which i would expect (save state).
>snip<
At the time of adding the VM to protection, DPM queries the hyper-V writer on the Hyper-V host to get a list of guests and their backup state (caption). At the time, that state reported (offline) so that is what was used in DPM UI. If the machine
later can be backed up in (online) state, then it will be backed up online, but the DPM UI is still going to show (offline). To make the DPM UI show online, you need to stop protection, retain the replica, then reprotect. At that time hyper-V writer
will report (online) and DPM UI will reflect going forward.
To list hyper-V writer captions for guests to see if online or offline state backups will be done:
From an administrative command prompt on the Hyper-V server:
a. Type: copy con script.txt and press enter
b. Type: list writers and press enter
c. Press CTRL + Z + enter (to save)
d. Type: diskshadow /s script.txt | find /i "caption: O"
Output will be displayed for each guest as follows.
C:\temp>diskshadow /s script.txt | find /i "caption: O"
 - Caption: Online\SCS2012R2-DC
 - Caption: Online\SQLSERVER
 - Caption: Offline\MJLC-WSS-V14
 - Caption: Offline\MJLC-DPM2012Sp1
Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Regards, Mike J. [MSFT]
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

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alter database recover datafile '/oracle/PRD/sapdata4/prdusr_2/prdusr.data2'
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00279: change 31203204 generated at 04/19/2007 19:30:11 needed for thread 1
ORA-00289: suggestion : /oracle/PRD/oraarch/PRDarch1_2574.dbf
ORA-00280: change 31203204 for thread 1 is in sequence #2574
SQL>
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Hi,
alter database datafile offline drop;
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Hope to hear from you soon.
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Hello Nicholas,
Here is some additional information on throttling utilities such as online backups:
SET UTIL_IMPACT_PRIORITY command
Changes the impact setting for a running utility. Using this command, you can:
throttle a utility that was invoked in unthrottled mode
unthrottle a throttled utility (disable throttling)
reprioritize a throttled utility (useful if running multiple simultaneous throttled utilities)
Scope
Authorization
One of the following:
sysadm
sysctrl
sysmaint
Required connection
Instance. If there is more than one partition on the local machine, the attachment should be made to the correct partition. For example, suppose there are two partitions and a LIST UTILITIES command resulted in the following output:
ID = 2
Type = BACKUP
Database Name = IWZ
Partition Number = 1
Description = online db
Start Time = 07/19/2007 17:32:09.622395
State = Executing
Invocation Type = User
Throttling:
Priority = Unthrottled
Progress Monitoring:
Estimated Percentage Complete = 10
Total Work = 97867649689 bytes
Completed Work = 10124388481 bytes The instance attachment must be made to partition 1 in order to issue a SET UTIL_IMPACT_PRIORITY command against the utility with ID 2. To do this, set DB2NODE=1 in the environment and then issue the instance attachment command.
Command syntax
>>-SET UTIL_IMPACT_PRIORITY FORutility-idTOpriority----><
Command parameters
utility-id
ID of the utility whose impact setting will be updated. IDs of running utilities can be obtained with the LIST UTILITIES command.
TO priority
Specifies an instance-level limit on the impact associated with running a utility. A value of 100 represents the highest priority and 1 represents the lowest priority. Setting priority to 0 will force a throttled utility to continue unthrottled. Setting priority to a non-zero value will force an unthrottled utility to continue in throttled mode.
Examples
The following example unthrottles the utility with ID 2.
SET UTIL_IMPACT_PRIORITY FOR 2 TO 0
The following example throttles the utility with ID 3 to priority 10. If the priority was 0 before the change then a previously unthrottled utility is now throttled. If the utility was previously throttled (priority had been set to a value greater than zero), then the utility has been reprioritized.
SET UTIL_IMPACT_PRIORITY FOR 3 TO 10
Relationship between UTIL_IMPACT_LIM and UTIL_IMPACT_PRIORITY settings
The database manager configuration parameter util_impact_lim sets the limit on the impact throttled utilities can have on the overall workload of the machine. 0-99 is a throttled percentage, 100 is no throttling.
The SET UTIL_IMPACT_PRIORITY command sets the priority that a particular utility has over the resources available to throttled utilities as defined by the util_impact_lim configuration parameter. (0 = unthrottled)
Using the backup utility as an example, if the util_impact_lim=10, all utilities can have no more than a 10% average impact upon the total workload as judged by the throttling algorithm. Using two throttled utilities as an example:
Backup with util_inpact_priority 70
Runstats with util_impact_priority 50
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To view the current priority setting for the utilities that are running, you can use the LIST UTILITIES command.
Usage notes
Throttling requires that an impact policy be defined by setting the util_impact_lim configuration parameter.
Regards,
Adam Wilson
SAP Development Support

