What is Oracle Secure Backup (OSB)?
Oracle Secure Backup is a centralized tape backup management software providing secure data protection for heterogeneous file systems and the Oracle Database.
Why switch to Oracle Secure Backup?
Oracle Secure Backup delivers reliable, high performance tape backup for your entire IT environment including UNIX/Linux/Windows/NAS file systems and the Oracle database at the lowest-cost. The single component, per tape drive, pricing model is lower-cost and significantly reduces license management as compared to other media management products, which generally charge a premium for advanced functionality.
Oracle Secure Backup provides key benefits:
• Fastest Oracle database backup to tape
• Single technical resource for entire backup environment
• Dynamic tape drive sharing between NAS / UNIX / Linux / Windows servers
• Policy-based backup management:
o Backup encryption
o Vaulting (rotation of tapes between multiple locations)
o Tape duplication
o Migration from virtual tapes to physical tapes
Is Oracle Secure Backup a separate product from the Oracle database?
Yes. Oracle Secure Backup is a separate product with independent release schedule and versioning from that of the database.
What Oracle database versions does Oracle Secure Backup 10.2 support?
Oracle Secure Backup 10.2 is tightly integrated with Recovery Manager (RMAN) supporting Oracle9i to Oracle Database 11g.
What is Oracle Secure Backup Express (OSB-XE)?
Bundled with the Oracle database, Oracle Secure Backup Express is free and provides single-server tape backup management for one database server directly attached to one tape drive. Oracle Secure Backup documentation is applicable for OSB-XE with the exception of advanced functionality only available with the OSB edition. You can leverage advanced media management features by upgrading OSB-XE licensing to OSB edition. Please refer to the OSB 10.2 Licensing Documentation for feature restrictions in OSB-XE.
How difficult is upgrading from OSB 10.1 to OSB 10.2?
Upgrading from OSB 10.1 to 10.2 is relatively easy. The backup catalog is retained (unless explicitly deleted by user) during the upgrade maintaining all backup metadata and backwards compatibility of tapes (tapes written using OSB 10.1 are fully compatible with OSB 10.2 environments).
Where can I find compatibility matrixes for Oracle Secure Backup?
• Platform, Web browser and NAS support is listed on Certify at metaling.oracle.com
• Tape device matrix is available at otn.oracle.com/technology/products/secure-backup/tape_devices.pdf
If a tape device is not listed on the compatibility matrix, does OSB support it?
No. A tape device must be listed on the compatibility matrix to be supported. To request support for a tape device, log a Service Request (SR) through Oracle support requesting an enhancement request be filed on your behalf.
Which network protocols does Oracle Secure Backup support?
Oracle Secure Backup leverages NDMP for data transport over TCP/IP supporting backup, restore and other file access through NFSA and CIFS; host name resolution through NIS and DNS.
How does backup encryption differ between Oracle Secure Backup 10.1 and 10.2?
Oracle Secure Backup 10.2 provides backup encryption for file systems and Oracle9i forward. In OSB 10.2, policy based encryption is available at the global, server or backup job level. Encryption keys may be generated transparently (randomly) or with a user-defined passphrase. In OSB 10.1, backup encryption to tape leveraged RMAN backup encryption only.
What is the difference between RMAN backup encryption and OSB 10.2 database backup encryption?
While both RMAN and Oracle Secure Backup 10.2 backup encryption leverage the same underlying Oracle encryption library, RMAN backup encryption is performed within the database and Oracle Secure Backup encryption occurs on the database server (outside of database). OSB 10.2 backup encryption supports Oracle9i forward while RMAN backup encryption is supports Oracle Database 10gR2 forward. Encryption key management differs as following:
• Oracle Secure Backup encryption keys are managed by OSB and stored on the OSB Administrative Server
• RMAN backup encryption keys are managed by the Oracle database
Does Oracle Secure Backup support disk-based backups?
No. However, Oracle Secure Backup supports virtual tape libraries (VTL). VTLs are disk appliances, which emulated tape drives and libraries. Oracle databases have always supported disk-based backups via RMAN. With Oracle Database 10g, the Flash Recovery Area was introduced to manage Oracle recovery related files. The Flash Recovery may be backed up to tape using Oracle Secure Backup. More information on the Flash Recovery Area is here.
Does OSB vaulting support Iron Mountain FTP format?
Yes. Oracle Secure Backup vaulting reports may be generated in Iron Mountain FTP format.
