RMAN (Recovery Manager) and BRTOOLS are tools used for Oracle database administration, but they serve different purposes, here are some basic differences between RMAN and BRTOOLS.
| BRTOOLS | RMAN | |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | BRTOOLS, on the other hand, is a framework provided by SAP for administering Oracle databases. | RMAN (Recovery Manager) is a backup and recovery tool provided by Oracle for managing backups and restoration of Oracle databases. |
| Use |
|
RMAN is a command-line utility that can be used to perform various backup and recovery operations. |
| Technology |
BR*Tools is file-based. In BRTools ERP gets a list of files and then ERP read the files from the disk and stores them in TSM |
RMAN is block-based The RMAN read the data from the disk and transfer those data with a shared library to ERP and then the ERP store this data stream to TSM |
| Incremental level 1 | RMAN> BACKUP INCREMENTAL LEVEL 1 DATABASE | brbackup -u / -m incr -t online -d disk |
Note: When executing a backup using BR*Tools, if you examine Oracle's alert log, you will observe that "brbackup" places the tablespace in backup mode and proceeds to copy the datafiles to the disk location specified by the "backup_root_dir" parameter in the "init<SID>.sap" file located within the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory.
Which is Best for SAP Users?
SAP officially supports backups of Oracle databases using the BRTools framework, including the "brbackup" command provided by SAP. Using a pure RMAN solution without using BRTools may void SAP support for the Oracle database.
It is up to the user which tool they want to use and the tool that meets their criteria.
For backing up your database, it is advisable to utilize the latest version of BRTOOLS provided by SAP. This recommendation is based on the fact that BRTOOLS is developed and supported by SAP for its systems. However, if you want to use RMAN, you have the option to use it as an alternative backup solution.