Online Backup of supported Linux VM on Hyper-V 2012 R2 / SC DPM 2012 R2

Hi,
I'm trying to set up a lab environment:
Win 2012 R2 with Hyper-V
running 2 Linux Machines:
Linux2 - CentOS 6.4 with manually installed Linux Integration services 3.4
Linux3 - CentOS 6.4 without LIS (should be already included in CentOS)
Another machine running Win 2012 R2 Server with SC DPM 2012 R2
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I am able to backup the VMs "offline" (pausing the VM, taking snapshot, resume VM) but according to MS, SC DPM 2012 R2 should be able to do Online backups for supported Linux VMs (http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2013/07/24/enabling-linux-support-on-windows-server-2012-r2-hyper-v.aspx)
The only things in the EventLog are these:
A storage device in 'Linux3' loaded but has a different version from the server. Server version 6.0 Client version 4.2 (Virtual machine ID 4F5CDDD8-B855-41CF-83B2-772C1B99090D). The device will work, but this is an unsupported configuration.
This means that technical support will not be provided until this problem is resolved. To fix this problem, upgrade the integration services. To upgrade, connect to the virtual machine and select Insert Integration Services Setup Disk from the Action menu.
Any Ideas ?
Thanks

Hi,
That list would need to come from the Windows hyper-v group, they are responsible with adding the feature to the integration components for various Linux OSes. DPM just backs up whatever the hyper-V writer presents to us, if the guest supports
online, we back it up online, if not hyper-V saves the guest before the VSS snapshot is taken and DPM takes the backup from the saved state.
NEW NOTE ADDED 1-29-14: Windows group just released “Linux Integration Services Version 3.5 for Hyper-V”. The
document mentions that some versions of Red Hat and CentOS are now
supported to do online backup.
Live virtual machine backup support
======================
RHEL/CentOS 6.0-6.3
RHEL/CentOS 5.7-5.8
RHEL/CentOS 5.5-5.6
ADDTL NOTES: If there are open file handles during a live virtual machine backup operation, the backed-up virtual hard disks (VHDs) might have to undergo a file system consistency check (fsck) when restored.
Live backup operations can fail silently if the virtual machine has an attached iSCSI device or a physical disk that is directly attached to a virtual machine (“pass-through disk”).
Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Regards, Mike J. [MSFT] This
posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Actions to be performed after a online backup restore

Hello Guru's,
I have an online backup of a system.
(AIX - ORACLE)
If I restore the backup using Tivoli Storage Manager I still have to perform some actions to recover the database.
I have read through the SAP documentation and it seems I can restore the logs using brtools (brrecover).
My questions actually is, which option do I have to take if I want to apply the offline archive logs as far as possible ?
"Complete database recovery" of "database point in time recovery" ?
I want to make sure that only the archivelogs are being applied and that the database restore is not peformed again.
Thank you all !
bye
BUD

Hello Hans,
> and it seems I can restore the logs using brtools (brrecover).
If you only want to restore your archivelogs, then use brrestore.
brrecover is for recovering the database, not for restoring.
Take a look at here:
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/88/cadaca94734ae5b8ea3491f615741b/content.htm
and here:
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/0d/d3077b4a0c11d182b80000e829fbfe/content.htm
> My questions actually is, which option do I have to take if I want to apply the offline archive logs as far as possible ?
> "Complete database recovery" of "database point in time recovery" ?
In this case you have to do an incomplete database recovery or in other words called "point in time recovery". For the difference between these two restore types take a look at the oracle documentation:
http://download-uk.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/backup.102/b14192/intro004.htm#i1016863
After you have restored your archive logs you can perform the recovery manually:
> SQL> recover database using backup controlfile until cancel;
> SQL> cancel;
> SQL> alter database open resetlogs;
Btw.as you are using TDP for SAP you can use backfm to restore only some several files.
Regards
Stefan

