SAP BR Tools Tutorial
BR*Tools provides you with menus to perform a wide range of database administration functions for your database
BRTools (and BRSpace) is the successor of SAPDBA. SAPDBA is no longer delivered with WAS 6.40 (NetWeaver 04). You can continue to use SAPDBA 6.20 for Oracle 9.2 on SAP systems that are based on Web AS 6.40.
However, SAP recommends that you only use the BR*Tools there. You can of course also use the SQLPLUS command tool.
However, SAP recommends that you only use the BR*Tools there. You can of course also use the SQLPLUS command tool.
BR *Tools is the program package containing BRBACKUP, BRARCHIVE, BRRESTORE, BRRECOVER, BRSPACE, BRCONNECT, and BRTOOLS.
BRTOOLS is the program that displays the menus from which the other BR programs are called.
Not all functionality of SAPDBA is included in the new BR*Tools. P.e. the “Alter table or index parameters” and “Reorganize tablespace and data files” are missing.
Overview of the BR tools
BR*Tools User Interface
The user interface to BR*Tools provides you with menus to perform a wide range of database administration functions for your Oracle database. The menus are controlled by BRTOOLS, which in turn calls one of the functional BR programs.
You can use BR*Tools with a:
- Character-based interface
- GUI
Character-based interface, as in the following example, which shows the main menu:
BR0280I Time stamp 2003-03-06 11.30.57
BR0656I Choice menu 1 - please make a selection
----------------------------------------------------------------
BR*Tools main menu
1 = Instance management
2 - Space management
3 - Segment management
4 - Backup and database copy
5 - Restore and recovery
6 - Check and verification
7 - Database statistics
8 - Additional functions
9 - Exit program
Standard keys: c - cont, b - back, s - stop, r - refr, h - help
----------------------------------------------------------------
BR0662I Enter your choice:
BRGUI is the graphical interface for BR*Tools. It displays output and gathers user input for BR*Tools
BRBACKUP
This SAP tool for the Oracle database enables you to back up database files.
The smallest unit that can be saved with BRBACKUP is a file. You can use BRBACKUP for backing up both files in the database and non-database files and directories.
Use the backup_mode from the Initialization Profile init<DBSID>.sap or the command option brbackup -m|-mode for this purpose
This parameter is used by BRBACKUP to determine the scope of the backup activity.
Syntax:
backup_mode = all|all_data|full|incr|<tablespace>|<file_ID>|<file_ID1>-<file_ID2>|<generic_path>|sap_dir|ora_dir|<object_list>
backup_mode = all|all_data|full|incr|<tablespace>|<file_ID>|<file_ID1>-<file_ID2>|<generic_path>|sap_dir|ora_dir|<object_list>
Default: all
BRARCHIVE
This SAP tool for the Oracle database enables you to archive offline redo log files.
- You can also start BRARCHIVE when the database is shut down.
- You should archive the offline redo log files on tape using BRARCHIVE.
- In contrast to BRBACKUP, BRARCHIVE does not have its own management of tape continuation. When a tape is full, you must restart BRARCHIVE to write to the next volume.
BRARCHIVE writes the following file system logs:
·<SAPDATA_HOME>/saparch/a<encoded timestamp>.<ext>
Every detail log contains information about the actions performed during an archiving run.
·<SAPDATA_HOME>/saparch/arch<DBSID>.log
This summary log contains a brief entry for every archiving operation that was performed.
BRARCHIVE also records its actions in the database tables SDBAH and SDBAD
BRRESTORE
This SAP tool enables you to restore an entire database backup or parts of it, when the backup was performed with BRBACKUP. Any non-database files and directories you saved can also be restored. In the process, the subdirectories in sapdata<n>directories are automatically created, when necessary
You can also restore the offline redo log files that were backed up with BRARCHIVE. This operation can be performed at the same time as the restore of the corresponding backup.
Ø·BRRESTORE can run unattended when option -c force is set. The option -c only suppresses the first confirmation prompts for mounting a volume.
ØØ
·BRRESTORE uses the BRBACKUP logs and the summary log from BRARCHIVE to decide where to restore the requested file. You can manually specify a different directory as well.
