Glossary

alert

In Cloud Control, an indicator that a particular metric condition has been encountered. For example, an alert might indicate that a metric threshold has been reached.

attribute set

A set of parameters set at the job level while copying Recovery Appliance backups to tape. Attribute sets are created as part of a media manager library for each drive associated with this library.

Auto Service Request (ASR)

A product feature that automatically opens service requests when specific Recovery Appliance hardware faults occur. ASR detects faults in the most common server components, such as disks, fans, and power supplies.

automated delta pool space management

The set of operations in which a Recovery Appliance determines which blocks are no longer needed, and then deletes them. Specifically, space management includes:

  • Determining which backups (both in a Recovery Appliance storage location and on tape) are obsolete or expired based on the disk recovery window goal and SBT retention policy

  • Deleting unneeded blocks from the Recovery Appliance storage to meet the disk recovery window goal and reserved space parameters configured for each protected database

  • Optimizing the delta pools to improve performance of restore operations

backup copy policy

An attribute of a protection policy that determines whether the Recovery Appliance must ensure that new backups are replicated or copied to tape before deletion.

backup ingest

The automated stage in which a Recovery Appliance scans a backup that was sent by a protected database. The Recovery Appliance decomposes the backup into smaller sets of blocks, writes the blocks into the appropriate storage location, and indexes the backups. Indexing includes inserting rows into the Recovery Appliance metadata database to describe the physical location of every block.

backup mode

The database mode (also called hot backup mode) initiated when you issue the ALTER TABLESPACE ... BEGIN BACKUP or ALTER DATABASE BEGIN BACKUP statement before taking an online backup. You take a tablespace out of backup mode when you issue the ALTER TABLESPACE ... END BACKUP or ALTER DATABASE END BACKUP statement.

backup polling directory

A file system directory on shared storage, located outside the Recovery Appliance, that is a destination for backup pieces and archived redo log files from a protected database. The Recovery Appliance polls the directory at specified intervals, retrieves any found backup data, and then processes and stores the data.

backup polling policy

An optional Recovery Appliance object that defines a storage area where a client database will place backups without interacting directly with the Recovery Appliance. The polling policy defines the file system path to the storage and how often it is searched for new backups.

backup reception

The stage in which a protected database sends a backup over the network to a Recovery Appliance, but before the Recovery Appliance has indexed the backup.

backup window

The amount of time that it takes for a backup to complete.

block change tracking

A database option that causes Oracle Database to track data file blocks affected by each database update. The tracking information is stored in a block change tracking file. When block change tracking is enabled, RMAN uses the record of changed blocks from the change tracking file to improve incremental backup performance by only reading blocks known to have changed, instead of reading whole data files.

cascaded replication

A configuration in which a downstream Recovery Appliance also serves as an upstream Recovery Appliance for a Recovery Appliance further downstream.

Cloud Control

Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control is Oracle's enterprise cloud management solution. It enables you to monitor and manage the complete Oracle IT infrastructure from a single console. The core components of the architecture include the Oracle Management Agent, Oracle Management Service, Oracle Management Repository, Enterprise Manager for Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance plug-in, and Enterprise Manager Cloud Control Console.

copy-on-write snapshot

After a third-party storage snapshot is taken, and when the first change occurs on a storage block, the array copies the before-image block to a new location on disk. The snapshot maintains the before-image block for the snapshot and the new block for the active version of the database.

delta pool

A set of data file blocks from which a virtual full backup is constructed. Each separate data file backed up to a Recovery Appliance has its own separate delta pool. The delta pools reside in the delta store.

delta pool optimization

The automatic tracking and reorganizing of the delta pools. As old blocks are deleted and new incremental backups arrive for updated data files, the blocks in a backup can become less contiguous. This state can degrade the performance of restore operations. Recovery Appliance automatically reorganizes the blocks to maintain contiguity during ordinary maintenance and validation.

delta push

The transfer of backups and changes from protected databases to the Recovery Appliance. This solution consists of two operations that run on each protected database: real-time redo transport, and the incremental-forever backup strategy.

delta store

The total Recovery Appliance storage that is used to store client backup data. The delta store contains all data file and archived redo log backups.

