1.2.11 Offloading of Incremental Backup Processing

To optimize the performance of incremental backups, Oracle Database can offload block filtering to Oracle Exadata Storage Server.

This backup optimization applies only to backups created with Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) and requires no user intervention. During offload processing, Oracle Exadata System Software filters out blocks that the current incremental backup does not require. As a result, only the required blocks are sent to the database, which can significantly reduce backup time.

This smart optimization supports backups of standalone databases and primary databases in Oracle Data Guard configurations. To use it for a backup of an Oracle Data Guard physical standby database, the RMAN channels must connect to an open instance of the physical standby database or to an instance on which Redo Apply is running.