Linking

Linking a data source will create a dSource object on the engine and allow Delphix to ingest/manage data from this source. The dSource is an object that the Delphix Virtualization Engine uses to create and update virtual copies of your database.

Ingestion of data is done using a staging host. Delphix expects the same version of oracle binaries as the source on this staging host. Delphix will read the existing backup of the Oracle database either from disk or from tape and restore it on the staging host. The location of datafiles on the staging host is Delphix mounted filesystem which allows Delphix to take snapshots.

Delphix leverages RMAN for restoring the database on the staging host. The user will provide the dbid, dbname, and controlfile backup piece for linking. Delphix finds out the latest full or incremental backup end time from the controlfile and restores the database as of that time. Once the restoration is done, Delphix will proceed with recovery to make the database consistent but will not open in read-write mode. Consistency is verified by temporarily opening a database in read-only mode and then switching back to mount mode.

Periodic snapsync restores the incremental backups if available in the backup folder provided as input to Delphix. During snapsync, Delphix looks for the latest controlfile backuppiece in the backup folder, finds the latest full / Incremental backup, and rolls forward existing dSource to that time. Delphix action will depend on the latest backup type it finds in the control file and executes the following actions.

Incr backup – Delphix will find any new datafiles in this incr backup, restore them, and then roll forward the existing database.
Full Backup – Delphix will restore the latest full backup, recover and make it consistent without opening in read-write mode.

Full backups can be done using RMAN with 2 different syntax.
1) BACKUP DATABASE OR
2) BACKUP INCREMENTAL LEVEL 0 DATABASE

While both will do a full backup of the database, operations of Delphix during snapsync will be different. Following are guidelines for backup method w.r.t Delphix.

If the nature of backup is only one full backup in a lifetime and forever incremental level 1, any of the above syntax can be used.
If the nature of backup is daily/weekly/periodically full and the rest of the days incremental then full database backup needs to be done using former syntax i.e. BACKUP DATABASE. In this case, snapsync will always first restore full database and then make the database consistent on the staging host before taking a snapshot.
If the nature of backup is daily/weekly/periodically full and the rest of the days incremental and full backups are done using BACKUP INCREMENTAL LEVEL 0 syntax, custom environment variable named BACKUP_MODEL with value as INCR0_INCR1 need to be defined during dSource Ingestion. In this case, snapsync will always first restore full database using level 0 if its the latest backup and then make the database consistent on the staging host before taking a snapshot.

Once the linking is done and dSource snapshot is successful, Delphix does not need old backups. It’s advisable to keep the last controlfile backuppiece and all other old backups can be purged.
After a dSource has been linked, you can begin to perform dSource operations on it such as enable, disable, delete, provision vdb, and more.

Prerequisites

Install delphix engine compatible with the OBI plugin version as per support matrix
Install Oracle binaries on staging host
Execute Discovery on staging host
Create sourceConfig on staging host

Create dSource

Steps:

Login to Delphix Management application.
Click Manage > Datasets
Select Add dSource.
In the Add dSource wizard, select the Oracle source config you just created on the staging host.
Select the dSource type (Seed, Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial) from the drop-down and enter dsource specific parameters for your configuration. dSource is delphix representation of source database copy. It can be created in different ways

