The backup and restore feature applies to block storage databases.
You must have the Administrator role to back up and restore a database.
In backing up a database, Essbase performs the following tasks:
Places the database in read-only mode, protecting the database from updates during the archive process while allowing requests to query the database.
Writes a copy of the database files listed in Table 4 to an archive file that resides on the Essbase Server computer.
Returns the database to read-write mode.
Table 4 lists and describes the Essbase database files that are backed up automatically.
Table 4. Essbase Database Files That Are Automatically Backed Up
File | Description |
|---|---|
essxxxxx.pag | Essbase data files For example, ess00001.pag |
essxxxxx.ind | Essbase index files For example, ess00001.ind |
dbname.esm | Essbase Kernel file that contains control and disk volume information used for database recovery |
dbname.tct | Transaction control table |
dbname.ind | Free fragment file for data and index-free fragments |
dbname.otl | Outline file, which stores all metadata for a database and defines how data is stored, but does not store data itself |
| dbname.otl.keep | Temporary backup of dbname.otl (created by operations that modify the outline and write it to a new file) |
| x.lro | Linked reporting objects |
| dbname.otn | Temporary outline file created during a dimension build or outline editing |
| dbname.db | Database file containing database settings |
| dbname.ddb | Partition definition file |
| dbname.ocl | Outline change log created during incremental dimension build |
| essxxxx.chg | Outline synchronization change log |
| dbname.alg | Spreadsheet update log that stores spreadsheet update transactions as a unit that can be used as the input source for data loads |
| dbname.atx | Spreadsheet update log that contains historical information for each transaction, such as user name, date, and timestamp, and the number of transaction rows from the .atx file |
In addition to the files that Essbase backs up, you must manually back up the files listed in Table 5. You should back up these files at a later date than when the database backup is performed (for example, a few days after). You should also back up rules files and ESSCMD or MaxL scripts when you create or modify them.
Table 5 lists and describes theEssbase database files that must be backed up manually.
Table 5. Essbase Files That You Must Manually Back Up
File | Description | Location |
|---|---|---|
essbase.sec[1] | Essbase security file | ARBORPATH/bin/ |
essbase_timestamp.bak | Backup of the Essbase security file | ARBORPATH/bin/ |
essbase.cfg | Essbase Server configuration file | ARBORPATH/bin/ |
dbname.app | Application file containing application settings | ARBORPATH/app/ |
.otl .csc .rul .rep .eqd .sel | Database artifact files | ARBORPATH/app/appname/dbname/ |
ESSCMD or MaxL scripts | No defined storage location |
In backing up a database, Essbase copies the database files to an archive file, which must reside on the Essbase Server computer. When specifying the archive file name and location, follow these guidelines:
Provide the full path to a directory on Essbase Server and the name of the archive file.
If only the archive file name is provided, Essbase writes the archive file to ARBORPATH/app.
Oracle recommends writing the archive file to a disk other than the one where ARBORPATH is located.
Oracle recommends naming the archive file with an .arc extension.
The archive file size corresponds to the size of the database you back up and is limited only by disk space, unless you split the archive file into multiple files. (See Splitting the Archive File Into Multiple Files.) With the single-file configuration, Oracle recommends saving archive files to a file system that supports large files.
For Windows, the file system must be formatted as NTFS. For UNIX, large file support must be enabled; also, use the ULIMIT setting to specify a file size for the archive file. If you set ULIMIT to a specific file size, ensure that the value is sufficiently large, based on the size of the database, or set ULIMIT to unlimited. See your OS documentation.
When backing up a database to an archive file, use force option to overwrite the archive file; otherwise, the operation fails.
Caution!
Before using the force option, ensure that you no longer need the current archive file contents.
By default, Essbase creates one large archive file. If you cannot use large files in your environment, or if your file-transfer tools cannot handle large files, you can configure Essbase to split the archive into multiple files of 2 GB or less: In the essbase.cfg file, set the SPLITARCHIVEFILE configuration to TRUE.
The first (or main) archive file that Essbase creates uses the file name that you specify (for example, samplebasic.arc). When the main archive file reaches the 2 GB limit, Essbase creates another file. In naming each successive archive file, Essbase increments the main archive file name with “_n”, where n is an integer (starting with 1). For example, three archive files created to back up the Sample.Basic database would be named as follows:
samplebasic.arc
samplebasic_1.arc
samplebasic_2.arc
All split archive files are created in the directory that you specified when specifying the file name and location of the main archive file.
Note: | When restoring a database in which the archive is split into multiple files, Essbase looks for multiple archive files even if, after the backup, you set SPLITARCHIVEFILE to FALSE for that database. Also, Essbase expects all archive files for a database to be in the same directory. |
To back up a database, you must have the Administrator role.
To back up a database, use one of these tools:
Oracle Essbase Administration Services
See “Backing Up Block Storage Databases” in Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help.
In Administration Services Console, use the Archive Database command.
