VERITAS Storage Foundation 4.1 Oracle Administrator's Guide

Chapter 10, Using Database FlashSnap for Backup and Off-Host Processing
Prerelease 8 September 2005, 8:55am Creating a Snapshot (dbed_vmsnap)
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Creating a Snapshot (dbed_vmsnap)
The dbed_vmsnap command creates a snapshot of an Oracle database by splitting the mirror
volumes used by the database into a snapshot database. You can use the snapshot image on either
the same host as the database or on a secondary host provided storage is shared by the two hosts.
The snapshot image created by dbed_vmsnap is a frozen image of an Oracle database’s datafiles.
dbed_vmsnap ensures that a backup control file is created when the snapshot database is created,
which allows for complete data recovery, if needed.
For a complete list of all snapshot and database statuses, see “VERITAS Database FlashSnap Status
Information” on page 501.
Note You cannot access Database FlashSnap commands (dbed_vmchecksnap,
dbed_vmsnap, and dbed_vmclonedb) with the VxDBA menu utility.
Prerequisites
◆ You must be logged in as the Oracle database administrator.
◆ You must create and validate a snapplan using dbed_vmchecksnap before you can create a
snapshot image with dbed_vmsnap.
Usage Notes
◆ The dbed_vmsnap command can only be used on the primary host.
◆ Do not share volumes between Oracle database files and other software.
◆ When creating a snapshot volume, create the snapshot on a separate controller and on separate
disks from the primary volume.
◆ Make sure your archive log destination is separate from your Oracle database volumes.
◆ Do not place any datafiles, including control files, in the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory.
◆ Resynchronization speed varies based on the amount of data changed in both the primary and
secondary volumes when the mirror is broken off.
◆ See the dbed_vmsnap(1M) manual page for more information.
▼ To create a snapshot
1. Change directories to the working directory in which your snapplan is stored:
$ cd /working_directory