It would be mostly customer-supported. If all you need is snapshot-based backups, that's easy. You have to be careful with filesystem layout, but if you follow the ideas in TR-4591 it will work well. You don't even need something like SnapCenter if your priority is simply backups.

Restores and cloning is harder. There is a good API for OVM, and obviously ONTAP has an API. Customers have created scripts and WFA workflows that will do things like this:

1. Shut down database 2. Dismount filesystems. 3. Call a snaprestore of datafile volume. 4. Remount filesystem 5. Issue "sqlplus / as sysdba startup;recover automatic"

It might not be worth the trouble, but you can do it. Cloning would require using ONTAP API's to clone volumes, then map LUNs to igroups, then use the OVM API's to discover those devices, then share the FC device to the VM, etc. Then you have to recreate the Oracle controlfiles.

If all you need is scripted refreshing of a *specific* VM, and you can preconfigure everything, that sort of scripting isn't difficult. If you want to clone within a big cloud of databases any time you want, that's harder.

This is why I prefer VM's to own their own filesystems. There's a long section in TR-3633, but the basic idea is that hiding a filesystem inside of a datastore makes it harder to manage that filesystem.

From: Filip Sneppe filip.sneppe@gmail.com Sent: Monday, December 10, 2018 7:33 AM To: Steiner, Jeffrey Jeffrey.Steiner@netapp.com Cc: toasters@teaparty.net Subject: Re: SnapCenter support for Oracle on OVM FCP environments

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Hi Jeffrey,

Sorry for not replying earlier. Could you elaborate just a little on the amount and type of work involved? And would the result be a supported setup?

Best regards, Filip

On Thu, 6 Dec 2018 at 13:17, Steiner, Jeffrey <Jeffrey.Steiner@netapp.commailto:Jeffrey.Steiner@netapp.com> wrote: You'd be able to get basic snapshot-based backups working, but restores and cloning would require a lot of scripting.

From: toasters-bounces@teaparty.netmailto:toasters-bounces@teaparty.net <toasters-bounces@teaparty.netmailto:toasters-bounces@teaparty.net> On Behalf Of Filip Sneppe Sent: Thursday, December 6, 2018 11:43 AM To: toasters@teaparty.netmailto:toasters@teaparty.net Subject: SnapCenter support for Oracle on OVM FCP environments

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Hi,

I am trying to figure out if it is possible and supported to back up and clone Oracle databases on Oracle Linux machines hosted on Oracle VM using FC LUNs.

I read TR-3712 (Oracle VM and NetApp Best Practices Guide), TR-4700 (SnapCenter Plug-In for Oracle Databases), and TR-3633 (Oracle Databases on ONTAP), but none of these TRs talk about the combination of SnapCenter+OVM. I am not able to come up with an answer from the IMT either.

Can someone, perhaps Jeffrey Steiner who is very active on this mailing list, shed some light on this?

Thanks in advance! Filip