The Challenges of

Oracle Cloning

Safa Alak
Consulting System Engineer
safa@netapp.com
Agenda

– Challenges
– Traditional Approach for Cloning

The command Line Way

Using RMAN
– 10G R2 Transportable Database Option
– Storage Replication
– Using FLexClone to Replicate Oracle
– Oracle 11g Real Application Testing
– Oracle E Business Suite Replication
– On line Demo

© 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. 2

 DBA Chalenges

Configure
Need systems,
reliable backup Plan forecast
restore, and DR Re-organize storage
solution accurately
Install

Create several
Upgrade Testing requires
clones,
Pain Points duplicate data,
lengthy process, lengthy and
Implement expensive
expensive
process

Patch
Deploy

Tune &
Maintain
Need reliable
Need
backup and
reliable backup Mirror prod. recovery
and data solution
recovery solution to test and dev
system,
lengthy
© 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. 3
process
Cloning Oracle Database

Database cloning is a procedure by which you

can create an exact copy of an Oracle
database without doing a full export/import.
This method is used frequently by DBAs to
update test or development environments from
production.

© 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. 4

Cloning of Oracle Business Suite

Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of an

already existing Oracle Applications system, including both the
application-tier and database-tier.

Oracle Business Suite clones are more complex than database

clone. Key application information , including configuration files
and patches residing both in the database and application
layers, must all be copied to gain a fully useable application
environment clone. To perform this copying manually requires
editing more than 360 commands.

To simplify the challenges, Oracle created a cloning utility called

RapidClone, which aids in the reconfiguration of oracle 11i
environment, but does not usually perform the physical copying
steps required to create a clone. Copying typically, requires
running time-consuming, copying utilities, usually when the
system is offline.

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The Command Line Way

1. On SQL*Plus, sign on as SYSDBA and issue: “alter

database backup controlfile to trace The command
will generate a SQL script in user_dump_dest that
can be used to regenerate the database
2. Shutdown the old database or put it in hotbackup
mode
3. Copy all data files into the new directories on the new
server
4. Copy and Edit the Control file – Using the output
syntax from step 1 to point to the new database
5. Remove the “recover database” and “alter database
open” from script created in 1

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6. Re-names of the data files names that have changed.
7. Create the bdump, udump and cdump directories
8. Copy-over the old init.ora file
9. Start the new database in nomount
10. Put the database in archive log mode if it is not in
that mode

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 STARTUP NOMOUNT
CREATE CONTROLFILE SET DATABASE "MYCLONE"
RESETLOGS NOARCHIVELOG
MAXLOGFILES 16
MAXLOGMEMBERS 3
MAXDATAFILES 100
MAXINSTANCES 8
MAXLOGHISTORY 292
LOGFILE
GROUP 1 '/oracle/oradata/myclone/redo01.log' SIZE 10M,
GROUP 2 '/oracle/oradata/myclone/redo02.log' SIZE 10M,
GROUP 3 '/oracle/oradata/myclone/redo03.log' SIZE 10M
DATAFILE
'/oracle/oradata/myclone/system01.dbf',
'/oracle/oradata/myclone/undotbs01.dbf',
'/oracle/oradata/myclone/sysaux01.dbf',
'/oracle/oradata/myclone/users01.dbf'
CHARACTER SET WE8ISO8859P1
;

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Cloning using RMAN backup
1. Backup the source DB using RMAN
2. Create new instance of Oracle called auxiliary
instance
3. Insure that networking is configured properly so that
you can connect to source DB and auxiliary DB
4. Create or copy init.ora, spfile and password file as
needed. You can borrow the files from the source
DB.
5. Set the following parameters using alter system
background_dump_dest ; user_dump_dest ;
core_dump_dest ; control_files ; db_name ;
instance_name
(remove any reference to the source DB)

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6. Insure that networking is configured properly for the
cloned database in listner.ora and tnsnames.ora
7. Connect RMAN to the source DB and the cloned one
using the syntax:
rman target user/password@sourceDB auxiliary
user/password@cloneDB
8. Use a script like:

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run {
allocate auxiliary channel d1 type disk;
set newname for datafile 1 to ;
set newname for datafile 2 to ;
set newname for datafile 3 to ;
set newname for datafile 5 to ;

duplicate target database to clonedb

logfile group 1 ('C:\CLONE\log01.rdo') size 10m reuse,

group 2 ('C:\CLONE\log02.rdo') size 10m reuse;
}

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Transportable Database Option

Oracle Database 10g Release 2 added Transportable

Database (TDB), which is the capability to transport an
entire database (user data and the Oracle dictionary)
to other platform with the same endian format. TDB
uses Recovery Manager (RMAN) to convert the
database files to the new target platform format and
create scripts to facilitate in the migration process.