MaxL
See “Alter Database” in the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference
In MaxL, use the alter database statement with the archive to file grammar. The syntax for the statement:
alter database appname.dbname [force] archive to file BACKUP-FILE;
For example, the following statement backs up the Sample.Basic database to the specified archive file on Essbase Server:
alter database Sample.Basic archive to file '/Oracle/samplebasic.arc';
If the samplebasic.arc file exists on Essbase Server, use force grammar to overwrite the file contents. Example:
alter database Sample.Basic force archive to file '/Oracle/samplebasic.arc';
Note: | At a different time from when you back up the database, manually back up the files listed in Table 5, Essbase Files That You Must Manually Back Up. |
Essbase can retrieve the following information about the backed-up database from the archive file:
Overview information:
Application name
Database name
Archive time
Disk volume names
To retrieve archive file information, use the query archive_file MaxL statement.
The syntax for the statement:
query archive_file BACKUP-FILE [get overview] [list disk volume];
In the MaxL Script Editor in Administration Services Console, you can view the results of the query. Figure 1, Archive File Overview Information shows overview information:
Figure 2, Archive File List of Disk Volumes shows disk volume names:
You can also view disk volume information in Administration Services Console when using the Restore Database command.
Note: | On Windows, Essbase adds the default ARBORPATH drive (for example, the C: drive) as a disk volume, even if the database that you backed up does not store data on that disk volume. See Working with Disk Volumes. |
You must have the Administrator role to restore a database.
Before restoring the database, you should terminate active client connections to the database.
In restoring a database, Essbase empties the database and locks it. Before extracting the contents of the archive file, Essbase validates the file. Essbase then copies index and page files to the specified disk volumes and updates dbname.esm with disk volume information. See Working with Disk Volumes.
If you have configured Essbase to split the archive file into multiple files (see Configuring and Specifying the Database Archive File), you must specify only the file name of the main archive file that you want to restore (for example, samplebasic.arc).
Note: | When restoring a database in which the archive file is split into multiple files, Essbase looks for multiple archive files, even if, after the backup, you set SPLITARCHIVEFILE to FALSE for that database. Also, Essbase expects all of a database's archive files (main and split) to be in the same directory. |
To restore a database, use a tool:
| Tool | Topic | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Administration Services | Restoring Block Storage Databases | Oracle Essbase Administration Services Online Help |
| MaxL | alter database | Oracle Essbase Technical Reference |
In Administration Services Console, use the Restore Database command.
In MaxL, use the alter database statement with the restore from file grammar. The syntax for the statement:
alter database appname.dbname [force] restore from file BACKUP-FILE [replace disk volume VOL];
Typically, you restore a database to the application and database from which the backup was taken. Therefore, the names in the archive file of the backed-up database and its associated application, which are to be restored, are the same. However, if the names of the backed-up database and application differ from the application and database to which you are restoring data, you must use force grammar. Statement syntax:
alter database appname.dbname force restore from file BACKUP-FILE;
For example, you can use the backup for Sample.Basic to restore to Sample.New (the database name is different), MyCompany.Basic (the application name is different), or MyCompany.New (both names are different).
After restoring a backed-up database, you typically need not restore the files that you manually backed up (see Table 5, Essbase Files That You Must Manually Back Up).
Restore manually backed up files in these situations:
If a server interruption corrupted any files, such as security files
If you encounter problems (such as missing rules files or scripts) when replaying logged transactions
You can install Essbase on one disk volume and store index files (essn.ind), and data files (essn.pag) on one or more other disk volumes. Disk volume information is saved in the dbname.esm file and is used when restoring a database to ensure that the index and data files are copied to the correct disk volumes.
Even if you change the disk volumes that a database uses, all currently and previously used disk volume information remains in the database files. When retrieving disk volume information from the database archive file or viewing disk volume information in Administration Services Console or in the MaxL Shell, Essbase lists all the disk volumes that have been associated with the database. Additionally, Essbase lists the default ARBORPATH drive (for example, on Windows, the C: drive, if ARBORPATH resides on C:) as a disk volume. See Retrieving Archive File Information.
When restoring a database, you can replace disk volume names; however, the number of disk volumes must be the same, and the space required must at least the same, as those for the database before it was backed up.
In Administration Services Console, use the Advanced option in the Restore Database dialog box to replace the disk volume names.
When using the alter database MaxL statement with the replace disk volume VOL grammar, the valid values for the VOL argument are a comma-separated list of volumes to replace:
'VOL1' with 'VOL2'
'VOL3' with 'VOL4'
'VOL5' with 'VOL6'
For example, the following statement restores the Sample.Basic database using the samplebasic.arc archive file and replaces the specified disk volumes:
alter database Sample.Basic restore from file '/Oracle/samplebasic.arc' replace disk volume 'C' with 'F', 'D' with 'G', 'E' with 'H';
When working with Unicode and non-Unicode applications, Essbase does not allow a backed-up database from a Unicode application to be restored to a non-Unicode application.
Table 6 lists the supported combinations of restoring backed-up databases between Unicode and non-Unicode applications.
When backing up and restoring partitioned databases, follow these guidelines:
Back up and restore the source and target databases simultaneously.
If you restore a database to an application or database whose names are not the same as the names of the application or database that you backed up, you must redefine the partition. See the Oracle Essbase Database Administrator's Guide.