Is Oracle Secure Backup integrated with 3rd-party backup tools such as Veritas NetBackup or Tivoli Storage Manager?
No, Oracle Secure Backup is not integrated with any 3rd-party backup tools. Oracle Secure Backup is an alternative to these products offering centralized backup management for both database data, in conjunction with Recovery Manager (RMAN), and non-database data stored in file systems.
Does Oracle Secure Backup support online backups of 3rd-party databases?
No, Oracle Secure Backup does not provide native plug-ins of non-Oracle databases. Non-Oracle databases may be backed up offline (closed/consistent) as part of a file system backup. Consult with your vendor on best practices of backing up and recovering applications.
Can Oracle Secure Backup share a server and/or tape resources with other backup applications?
It is not recommended to install two backup applications on the same server or share tape hardware due to potential contention of resources. Overlapping background processes may be problematic causing unusual behavior for one or both backup applications. However, a partitioned library may be successfully shared between two applications.
Oracle 10 DBA Interview questions and answers
1. Is the following SQL statement syntactically correct? If not, please rewrite it correctly.
SELECT col1 FROM tableA WHERE NOT IN (SELECT col1 FROM tableB);
Ans. SQL is incorrect.
Correct SQL : SELECT col1 FROM tableA WHERE col1 NOT IN (SELECT col1 FROM tableB);
2. What is a more efficient way to write this query, to archive the same set?
Ans: SELECT col1 from tableA minus SELECT col1 from tableB
3.How would you determine that the new query is more efficient than the original query?
Ans: Run explain plan on both query and see the result .
4.How can we find the location of the database trace files from within the data dictionary?
Ans: Generally trace file on the database server machine is located in one of two locations:
1. If you are using a dedicated server connection, the trace file will be generated in the directory specified by
the USER_DUMP_DEST parameter.
2.If you are using a shared server connection, the trace file will be generated in the directory specified by the
BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST parameter.
you can run sqlplus>SHOW PARAMETER DUMP_DEST
or
select name, value
from v$parameter
where name like '%dump_dest%'
5. What is the correct syntax for a UNIX endless WHILE loop?
while :
do
commands
done
6. Write the SQL statement that will return the name and size of the largest datafile in the database.
SQL> select name,bytes from v$datafile where bytes=(select max(bytes) from v$datafile);
7. What are the proper steps to changing the Oracle database block size?
cold backup all data files and backup controlfile to trace, recreate your database
with the new block size using the backup control file, and restore. It may be easier
with rman. You can not change datbase block size on fly.
8. Using awk, write a script to print the 3rd field of every line.
Ans:
awk '{print }'
awk '{print $3}
awk '{print $3}
9.Under what conditions, is a nested loop better than a merge join?
Ans:
Optimizer uses nested loop when we are joining tables containing small number of rows with an efficient driving
condition.
It is important to have an index on column of inner join table as this table is probed every time for a new value
from outer table.
Optimizer may not use nested loop in case:
1. No of rows of both the table is quite high
2. Inner query always results in same set of records
3. The access path of inner table is independent of data coming from outer table.
merge join is used to join two independent data sources. They perform better than nested loop when the volume of
data is big in tables
but not as good as hash joins in general.
10.Which database views would you use to ascertain the number of commits a user's session has performed?
Joining V$SESSTAT ,V$STATNAME
select * from V$SESSTAT a ,V$STATNAME b where b.CLASS=a.STATISTIC# and b.NAME='user commits' and a.sid=
11.What does the #!bin/ksh at the beginning of a shell script do? Why should it be there?
Ans: On the first line of an interpreter script, the "#!", is the name of a program which should be used to
interpret the contents of the file.
For instance, if the first line contains "#! /bin/ksh", then the contents of the file are executed as a korn shell
script.
12.What command is used to find the status of Oracle 10g Clusterware (CRS) and the various components it manages
(ONS, VIP, listener, instances, etc.)?
Ans:
$ocrcheck
13.Describe a scenario in which a vendor clusterware is required, in addition to the Oracle 10g Clusterware.
If you choose external redundancy for the OCR and voting disk, then to enable redundancy, the disk subsystem must be configurable for RAID mirroring/vendor clusterware. Otherwise, your system may be vulnerable because the OCR and voting disk are single points of failure.
