BRTOOLS were introduced a long time ago as the successor to sapdba, and brought with them many new functions. They are intended to make it easier for the administrator to work with Oracle databases in the SAP environment. Information about the basics and the individual tools can be found in this blog.
What is it about?
brtools is after sapdba THE tool of choice to manage Oracle database systems in the SAP environment. It is very comprehensive, useful, secure (through various testing, preparation and post-processing steps) – but it is also relatively unattractive. Who knows what ASCII-based roll menus do to the spatial imagination, can imagine approximately where the problem lies.
So here is a short description of the included tools, where possible with examples. brtools can be started directly in the command line, but also more clearly with BRGUI and BR*TOOLS STUDIO (#1224432).
Where to get it?
The brtools are downloaded as part of the kernel and also stored exactly there. brtools single patches are of course also possible. The first brtools version belonged to the (partly internal) SAP release 6.10, but as far as I know they are fully downward compatible also to older kernels.
After downloading and moving to the kernel dir please set the following permissions under UX operating systems:
User ora:sapsys : 4775 for brarchive brbackup brconnect
User adm:sapsys 755 for brrestore, brrecover, brspace, brtools, sapdba
The tools at a glance
brtools
brtools itself is the entry point to the tools. After starting and (optionally) entering some initialization parameters (override profile settings), you can jump directly to the individual administration executables. So if you want to get an overview, you will find it here.
Other useful brtools usage:
- brtools -v
brbackup
Central tool for database backups. Backs up not only the actual data files but also online redologs, control files, logs and profiles. Relies on normal OS commands like cp (for filesystem backups).
brarchive
Counterpart to brbackup, backs up offline redologs instead. Should be used with caution, especially in large (moving) installations, since too infrequent backups in too small file systems can quickly lead to archiver failure (online logs can be copied from ARCH to offline logs due to lack of space -> database stall, message in alert log).
brarchive -u / -c -d util_file -cds -p /oracle/SID/REL_64/dbs/init_file.sap
brrestore
Restore backed up database files, control files and offline redologs.
Controlfiles : brrestore -m 0 -p initPRD.sap_recov -b
Logs : brrestore -a – -p initPRD.sap_recov
Database : brrestore -m all -p initPRD.sap_recov -b
brrecover
Import the recovered offline redologs into the database. Like the other commands, it is based on existing functionalities – here „recover database…“.
brspace
Extend and change the storage parameters of data files of a database. Among other things also executable with Autoextend configuration. Thankfully it checks the remaining filesystem space and the sizes of the remaining AE datafiles in this filesystem, but it takes a bit longer than „alter database datafile…“.
Create TS: brspace -f tscreate -t TABLESPACE_1 -o SAPR3-d TABLE -s 5G -m 15G -incrsize 1G -autextend yes
append file: brspace -f tsextend -t TABLESPACE_1 -s 1G -m 10G -incrsize 1G -autoextend yes
brconnect
Originally seen only as an auxiliary tool for brbackup (connecting certain databases in MCOD installations), brconnect can now be used to do a lot of things (list not complete):
-f check database check, -f stats statistics update
-f chpass Set schema password consistently (incl. SAPUSER hash)
-f dbstate test database connectivity, user entries, listener configuration etc.
The Mandatory
This documentation is a collection of empirical values, and has not been tested or released in any form by the product manufacturers (SAP, Oracle, ..). No liability can be accepted for damages resulting from following this documentation (partially or completely).
Of course I am happy about questions, comments or additions.
