RMAN- 2Gb datafile limitation

[beno1978]

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

[hrishy]

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

[beno1978]

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

[davey23uk]

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

[KenCunningham]

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.

[beno1978]

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;

[hrishy]

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

[beno1978]

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.

[hrishy]

Hi

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

regards
Hrishy

[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...