RHN README.txt

Hot Backup for embedded RHN database
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Matthew Booth <mbooth@redhat.com> 22/09/2006

Hot backup comprises 4 files:

* prep.sh
A script to prepare the embedded RHN database for hot backups.

* hot-backup.sh
A backup script which will perform both full and incremental backups.

* RESTORE.txt
A procedure for restoring the database from the backups

* README.txt
This file.

Using hot backups
***********************
The hot backup script requires that:

* The database is in archive log mode
* The rman retention policy has been defined

The prep script performs both of these tasks. Note that it only ever needs
to be run once, and that the database must be stopped before running it. It
is, however, safe to re-run this script.

Backups are performed by running hot-backup.sh. It takes 1 argument:

 hot-backup.sh (full|incremental)

full will perform a full backup of the entire database. incremental will
store only database blocks which have changed since the last full backup.
The script will also automatically clean up if any of its data files where
deleted on disk, delete old data and verify that the backup succeeded.

NB: RMAN is configured to keep 2 full backups: the current and the one
immediately before it. You should never delete backup files manually as
they are tracked by oracle.

hot-backup.sh writes its logs to /var/log/rhn/db_backup.log. It will only
output anything on an error, and this will be sent to stderr.

hot-backup.sh should be configured to run automatically from cron. The
following is an example crontab:

# Full backup on Sunday
0 19 * * 0    root    /rhnsat/backup/scripts/hot-backup.sh full

# Incremental backups on other days
0 19 * * 1-6  root    /rhnsat/backup/scripts/hot-backup.sh incremental

NB. If your backups are failing, this will be reported by hot-backup.sh.
You must ensure that MAILTO for your crontab is set to a real, monitored
address, otherwise you will not receive any indication of failing backups.