14.How would you find the interconnect IP address from any node within an Oracle 10g RAC configuration?
using oifcfg command.
se the oifcfg -help command to display online help for OIFCFG. The elements of OIFCFG commands, some of which are
optional depending on the command, are:
*nodename—Name of the Oracle Clusterware node as listed in the output from the olsnodes command
*if_name—Name by which the interface is configured in the system
*subnet—Subnet address of the interface
*if_type—Type of interface: public or cluster_interconnect
You can use OIFCFG to list the interface names and the subnets of all of the interfaces available on the local node
by executing the iflist keyword as shown in this example:
oifcfg iflist
hme0 139.185.141.0
qfe0 204.152.65.16
You can also retrieve specific OIFCFG information with a getif command using the following syntax:
oifcfg getif [ [-global | -node nodename] [-if if_name[/subnet]] [-type if_type] ]
To store a new interface use the setif keyword. For example, to store the interface hme0, with the subnet
139.185.141.0, as a global interface (to be used as an interconnect for all of the RAC instances in your cluster),
you would use the command:
oifcfg setif -global hme0/139.185.141.0:cluster_interconnect
For a cluster interconnect that exists between only two nodes, for example rac1 and rac2, you could create the cms0
interface with the following commands, assuming 139.185.142.0 is the subnet addresses for the interconnect on rac1
and rac2 respectively:
oifcfg setif -global cms0/139.185.142.0:cluster_interconnect
Use the OIFCFG delif command to delete the stored configuration for global or node-specific interfaces. A specific
node-specific or global interface can be deleted by supplying the interface name, with an optional subnet, on the
command line. Without the -node or -global options, the delif keyword deletes either the given interface or all of
the global and node-specific interfaces on all of the nodes in the cluster. For example, the following command
deletes the global interface named qfe0 for the subnet 204.152.65.0:
oifcfg delif -global qfe0/204.152.65.0
On the other hand, the next command deletes all of the global interfaces stored with OIFCFG:
oifcfg delif -global
15.What is the Purpose of the voting disk in Oracle 10g Clusterware?
Voting disk record node membership information. Oracle Clusterware uses the voting disk to determine which instances are members of a cluster. The voting disk must reside on a shared disk. For high availability, Oracle recommends that you have a minimum of three voting disks. If you configure a single voting disk, then you should use external mirroring to provide redundancy. You can have up to 32 voting disks in your cluster.
16.What is the purpose of the OCR in Oracle 10g Clusterware?
Ans: Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) is a component in 10g RAC used to store the cluster configuration information. It is a shared disk component, typically located in a shared raw volume that must be accessible to all nodes in the cluster.
The daemon OCSSd manages the configuration info in OCR and maintains the changes to cluster in the registry.
17. In Oracle Streams archived log downstream capture, which database view can be used to determine which archived
logs are no longer needed by the capture process?
Ans: V$ARCHIVE_DEST_STATUS
SELECT col1 FROM tableA WHERE NOT IN (SELECT col1 FROM tableB);
Ans. SQL is incorrect.
Correct SQL : SELECT col1 FROM tableA WHERE col1 NOT IN (SELECT col1 FROM tableB);
2. What is a more efficient way to write this query, to archive the same set?
Ans: SELECT col1 from tableA minus SELECT col1 from tableB
3.How would you determine that the new query is more efficient than the original query?
Ans: Run explain plan on both query and see the result .
4.How can we find the location of the database trace files from within the data dictionary?
Ans: Generally trace file on the database server machine is located in one of two locations:
1. If you are using a dedicated server connection, the trace file will be generated in the directory specified by
the USER_DUMP_DEST parameter.
2.If you are using a shared server connection, the trace file will be generated in the directory specified by the
BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST parameter.
you can run sqlplus>SHOW PARAMETER DUMP_DEST
or
select name, value
from v$parameter
where name like '%dump_dest%'
5. What is the correct syntax for a UNIX endless WHILE loop?
while :
do
commands
done
6. Write the SQL statement that will return the name and size of the largest datafile in the database.
SQL> select name,bytes from v$datafile where bytes=(select max(bytes) from v$datafile);
7. What are the proper steps to changing the Oracle database block size?
cold backup all data files and backup controlfile to trace, recreate your database
with the new block size using the backup control file, and restore. It may be easier
with rman. You can not change datbase block size on fly.
8. Using awk, write a script to print the 3rd field of every line.
Ans:
awk
awk '{print $3}
awk '{print $3}
9.Under what conditions, is a nested loop better than a merge join?
