Implementing Oracle Cloud Disaster Recovery with Autonomous DB and Object Storage

 

Disaster Recovery (DR) is not a luxury—it's a necessity. With the increasing reliance on cloud-native architectures, businesses must ensure high availability, durability, and the ability to recover swiftly from failures. In Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Autonomous Database (ADB) combined with Object Storage provides a powerful and automated foundation for building robust DR strategies.

In this blog, we’ll explore how to implement an effective disaster recovery solution in OCI using:

• Autonomous Database

• OCI Object Storage

• Cross-region replication

• Restore demonstrations

🧱 1. Core Concepts

✅ Autonomous Database (ADB)

Oracle’s Autonomous Database is a self-driving, self-securing, and self-repairing database that comes in two main flavors:

• Autonomous Transaction Processing (ATP): Ideal for OLTP apps.

• Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW): Ideal for analytical workloads.

✅ Object Storage

OCI Object Storage is a durable, secure, and highly available storage service. It's ideal for storing backups, logs, and large unstructured data.

✅ Cross-Region Disaster Recovery

OCI supports Object Storage Cross-Region Replication, enabling DR scenarios where data is continuously replicated to another region for redundancy.

🔐 2. Backup Strategy with Autonomous DB

Autonomous DB takes automated backups daily and retains them for 60 days. But for extended DR or compliance requirements, you might want to:

• Manually export your data (e.g., to Object Storage)

• Perform full logical backups using Data Pump

• Automate and replicate those backups across regions

🛡️ OCI Backup Strategy Steps

a) Enable Autonomous DB Automatic Backups

By default, automatic backups are enabled and stored internally by Oracle. These are used for point-in-time recovery (PITR).

b) Export Data with Data Pump

You can create manual logical backups using Data Pump Export (expdp) and save the dump file to Object Storage:

BEGIN

   DBMS_CLOUD.EXPORT_DATA(

      credential_name => 'MY_CRED',

      file_uri_list   => 'https://objectstorage.<region>.oraclecloud.com/n/<namespace>/b/<bucket>/o/export.dmp',

      format          => json_object('format' value 'datapump'),

      query           => 'SELECT * FROM my_table'

   );

END;

This can also be scheduled using APEX Automation or DBMS_SCHEDULER.

c) Backup to Object Storage Using PL/SQL

You can backup JSON, CSV, Parquet, or entire tables to Object Storage programmatically with DBMS_CLOUD.

d) Backup ATP with Autonomous Recovery Service (ARS)

For production systems, you can also leverage Autonomous Recovery Service for additional protection.

🌐 3. Cross-Region Replication with Object Storage

Let’s enable cross-region replication for the bucket holding our logical backups.

📍 Steps to Set Up Cross-Region Replication

1. Create an Object Storage Bucket (Standard or Archive)

2. Enable Replication:

   • Go to the bucket > Replication > Create Replication Policy

   • Choose a target region and a destination bucket

   • Ensure IAM policies allow replication

3. Schedule Backup Jobs to Write to This Bucket

4. Backups will now be asynchronously replicated across the regions

💡 Tip:

You can monitor replication lags via the Replication Status column or CLI using:

oci os replication get --replication-id <replication_ocid>

♻️ 4. Restore and Recovery Demonstrations

Scenario 1: PITR Using Autonomous DB Console

• Go to ADB Console > Backups

• Choose Restore to a Point in Time

• Select timestamp (e.g., before failure)

• Create a new clone or overwrite the original instance

🧠 This restores the database using Oracle-managed backups

Scenario 2: Restore Using Data Pump on New ADB

Let’s say your source region is down. You want to restore data in a different region.

Steps:

1. Login to target region ADB

2. Ensure same credentials (DBMS_CLOUD)

3. Import Data Pump file from cross-replicated Object Storage:

BEGIN

   DBMS_CLOUD.IMPORT_DATA(

      credential_name => 'MY_CRED',

      file_uri_list   => 'https://objectstorage.<target-region>.oraclecloud.com/n/<namespace>/b/<replicated_bucket>/o/export.dmp',

      format          => json_object('format' value 'datapump')

   );

END;

Alternatively, use:

impdp admin/password@db_high dumpfile=export.dmp directory=DATA_PUMP_DIR

Scenario 3: Clone Autonomous Database from Backup

• Navigate to Autonomous DB Console

• Select "Create Clone"

• Choose "From Backup"

• Select source database and backup timestamp

This is ideal for test/dev environments or failover simulations.

🤖 Automating DR Workflows

To make your DR strategy resilient and repeatable, you can automate with:

• OCI CLI

• Oracle Functions (serverless failover triggers)

• Terraform (infrastructure setup across regions)

• APEX Scheduler or DBMS_SCHEDULER (for exports)

Sample CLI Export Command

oci db autonomous-database create-data-pump-export-job \

  --autonomous-database-id <ocid> \

  --data-pump-job-definition "{\"dump-file-name\":\"export.dmp\", \"directory-object-name\":\"DATA_PUMP_DIR\"}"

🔧 1. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Vault Integration

📌 Description:

OCI Vault allows you to securely store and manage encryption keys and secrets (like Object Storage credentials).

🧠 Why it matters for DR:

When exporting/importing data to/from Object Storage using DBMS_CLOUD, you often use authentication credentials. Storing them in OCI Vault enhances security and removes hardcoded secrets from PL/SQL.

✅ How to implement:

• Create a secret in OCI Vault with your Object Storage auth token

• Reference this in DBMS_CLOUD.CREATE_CREDENTIAL

BEGIN

  DBMS_CLOUD.CREATE_CREDENTIAL(

    credential_name => 'MY_CRED',

    username        => 'your.email@domain.com',

    password        => 'my_vault_secret_ocid'

  );

END;

📍 2. Using Autonomous Data Guard for High Availability

📌 Description:

For mission-critical workloads, Oracle provides Autonomous Data Guard—a standby instance in another availability domain or region.

