PowerStore snapshot design principles
Use the following PowerStore design principles:
- Before taking the snapshot, put the PROD database into backup mode to ensure that the database is in a consistent state.
- Take a snapshot of the ORA_DATA volume group, which consists of four DATA volumes, four REDO volumes, and one FRA volume. (For the TEMP volume, it is not necessary for the database temp file to be part of the snapshot.) This step ensures that the snapshot of all datafiles, control files, redo files, and archive logs files are consistent so that the PROD database snapshot is a consistent point-in-time copy of the PROD database.
Create a snapshot of the PROD database
To create a PROD database snapshot, follow these steps:
- Put the RAC database in backup mode by running the following SQL command:
SQL> ALTER DATABASE BEGIN BACKUP;
- Log in to PowerStore Manager and select Storage > Volume Groups > ORA_DATA volume group.
The following figure is displayed:
Figure 14. Take a snapshot of PROD database volumes
- On the PROTECTION tab, click TAKE SNAPSHOT.
- Make the selections as shown in the following figure and click TAKE SNAPSHOT:
Figure 15. Take Snapshot of Volume Group wizard
In a few seconds, the PowerStore system creates a snapshot, as shown in the following figure:
Figure 16. Snapshot is created
- Put the RAC database into end-of-backup mode by running:
SQL> ALTER DATABASE END BACKUP;
We ran the HammerDB OLTP workloads during the snapshot creation. No performance impact occurred.