Test backup to tape without a tape library
If you want to test some backup scripts, crash recovery scenarios, or anything of that sort on a test system, and you don’t have access to an sbt tape library, you can use an Oracle provided sbt “emulator” which puts backups onto a specified disk location, yet acts like an sbt channel.
CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE ‘SBT_TAPE’ PARMS ‘SBT_LIBRARY=oracle.disksbt,ENV=(BACKUP_DIR=/u01/app/oracle/sbt)’;
RMAN> backup device type sbt current controlfile;
Starting backup at 08-JUN-10
allocated channel: ORA_SBT_TAPE_1
channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: SID=21 device type=SBT_TAPE
channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: WARNING: Oracle Test Disk API
channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: starting full datafile backup set
channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
including current control file in backup set
channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: starting piece 1 at 08-JUN-10
channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: finished piece 1 at 08-JUN-10
piece handle=17lfnivf_1_1 tag=TAG20100608T140015 comment=API Version 2.0,MMS Version 8.1.3.0
channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
Finished backup at 08-JUN-10
When the backup is done, you can see the backup files on disk, along with a binary file “Oracle_Disk_SBT_Catalog” which seems to be a simple index of sorts.
oracle@micweh1-lucid:/u01/app/oracle$ ls -ltr sbt/
total 16396
-rw-r–r– 1 oracle oinstall 8388616 2010-06-08 14:00 17lfnivf_1_1
-rw-r–r– 1 oracle oinstall 8388616 2010-06-08 14:00 c-2019211406-20100608-00
-rw-r–r– 1 oracle oinstall 3204 2010-06-08 14:00 Oracle_Disk_SBT_Catalog