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Using TDB to migrate a database to a new platform of the
same endian format consists of the following high-level
steps:

1. Check prerequisites

2. Identify external files and directories

3. Start the database in READ ONLY mode

4. Verify the database is ready for migration

5. Run RMAN CONVERT DATABASE

6. Move necessary files to the target system

7. Complete the migration

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Storage Replication
The Storage vendors provide with host tools to create
clone of the Oracle DB or Oracle Apps.
The main function of these tools are:
1. Interact with Oracle and get data files, logs and
configuration files information
2. Identify storage components.
3. Creates clone of those storage components on the
luns or volume levels
4. Use storage clone or snaps to create the clone copy.
Once the Storage system provides storage replica, the
Oracle admin can do house keeping to rename the
database to ‘clone DB”.

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The Storage vendors provides different capabilities to
rename the database and do house keeping work.

The same technique, provides the Oracle admin with

options to implement the following:

Backup and restore operations

Disaster Recovery

With Oracle E Business Suite, you can run the

RapidClone utility after doing storage replication for the
whole Apps – DB environment.

© 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. 15

 Database Cloning and the Application
Development Process

Full or partial database copies

required for:
PROD SECONDARY (DR) – App and DB Development
– Maintenance (OS, DB upgrade)
– Test and QA
– Training and Demos
– Reporting and DW ETL

Ability to do this quickly,
correctly, and efficiently
directly impacts Application
DEV TEST/QA RPT/ETL Development and Deployment
MAINT

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 Traditional Approaches to
Cloning

Copy
– Offline
– Online (using a mirror or standby database,
snapshots, and log-based consistent recovery)

Redirected restore
– From disk- or tape-based
Production Mirrored Copy
backups

Dev 1 Dev 2 Dev N

Test 1 Test 2 Test N

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 Traditional Approaches to
Cloning (cont)

Challenges and pain points
– Limited storage resources

100% storage capacity overhead per instance, or
custom partial extraction scripts Apps./Biz.

Network
– Long lead-time requirements
Systems

Process heavy (I.e., Many “approvals” required.)
Database

Storage resource allocation
Storage

Manual or scripted operations subject to human
error
– Downtime (offline) or degraded production
system performance (online) during copy
– Restoring the baseline requires repeat of this
process
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 Database Maintenance with
FlexClones

Production Mirrored Copy Benefits

Instantaneous copies

Low resource overhead

Inexpensive
Dev 1 Dev 2 Dev N

Easy and relatively inexpensive
Productio way to make copies of a production
n DB database without impacting the
Clones database

Use database clones to test
Test 1 Test 2 Test N
migrations, apply bug fixes,
upgrades, and patches

Easily reallocate storage for a
database and its transaction log
files
© 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. 19
 Application Development and Testing
Example: Traditional Approach

Production Mirrored Copy Production database 100GB

Mirror copy 100GB
Development copies 300GB
Testing copies 300GB
Total: 800GB
Dev 1 Dev 2 Dev 3

8x actual storage requirement

Time consuming

Resource overhead
Test 1 Test 2 Test 3

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 Application Development and Testing
Example: NetApp Approach

Production Mirrored Copy Production database 100GB

Mirror copy 100GB
Development copies 30GB
Testing copies 30GB
Total: 260GB
Dev 1 Dev 2 Dev 3

Over 67% reduction in storage
required

Near instantaneous copies
Test 1 Test 2 Test 3
Negligible overhead

Ability to have many more test and
dev copies

more clones = higher productivity

Assumption: up to 10% change in data in the test and dev environments

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 Real Application
Testing Option

