Backup and Restore Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure

To support high availability, Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure automatically backs up your database for you. The retention period for backups is up to 95 days based on the Backup Retention Policy chosen for the Autonomous Container Database (ACD). You can restore and recover your database to any point-in-time in this retention period.

While backing up a database, the database is fully functional; however, during the backup, life cycle management operations are not allowed. For example, stopping the database is not allowed during the backup. Terminating an Autonomous Database deletes all of its automatic and manual backups, including long-term backups.

About Backup and Recovery

By default, Autonomous Database is configured to back up your database periodically. You can disable automatic backups while provisioning an ACD and enable them from the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) console anytime later. Once the automatic backups are enabled you can not disable them for an ACD.

Autonomous Databases on Oracle Public Cloud are backed up to Object Storage with daily incremental backups and weekly full backups or Autonomous Recovery Service with daily virtual full backups. Autonomous Databases deployed on Exadata Cloud@Customer can be backed up to different backup destinations as discussed further in this article.

Note:

You can not disable automatic backups while provisioning an ACD with Autonomous Data Guard.

With automatic backups enabled, you have an option to take any of the following additional backups:

  • Cross region backups, also known as remote backups, are backups stored in a different region than the source database. This backup option is only available for ACDs deployed on Oracle Public Cloud. In case of a region failure, you can use this backup to recover your database.

    Cross region backups:

    • Are additional backups on top of the default automatic backups. They are like a second backup taken in a region that you've selected.
    • Are supported only at the ACD level and include all Autonomous Databases within the ACD, as well as all archive logs.
    • Are exclusively intended for cloning into a new ACD and cannot be used for in-place restore operations.
    • Can be cloned into a different Autonomous Exadata VM Cluster (AVMC). See Clone an Autonomous Container Database from Backup for instructions.

    Note:

    Cross-region backups can only be enabled on ACDs configured without Autonomous Data Guard.
  • Long term backups are the backups that are retained beyond the backup retention policy (period) defined at the ACD level. When creating a long-term backup, you can specify its retention period, ranging from 90 days to 10 years.

    Long term backups:

    • Are exclusively intended for cloning into new Autonomous Databases and cannot be used for Autonomous Database in-place restore operations.
    • Are supported only at the Autonomous Database level and are only available while the Autonomous Database exists.
    • Cannot be taken on Autonomous Databases that reside in an ACD that has not enabled backups.

  • Manual Backups are on-demand backups taken manually from the OCI console. For example, before making a significant update to your application, you can take a manual backup as an option to restore and recover later.

    Manual backups:
    • Are cumulative incremental backups containing all the incremental backups from the last full backup.
    • Are retained for up to 95 days, depending on the backup retention policy (period) chosen for the ACD.
    • Are supported only at the Autonomous Database level.

Backup Retention Policy (Period)

You can define the backup retention policy/period while provisioning an ACD or modify it later from its details page on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console.

On Oracle Public Cloud deployments, the backup retention policy value defaults to 15 days and can be changed to any value between 7 to 95 days.

On Exadata Cloud@Customer deployments:
  • You can not modify the backup retention policy if you use Recovery Appliance or Local Storage as your ACD’s backup destination. In the case of Recovery Appliance, this value is controlled by the Recovery Appliance protection policy.
  • For Object Storage and Network File System (NFS) backup destination types, the backup retention policy defaults to 30 days and can be changed to any value between 7 to 95 days.

Backup Destination

APPLIES TO: Applicable Exadata Cloud@Customer only

While provisioning an ACD or while enabling automatic backups on an already created ACD, you can configure the backup destination for backups of Autonomous Databases created in it. The backup destination type is set while enabling automatic backups on an ACD and can be changed later. Below listed are the different backup destination options for Autonomous Database on Exadata Cloud@Customer:
    • Object Storage: Stores weekly full and daily incremental backups in an Oracle-managed object storage container on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. If you choose Object Storage as the type, you can optionally specify an internet HTTP proxy to use when connecting to the storage container. Oracle recommends using a proxy when possible for enhanced security.
    • Network File System (NFS): Stores weekly full and daily incremental backups in a Network File System (NFS) storage location. To learn more about configuring NFS backup destination for Cloud@Customer, see Prerequisites for Backup Destinations for Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer. If you choose Network File System (NFS) as the type, select a previously defined backup destination that uses Network File System (NFS) storage. You can lower the retention or increase the amount of space in the NFS backup destination if it's low on space.
    • Recovery Appliance: Stores backups in one of your previously defined backup destinations that uses Oracle Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance. If you choose Recovery Appliance as the type, select a previously defined backup destination that uses Oracle Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance, the DB_UNIQUE_NAME of the ACD, and the VPC user name password.

