DBA GENESIS

Quick Summary

Here’s a quick summary of this process for you to use it as a checklist

and get an overview of how it looks.

1) Oracle RMAN Basic Commands

Basic RMAN configuration and Recovery Catalog commands reference

2) Oracle RMAN Backup Commands

Different types of RMAN database backups commands reference

3) Oracle RMAN Scripting

Simple Unix script to take automated RMAN backups reference

4) Oracle RMAN Recovery Commands

Different types of RMAN database recovery commands reference

Page 2
 DBA GENESIS

1) Oracle RMAN Basic

Commands
10 years ago, my lack of understanding about How to backup Oracle
database caused me to be unable to recover one development
database for a client!

This early mistake made me learn everything about RMAN...

Specially, Oracle database backup types and how backup strategy can
impact database recovery

Why?

Because you want ​to recover your database in case of crash.

It’ not possible to cover everything in the available space and

That's why we have so many books published on RMAN

But I can at least provide you the highly used RMAN commands
here.

Are you read !!!

Page 3
 DBA GENESIS

Connecting RMAN
rman TARGET SYS/target_pwd@target_str → connects in NOCATALOG mode
rman TARGET / CATALOG rman/rman@rcat
rman TARGET / CATALOG rman/rman@rcat AUXILIARY sys/aux_pwd@aux_str

Configure RMAN
CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE sbt CLEAR;
CONFIGURE RETENTION POLICY CLEAR;
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK CLEAR;
CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO DISK/SBT;
CONFIGURE RETENTION POLICY TO REDUNDANCY 3;
CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE DISK PARALLELISM 2;
CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE sbt PARALLELISM 2;
CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE DISK FORMAT ‘/u01/orclbackup/ora_df%t_s%s_s%p’;
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP ON;
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO
‘/u01/orclbackup/ora_cf%F’;
CONFIGURE BACKUP OPTIMIZATION ON;
CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE DISK MAXPIECESIZE 2G;
CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE DISK FORMAT /tmp/%U;
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO
‘+dgroup1/%F’;
CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE <DISK | SBT> BACKUP TYPE TO COMPRESSED BACKUPSET;
CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE DISK FORMAT ‘/disk1/%U’, ‘/disk2/%U’;
CONFIGURE DATAFILE BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE sbt TO 2;
CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE sbt TO 2;
CONFIGURE DATAFILE BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 2;
CONFIGURE RETENTION POLICY TO RECOVERY WINDOW OF 4 DAYS;

Create Catalog
CREATE USER rman_dba IDENTIFIED BY rman_dba TEMPORARY TABLESPACE temp
DEFAULT TABLESPACE rman_dba QUOTA UNLIMITED ON rman_dba;
GRANT RECOVERY_CATALOG_OWNER TO rman_dba;
CREATE CATALOG;

Page 4
 DBA GENESIS

Register Database in Catalog

Rman target / catalog rman_dba/rman_dba@<catalog>
register database;
select * from rc_database;

Register (catalog) Files in RMAN

CATALOG BACKUPPIECE ‘/disk2/09dtq55d_1_2’, ‘/disk2/0bdtqdou_1_1’;
CATALOG DATAFILECOPY ‘/tmp/users01.dbf’;
CATALOG RECOVERY AREA;
CHANGE CONTROLFILECOPY ‘/tmp/control01.ctl’ UNCATALOG;
CHANGE DATAFILECOPY ‘/tmp/system01.dbf’ UNCATALOG;
CHANGE DATAFILECOPY ‘/tmp/control01.ctl’ UNAVAILABLE;
CHANGE COPY OF ARCHIVELOG SEQUENCE BETWEEN 1000 AND 1012 UNAVAILABLE;
CHANGE BACKUPSET 12 UNAVAILABLE;
CHANGE BACKUP OF SPFILE TAG “TAG20020208T154556” UNAVAILABLE;
CHANGE DATAFILECOPY ‘/tmp/system01.dbf’ AVAILABLE;
CHANGE BACKUPSET 12 AVAILABLE;
CHANGE BACKUP OF SPFILE TAG “TAG20020208T154556” AVAILABLE;
CATALOG START WITH ‘/backup/MYSID/arch’;