disk recovery window goal

The interval in which a point-in-time recovery must be possible using only disk backups. For example, if the recovery window goal is 15 days, and if it is noon on April 25, then the goal is the ability to perform point-in-time recovery to any time on or after noon on April 10. The goal, which is specified for each protection policy, is not a hard limit.

downstream Recovery Appliance

In a Recovery Appliance replication topology, the downstream Recovery Appliance receives replicated data from an upstream Recovery Appliance.

enrolling a database

The process of enabling a specific Recovery Appliance to receive backups from a protected database. Enrolling involves adding the protected database (DBMS_RA.ADD_DB), granting access to this database to a Recovery Appliance user account (DBMS_RA.GRANT_DB_ACCESS), and registering this database in the virtual private catalog (RMAN REGISTER DATABASE command).

fast recovery area

An optional disk location that you can use to store recovery-related files such as control file and online redo log copies, archived redo log files, flashback logs, and RMAN backups.

guaranteed copy

An optional setting of a protection policy that indicates that every backup must be copied to tape or replicated. Recovery Appliance cannot purge backups from the storage location until the operation succeeds. If tape or replication does not keep up, then the Recovery Appliance may reject new backups.

incremental-forever backup strategy

The strategy in which an initial level 0 backup is taken to the Recovery Appliance, with all subsequent incremental backups occurring at level 1. The Recovery Appliance creates a virtual full backup by combining the initial level 0 with subsequent level 1 backups.

media manager library

This is the media management library that manages tape backup jobs. This library consists of attribute sets for each of its contained drives and defines storage parameters that apply to tape backup jobs.

media management software

The media management software is the middleware between the Recovery Appliance and the tape. It controls and manages the copying of backups from the Recovery Appliance to tape.

Recovery Appliance uses Oracle Secure Backup as its media management software and comes preconfigured with it.

one-way Recovery Appliance replication

The simplest form of the Recovery Appliance replication, in which one upstream Recovery Appliance sends backups to one downstream Recovery Appliance.

Oracle Configuration Manager

A tool that collects and uploads configuration information from Oracle homes in your environment. If you log a service request, then the configuration data enables Oracle Support Services to provide better service.

Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control

See Cloud Control.

protected database

A client database that backs up data to a Recovery Appliance.

protection policy

A group of attributes that control how a Recovery Appliance stores and maintains backup data. Each protected database is assigned to exactly one protection policy, which controls all aspects of backup processing for that client.

real-time redo transport

The continuous transfer of redo changes from the SGA of a protected database to a Recovery Appliance. Real-time redo transport enables RMAN to provide a recovery point objective (RPO) near 0. Typically, RMAN can recover to within a second of the time when the failure occurred. Protected databases write redo entries directly from memory to the Recovery Appliance as they are generated.

reconciling

In Recovery Appliance replication, the process by which a Recovery Appliance receives metadata from the Recovery Appliances that are immediately downstream.

Recovery Appliance

Shortened name for Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance. Recovery Appliance is an Oracle Engineered System specifically designed to protect Oracle databases. Integrated with RMAN, it enables a centralized, incremental-forever backup strategy for hundreds to thousands of databases across the enterprise, using cloud-scale, fully fault-tolerant hardware and storage.

Recovery Appliance user account

A user account that is authorized to connect to, and request services from, Recovery Appliance. Every Recovery Appliance user account is an Oracle Database user account on the Recovery Appliance metadata database, and the owner of a virtual private catalog. When RMAN backs up a protected database, it connects to the recovery catalog with the Recovery Appliance user account credentials.

Recovery Appliance administrator

The administrator who manages a Recovery Appliance. Typical duties include creating and adding databases to protection policies, managing storage space, managing user accounts, configuring tape backups and the Recovery Appliance replication, and monitoring the Recovery Appliance.

Recovery Appliance Backup Module

An Oracle-supplied SBT library that RMAN uses to send backups of protected databases over the network to the Recovery Appliance. The library must be installed in each Oracle home used by a protected database.

The module functions as an SBT media management library that RMAN references when allocating or configuring a channel for backup to the Recovery Appliance. RMAN performs all backups to the Recovery Appliance, and all restores of complete backup sets, using this module.

Recovery Appliance metadata database

The Oracle database that runs inside of the Recovery Appliance. This database stores configuration data such as user definitions, protection policy definitions, and client database definitions. The metadata database also stores backup metadata, including the contents of the delta store.

