Veritas FlashSnap Point-In-Time Copy Solutions 5.0.1 Administrators Guide, HP-UX 11i v3, First Edition, November 2009

Storage Checkpoints require space in the file systems where they are created, and

the space required grows over time as copies of changed file system blocks are

made. If a file system runs out of space, and there is no disk space into which the

file system and any underlying volume can expand, VxFS automatically removes

the oldest Storage Checkpoints if they were created with the removable attribute.

If available, it is recommended that you use the VxDBA utility to administer

Storage Checkpoints when they are applied to database applications. See the

Veritas Storage Foundation Database Administrator’s Guide for details.

For information on how Storage Checkpoints work, see the Veritas File System

Administrator’s Guide.

Creating Storage Checkpoints

To create Storage Checkpoints, select 3 Storage Checkpoint Administration

> Create New Storage Checkpoints in the VxDBA utility. This can be done with

a database either online or offline.

Note: To create a Storage Checkpoint while the database is online, ARCHIVELOG

mode must be enabled in Oracle. During the creation of the Storage Checkpoint,

the tablespaces are placed in backup mode. Because it only takes a few seconds

to take a Storage Checkpoint, the extra redo logs generated while the tablespaces

are in online backup mode are very small. To optimize recovery, it is recommended

that you keep ARCHIVELOG mode enabled.

Warning: Changes to the structure of a database, such as the addition or removal

of datafiles, make Storage Rollback impossible if they are made after a Storage

Checkpoint was taken. A backup copy of the control file for the database is saved

under the /etc/vx/vxdba/ORACLE_SID/checkpoint_dir directory immediately

after a Storage Checkpoint is created. If necessary, you can use this file to assist

with database recovery. If possible, both an ASCII and binary copy of the control

file are made, with the binary version being compressed to conserve space. Use

extreme caution if you attempt to recover your database using these control files.

It is recommended that you remove old Storage Checkpoints and create new ones

whenever you restructure a database.

Rolling back a database

The procedure in this section describes how to roll back a database using a Storage

Checkpoint, for example, after a logical error has occurred.

Database recovery

Creating Storage Checkpoints