RMAN questions

[JtheRipper]

Hi there,

I have just recently started using RMAN and have a few questions I hope someone will be able to assist me with.

Some background info first:
Oracle 9i Release 2
I have created a catalog database
We perform online backups every day including the
controlfile, arcive logs and spfile.

Q's:
1. I can do a restore of the latest backup, but how do I
restore a backup of a database that was backed up i.e. 2
weeks ago (obviously given that I still have the tapes).
Do I just set the "until time" parameter or do I have to
specify a backup date somewhere?

2. When I restore my database from tape it looks like the
default destination directories must exist for the
restore to work, I was hoping Rman would be clever
enough to go and create those destination directories
for me?


Thanks,
J.

 

[JtheRipper]

Hi,

One more question...

Can I backup the catalog database also using rman? If so, what do I do in case I need to perform a restore of the catalog database and there is no catalog?

Thanks,
J.

 

[stefanhei]

Hi.
Q1) You may use "until time" or "until cancel".

Q2) Just creating directories would very be risky:
You may have any filesystem structure containing your datafiles (controlfiles,...). Take the situation when the destination filesystem is unmounted: just the mountpoint exists, no subdirectories. If rman simply would create the directory structure the filesystem containing the mountpoint will probably run full.

Q3) You may backup the catalog database
a) without using a catalog
b) using one of the original target databases as a catalog ;-)

Stefan