🧠 Why it matters for DR:

This offers zero data loss failover with automatic redirection. Unlike manual backup/restore, this is near real-time DR.

✅ How to implement:

• Enable Autonomous Data Guard from the ADB Console

• Monitor switchover/failover status

🧰 3. Terraform to Automate Disaster Recovery Infrastructure

📌 Description:

Use Terraform to provision Autonomous DB, Object Storage, and replication policies across regions.

🧠 Why it matters for DR:

Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) ensures consistent, repeatable environment setup, essential for DR drills or quick recovery.

✅ How to implement:

resource "oci_database_autonomous_database" "adb" {

  compartment_id = var.compartment_ocid

  db_name        = "DRADB"

  admin_password = var.admin_password

  cpu_core_count = 1

  data_storage_size_in_tbs = 1

}

resource "oci_objectstorage_replication_policy" "policy" {

  ...

}

⏰ 4. Scheduling Regular Backups with DBMS_SCHEDULER

📌 Description:

DBMS_SCHEDULER is Oracle's built-in job scheduler to automate tasks like Data Pump exports.

🧠 Why it matters for DR:

You should have scheduled jobs that export logical backups (e.g., hourly or daily) to Object Storage.

✅ Example:

BEGIN

  DBMS_SCHEDULER.create_job (

    job_name        => 'EXPORT_JOB',

    job_type        => 'PLSQL_BLOCK',

    job_action      => 'BEGIN EXPORT_PROC(); END;',

    start_date      => SYSTIMESTAMP,

    repeat_interval => 'FREQ=DAILY; BYHOUR=2',

    enabled         => TRUE

  );

END;

🧪 5. Disaster Recovery Drills and Playbooks

📌 Description:

A DR Playbook outlines step-by-step instructions to restore services in case of disaster.

🧠 Why it matters:

Regular DR drills validate your recovery procedures and help you meet RTO/RPO objectives.

✅ What to include:

• Steps to clone database in DR region

• How to import latest backup

• How to repoint applications

• Who’s responsible for what

📈 6. Monitoring Backup and Replication Status

📌 Description:

Use OCI Monitoring, Logging, and APEX dashboards to track backup success, replication health, and PITR coverage.

🧠 Why it matters:

You need visibility into your DR status in real-time.

✅ Tools to use:

• OCI Monitoring to track bucket size and replication lag

• Logging for backup job outputs

• APEX Dashboard to visualize:

• Last backup timestamp

• Data pump job logs

• Bucket replication state

📤 7. Versioning and Lifecycle Policies in Object Storage

📌 Description:

OCI Object Storage supports versioning and lifecycle rules to manage your backup files.

🧠 Why it matters:

You can automatically purge old backups, retain versions, and reduce storage costs.

✅ Setup example:

• Enable bucket versioning

• Set lifecycle policy: "Delete objects older than 30 days"

📡 8. Hybrid DR with On-Premises and OCI

📌 Description:

Not every workload is cloud-native. You may need DR strategies that bridge on-premises Oracle DB and OCI ADB.

🧠 Why it matters:

Oracle provides Zero Downtime Migration (ZDM) and GoldenGate to replicate from on-prem to OCI ADB for hybrid DR.

✅ Hybrid DR Workflow:

• On-prem DB exports data via Data Pump to OCI Object Storage

• A scheduled ADB job imports the data

• Use OCI GoldenGate for near real-time hybrid replication

🌍 9. Multi-Region Architecture Design

📌 Description:

Designing applications for multi-region failover ensures that when the primary region is down, your apps still run in DR region.

🧠 Why it matters:

Disaster Recovery is not only about restoring databases—it’s about making entire systems resilient.

✅ Include:

• Global DNS (e.g., OCI Traffic Management) for redirection

• App tier and mid-tier in second region

• DR-ready APEX and APIs

🧑‍💻 10. OCI CLI + Shell Scripts for Backup & Restore

📌 Description:

For ops teams, having CLI scripts to perform backup exports and restore processes is vital during an outage.

🧠 Why it matters:

You might not have console access in DR scenarios—CLI is a robust alternative.

# Export from ADB

oci db autonomous-database export-data --autonomous-database-id <ocid> ...

# Restore or clone

oci db autonomous-database create-from-backup --backup-id <ocid>

✅ Example CLI Commands:

📊 Real-world Use Case

“RetailCorp” DR Plan:

• Daily data pump exports to Object Storage

• Replication from Mumbai to Ashburn region

• Weekly DR drill: restore to cloned DB in Ashburn and verify integrity

• Custom monitoring dashboard in APEX to track:

• Last backup timestamp

• Replication lag

• Restore job status

✅ Summary

Component	Role in DR Strategy
Autonomous DB	Primary database with PITR capabilities
OCI Object Storage	Logical backup storage + cross-region DR
Data Pump	Logical export/import
Cross-region Replication	Ensures availability across geographies
Restore Mechanisms	PITR, Clone from backup, Data Pump Import
Automation	Ensures repeatability and reliability

🚀 Final Thoughts

Implementing a comprehensive DR solution in OCI with Autonomous DB and Object Storage is both straightforward and powerful. With automated backups, flexible restore options, and cross-region replication, you can ensure your data is resilient, recoverable, and ready in case of a regional failure.

Start small—build out your backups. Then expand to cross-region replication. Finally, automate your restore drills. Because in the cloud, resilience is not optional—it's a design principle.