We are looking for an efficient way to regularly test RMAN backups across a
large (and growing) Exadata database environment.
After watching this video https://youtu.be/Ds1xrfdlZRc i thought about
doing the following:
create a dedicated, small tablespace in all databases to hold a single
table with a single date/timestamp column. create a scheduler job to
insert current sysdate/systimestamp value once per day and delete all rows
older than recovery window setting for RMAN.
write a script to 1) randomly pick a database on each Exadata system 2)
randomly pick a day that falls within the recovery window requirement for
that database 3) converts that day to a valid SCN 4) uses the new table
PITR functionality to restore the table 4) confirm expected table content
5) sends success/failure summary email.
execute the script with a frequency that makes us feel comfortable with our
backups.
we also intend to have a process that utilizes the "restore preview" RMAN
command to get a list of backup pieces to run the RMAN "validate" command
against for a randomly chosen SCN that falls within recovery window.
Does anyone see any big issues with this process? Any other ideas for
efficiently testing database backups? our databases will soon be large
enough to make testing through full restores infeasible.
any feedback is greatly appreciated!
thanks,
chris