Restore Online Backup in SCDPM 2012 R2

Dear all,
i have a question on SCDPM 2012 R2 + Azure Backup.
i had deployed such solution and disk backup are perfect! However, i had configured online backup policy to Azure Backup since February and i noticed i do not have the options to allow me to perform online restore!
Below is my online protection policy:
i believe i configured it correct to adhere below policy:
- perform a monthly backup and keep for ONE year
- perform a yearly backup and keep for SEVEN years
but when i go to recovery tab, it just doesnt show February backup, nor March 2nd have any backup. all the backup available are disk short term of 30 days.

Hi DeVaLiaN,
Thanks for posting here!
Each DPM backup to Azure Backup is a recovery point. With an Azure current limit of 366 recovery points your retention time for all backups shouldn’t exceed the 366 limit. In other words the retention times you set for you daily + weekly + monthly
+ yearly backups should sum up to 366 or less.
You might want to double check your configuration.
Refer to the below listed articles which might help you narrow down the issue.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenter/archive/2014/03/16/using-azure-backup-with-dpm.aspx
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/19751.system-center-2012-data-protection-manager-dpm-sp1-part-4-backup-to-azure.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/dn337332.aspx
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Sadiqh

How to recover DB2 using offline file system backup.

Gurus,
I had a problem with my BI PRD's database. 1 of my BI consultant accidently deleted some important 2010's data. We've try recover online database backup of BWP into BWQ and retrieve the missing data. However the backup retention period was expired and we dont have any available online backup now.
Only hope is my offline file system backup which backup the whole file system of BWP ONLY.
My question:-
Can i restore the file system (offline backup) into BWQ and rebuild my DB2 in BWQ. Please enlighten me.
Thanks,
Devan.

Hi
You can do it .The file system backup image can be mirroed into production system and by making using of "db2inidb" utility you can restore the whole database.
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/db2luw/v8/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.db2.udb.doc/core/r0004473.htm
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How does recovery work after an online backup

Hello,
While trying to conceptually understand how backup and recovery works, I came accross a question concerning hot (online) backup.
This is a conceptual question (I am trying to understand how things work), it is not a "how should I proceed/ what should I do step by step" question.
As far as I understand, an online backup of a tablespace can be performed by copying the OS files making up a tablespace while the database is up and being used (i.e. transactions are modifying data in the database). Before the copying of the OS files starts, the Oracle RDMS must be notified that an online backup is being taken via "ALTER...BEGIN BACKUP" (such that some additional information is written to the Redo Log, which may be required for subsequent recovery using the online backup). During recovery the Oracle RDBMS uses the copies of the OS files together with the online and archived redo logs in order to reconstruct all committed transactions and it further uses the UNDO tablespace to rollback open (uncommitted) transactions.
Thinking about this, it seems to me, that in order for this to work in all possible scenarios the undo information from the time the backup was taken may be required. Therefore backup of the UNDO tablespace should be taken as well (see the explanation for this assumption below). However browsing the internet (including the Oracle online documentation) I did not find any statements concerning the backup of the UNDO tablespace when an online backup is taken. Moreover I couldn't figure out when exactly such a backup of the UNDO tablespace must be done, to ensure that the database can be recovered in all scenarios.
I believe that undo information from the time the hot backup was taken may be required e.g. in the following scenario:
Assume we are taking a hot backup of a given tablespace, i.e. we are copying all OS files that make up this tablespace, while the database is potentially being used. Let D1 be one of the datafiles in our tablespace and let transaction T1 modify datafile D1. Let transaction T1 further be uncommitted while the copy of datafile D1 is being made and let (at least some of) the changes from T1 be included in the backup copy D1' of D1 (because DBWR has already written the modified blocks at the time they were being copied to the backup). Let transaction T1 be rolled back after the copy is completed. D1' will thus contain modifications from T1, while D1 will not.
Now some time later the datafile D1 is lost. When recovering D1 from the copy D1', the (archived) redo logs will be applied to D1'. Before that, transaction T1 should be rolled back in the copy D1', because modifications from T1 must not appear in the recovered version of the database.
I do however not understand, where the information to rollback transaction T1 exactly comes from. It may still be in the current UNDO tablespace. I do however assume that rollback information is not kept in the UNDO tablespace forever. I see three possible answers to this
(a) There are some requirements which I missed so far to backup the UNDO tablespace whenever a hot backup is made.
(b) Since the Oracle "RDBMS" has to be notified that an online backup is being done, it might store all relevant undo information (e.g. write it to the redo log) when the tablespace is put in backup mode.
(c) There are situations when recovery is not possible due to "missing old UNDO information".
Answer (b) seems the most plausible to me. I did however not find any confirmation of this and if (b) really is the answer, I would be interested to understand what information is stored where by the Oracle RDMBS and how it is used for recovery.
To summarize I have the following questions:
(I) Is there any requirement to backup the UNDO tablespace together with an online backup of a tablespace, and if so, where is this stated in the Oracle documentation?
(II) What mechanisms ensure that uncommitted transactions can be cleared from the online copy of a tablespace (potentially a long time after the copy was taken)?
(III) Do you know any links (Oracle documentation or other online resources) explaining these datails?
Thank you for any hints and answers
kind regards
Martin