      Note:

      Please ensure to provide the connection string that connects to the recovery appliance in an Oracle "easy connect" string format, that is, <host>:<port>/<service name>, where <host> is the SCAN hostname of the Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance.
    • Local: Stores backups on the local Exadata storage. This option is only available if you have configured Local storage while creating the Autonomous Exadata VM Cluster. Once an ACD is created with a backup destination type anything other than Local, it cannot be changed to Local backups later.

Changing Backup Destinations

APPLIES TO: Applicable Exadata Cloud@Customer only

You can change the backup destination type for an ACD where automatic backup is already enabled. At any given point in time, there can only be a maximum of two backup destinations associated with an ACD..

Table - Changing Backup Destinations

Current backup destination type New backup destination types that are supported Notes
Local - You cannot change the backup destination type if the current type is local.
Network File System (NFS)

NFS

RA

 Changing the backup destination type from NFS to Object Storage is currently not supported.

You cannot change the backup destination type from NFS to local.
Object Storage

RA

 Changing the backup destination type from Object storage to NFS is currently not supported.
Recovery Appliance (RA)

RA

NFS

Object Storage

 Changing the backup destination type from RA to Object Storage is only supported if the ACD was originally configured with Object Storage backups first.

You cannot change the backup destination type from RA to local.

Restore and Recover

You can restore the database using one of the following options:
  • Use a specific backup for restoring the database
  • Use a timestamp for point in time recovery from the OCI console
  • Use a specific System Change Number (SCN) for restoring the database from the OCI console

The database goes into the unavailable state while restore is in progress. You cannot connect to the database in this state. The only life cycle management operation supported in unavailable state is terminate. When the restore operation finishes, your database is opened in the same state as before restoration. For all three types of restore (by SCN, by timestamp or by using specific backup) an SCN will be returned when the restore is completed.

When your database is restored, the value of the ADMIN user password is also restored. Therefore, it may have an old value that you no longer remember. You can set the password to a new value as described in Unlock or Change the ADMIN Database User Password.

After restoring your database, all backups between the date the restore completes and the date you specified for the restore operation - the restore time - are invalidated. You cannot initiate further restore operations to any point in time between the restore time and restore completion time. You can only initiate new restore operations to a point in time older than the restore time or more recent than the time when the actual restore succeeded.

In an Autonomous Data Guard setup:

  • You can only restore a backup from the primary database.
  • Database restore is not allowed if the standby database is in snapshot standby role. You must convert the standby Autonomous Container Database (ACD) to physical standby role to restore this database. See Convert Snapshot Standby to Physical Standby for instructions.

Backup and Restore Operations

The following table lists the operations that you can perform on backups of Autonomous Database.
Operation Details Further Reference
Create a manual backup You can create a manual (on-demand) backup from the Details page of an ACD on the OCI console. Backup Your Autonomous Database Manually
Create a long-term backup You can create a long-term backup from the Details page of an ACD on the OCI console. Create a Long-Term Backup
Clone from a backup

You can create a point-in-time copy of a backup set of your Autonomous Database.

You can clone from an automatic backup, manual backup (chosen from the list of backups or based on a timestamp), or a long-term backup.

For complete details about cloning from a backup, its requirements and limitations, refer to About Cloning Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure

For instructions on cloning a manual or long-term backup from the OCI console, see Clone Autonomous Database from Backup.

For instructions on cloning from an ACD backup, see Clone Autonomous Container Database from Backup.

Edit backup settings You can enable automatic backups (if disabled while provisioning the ACD) and modify the following backup settings from the Details page of an ACD from the OCI console:
  • Backup retention period to any value between 7 to 95 days.
  • Backup destination type (applies to Exadata Cloud@Customer only).
  • HTTP Proxy. This is applicable only when Object Storage is selected as the backup destination for Exadata Cloud@Customer deployments.
  • Cross region backup copy (applies to Oracle Public Cloud only).
For complete details about editing the backup settings, see Edit Autonomous Container Database Backup Settings.
Update a long-term backup You can edit the retention period of a long-term backup or even delete a long-term backup from the Details page of an ACD on the OCI console. Manage Long-Term Backups
Restore and recover your Autonomous Database You can either restore the database from a specific backup or use a timestamp for point-in-time recovery from the Details page of the ACD on the OCI console. Restore and Recover Your Autonomous Database
View Remote Backups You can view a list of remote backups in a region from the OCI console. View a List of Remote Backups
Clone an ACD from Backup You can recover your database by cloning an ACD from a remote backup into an AVMC in a different region than the clone source. Clone an Autonomous Container Database from Backup

You can also use API to perform backup and restore operations. For more details, see API Reference for Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure.

Backup and Restore Events

Oracle Database resources emit events, which are structured messages that indicate changes in resources. There are multiple events associated with database backup operations. You can find them in Events for Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure