Planning Your Administrative Domain

Before installing Oracle Secure Backup and configuring your domain, you must perform the planning tasks described in this section:

Determining System Requirements for Oracle Secure Backup
Choosing Roles for Hosts in Your Administrative Domain
Collecting Device Parameters for UNIX and Linux Tape Devices

Determining System Requirements for Oracle Secure Backup

This section contains the following topics:

Platforms and Operating Systems Supported by Oracle Secure Backup
Planning Disk Space Requirements for Oracle Secure Backup
Other System Requirements for Oracle Secure Backup

Platforms and Operating Systems Supported by Oracle Secure Backup

For the list of supported operating systems, web browsers and NAS for Oracle Secure Backup, see Certify on Metalink, at the following URL:

http://metalink.oracle.com/

Tape device matrixes are available at the following URL:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/secure-backup/

Planning Disk Space Requirements for Oracle Secure Backup

To help you manage your installation, hardware and software capacity planning values are provided for Oracle Secure Backup on the Windows, UNIX, and Linux operating systems. In addition to considering the space you need for Oracle Secure Backup, evaluate the size requirements of your network as a whole. Factors such as the number of hosts on the network and the volume of backups and restores you plan to perform significantly affect resource requirements.

Although no strict rules exist for determining the exact amount of disk space required for any particular network, consider the following general guidelines:

One backup catalog exists for each client host.
No appreciable backup catalog data are recorded for database backups.
The size of the backup catalog of any client is a direct function of the following:
- Number of files and directories backed up
- Frequency of backups and ratio of full to incremental backups
- Length of file names
- Depth of directory trees
- Frequency at which position data is sampled
- Frequency at which statistical data for a file changes, irrespective of whether that file is backed up in full or incremental mode
- Maximum retention period of backup catalog data, if configured
- Rate at which backup media are recycled
- Number of backups retained in the catalog for the clients

On any operating system, when an administrative server is installed, the files for a media server and client are included automatically, even if they are not installed.

The following sections provide approximate disk space requirements for the Oracle Secure Backup software on the Windows, UNIX, and Linux operating systems. The values specified are approximations only and may vary by installation. Also, the disk space requirements do not include the required space for backup catalogs and for log files that are generated by Oracle Secure Backup. Backup catalogs and log files can require considerable additional disk space.

Disk Space Requirements for Oracle Secure Backup on Windows

Table 1-1 describes the disk space required for an installation of Oracle Secure Backup on Windows with and without the administrative server.

Table 1-1 Disk Space Requirements for Oracle Secure Backup on Windows

Oracle Secure Backup Installation	Disk Space
Administrative server (can include the media server or client, or both)	20 MB
Media server or client, or both (no administrative server)	15 MB

Disk Space Requirements for Oracle Secure Backup on Linux and UNIX

When you install Oracle Secure Backup on Linux or UNIX, you load an install package for a particular operating system and perform the installation with the install package. You also have the option of loading Oracle Secure Backup install packages for multiple operating systems. These packages enable you to initiate the installation of Oracle Secure Backup to other hosts in the network. Typically, install packages that will be used for network installations are loaded onto an administrative server.

Table 1-2 describes the disk space requirements for installing an administrative server, media server, and client on Linux and UNIX. This table also describes the disk space requirements for loading install packages that will be used for network installations to other hosts.

Table 1-2 Disk Space Requirements for Oracle Secure Backup on Linux and UNIX

Oracle Secure Backup Installation and Packages	Disk Space
Administrative server for UNIX installation (can include the media server or client, or both)	60 MB
Administrative server for Linux installation (can include the media server or client, or both)	40 MB
Common administrative server files for all operating systems	10 MB
Each copy of an install package loaded for network installations to other hosts running UNIX operating systems	60 MB
Package files loaded for network installations to other hosts running the Linux operating system	40 MB
Media server or client, or both	50 MB

To calculate the amount of disk space required for a host that will function as both an administrative server and as a server for network installations to other hosts, add the following disk space requirements to determine the total disk space required:

The amount of disk space required to install the administrative server locally
The amount of disk space required for install packages for other operating systems
10 MB for common administrative server files that are used for all operating systems

The following examples describe the disk space requirements for various installations of Oracle Secure Backup on Linux or UNIX:

Install the administrative server for the Solaris 64 operating system, and load the install packages for the Linux operating system for network installations to other hosts:

60 MB (administrative server installation for Solaris 64)
 40 MB (install package for Linux)
 10 MB (common administrative server files)
110 MB total disk space required

Install the administrative server, media server, and client for the Linux operating system without loading install packages for other operating systems:

40 MB (administrative server, media server, and client for Linux) 
 10 MB (common administrative server files)
 50 MB total disk space required

Network install of a media server and client on the Solaris 64 operating system:
```
50 MB total disk space required
```
Network install of a client on the Linux operating system:
```
50 MB total disk space required
```

Note:

The restartable backups feature, supported by some backup devices such as those from Network Appliance, generate bulkfiles in /tmp on a Linux or UNIX administrative server that can require considerable extra space. If you are using this feature, you should maintain at least 1GB of free disk space on the file system that contains /tmp.

Other System Requirements for Oracle Secure Backup

The following requirements also apply for Oracle Secure Backup installations:

Each host that participates in a Oracle Secure Backup administrative domain must run TCP/IP. Oracle Secure Backup uses this protocol for all inter- and intra-machine communication between its own and other system components.
Each appliance that employs a closed operating system, such as Network Attached Storage (NAS) and tape servers, must run NDMP. This protocol enables Oracle Secure Backup to access primary and secondary storage controlled by the appliance. Oracle Secure Backup supports NDMP versions 2, 3, and 4, and various extensions to version 4. It automatically negotiates with other, non-Oracle NDMP components to select a mutually agreeable protocol version. Between its own components, Oracle Secure Backup uses NDMP version 4.