Transactio
ns and
timing
only
No clients
or middle
PRODUCTION tier
Capture Replay TEST Maximiz
Challenge required
Workload e testing
: How to efforts
create a with
point in multiple
time FlexClo
1 2 3 4
snapshot Snapshot™ SnapMirror® /SyncMirror® FlexClone® ne
…22 © 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. volumes
 Oracle Austin Data Center
Austin Data Center Stats
• More than 20,000+ servers
• Largest Dell/Linux installation on
earth
• Scaling at over 100 servers/week
• 6,400+ terabytes of NetApp storage
• Scaling at over 60TBs of storage each month
• Over 500 mission-critical customers' apps
hosted on the premises
• Primary data center for 50,000+ Oracle
employees
• 2 acre of data center raised floor space
• Using storage replication for cloning

Sources: Oracle Magazine Mar/Apr 2005 and Oracle ADC Executives

© 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. 23

 E-Business Suite: Cloning
scenarios

Single-
node to
Single- Single-node Multi-nodes
node Multi-nodes to
to
to Single-node
Multi-node
Multi-nodes
Cloning is a complex and resource intensive task.

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 Oracle Recommends (Oracle
MetaLink :230672.1)
- Cloning mechanism
Cloning Scenarios: (Many physical copies – high cost)

Cloning Single System with Rapid Clone
– Copy the Application Tier File System
– Copy the Database Tier File System & Database

Cloning a single node system to a multi-node system

– Copy the Application Tier File System
– Repeat above copy for every middle tier node
– Copy the Database Tier File System & Database

Adding a new node to an existing System

– Copy the Application Tier File System to new node

Run Oracle Rapid clone utility to complete configuration

– cd <COMMON_TOP>/clone/bin
– perl adclone.pl (if cloning) adaddnode.pl (if adding a node)

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 Cloning the Application Tier
System using FlexClone

Verify prerequisites and perform clone preparation steps

Clone Apps Tier Filesystem

– Create a FlexClone™ volume for Application Tier filesystem

snap create u03 OraAppsBak

vol clone create AppsClone –b u03 OraAppsBak
(FlexClone volume takes seconds compared to physical copy)

Mount the newly created cloned volume

Perform configuration (adcfgclone.pl) and post clone tasks

Oracle MetaLink Note 230672.1

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Cloning Oracle E Business Suite
1. Run system configuration on the Application tier:
<COMMON_TOP>/admin/scripts/<SID>/adautocfg.sh
Use the APPS password when prompted. Run system configuration on
the database tier:
<RDBMS ORACLE_HOME>/appsutil/<SID>/scripts/adautocfg.sh
Use the APPS password when prompted.
2. Copy AutoConfig to the RDBMS ORACLE_HOME:
Apply patch 2952369 to acquire adchkcfg utility.
Create appsutil.zip file by: perl <AD_TOP>/bin/admkappsutil.pl.
Copy appsutil.zip file to the <RDBMS ORACLE_HOME>
unzip -o appsutil.zip
3. Generate the database context file:
cd <RDBMS ORACLE_HOME>/appsutil/bin
adbldxml.sh tier=database appsuser=<APPSuser>
appspasswd=<APPSpwd>
Output log is written to:
$ORACLE_HOME/appsuti/out/<SID>/cfgcheck.txt
4. Generate and apply AutoConfig configuration file:
cd <RDBMS ORACLE_HOME>/appsutil/bin
adconfig.sh contextfile=<CONTEXT> appspass=<APPSpwd>

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6. Prepare for source database clone:
cd <RDBMS ORACLE_HOME>/appsutil/scrips/<SID>
./perl adpreclone.pl dbTier
7. Prepare for source application clone:
cd <COMMON_TOP>/admin/scripts/<SID>
./perl adpreclone.pl appsTier
8. Copy the application tier file system:
Logon to the source system as APPLMGR and shut down the server
processes.
Copy the following application directories from the source to the target
node/file system:
<APPL_TOP>
<OA_HTML>
<OA_JAVA>
<COMMON_TOP/util>
<COMMON_TOP/clone>
<806 ORACLE_HOME>
<iAS ORACLE_HOME>
Shut down the source database and copy it to the target node/file
system.
Restart the source database and source application server processes.

© 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. 28

9. Configure the target system database sever:
cd <RDBMS ORACLE_HOME>/appsutil/clon/bin
./perl adcfgclone.pl dbTier
10. Configure the target system application tier:
cd <COMMON_TOP>/clone/bin
./perl adcfgclone.pl appsTier

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Online Demo

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Thank you

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