1. What are BR*TOOLS and SAPDBA?
BR*TOOLS and SAPDBA are utility programs for Oracle administration that are developed by SAP. BR*TOOLS are increasingly replacing SAPDBA functions.
2. What BR*TOOLS are available and what do these do?
- BRBACKUP: Database backup
- BRARCHIVE: Backup of offline redo logs
- BRRESTORE: Restoration (restore) of backups (see Note 605062)
- BRRECOVER: Restore/recovery (Notes 602497, 605062)
- BRSPACE: Reorganizations (see Notes 647697 and 541538)
- BRCONNECT: Various administration tasks (see Note 403704) such as creation of statistics (see Note 588668) or database checks
- BRGUI: Graphical user interface for the BR*TOOLS (Note 611493)
- BRTOOLS: Text-based user interface for the BR*TOOLS
3. Where can I find information about Support Packages, installation and compatibility?
Refer to SAP Note 12741.
4. Which releases of the BR*TOOLS and SAPDBA should be used?
We strongly recommend that you only use Version 6.10 or higher. Only these versions are updated on a regular basis.
5. What do I do if one of the BR*TOOLS or SAPDBA results in an error?
If you cannot find a solution in the SAP notes, you should check whether a current patch for the tool still returns the same error. If so, create a customer message under the component BC-DB-ORA-DBA.
6. How can I find out which release and patch level belong to an installed tool?
Call the tool with the " -V" option (for example, "brconnect -V "). The result includes the following lines with release and patch level:
kernel release <release>
patch level <patchlevel>
7. Which operating system and database users should be used with BR*TOOLS and SAPDBA?
With a manual call, <sid>adm should be used for all tools. If you start from DB13, sapservice<sid> is automatically used.
All tools can be started as ora<sid>. The tools that can be called from DB13 (BRBACKUP, BRARCHIVE, BRCONNECT) can alternatively be started as <sid>adm.
The OPS$ user is recommended as the database user ("-u /"), because it does not require a password. Alternatively, you can also use the SYSTEM user (including the password).
One exception is the BRCONNECT function " -f chpass", which can only be used with SYSTEM.
Caution: As of BRCONNECT 6. 40 Support Package 25, you can also work with the OPS$ user ("-u /"). As a prerequisite, BRCONNECT must have been started as the OS users <sid>adm or ora<sid>, which allows the "CONNECT / AS SYSDBA" (because it belongs to the "dba" group).
You can only use SYSTEM as the database user.
8. Where do I find the parameter files for the BR*TOOLS and SAPDBA?
The following parameter files exist:
- BR*TOOLS: $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/init<sid>.sap
- SAPDBA: $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/init<sid>.dba
9. Where do I find the log files of the BR*TOOLS and SAPDBA?
Depending on the tool you are using, the log files are located in the following directories ($SAPDATA_HOME = /oracle/<sid>):
- $SAPDATA_HOME/sapbackup: BRBACKUP, BRRESTORE, BRRECOVER
- $SAPDATA_HOME/saparch: BRARCHIVE
- $SAPDATA_HOME/sapcheck: BRCONNECT
- $SAPDATA_HOME/sapreorg: BRSPACE
If you want to use a directory other than the standard directories, you must set the SAPBACKUP, SAPARCH, SAPCHECK or SAPREORG environment variables.
Depending on the action you have executed, SAPDBA log files are also stored in one of these directories.
10. How can I delete old log files of the BR*TOOLS and SAPDBA?
You can delete obsolete log files with the BRCONNECT parameter "-f cleanup". By default, logs that are older than 30 days are deleted. If you want to configure a different time interval, you can use a number of cleanup_* parameters. Refer to the BRCONNECT documentation for further details.
11. How do I recognize errors and warnings in the BR*TOOLS log?
The entries in the log files of the BR*TOOLS start with an abbreviation BR[0-9][0-9][0-9][IWE], that is, with the string "BR", followed by three numbers and one of the letters I, W or E (for example, BR051I or BR310E). The final letter indicates whether the entry represents an information message (I), a warning message (W) or an error message (E).
12. How I can adjust the functions of "brconnect -f next"?
"brconnect -f next" checks whether the NEXT size of objects must be adjusted and performs the adjustment if required. In certain cases, it may be advisable to adjust the standard function (for example, to avoid unnecessarily large NEXT sizes or to exclude certain tables from a check).
An upper limit can be defined for the NEXT size (set by BRCONNECT) with the parameter next_max_size in init<sid>.sap. For example, "next_max_size = 1G" limits the maximum NEXT size to 1 gigabyte.
You can use the parameter next_exclude to specify objects that are to be excluded from the check (for example, next_exclude = SAPR3.T000).
See the BRCONNECT documentation for more configuration options.
13. Why does "brconnect -f check" not record a TABLESPACE_FULL even though a tablespace has already exceeded the threshold value?
With AUTOEXTEND files, BRCONNECT also calculates the space that may be available in the file system. A TABLESPACE_FULL warning is only issued with AUTOEXTEND files if the total of the freespace available in the tablespace and within the framework of AUTOEXTEND exceeds the threshold value.
14. Can I use BRBACKUP even if the database can no longer be started?
In some cases (before you import a restore, for example), it may be advisable to save the current status of the database as a precaution, even if you can no longer open the database properly in the current status. Since it is only possible to use BRBACKUP if the database can be opened, you cannot run a backup with this tool. In this case, you must use other tools for a backup or execute a simple file system backup.
15. What do the return codes of the BR*TOOLS mean?
- Return Code 0: Successful execution
- Return Code 1: Execution with warning(s)
- Return Code 2: Termination in the initialization phase
- Return Code 3: Error in the initialization phase
- Return Code 4: Termination in the execution phase
- Return Code 5: Error in the execution phase
- Return Code 9: In execution
These return codes also correspond to the return codes logged in table SDBAH. Only for return codes 6 and 9 a different SDBAH entry exists: 9999. This 9999 may appear constantly if, for example, a BR*TOOL has been terminated because of an error or if an online backup was only recovered BEFORE the SDBAH update at the end of BRBACKUP.
16. Can I also use the BR*TOOLS for SAP systems that do not have SAP ABAP basis?
Yes, refer to Note 12741 for more information.
To use BRBACKUP, BRARCHIVE and BRRESTORE, see Note 320457.
In the case of MDM, see Note 936665.
As of Version 7. 00, an extended support of BRCONNECT is available (Note 892294).
17. Why does BRBACKUP use CPIO even if TAPE_COPY_COMMAND is set to DD?
DD is only used to backup large files, such as the Oracle data files. Smaller files, such as init<sid>.ora, are always copied with CPIO. Therefore, CPIO must always be installed correctly to avoid errors.
18. What is the importance of the "jid" parameter?
The parameter "-jid" is used to transfer a job identifier, which enables the system to map a BR*TOOLS run to an SAP and DB13 job. This prevents some of the problems described in Note 651452. Otherwise, this parameter alters nothing about the execution of BR*TOOLS.
19. Where can I find more information?
Information about using BR*TOOLS and SAPDBA is available in the SAP online documentation.
Additional information about other important topics is available on SAP Service Marketplace under the quick link "dbaora":
http://service.sap.com/dbaora
