RMAN- 2Gb datafile limitation

I have an issue with backing up two SAP datafiles using rman, the only thing it points to is the Datafiles are bigger that 2Gb. i tested this by changing the size of one of the three datafiles to less than 2 Gb, it then backed up fine using RMAN, unfortunately i have 4 other systems that i have to do and am unable to keep doing the same thing for each.

Please can someone let me know what i can look at or change to stop this nagging little problem.

Below are the details of the system

HP-UX 11.11
Oracle : 9.2.0.5.0

Thanks

Hi

RMAN can do backups greater then 2gb.

Look at the size of the channel

allocate channel c1 type disk maxpiecesize=4Gb

if this is failing then i beleive then you need to ask your sysadmin maybe he has to tweak the filesystem options.

can you post the text of the error message you are getting.

regards
Hrishy

hrishy

see below

Starting backup at 09-AUG-05
could not access datafile 4
skipping inaccessible file 4
could not access datafile 5
skipping inaccessible file 5
RMAN-06060: WARNING: skipping datafile compromises tablespace PSAPSTABI recoverability
RMAN-06060: WARNING: skipping datafile compromises tablespace PSAPSTABD recoverability
channel ch00: starting incremental level 0 datafile backupset
channel ch00: specifying datafile(s) in backupset

It was three datafiles until i reduced the size under 2 Gb

well rman can backup files greater than 2Gb. Do you have hardware or os problems which is causing the file to be inaccessible

Sounds like you need to ask your sysadmin to ensure that largefiles support is set for the filesystems involved. There is a paper here http://docs.hp.com/en/940/lgfiles4.pdf , though it is rather old and may have been updated since. Section 3 might be relevant to you.

hrishy

Below are the details from the backup script

ALLOCATE CHANNEL ch00 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE';
BACKUP
$BACKUP_TYPE
SKIP INACCESSIBLE
TAG hot_db_bk_level0
FILESPERSET 5
# recommended format
FORMAT 'bk_%s_%p_%t'
DATABASE;
sql 'alter system archive log current';
RELEASE CHANNEL ch00;
# backup all archive logs
ALLOCATE CHANNEL ch00 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE';
BACKUP
filesperset 20
skip inaccessible
FORMAT 'al_%s_%p_%t'
ARCHIVELOG ALL;


shoulw it look as follows?

ALLOCATE CHANNEL ch00 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' MAXPIECESIZE 4G;
BACKUP
$BACKUP_TYPE
SKIP INACCESSIBLE
TAG hot_db_bk_level0
FILESPERSET 5
# recommended format
FORMAT 'bk_%s_%p_%t'
DATABASE;
sql 'alter system archive log current';
RELEASE CHANNEL ch00;
# backup all archive logs
ALLOCATE CHANNEL ch00 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE';
BACKUP
filesperset 20
skip inaccessible
FORMAT 'al_%s_%p_%t'
ARCHIVELOG ALL;

Hi

Very interesting situation.

Try with the ALLOCATE CHANNEL ch00 TYPE 'SBT_TAPE' MAXPIECESIZE 4G and see what happens.(it shouldnt matter according to me)

Try taking the backup to disks and see what happens ?

(i am sking you to take the backup to tapes just to rule out anything to do with the tape library settings)

regards
Hrishy

The plot has just thickened, i have just found from the data backup guys that its backing up to disk....i am now pretty certain that the destination is a problem i.e. large file support is not enabled on the destination server/servers.

Hi

You could try creating a 2gb datafile using dd command on the destination server.To ascertain wether 2gb is the problem :-)

regards
Hrishy

Thanks for the response guys, i am currently fighting the backup guys about this issue, so if you have any more amo for me, please can you let me know...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by beno1978

Thanks for the response guys, i am currently fighting the backup guys about this issue, so if you have any more amo for me, please can you let me know...

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Why fight. Just limit your piece size to 2G or less.

Hi

Yeah marist maybe right you dont take chances who knows the backup folks might turn out to be a bunch of pretty ladies ;-)

regards
Hrishy