(1) I was under the impression that if i created a catalog in 8i then, i could manage version 8 databases using 8i catalog. Is it possible? Along the same line, If i created a catalog in 9i database can i store rman information for prior 9i databases in 9i catalog? Thanks.

(2) Can I use 9i RMAN executable to backup 8i and 8 databases? Thanks.

I wanted to ask questions in line with the ones asked above. Could you answer those questions? Thanks.

I have a bunch of databases (both production and development) to backup. The target database versions are across the board - 8.0.5, 8.1.6, 8.1.7, 9.2.0.1, 9.2.0.4.

Two questions -
1) I plan to use a SINGLE 9.2.0.4 database as the catalog, with different RMAN catalog schemas to backup each of the above major releases (RMAN805 - for 8.0.5; RMAN8I - 8.1.6, 8.1.7; RMAN9I - for 9.2.0.1 and 9.2.0.4). Does the strategy seem alright to you? Would you bundle your production and development backups on the same catalog?

2) Planning for the future, do you see any reason why I ought to use a 10g catalog to backup the above instead? It is quite possible that the some of the above targets will be upgraded to 10g down the line. But from the RMAN compatibility matrix that I've seen, 9i RMAN appears to UPWARDLY compatible with 10g targets. So I don't see any particular advantage in installing a 10g catalog right now (or even later, for that matter). Any thoughts?

In the past, I've never had the opportunity to plan, phase out and upgrade multiple target databases (different versions) and a single catalog..and so, don't have much experience dealing with RMAN compatibility issues.

> 1) yes. fewer things to manage = better.

On a high volume multi-database environment, how do you recommend one make this SINGLE catalog highly available? What kind of redundancies would you recommend that one build into this server and catalog database? Would you go in and use Data Guard to replicate such a 'critical RMAN catalog'? What kind of a server (standalone?) would you put such a catalog on? (I realize that it is kind of a rhetorical question..the answer being, the best non-Windoze machine that your $$ can buy)

Here’s my situation :
I anticipate backing up atleast 2 production databases that are of size 1 Tb each. Each of them churns over 50G of archivelogs everyday. In addition, there are 15 other non-so-big databases (40G-200G) that'll use the same catalog. Currently, the databases are being backed up at different levels everyday and the archivelogs are backedup and deleted from disk (by RMAN) by the hour.

I haven’t been approved the budget to purchase another server for the catalog YET. So I'm being forced to host the catalog on an *existing* production machine (that hosts a few other databases as well). While I can ensure that the RMAN catalog sits on dedicated disks and that the server has redundant hardware etc; I hate to think about what'll happen if the production server that hosts the catalog comes down (voluntarily for maintanence by the OS folks for patching or something..or involuntarily due to a bad karma system crash). In all probability at the time (when the catalog server is down), I’ll 1) suspend all database backups 2) backup the archivelogs to tape directly (circumventing RMAN that is) and then delete them from disk. And then when all is well, I’ll restore the archivelogs back to disk and back them up via RMAN again.

I suppose I could use Data guard to create a failover for the RMAN catalog database. But then it requires manual intervention in modifying the tnsnames.ora files on each of the 10 target servers (so RMAN can connect to the new catalog host). That doesn’t seem very appealing.

What would you suggest to make this exercise as seamless as possible? May be I’m being paranoid! But I’d like to plan ahead, than be caught unprepared. Greatly appreciate your time and any suggestions.

Thanks.

Thanks for suggesting that I use the target controlfile and issue a 'resync catalog'. I wasn't thinking straight. I tried the above and it seems to work well. Got a related question though.

I issued a "backup archivelog all not backed up 2 times" using the target's controlfile (WITHOUT connecting to the catalog at all). Immediately afterwards, I logged into RMAN connecting to both the target and the Catalog. I then did NOT issue a 'RESYNC CATALOG' and simply did a 'List Backup completed before sysdate-1'; and was pleasantly surprised to see the backup piece that didn't use the RMAN catalog listed there as well! Why is that? One would've thought I need to explicitly issue a 'RESYNC CATALOG' for this backup information to be transferred from the target controlfile to the RMAN catalog. But that's not the case. What's going on here? Why is it 'supersetting' backup information from the target AND the catalog? Could you please explain?

