Re: Oracle RMAN Catalog vs. controlfile advantages

From: sandeep pande <sandy.soft80_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 09:09:28 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <096f5f13-f144-4ef7-8a4f-57d5c17bf4d1_at_g5g2000pre.googlegroups.com>



On Apr 14, 10:27 pm, NetComrade <netcomr..._at_gmail.com> wrote:
> Can someone point me to exact list of things we'd lose w/o running w/
> catalog?
>
> After upgrade to 10.2.0.5 on Grid Control we have random job failures
> w/o any clear cause, and prior to that we already had a number of
> databases which had performance issues (resyncing with catalog
> forever). Yes, we do have a number of patches to apply, but we are
> rather tired of these issues, one of which is dealing with
> increasingly useless Oracle support.
>
> The number one issue is managing all backups centrally, but we have
> this covered, since all jobs run from Grid anyway, and we parse RMAN
> outputs for errors.
>
> What functionality we'd be losing? I've googled, and some places say
> some things like "some advanced commands are only available with
> catalog", but they don't specify which.
>
> Thanks

Hi,

I'm not sure what Grid Control issues would have to do with your RMAN catalog issues, but for your resync issues there are documented cases of cause and solutions on My Oracle Support, including RMAN catalog best practices. If you have issues with Oracle Support I'd advise you to escalate your issue, or ask for another analyst to be assigned. You may even contact your Support and Sales representative for assistance. Feedback is critical for support so when you get the feedback surveys I encourage you to complete them so the Support Manager can be made aware.

Functionality which you would lose include:

  1. Single point of view - The RMAN catalog is a single point of backup/ recovery data from which you can also run reports, and manage your backup/recovery processes. For a standby setup this is very important.
  2. Extended history - A control file only keeps backup records for a maximum period of time (default is 7 days). You can extend this (CONTROL_FILE_KEEP_TIME) which will grow the controlfile, but using an RMAN catalog you can retain the same backup/recovery data as long as you have storage, and no catalog performance issues.
  3. Script storage - RMAN catalog provides you with a central repository to store your RMAN scripts which can either be global (all database share that script), or local to an individual database. No more using of shell scripts except for a wrapper, the actual RMAN script is stored within the RMAN catalog.

Regards
Sandy Received on Thu May 13 2010 - 11:09:28 CDT

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