RMAN Restore Scenario: all copies of control files are lost

From: Roger Xu <wellmetus_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:53:01 -0600
Message-ID: <eb64345d0911200853n2a34829cpc43f00cf6488a80e_at_mail.gmail.com>



Hi RMAN gurus,

Say one backs up a database using the following RMAN block daily:

backup database archive log all;
SQL 'alter database backup controlfile to '/oradata/controlfile.bak';

All copies of the current control files were in the same disk and the disk crashed.
Assuming other parts of the database are fine, will the following steps work to restore
the database to the minute when the disk crashed?

  1. copy /oradata/controlfile.bak to the control_files location specified in the SPFILE (or PFILE);
  2. startup mount;
  3. find out the most recent archived redo log sequence number (12345) in log_archive_dest_1;
  4. restore database until sequence 12346;
  5. alter database open resetlogs;

The reason this may work is that RMAN automatically searches for archived and online redo logs that are not recorded in the RMAN repository (in this case the backup controlfile).

Do you think this is one of the many advantages using RMAN vs user-managed backup?

Thanks,

Roger Xu

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Received on Fri Nov 20 2009 - 10:53:01 CST

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