> resync transfers from the controlfile... the > controlfile would have had that all along


I realize that a resync transfers from the controlfile. My question was - I did NOT issue a 'resync catalog' after using the target controlfile for backing up the archivelogs. Yet, I was able to see the backup piece information after merely connecting to the Catalog! Wonder how that happens? Did an automatic partial resync occur by any chance?

Thanks again.

i have 4 test databases and 4 production databases
and only 1 rman recovery catalog.
on 3 test databases oracle 8.1.7.0 are running and i upgraded in 1 test db from 8.1.7.0 to 8.1.7.4 today only.
4 production db's are on 8.1.7.3

now when we want to take backup of the upgraded db it says ypur recovery catalog is of the version 8.1.7.3 .
MY WORRY is that will it able to take all the databases backup after upgrading it as are all are of different version.

Hi Tom,
I tried to use
"
backup archivelog like 'SID1%'
"
to back up archive log files in RAC node1(SID1), but got error message :RMAN-20242: specification does not match any archivelog in the recovery catalog

Then I added RESYNC CATALOG and SQL "alter system archived log current" in the rman script and it worked.

The rman version is 9205, catalog database version is 9203, my question is doesnt RMAN look for the target database's control file to find out the archived log information? Why do i need to resync it explicitly each time I run rman?

Thanks.

Hi Tom, I have a question for you Sir,

When i trying to register one of the database in newly install rman database catalog i ma gating below errors. The doc i found metalink only cover 8i but i am using 9i and i dont know who to user sys as sysdba during my syntax , please help me. Thanks
Metalink said.

8. Register the target database . $ rman target sys/<password>@inst1_ded catalog rman/rman@RCAT1 RMAN> register database; Please note that RMAN connects to the target database using a user who has a SYSDBA privilege defined in the target.

When i used have a errors.

rman target "sys/change_on_install@amtst7 as sysdba" catalog rman/rman@rcat1

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00552: syntax error in command line arguments
RMAN-01005: syntax error: found "identifier": expecting one of: "append, at, auxiliary, catalog, cmdfile, clone, debug, log, msglog, mask, msgno, nocatalog, pipe, rcvcat, slaxdebug, send, target, timeout, trace"
RMAN-01008: the bad identifier was: as
RMAN-01007: at line 0 column 31 file: command line arguments

Sir,

I am using 8i and 9i db and want to configure rman catalog .. as you said backward compatible is possible and i tried so .
My rman db is 9.2.0.4

now i can register 9.2.0.1 easily as the compatible is 9.2.0.1 .

but when i tried to go with 8.1.7 it slapped me with this error

Recovery Manager incompatible with TARGET database: RMAN 8.0.4 to 8.1.6 required

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-06429: TARGET database is not compatible with this version of RMAN


then i changed the compatible parameter in my rman db to 8.1.7 and tried to start it up

Database mounted.
ORA-00402: database changes by release 9.2.0.0.0 cannot be used by release
8.1.0.0.0
ORA-00405: compatibility type "Locally Managed SYSTEM tablespace"



plz suggest me how should i go with ..am i on the right process to or there's any other way too ??

it would be an great help
thanx a lot in advance

Sir,
I think my words have confused you .. let me describe in other words...

Rman catalog -- 9201

Database -9204, 9201 & 8174

i have registered 9204 and 9201 db with catalog 9201.
Unable to register or even connect with 8174 through catalog.

One way is to go through 8174 executable ..which is already configured through veritas net backup but i want to configure this through catalog so that i can store scripts and my veritas netbackup can backup in a single go instead of going on for every single db.


when i tried going in this way i faced the above problems ..
plz guide
thanx in advance..

I am experimenting with RMAN on Enterprise Edition 10.1.0.3.0.