Recovery Appliance replication

A configuration in which one Recovery Appliance receives backups, and then forwards them to another Recovery Appliance. The forwarder is the upstream Recovery Appliance, and the receiver is the downstream Recovery Appliance.

Recovery Appliance schema

The schema on the Recovery Appliance metadata database owned by the RASYS user. The schema is the super-set of the recovery catalog schema, and contains additional metadata used internally by Recovery Appliance to manage backups.

Recovery Appliance storage location

A set of Oracle ASM disk groups within Recovery Appliance that stores backups. A storage location can be shared among multiple protected databases. Every Recovery Appliance contains the default Recovery Appliance storage location named DELTA.

recovery point objective (RPO)

The data-loss tolerance of a business process or an organization. The RPO is often measured in terms of time, for example, five hours or two days worth of data loss.

recovery window

A setting that defines how long the Recovery Appliance maintains tape backups in its catalog for recovery purposes.

recovery window goal

The time interval within which a protected database must be recoverable to satisfy business requirements. For each protected database in a protection policy, the Recovery Appliance attempts to ensure that the oldest backup on disk is able to support a point-in-time recovery to any time within the specified interval (for example, the past 7 days), counting backward from the current time.

redo staging area

For Recovery Appliance installations that enable real-time redo transport recovery, the Recovery Appliance storage destination for redo streams transmitted by protected databases. The Recovery Appliance converts the redo streams into archived redo log files, which it then converts to backup pieces and writes to a storage location.

replication user account

A database user account on the downstream Recovery Appliance that upstream Recovery Appliances will use to authenticate with this downstream Recovery Appliance.

reserved space

The minimum amount of disk space in the Recovery Appliance that is reserved for use by one protected database to meet its disk recovery window goal. The reserved space cannot be consumed by any other protected database. In general, the Recovery Appliance ignores reserved space settings until it is under space pressure, when it uses these settings and recovery window goals to determine which backups to purge.

retention policy

The length of time, expressed as a window of time extending backward from the present, that backups are kept on a SBT device. Backups may be kept longer than the specified window because they are kept long enough to guarantee that point-in-time recovery is possible to any point within the retention policy window.

RMAN recovery catalog

A set of metadata views residing in the Recovery Appliance metadata database.

SBT

System Backup to Tape. This term specifies a backup device type, typically either a tape device or Recovery Appliance. RMAN supports channels of type disk and SBT.

tape backup job

The operation that copies Recovery Appliance backups to tape based on the defined properties such as the associated media manager library, attribute set, backup type, and run-time window. This repeatable job can be scheduled to run immediately after being created or at a later specified time.

third-party storage snapshot

A set of pointers, managed by a third-party storage device, to storage blocks (not Oracle blocks) that existed when the snapshot was created. The device maintains a snapshot on the same storage array as the original data. The device only creates new versions of storage blocks when the snapshot perceives that they have changed.

unprotected window threshold

The user-specified maximum amount of data loss for protected databases that are subject to a protection policy. For example, a specified threshold of 5 minutes for protection policy SILVER means that every database protected by SILVER can lose no more than 5 minutes of data.

upstream Recovery Appliance

In a Recovery Appliance replication topology, the Recovery Appliance that is replicating backups to another Recovery Appliance.

virtual full backup

A complete database image as of one distinct point in time, maintained efficiently through the indexing of incremental backups from a protected database. The virtual full backups contain individual blocks from multiple incremental backups. For example, if you take a level 0 backup on Monday with SCN 10000, and if you take an incremental level 1 backup on Tuesday with SCN 11000, then the Recovery Appliance metadata database shows a virtual level 0 backup current to SCN 11000.

Essentially, virtual full backups are space-efficient, pointer-based representations of physical full backups as of the point-in-time of an incremental backup. When a restore operation is required, the delta store re-creates a physical full backup from the appropriate incremental backup SCN.

virtual private catalog

A subset of the metadata in a base RMAN recovery catalog to which a database user account is granted access. Each restricted user account has full read/write access to its own virtual private catalog.

Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance

See Recovery Appliance.

Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance Backup Module

See Recovery Appliance Backup Module.