When it comes to protecting mission-critical Oracle databases, many DBAs have traditionally turned to Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN). However, with thousands of options and hundreds of scripts, protecting Oracle databases at scale can be a challenge for even the most seasoned DBA. This blog wiIl explore how Rubrik Cloud Data Management simplifies the protection of Oracle databases by enabling DevOps-centric automation, instant recovery, self-service clones, and streamlined collaboration between DBAs and backup admins.
Automate Oracle Data Protection with Rubrik Backup Service and SLA Domain Policies
For organizations looking for a hands-off approach to Oracle data protection, Rubrik provides the Rubrik Backup Service (RBS) and SLA Domain Policies. RBS is a lightweight connector that can be installed on either Linux or UNIX hosts and auto-discovers all of the Oracle real application clusters (RAC), hosts, databases, and tablespaces within the environment. Once the entire Oracle environment is discovered, users can leverage Rubrik’s intelligent and automated SLA policy engine to create declarative policies that define backup frequency, retention duration, and desired location. After an SLA policy has been mapped, Oracle databases will be automatically protected, replicated, and archived.
“One of the biggest advantages with Rubrik over legacy solutions is its policy-based management for Oracle RMAN workloads,” says Edword Poll, Head of IT Infrastructure at Cranfield University. “With Rubrik, we eliminated tedious backup job scheduling. The same policies apply to Oracle workloads as for our other datasets. As a result, we spend 83% less time managing our backups.” Rubrik’s Automated Oracle Data Protection eliminates the need to manually configure jobs or even understand the complexities of RMAN.
Provide Instant Access and Clones with Rubrik Live Mount
When it comes to protecting mission-critical data, one of the most important questions to ask is “How quickly can I restore my data?” Rubrik Live Mount enables near-zero RTOs to ensure organizations are able to recover from an outage in near instant fashion. A virtual read-write copy of Oracle data files is generated on-demand and served directly to the production Oracle host via NFS. Rubrik’s Live Migration capability enables Oracle data files to be migrated back to production while Oracle database files are still being actively served by the Rubrik cluster, thus eliminating additional downtime.
Rubrik Live Mount also allows for the self-service of instant virtual clones without impacting production environments or requiring the need for additional storage. “Our DBAs love the Live Mount feature, especially when it comes to upgrades. Live Mount allowed us to upgrade our Oracle systems during business hours,” says Kevin Mortimer, Infrastructure Services Manager at the University of Reading. “System clones that took hours now only takes a few minutes.” DBAs commonly use Rubrik Live Mount to complete a variety of tasks, such as instant recovery, testing a patch or an upgrade, verifying data recoverability, running point-in-time queries and historical reports, and even just to meet ad hoc requests.
To give enterprises the flexibility of choice, Rubrik provides two additional recovery options known as Export and Instant Recovery. The export option allows for an entire Oracle database or tablespaces to be restored to a target host. While the export option performs a traditional restore, creating a database by copying data from the Rubrik cluster to an Oracle host, the Instant Recovery option does this work without the need to copy all of the associated data. Instead, Instant Recovery utilizes the storage on the Rubrik cluster to host the Oracle datafiles, while all other components are restored to the original Oracle location. This allows for a much faster recovery after a complete database failure, allowing DBAs to reach a near-instantaneous RTO no matter the size of the database.
“It’s a huge relief for us knowing that our most critical database is protected with Rubrik,” says Adam Monnery, Head of Information and Communications Technology at the Museum of London. “We can instantly find our Oracle backups and files and recover quickly from any point-in-time snapshot.” Rubrik simplifies data protection for databases while delivering instant recovery and clones in seconds.
Streamline Collaboration Between DBAs and Backup Admins
Backup administrators often handle the complete protection lifecycle of an organization’s applications, from the backup and restore to the compliance and governance policies set forth by the business. The one thing that seems to break this holistic approach are Oracle databases. While a DBA may be open to handing off protection tasks to the backup administrator, the responsibility still falls on the DBA to build and maintain the right set of RMAN scripts as the database environment changes.
Rubrik increases operational efficiencies, data security, business productivity, and regulatory compliance by delivering dual-control and visibility between DBAs and backup admins. Rubrik provides granular control along with integration into existing directory services (Active Directory) to make Rubrik a natural fit for multi-tenant environments. On top of that, you can use Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to provide granular privileges with the ability to manage, protect, and recover selected Oracle databases.
“Rubrik was an easy decision,” said Fabrice De Biasio, CIO of ASL Airlines. “From the ultra-fast recovery to global predictive search, to intelligent data services — everything was impressive. With Rubrik, we can recover our Oracle database faster with point-in-time recovery, regardless of location.” Rubrik for Oracle offers a modern approach to deliver high performance, self-service recovery, and greater collaboration between the database and backup teams.
For more information on how Rubrik protects mission-critical Oracle databases, please take a look at our latest Oracle technical white paper or feel free to reach out to us. We would love to chat!