Re: Oracle RMAN Installation location

sogge wrote:

> all,
>
> not being an oracle guru, i've got one question regarding rman:
> is there any best practice regarding the installation location for rman?
> if yes, is it of any use to implement a failover for the rman "workstation" then?
> what does oracle say (apart from "nothing", at least on their website)?
>
> tia,
> sogge

Well, rman is just an executable in ORACLE_HOME\bin. So do you mean, 'what is the best practice concerning where you build an RMAN repository database ("the catalog database")?'

If that's what you're asking, the reason Oracle probably doesn't say much about it is because it doesn't much matter. A catalog database, provided it is readily accessible, can be created anywhere on anything, really. It doesn't need much by way of backing up (exporting the RMAN schema nightly might be sufficient), and sticking it on your desktop PC is quite often sufficient for many DBAs. It gets a bit more interesting if you have dozens of target databases to backup, but otherwise, stick where you can get to it easily without fuss. And no, I would say that failover for the catalog database is complete overkill.

You know, as well, I hope, that in 9i, it's perfectly possible to operate RMAN securely and simply without a catalog database at all. That's the default way of working in 9i (it was actually possible before, but got a bit scary at times), and is thoroughly recommended. If you do it that way, the rman respoitory is simply stored in the control file of the database you're backing up: so make sure it's multiplexed sensibly.

If that wasn't what you were asking, my apologies and try again!

Regards
HJR Received on Fri May 14 2004 - 04:58:14 CDT