Since April 21st there is the new Quest Backup Reporter. With this it is really simple to create reports on Oracle RMAN backups. The backup reporter gets the data from the control files and/or the RMAN catalog, if this exists. It is very interesting that in the control file more information about the backup is saved than in a RMAN catalog and this is exactly the reason why you can use both sources simultaneously with the backup reporter.
As you can see in the picture, having a backup run, it additionally shows how far the backup already proceeded. The information is updated frequently (60 seconds by default) so that you can estimate when the backup will be finished.
Backup Performance
Quite useful also are the performance data that are determined and illustrated by the backup reporter. This information can be used for a specific tuning. In a 50 GB sized test system I could by this determine that when starting the backup only 14 out of 16 files were saved. The reason is actually simple (if you are reading the Oracle documentation): There is a parameter (MAXOPENFILES) that limits the simultaneously opened files per channel in RMAN – and the default is 14. After changing it to 20 I could accelerate the backup by 15 percentage.
In the picture you see the current backup of an Oracle database and you can tell which files have already been saved and which RMAN is still working on. But, of course, historic data can be observed, too.
Backup Growth
What would a reporting tool be without the possibility of illustrating the backup’s growth. A picture paints a thousand words. So here you find the growth of an Oracle database over one month illustrated.
Conclusion
With the Quest Backup Reporter there finally is a tool for clearly illustrating the backup with RMAN and by that increasing the security of backups. Problems with backups that run at the wrong time and disturb the work of a database should now be thing of the past.
The Quest Backup Reporter is a basic client tool (MS Windows) and determines the data on runtime from the configured databases. An installation of software on the database server is not necessary. Only one user must be created who can access the V$ tables reading.
Who likes to assure oneself of this can download the Quest Backup Reporter as a test version on www.toadworld.com.
Have fun testing and I am happy for comments.