Ans:
Optimizer uses nested loop when we are joining tables containing small number of rows with an efficient driving
condition.
It is important to have an index on column of inner join table as this table is probed every time for a new value
from outer table.
Optimizer may not use nested loop in case:
1. No of rows of both the table is quite high
2. Inner query always results in same set of records
3. The access path of inner table is independent of data coming from outer table.
merge join is used to join two independent data sources. They perform better than nested loop when the volume of
data is big in tables
but not as good as hash joins in general.
10.Which database views would you use to ascertain the number of commits a user's session has performed?
Joining V$SESSTAT ,V$STATNAME
select * from V$SESSTAT a ,V$STATNAME b where b.CLASS=a.STATISTIC# and b.NAME='user commits' and a.sid=
11.What does the #!bin/ksh at the beginning of a shell script do? Why should it be there?
Ans: On the first line of an interpreter script, the "#!", is the name of a program which should be used to
interpret the contents of the file.
For instance, if the first line contains "#! /bin/ksh", then the contents of the file are executed as a korn shell
script.
12.What command is used to find the status of Oracle 10g Clusterware (CRS) and the various components it manages
(ONS, VIP, listener, instances, etc.)?
Ans:
$ocrcheck
13.Describe a scenario in which a vendor clusterware is required, in addition to the Oracle 10g Clusterware.
If you choose external redundancy for the OCR and voting disk, then to enable redundancy, the disk subsystem must be configurable for RAID mirroring/vendor clusterware. Otherwise, your system may be vulnerable because the OCR and voting disk are single points of failure.
14.How would you find the interconnect IP address from any node within an Oracle 10g RAC configuration?
using oifcfg command.
se the oifcfg -help command to display online help for OIFCFG. The elements of OIFCFG commands, some of which are
optional depending on the command, are:
*nodename—Name of the Oracle Clusterware node as listed in the output from the olsnodes command
*if_name—Name by which the interface is configured in the system
*subnet—Subnet address of the interface
*if_type—Type of interface: public or cluster_interconnect
You can use OIFCFG to list the interface names and the subnets of all of the interfaces available on the local node
by executing the iflist keyword as shown in this example:
oifcfg iflist
hme0 139.185.141.0
qfe0 204.152.65.16
You can also retrieve specific OIFCFG information with a getif command using the following syntax:
oifcfg getif [ [-global | -node nodename] [-if if_name[/subnet]] [-type if_type] ]
To store a new interface use the setif keyword. For example, to store the interface hme0, with the subnet
139.185.141.0, as a global interface (to be used as an interconnect for all of the RAC instances in your cluster),
you would use the command:
oifcfg setif -global hme0/139.185.141.0:cluster_interconnect
For a cluster interconnect that exists between only two nodes, for example rac1 and rac2, you could create the cms0
interface with the following commands, assuming 139.185.142.0 is the subnet addresses for the interconnect on rac1
and rac2 respectively:
oifcfg setif -global cms0/139.185.142.0:cluster_interconnect
Use the OIFCFG delif command to delete the stored configuration for global or node-specific interfaces. A specific
node-specific or global interface can be deleted by supplying the interface name, with an optional subnet, on the
command line. Without the -node or -global options, the delif keyword deletes either the given interface or all of
the global and node-specific interfaces on all of the nodes in the cluster. For example, the following command
deletes the global interface named qfe0 for the subnet 204.152.65.0:
oifcfg delif -global qfe0/204.152.65.0
On the other hand, the next command deletes all of the global interfaces stored with OIFCFG:
oifcfg delif -global
15.What is the Purpose of the voting disk in Oracle 10g Clusterware?
Voting disk record node membership information. Oracle Clusterware uses the voting disk to determine which instances are members of a cluster. The voting disk must reside on a shared disk. For high availability, Oracle recommends that you have a minimum of three voting disks. If you configure a single voting disk, then you should use external mirroring to provide redundancy. You can have up to 32 voting disks in your cluster.
16.What is the purpose of the OCR in Oracle 10g Clusterware?
Ans: Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) is a component in 10g RAC used to store the cluster configuration information. It is a shared disk component, typically located in a shared raw volume that must be accessible to all nodes in the cluster.
The daemon OCSSd manages the configuration info in OCR and maintains the changes to cluster in the registry.
17. In Oracle Streams archived log downstream capture, which database view can be used to determine which archived
logs are no longer needed by the capture process?
Ans: V$ARCHIVE_DEST_STATUS
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