dSource Parameters

API Parameter	Parameter	Description	dSource Type	Comments
dSourceType	dSource Type	Type of dSource	Seed, Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial
mountPath	Mount Path	Mount Path for dSource	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial
dbmultitenant	Multitenant Database [ CDB ]	Multitenant Database ?	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial
instanceName	Instance Name	Staging Oracle Instance	Seed, Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial
dbid	Source Database DBID	DBID of Source database	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial
pdbName	Source PDB Name [ if dSource Type is PDB ]	Source Pluggable database name	Seed, PDB, PDB-Partial
restorefromtape	Restore from Tape	Restore from Tape	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial
tdeEnabled	TDE Encrypted Source PDB	Is Source TDE Encrypted ?	PDB, PDB-Partial
walletpwd	Source Wallet Password	Password for Source wallet	Full, PDB, PDB-Partial
dbctrlbkppiece	Source Database Controlfile disk backup piece name (full path)	Full path of Source Database Controlfile disk backup piece name	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial	Optional for Tape Backups
dbrmanbkploc	Database disk backup location	RMAN backup location on staging host	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial	Not Applicable for Tape Backups
pitr	Point in time dSource	Restore Point in time dSource	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial
pitr_snapshots	Point in time snapshots [ Update Restoretime manually for each snapshot ]	PITR Snapshots	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial	Manual Intervention required
restoreTime	Source database time [ DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS ]	DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial	Only for PITR
tbsnames	Tablespace Names	Tablespace Names	Partial, PDB-Partial	Only for Partial
tapeparams	Tape Parameters	Parameters to access Tape library - Same as source database	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial
catalog_conn	Catalog connection	Catalog connection to ZDLRA	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial
send_params	Send Params	Send Params to Tape libraries for DDBOOST/ZDLAR etc	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial	Not necessary always required
channels	RMAN Channels	Number of RMAN channels	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial
config_settings_prov	Customize init.ora parameters	Customize init.ora parameters	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial	Parameter Name, Value
custom_env_variables	Custom Environment variables	Custom Environment variables	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial	Env Variable Name, Value
minimizeloggroups	Minimize redolog groups	Reduce number of redo groups for faster provisioning	Full, Partial, PDB, PDB-Partial	Reduce number of redo groups for faster provisioning

Create Sourceconfig

Every environment contains repositories and each environment may have any number of repositories associated with it. Repository represents the binaries for Oracle instance. Each repository can have many SourceConfig which represent Oracle instance. There is no sourceconfig generated automatically in oracle-plugin. We need to configure SourceConfig objects through which we can create a dSource.

Login to the Delphix Management application.
Click Manage.
Select Environments.
Select the repository
Click on + icon ( Shown in next image )

Screenshot 6. Add required details in Add database section.

Database Name [ db_name ]/CDB[db_name ]: This should match with source db_name [ Case sensitive ]
```
select name from v$database;
```
Database Unique Name: Database unique name [ db_unique_name ] for Staging database.
Database Unique Identity: Unique identifier for staging dsource in delphix. Recommmended same as db_unique_name OR db_name-db_unique_name for Staging database.
Click Add button

Screenshot

Create dSource

dSource is delphix representation of source database copy. It can be of several different types.

Create sourceConfig under repository of staging environment
Click on Add dSource link.

Screenshot 3. Select appropriate dSource Type.
4. Enter oracle specific parameters for your dSource configuration.
5. Proceed with wizard and submit to create dSource.

Seed

This type of dSource is generally used for pure development purpose. There is no source instance associated with it. It creates a empty instance which is managed by delphix and helps to create virtual oracle database instance to avail benefits of all delphix features.

Full

This type of dsource helps to create dSource for complete copy of database container & non-container ( includes all PDBs). dSource is created using RMAN full backup from Disk or Tape Drives. It helps to create dsource using zero touch production. Periodic rman incremental backups can be loaded to create timeline for dsource.

Partial

This type of dsource is created using RMAN Full/Partial backup. Full/Partial backup can be read from Disk or Tape Drives. Partial backup should include all the backuppieces needed to restore partial database. This will ingest partial non-container database. This option is not for container database. User need to specify comma seperated tablespace names to be ingested. System will bydefault ingest SYSTEM, SYSAUX, UNDO, USERS and need not to specify in the list of tablespaces. It helps to create dsource using zero touch production. Periodic backups can be loaded to create timeline of dsource.

PDB

This type of dsource is created using RMAN Full/Partial backup. Full/Partial backup can be read from Disk or Tape Drives. This will ingest single pluggable database. This option is not for non-container database or complete container database. User need to specify PDB name to be ingested. It helps to create dsource using zero touch production. Periodic backups can be loaded to create timeline of dsource.

PDB-Partial

This type of dsource is created using RMAN Full/Partial backup. Full/Partial backup can be read from Disk or Tape Drives. Partial backup should include all the backuppieces needed to restore partial database. This will ingest partial pluggable database. This option is not for non-container database. User need to specify comma seperated tablespace names to be ingested for the mentioned PDB. System will bydefault ingest SYSTEM, SYSAUX, UNDO, USERS and need not to specify in the list of tablespaces. It helps to create dsource using zero touch production. Periodic backups can be loaded to create timeline of dsource.