Each host that participates in an Oracle Secure Backup administrative domain must also have some preconfigured way to resolve a host name to an IP address. Most systems use one of the name resolution mechanisms (DNS, NIS, WINS, or a local "hosts" file) to do this. Oracle Secure Backup does not require a specific mechanism. Oracle Secure Backup only requires that, upon presenting the underlying system software with an IP address you have configured, it obtains an IP address corresponding to that name.

Note:

You can configure Oracle Secure Backup to use WINS, the Microsoft Windows name resolution protocol, from UNIX hosts. Although this configuration is atypical, WINS name resolution from UNIX hosts can be a practical solution.
The use of DHCP to assign IP addresses is not supported for hosts that participate in an Oracle Secure Backup administrative domain. Static IP addresses should be assigned to all hosts. If you cannot use static IP addresses, you must ensure that the DHCP server guarantees that a given host is always assigned the same IP address.
On OSB network installations, it is important that there be no duplicate host names. Index catalog data is stored in a directory based on the name of the client host. Duplicate host names would result in information related to backups from multiple clients being combined in a manner that could prevent successful restores from backup.

Linux Media Server System Requirement: SCSI Generic Driver

Configuring a Linux host for the Oracle Secure Backup media server role requires that the SCSI Generic driver be installed on that host. This driver is required for Oracle Secure Backup to interact with media devices. The host must also be configured to automatically reload the driver after a reboot.

Kernel modules are usually loaded directly by the facility that requires them, if the correct settings are present in the /etc/modprobe.conf file. However, it is sometimes necessary to explicitly force the loading of a module at boot time.

For example, on RedHat Enterprise Linux, the module for the SCSI Generic driver is named sg. Red Hat Enterprise Linux checks for the existence of the /etc/rc.modules file at boot time, which contains various commands to load modules.

Note:

The rc.modules should be used, and not rc.local, because rc.modules is executed earlier in the boot process.

The following commands can be used to add the sg module to the list of modules configured to load as root at boot time:

# echo modprobe sg >> /etc/rc.modules
# chmod +x /etc/rc.modules

Choosing Roles for Hosts in Your Administrative Domain

When planning your administrative domain, you must designate the specific role or roles for each host. You should ask the following questions:

Which host will you use to initiate and manage backup and restore jobs? Assign this host the role of administrative server.
Which hosts have tape or other secondary storage devices attached to them? Assign these hosts the role of media server.
Which hosts in your network have data that needs to be backed up? Assign these hosts the role of client.

Note that a single host can serve several roles. For example, if you want to use a host to administer your backups that also contains data to be backed up, assign that host the roles of administrative server and client. If a host to be backed up has attached devices, then assign the host the roles of client and media server.

Note:

All hosts possessing data to be backed up must be assigned the client role, regardless of other roles assigned to that host.

As shown in Figure 1-2, a domain can consist of a single host which is administrative server, media server, and client.

Figure 1-2 Administrative Domain with One Host

Description of "Figure 1-2 Administrative Domain with One Host"

Collect a list of each host in your administrative domain and which roles are assigned to each one. Then verify that each host meets the system requirements for Oracle Secure Backup for that role. Oracle Secure Backup must be installed on each host in your domain except NDMP-enabled hosts such as NAS filers.

Collecting Device Parameters for UNIX and Linux Tape Devices

Installing and configuring Oracle Secure Backup on Linux media servers with attached media devices requires the SCSI configuration parameters for all attached tape drives or libraries, as well as the creation of device special files for each device.

Obtain SCSI bus instance names, target IDs, and SCSI logical unit numbers (LUNs) by using operating system-specific utilities for media servers running Oracle Secure Backup on Linux and UNIX operating systems.

Note:

It is not necessary to collect SCSI parameter information for devices attached to Windows media servers. Windows correctly determines SCSI parameters for the tape drives and tape libraries automatically.

Assigning Oracle Secure Backup Logical Unit Numbers to Devices

In addition to obtaining SCSI device information, tape drives and libraries must be assigned an Oracle Secure Backup logical unit number during the configuration process. This number is used to generate unique device names during device configuration.

For UNIX or Linux media servers, you must select Oracle Secure Backup logical unit numbers for each device as part of planning your administrative domain.

Note:

It is not necessary to assign Oracle Secure Backup logical unit numbers for devices attached to Windows media servers. On Windows, Oracle Secure Backup logical unit numbers are assigned as needed automatically.

While there is no required order for assigning Oracle Secure Backup logical unit numbers, they are typically assigned sequentially, starting at 0, for each device of a given type, whether library or drive. That is, libraries are typically numbered 0, 1, 2 and so on, and tape drives are also numbered 0, 1, 2 and so on. The maximum value for an Oracle Secure Backup logical unit number is 31.

On Linux or Solaris, the resulting device special file names for tape libraries are /dev/obl1, /dev/obl2, /dev/obl3 and so on, and the names for tape drives are /dev/obt1, /dev/obt2, /dev/obt3 and so on through /dev/obtn, where n in each case is the Oracle Secure Backup logical unit number you assigned the device. On Windows, the resulting tape library names are obl1, obl2, obl3 and so on, and the names for tape drives are obt1, obt2, obt3 and so on, where these names are assigned automatically during the installation of Oracle Secure Backup on Windows. (Note that the l character in the name of each tape drive is a lower-case L, not a numeral 1.)

Note:

The Oracle Secure Backup logical unit number should not be confused with the SCSI logical unit number (SCSI LUN). The SCSI LUN is part of the hardware address of the device, while the Oracle Secure Backup logical unit number is part of the device special file name.