·One or more incomplete BRRESTORE runs can be completed with the option -f. BRRESTORE automatically determines the files to be restored.
BRRECOVER
The SAP tool BRRECOVER for Oracle databases is used as a database administration tool to help you recover your database.
You can use BRRECOVER to perform the following:
- Complete database recovery
- Database point-in-time (PIT) recovery
- Tablespace point-in-time (PIT) recovery
- Whole database reset
- Restore of individual backup files
- Restore and application of offline redo log files
- Disaster recovery
BRCONNECT
The SAP tool BRCONNECT for Oracle databases is used as:
· A database administration tool, which you can call yourself from the command line
· A utility tool, which BRBACKUP calls in the background
BRCONNECT is specially designed to administer multi-schema databases, in which you have more than one SAP System in the same Oracle database
Uses
Ø
BRSPACE
- Database System Check with BRCONNECT
- Adapt Next Extents with BRCONNECT
- Update Statistics with BRCONNECT
- Changing Database User Passwords with BRCONNECT
- Clean Up Old Logs and Trace Files with BRCONNECT
BRCONNECT cleans up the following files:
- Detailed BRARCHIVE logs in the saparch directory
- Detailed BRBACKUP logs in the sapbackup directory
- Detailed BRCONNECT logs in the sapcheck directory
- Detailed BRRESTOE logs in the sapbackup directory
- Detailed BRSPACE logs in the sapreorg directory
- BRBACKUP disk backups of the database files
- BRARCHIVE disk backups of the offline redo log files
- BRSPACE export dump and export script directories
- Oracle trace and audit files
- Log records in the SDBAH and SDBAD tables
- Log records in the XDBtables
- Database check results in DBMSGORAtable
BRSPACE
* Instance management
------------------------------
- Start up database
- Shut down database
- Alter database instance
- Alter database parameters
- Show instance status
- Show database parameters
* Space management
----------- ----------------
- Extend tablespace
- Create tablespace
- Drop tablespace
- Alter tablespace
- Alter data file
- Move data file
- Show tablespaces
- Show data files
- Show redolog files
- Show control files
- Show diska volumes
* Segment management
------------------------------
- Reorganize tables (online)
- Rebuild indexes (online)
- Export tables
- Import tables
- Alter tables
- Alter indexes
- Show tables
- Show indexes
- Show table partitions
- Show index partitions
- Show segments
- Show segment extents
- Show free extents
Checking BR*Tools Release Information
pat2036:oras94 4> brtools –V | brspace -V
BR0651I BRTOOLS 6.40 (40)
Patch Date Info
36 2006-01-11 Small functional enhancements in BR*Tools (note 914174)
38 2006-03-29 BR*Tools support for MDM databases (note 936665)
40 2006-08-30 Wrong message numbers in BR*Tools 6.40 (note 976755)
release note 680046
kernel release 640
patch date 2006-08-30
patch level 40
make platform rs6000_64
make mode OCI_920
make date Sep 5 2006
Summary of the Tools
BRBACKUP - Backs up data files, conrol files, and online redo log files of the database.
BRARCHIVE - Backs up offline redo log files
BRRESTORE - Restores data files, control files, and redo log files
BRRECOVER - Recovers database files and restores profiles and log files
BRSPACE - Manages the database instance, space, and segments (that is, tables and indexes)
BRCONNECT - Performs database administration tasks such as statistics update, check database system, adapt next extents, clean up logs and DBA tables. Functions as a help tool to monitor the database during a backup
BRTOOLS - Displays the menus from which the other BR programs are called. Functions as an internal help tool started by BRBACKUP, BRARCHIVE, and BRRESTORE.
BRGUI - Functions as a Java-based GUI, working as the front-end display program for BR*Tools
Initialization Profile
BR* Tools uses the initialization profile init<SID>.sap as a input file.
