About backing up Oracle RAC resources

Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) is an active-active cluster with shared storage, in which multiple instances share a single physical database. Since all of the participating nodes can access the database, you can initiate backup, restore, or recovery from any node. Oracle RAC databases appear in the media server's backup selection list, under the node Oracle Real Application Clusters.

Requirements for backing up Oracle RAC resources include the following items:

You must run the Remote Agent Utility on each node and add information about the instances before you can perform any backup or restore operations.

When RAC nodes are added or removed, you must update the Remote Agent Utility. with information about the affected instances. After these changes are entered, the Backup Exec media server discovers them.

See Configuring the Oracle Agent on Windows computers.

See Configuring the Oracle Agent on Linux computers.
You must select the RAC virtual node name when making backup selections.

Each node in the cluster uses the same virtual node name. The virtual node name appears under the Oracle Real Application Clusters resource in the media server's backup selections list. It is in the form RAC-<database name>-<database ID>.

Backing up Oracle RAC is similar to backing up standard Oracle databases.

You should be aware of the following differences:

By default, each node in an Oracle RAC stores its archive logs locally. To have a meaningful backup of the archive logs, back up each archive log. Alternatively, you can move the archive logs to a shared device for backup.
Each node that is part of the cluster is assigned a priority. For database backups, Backup Exec connects to the node that has the highest priority. Backup Exec uses the virtual node name to connect to the node.