I used RMAN to perform a cold backup of my NOARCHIVELOG (ARCHIVELOG testing soon!) database; deliberately deleted the database's datafiles, to simulate disaster; verified that the database was indeed *not there* by using SQL*Plus; and then used RMAN to perform a restore with RESETLOGS. I then tried to open the database, but was told that the controlfile couldn't be found - no problem, I'd previously set RMAN to automatically backup the controlfile (and the Spfile), so I copied the backed-up controlfile to the locations referenced in the init.ora file (which I had recreated from the restored Spfile).

So far, so good.

However, upon starting up the databse, I get the message:

ORA-00201: controlfile version 10.1.0.3.0 incompatible with Oracle version 10.1.0.2.0

This is a puzzler, as everything Oracle on my PC is from the same .cpio file, downloaded from Oracle.com, so I don't understand how incompatiblities like this can arise.

Might RMAN be out-of-step with the Oracle database software, or (most likely) am I missing something glaringly obvious?

I've just noticed that the Pfile (created from the restored Spfile) has:

*.compatible='10.1.0.2.0'

So, is there, perhaps, a problem when creating a Pfile from an Spfile?

I'll try reproducing the error today, as I'm *building & smashing* during my testing/learning, so another rebuild is OK with me.

I don't have a Metalink account, so how could I (presuming it does look like a bug) report it to the right folk?

Well, I went through the whole exercise again, documented every step, and, of course, everything has worked perfectly!

So, I obviously did something different the first time round, but what that *something* was, I just don't know.

Nonetheless, I have no other Oracle installations (I installed Oracle 10g onto a feshly formatted and Linuxed system), so I don't know where the incompatibility issue arose from. Never mind.

I got some errors (01092) during upgrade from 9i to 10g. Now I am going back to 10g, so I can start again. So I removed 10g and set all the env variables to 9i. But now I am getting following errors when try to start database instance of 9i

ORA-00402: database changes by release 9.2.0.4.0 cannot be used by release
9.2.0.0.0
ORA-00405: compatibility type "Undo contents

I did have backup of that database instance but not from upgrade, its one of the daily backup we do.

Is there a way I can restart this instance? Or i have to restore from backup?

Hi Tom,

Need your help in troubleshooting an issue.

Executed the following commands.

C:\>rman target sys/oracle@MYDB catalog rman/rman@rmandb

Recovery Manager: Release 10.2.0.2.0 - Production on Mon Mar 20 17:39:12 2006

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.

connected to target database: MYDB (DBID=3271242894)
connected to recovery catalog database
PL/SQL package RMAN.DBMS_RCVCAT version 10.02.00.00 in RCVCAT database is not current
PL/SQL package RMAN.DBMS_RCVMAN version 10.02.00.00 in RCVCAT database is not current

RMAN> register database;

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of register command at 03/20/2006 17:39:20
RMAN-06004: ORACLE error from recovery catalog database: ORA-06550: line 1, colu
mn 2273:
PLS-00302: component 'GETRANGEALBACKUP' must be declared
ORA-06550: line 1, column 2238:
PL/SQL: Statement ignored

RMAN>

Would like to know what is "GETRANGEALBACKUP" component. Am I missing something? Do I need to run any script to get it worked.

THIS PROBLEM HAPPENED AFTER UPGRADING TO 10.2.0.2 from 10.2.0.1 (Windows 32 bit).

Tom,
I have a cold backup of a database taken with Oracle 10.2.0.1 for archival purpose. Now we have upgraded all databases to 10.2.0.2 and forgot about the archival backup. The archival backup is a cold backup without any RMAN catalog, using the controlfile. My question is how do I upgrade the backup? Can I restore the 10.2.0.1 backup in a 10.2.0.2 database and then run catupgrd.sql as per the documentation?

Thanks

say it is noarchive log - then you

a) restore it in the event of failure
b) upgrade it

===================================
Thanks for your reply. It is step a) that I need to do. My question is that since it is a 10.2.0.1 backup, can I restore it in a 10.2.0.2 database and then apply the upgrade?

Thanks...

Thanks for saving the day Tom. The restore and upgrade worked just fine. Learned something new today.

