Rman question - recover after a delete obsolete?

Hi,

  Currently we backup our 8.1.7 and 9.2.0.2 databases using RMAN to disk. WE have a retention policy of 1. Since the filesystem is backed up to tape nightly, before we run the next backup we remove the old rman backup.

Some of the DBA's run a delete obsolete in their nightly routine but I haven't because i'm not actually sure of the consequences. Lets say there's a problem and a user requests a copy of the database from 2 weeks ago. If the retention was 1 and a delete obsolete was executed will we be able to recover using the catalog? My gut tells me no because were deleting all information about the backup from the catalog.

I'd rather disable the retention policy within rman.. Then if we had to restore from a few weeks previous all you would have to do is run a crosscheck.

We don't backup directly to tape, we don't have enough disk space to hold enough backups for the retention users require so we rely on the backup group's tape retention policy to satisfy our needs. So say nightly we run a backup, then a delete obsolete and 2 days from now need to restore, even tho we have restored the datafiles from tape will we be able to reocover? Would the recover process be different? Should we be marking backups as keep or disable the retention policy in rman?

Thanks Received on Mon Mar 01 2004 - 16:22:59 CST