Testing the Media Management API

Obtaining the sbttest Utility

On UNIX, the sbttest utility is typically located in $ORACLE_HOME/bin. If for some reason the utility is not included with your platform, then contact Oracle Support to obtain the C version of the program. You can compile this version of the program on all UNIX platforms.

Note that on platforms such as Solaris, you do not have to relink when using sbttest. On other platforms, relinking may be necessary.

Obtaining Online Documentation for the sbttest Utility

For online documentation of sbttest, issue the following on the command line:

% sbttest

The program displays the list of possible arguments for the program:

Error: backup file name must be specified
Usage: sbttest backup_file_name # this is the only required parameter
               <-dbname database_name>
               <-trace trace_file_name>
               <-remove_before>
               <-no_remove_after> 
               <-read_only>
               <-no_regular_backup_restore>
               <-no_proxy_backup>
               <-no_proxy_restore>
               <-file_type n>
               <-copy_number n>
               <-media_pool n>
               <-os_res_size n>
               <-pl_res_size n>
               <-block_size block_size> 
               <-block_count block_count>
               <-proxy_file os_file_name bk_file_name 
                           [os_res_size pl_res_size block_size block_count]>
               <-libname sbt_library_name>

The display also indicates the meaning of each argument. For example, following is the description for two optional parameters:

Optional parameters:
  -dbname  specifies the database name which will be used by SBT
           to identify the backup file. The default is "sbtdb"
  -trace   specifies the name of a file where the Media Management 
           software will write diagnostic messages.

Using the sbttest Utility

Use sbttest to perform a quick test of the media manager.

If sbttest returns 0, then the test ran without error, which means that the media manager is correctly installed and can accept a data stream and return the same data when requested. If sbttest returns a non-zero value, then either the media manager is not installed or it is not configured correctly.

To use sbttest:

1. Make sure the program is installed and included in the system path by typing sbttest at the command line:

   % sbttest
   
   

   If the program is operational, then you should see a display of the online documentation.

2. Execute the program, specifying any of the arguments described in the online documentation. For example, enter the following to create test file some_file.f and write the output to sbtio.log:

   % sbttest some_file.f -trace sbtio.log
   
   

   You can also test a backup of an existing datafile. For example, this command tests datafile tbs_33.f of database prod:

   % sbttest tbs_33.f -dbname prod
   
   

3. Examine the output. If the program encounters an error, then it provides messages describing the failure. For example, if the database cannot find the library, you see:

   libobk.so could not be loaded. Check that it is installed properly, and that LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable (or its equivalent on your platform) includes the directory where this file can be found. Here is some additional information on the cause of this error:
   ld.so.1: sbttest: fatal: libobk.so: open failed: No such file or directory
   
   

Note that in some cases sbttest can work but an RMAN backup does not. The reasons can be the following:

• The user who starts sbttest is not the owner of the Oracle processes.

• If the database server is not linked with the media management library or cannot load it dynamically when needed, then RMAN backups to the media manager fail, but sbttest may still work.

• The sbttest program passes all environment parameters from the shell but RMAN does not.