Hi Tom,

Great stuff as always; one quick question, how do I determine the number of databases I want to manage with one catalog? Does it goes by number or size of the data in the catalog generated by frequency of the backups?

I have about 140 DB’s, 60 of them production and the rest dev/test. Should I create one or more catalogs for prod and one or more catalogs for dev/test?

We always hear about using catalogs when there are many databases to backup but I have never seen any criteria to determine what “many” means, and since production DB’s are backed up more frequently, should we use the same criteria for prod and dev?

Please let me know your comments and/or point me to any resource you think might help.

Thanks,

Orlando.

Tom,

I kind of agreed with you, the backup information should be treated as production regardless what kind of database is being backed up; however, we are having issues when too many databases are backed up with one catalog.

We are having problems when we backup more than 30 databases with one catalog, there are some locking issues when the old/obsolete/expired backups are been deleted, so that is why I asked about the optimal number of DB one should consider backing up for a single catalog. I know the frequency will impact the issue, but let’s just consider normal full DB daily backups.

Our team is thinking about limiting the number of databases to 20-25 per catalog and to create several catalogs (schemas) for a single rman database. i.e. for 200 DB --> 8 schemas. So far I have not found good solid information to decide what that number should be.

What are your thoughts about the strategy? Do you have any documentation/papers/own experience that address this issue?

Please let me know your ideas about it.

Thank in advance.

Orlando

hi tom,

i upgraded a database from 8.1.7.4 ee to 9.2.0.7 ee. i have the regular daily hot backups as a special cold one for the backup process purpose. upgrade went fine.

every morning there runs a script validating the backups of the day before. it looks like:

...
set until time 'sysdate-1';
restore database validate;
restore archivelog from time 'sysdate-1' validate;
...

on the day after the upgrade some block corruption errors have been reported (out of alert.log):
...
corrupt block 154953 found during reading backup piece,file=bk_9445_1_596664439, corr_type=-2
...

1) i wonder if this is something to do with the upgrade? it's an oracle 8i backup (8i format datablocks, 8i rman executable,...). now, it's validated with a 9i rman executable! could it be that 9i tells "error" as it is awaiting 9i format while this is 8i?

2) btw: is it possible to restore the former daily 8i backups with the 9i rman executable? or do i have to switch back to the 8i binaries before i restore such a backup?

HI Tom,
We have developement 10.2.0.2 and production 10.2.0.1.
OS Windows
We tried to duplicate the database
We ran following from Development box:
RMAN target=prod/prod@prod auxiliary=dev/dev@dev
duplicate taget database to dev;
Then Following error occured
PLS-00302: component 'GETRANGEALBACKUP' must be declared

I think the error occured because dev @10.2.0.2 and prod @10.2.0.1

Do you think I can run the same command on production box since every thing (Binary RMAN and catalog) is 10.2.0.1
Am I going to break any thing on production ?
Please advise

Tom,
I tried to create a catalog in a 10.2 database. The tablespace for the user rman is 1.5G and more than 2/3 is free. The database size is about 4G. The following is the error message I got:


RMAN> create catalog;

dbms_rcvcat package specification created with compilation errors
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-06433: error installing recovery catalog


Do you have any ideas why I got such an error message?

Thanks.
Alex

Hi Tom!

Some of our RMAN scripts are stored as flat-files in the Windows file system of our server. These scripts run very well under the RMAN CMDFILE syntax.

Now I would like to store these scripts in the recovery catalog but still retain the option to run them from the Windows command prompt from within batch files.

In this case the RMAN CMDFILE doesn't seem to be the write answer and I am having trouble finding documentation that covers running scripts saved in the recovery catalog from the Windows command prompt.

Is it at all possible and if so, how?

Many thanks, as always!

Kev

Sorry about the above question! I now have the answer I need! For anyone that might also be interested, this is how to run a script saved in the recovery catalog from the Windows command prompt:

rman target=sys/password catalog=rcat/password script='<script_name>'

Pretty obvious really...... ;)