The following are the important parameters in the init<SID>.sap file
Ø
BRRECOVER Logs
Detail log - v<encoded timestamp>.<ext>
Summary log - recov<DBSID>.log ( eg: recovS94.log )
Directory : /oracle/<SID>/saparch
· BRSPACE Logs
· BRCONNECT Logs
- exp_dump_dir
- exp_table
- Imp_table
- rebuild_index
- reorg_table
- show_period
- space_copy_dir
exp_dump_dir
This parameter specifies the directory of the export dump file
Syntax : exp_dump_dir = < directory name >
Default : $SAPDATA_HOME/sapreorg
exp_table
This parameter specifies the table for an export
Syntax: exp_table = [<owner>.]<table> | (<table_list>)
Default : None
Eg:
exp_table= (SDBAH, SAPR3.SDBAH)
imp_table
This parameter specifies the table for an import
Syntax: imp_table = [<owner>.]<table> | (<table_list>)
Default : None
Eg:
imp_table= (SDBAH, SAPR3.SDBAH)
rebuild_index
This parameter specifies the database indexes for an index rebuild
Syntax: rebuild_index = [<owner>.]<index> | (<index_list>)
Default : None
Eg:
rebuild_index= (SDBAH`0, SAPR3.SDBAH`0)
reorg_table
This parameter specifies the table for reorganization
Syntax: reorg_table = [<owner>.]<table> | (<table_list>)
Default : None
Eg:
reorg_table= (SDBAH, SAPR3.SDBAH)
show_Table
This parameter specifies the time period for which BRTOOLS display log files
Syntax : show_period = <days>
Default : 30
Possible values :
0 – Show all available log files
1 – Show logs created today
>1 – Show logs files created in the previous specified number of days
space_copy_dir
This parameter specifies the directory for file copies during space management.
Syntax : space_copy_dir = <directory name>
Default : $SAPDATA_HOME/sapreorg
Logs for BR*Tools
Logs are created for BRBACKUP, BRARCHIVE, BRRESTORE, BRRECOVER, BRCONNECT, and BRSPACE. These supply information about database operations and are useful for problem analysis.
The following types of logs are written:
Ø
- File System Logs
- Database Logs in tables SDBAH and SDBAD
File System Logs
For more information, see:
· BRBACKUP Logs
• Detail log - b<encoded timestamp>.<ext> ( eg: bdvecswx.anf )
• Summary log - back<DBSID>.log (eg: backS94.log )
Directory : /oracle/<SID>/sapbackup
· BRARCHIVE Logs
• Detail log - a<encoded timestamp>.<ext> (eg: aduryokf.svd )
• Summary log - arch<DBSID>.log (eg: archS94.log )
Directory : /oracle/<SID>/saparch
· BRRESTORE Logs
• Detail log - r<encoded timestamp>.<ext> (eg: rdvecswx.rsb )
• Summary log - rest<DBSID>.log ( eg: restS94.log )
Directory : /oracle/<SID>/sapbackup
Detail log - s<encoded timestamp>.<ext> ( eg: sduvytan.tse )
Summary log - space<DBSID>.log (eg: spaceS94.log ) Directory : /oracle/<SID>/sapreorg
Detail log - c<encoded timestamp>.<ext> (eg: cduxtdrn.chk)
Summary log - conn<DBSID>.log ( eg: connS94.log )
Directory : /oracle/<SID>/sapcheck
Database Logs
The database logs of BRBACKUP, BRARCHIVE, and BRCONNECT are stored in tables SDBAH and SDBAD
SDBAH
This table contains information that refers to the backup as a whole:
· Starting time of the backup or BRCONNECT processing
· End time of the backup or BRCONNECT processing
· BRBACKUP/BRARCHIVE/BRCONNECT return code
· BRBACKUP/BRARCHIVE/BRCONNECT action ID (encoded timestamp of the file system log names)
· BRBACKUP/BRARCHIVE/BRCONNECT function ID (extension of the file system log names)
SDBAD
This table contains information that refers to the backup of one file:
File name
· Oracle file ID or log group number
· End time of the backup of the file
· Name of the volume where the file was saved
· Position of the file on the volume
· Backup ID of the external backup program
· Compression rate of the software compression
In addition, table SDBAD contains internal BRBACKUP information about compression rates and backup durations for the individual database files.
For BRCONNECT, SDBAD tables contain information on the total number of objects processed by BRCONNECT.