Its a highly technical question and I can be completely wrong due to my very less knowledge but I would attempt to answer still. Hope I say something sensible so bear with me.
As far as I understand, an online backup of a tablespace can be performed by copying the OS files making up a tablespace while the database is up and being used (i.e. transactions are modifying data in the database).Correct. But it would depend on the tool you are going to use to do so.Using o/s level commands like CP and all would require you to manually copy the files to the backup location. Using RMAN, it would be lot easier and RMAN would take care of everything.
Before the copying of the OS files starts, the Oracle RDMS must be notified that an online backup is being taken via "ALTER...BEGIN BACKUP" (such that some additional information is written to the Redo Log, which may be required for subsequent recovery using the online backup). Again, this is a requirement only in the case of user-managed backup . In that case, because of the fractured block issue , its important that the corresponding older information/image of the buffer is also copied in the redo stream and that's done when the begin backup command is used. Using RMAN, this is not needed as RMAN can read the consistent image which it would store in the backup piece, exactly in the same way in which select request is fulfilled by oracle for a dirty buffer which is yet to be made consistent.
During recovery the Oracle RDBMS uses the copies of the OS files together with the online and archived redo logs in order to reconstruct all committed transactions and it further uses the UNDO tablespace to rollback open (uncommitted) transactions.Correct!
Thinking about this, it seems to me, that in order for this to work in all possible scenarios the undo information from the time the backup was >taken may be required. Therefore backup of the UNDO tablespace should be taken as well (see the explanation for this assumption below). >However browsing the internet (including the Oracle online documentation) I did not find any statements concerning the backup of the UNDO >tablespace when an online backup is taken. Moreover I couldn't figure out when exactly such a backup of the UNDO tablespace must be done, to >ensure that the database can be recovered in all scenarios.The reason that its not a must to do so is that if the transaction is yet active, there is no way that Oracle would overwrite the Undo information of it, even if you may come after 100 years, it would be there. The Undo segment would mark those blocks as active undo blockswhich contains the information of that transaction whose status within the transacton table of that undo segment is still marked as active. So its there all the time in the undo tablespace. Now, for an instance, let's assume that the undo is not there as well( it would be but let's assume), the changes made to the undo segment's blocks are also recored in the redo as its just a change happening to any other segment like EMP,DEPT except with the difference that its not done by you but by oracle. So using that information, in the future , if there would be a need to replay those changes, necessary information to do so can be brought up from the redo blocks stored in the redo/archive logs. Yes, if there would be pending transactions that would require Undo information to get them rolled back and you have lost Undo tablespace and have no backup of it , you wont be able to bring back the database as it would be inconsistent and oracle would not let you to do it. In that case, you may require to use hacks to get it up and that would be really tricky situation.
(I) Is there any requirement to backup the UNDO tablespace together with an online backup of a tablespace, and if so, where is this stated in the Oracle documentation?As I said above, it must be there if you are anticipating loss of Undo tablespace. If you have lost it, you would need a backup and all the archive logs and redo logs to recover and get it back to the point where the current database is . Rest, oracle would take care as it would reapply the redo contents of the undo segments over the undo segment and get it consitent.
(II) What mechanisms ensure that uncommitted transactions can be cleared from the online copy of a tablespace (potentially a long time after the copy was taken)?As I said , pending transaction's undo is never overwritten by Oracle. Its always kept and marked as active undo . Only a transaction end would make it elgible to get overwritten and that too won't happen immediately(undo_retention would kick in) .
(III) Do you know any links (Oracle documentation or other online resources) explaining these datails?I have to see if its there some where step by step mentioned and I shall update the reply once I shall find the link. Hoep someone else in the meantime finds it .
HTH
Aman....

Database open fails after online backup recovery

Hi Friends
We are trying to set up an additional server using the online backup of our DEV server. We have been following SAP Note 549828 for the same. Having restored the online backup, the open database failed.
To resolve the same, in accordance to SAP Note 549828, we created a backup control file with success using the command
create controlfile reuse set database DEV resetlogs noarchivelog
However on issuance of the command
RECOVER DATABASE USING BACKUP CONTROLFILE UNTIL CANCEL
we run into an error as to
ORA-00279: change 794638222 generated at 10/25/2007 12:43:20 needed for thread 1
ORA-00289: suggestion : /oracle/DEV/oraarch/DEVarch1_9766.dbf
ORA-00280: change 794638222 for thread 1 is in sequence #9766
Specify log: {<RET>=suggested | filename | AUTO | CANCEL}
ORA-00308: cannot open archived log '/oracle/DEV/oraarch/DEVarch1_9766.dbf'
ORA-27037: unable to obtain file status
SVR4 Error: 2: No such file or directory
Additional information: 3
ORA-01547: warning: RECOVER succeeded but OPEN RESETLOGS would get error below
ORA-01194: file 1 needs more recovery to be consistent
ORA-01110: data file 1: '/oracle/DEV/sapdata1/system_1/system.data1'
We even manually copied the file system.data1 from the source to the target server but to no avail.
Also the SQL command
SELECT FILE#, CHANGE# FROM V$RECOVER_FILE
displays a different change# for system.data1 while it is showing same number for all other datafiles.
Please advice at the earliest as we are struck. Points awaiting their master.
Regards
Lokesh Gupta

Some inputs addition to Erics comments
The problem is you dont have archives ie Offline redo logfiles in correct location.
/oracle/DEV/oraarch/DEVarch1_9766.dbf Here DEVarch1_9766 is archive file which is misssing from location /oracle/DEV/oraarch. To recover DB you need Archives generated during hot backup.
Generally these steps willl give you desired result.
select * from v$logfile;
We normally switch the log files to the number of log groups that exist
alter system switch logfile;
create a Backup directory to hold our hot back datafiles and Archives
When the backup is complete check the backup location to see if all the files are available. We could now either FTP the same to the other system or copy over these files to another location in case of cloning on the same system.
Copy over all the files to their respective filesystems and directories and then edit the file that was created using the backup controlfile to trace. Copy that file to the remote system and edit it accordingly.
check that all the files are in the right location and edit that information in the control file
Once the controlfile is run successfully and you get the statement processed, we can start applying the archive logs that we have moved to the archive log destination directory as per the init<sid>.ora file.
do a recover of the database to its consistent state
recover database using backup controlfile until cancel;
The create control file command only changes the structure of the database and the SID name, the header of the datafiles still hold all the required information. The above command would ask you to input the archive log file names one by one to do recovery or you could choose the AUTO option. Once the recovery process is complete, open the database with the resetlogs option
Regards
Vinod

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