Enable / Disable Block change tracking

ALTER SYSTEM SET
DB_CREATE_FILE_DEST = ‘/disk1/bct/’ SCOPE=BOTH SID=’*’;
ALTER DATABASE ENABLE BLOCK CHANGE TRACKING;
ALTER DATABASE ENABLE BLOCK CHANGE TRACKING
USING FILE ‘/mydir/rman_change_track.f’ REUSE;
COL STATUS FORMAT A8
COL FILENAME FORMAT A60
SELECT STATUS, FILENAME
FROM V$BLOCK_CHANGE_TRACKING;
SQL> ALTER DATABASE DISABLE BLOCK CHANGE TRACKING;
SQL> ALTER DATABASE ENABLE BLOCK CHANGE TRACKING USING FILE ‘new_location’;

Page 5
 DBA GENESIS

2) Oracle RMAN Backup

Commands
RMAN backup reporting queries
SELECT SID,
SERIAL#,
CONTEXT,
SOFAR,
TOTALWORK,
ROUND(SOFAR / TOTALWORK * 100, 2) “% COMPLETE”
FROM V$SESSION_LONGOPS
WHERE OPNAME LIKE ‘RMAN%’ AND OPNAME NOT LIKE ‘%aggregate%’ AND
TOTALWORK != 0 AND SOFAR <> TOTALWORK ;

COL in_sec FORMAT a10

COL out_sec FORMAT a10
COL TIME_TAKEN_DISPLAY FORMAT a10
SELECT SESSION_KEY,
OPTIMIZED,
COMPRESSION_RATIO,
INPUT_BYTES_PER_SEC_DISPLAY in_sec,
OUTPUT_BYTES_PER_SEC_DISPLAY out_sec,
TIME_TAKEN_DISPLAY
FROM V$RMAN_BACKUP_JOB_DETAILS
ORDER BY SESSION_KEY;

SELECT FILE#, STATUS, ERROR, RECOVER, TABLESPACE_NAME, NAME

FROM V$DATAFILE_HEADER
WHERE RECOVER = ‘YES’
OR (RECOVER IS NULL AND ERROR IS NOT NULL);

SELECT FILE#, INCREMENTAL_LEVEL, COMPLETION_TIME,

BLOCKS, DATAFILE_BLOCKS

Page 6
 DBA GENESIS
FROM V$BACKUP_DATAFILE
WHERE INCREMENTAL_LEVEL > 0
AND BLOCKS / DATAFILE_BLOCKS > .2
ORDER BY COMPLETION_TIME;

SELECT * FROM V$RECOVERY_FILE_DEST;

SELECT * FROM V$RECOVERY_AREA_USAGE;
SELECT * FROM V$DATABASE_BLOCK_CORRUPTION;

RMAN Backup Reporting / Listing

LIST BACKUP OF DATABASE;
LIST COPY OF DATAFILE 1, 2;
LIST BACKUP OF ARCHIVELOG FROM SEQUENCE 10;
LIST BACKUPSET OF DATAFILE 1;
LIST BACKUP;
LIST cOPY;
LIST ARCHIVELOG;
LIST RESTORE POINT;
LIST EXPIRED;
LIST BACKUP SUMMARY;
LIST FAILURE;
LIST BACKUPSET TAG ‘weekly_full_db_backup’;
LIST BACKUPSET 213;
LIST COPY OF DATAFILE 2 COMPLETED BETWEEN ’10-DEC-2002′ AND ’17-DEC-2002′
LIST BACKUP OF DATAFILE 1;
REPORT OBSOLETE;
REPORT SCHEMA;
REPORT NEED BACKUP
REPORT NEED BACKUP RECOVERY WINDOW OF 2 DAYS DATABASE DEVICE TYPE sbt;
REPORT NEED BACKUP DEVICE TYPE DISK;
REPORT NEED BACKUP TABLESPACE TBS_3 DEVICE TYPE sbt;
REPORT OBSOLETE RECOVERY WINDOW OF 3 DAYS;
REPORT OBSOLETE REDUNDANCY 1;

Crosscheck backup
CROSSCHECK BACKUP DEVICE TYPE DISK;
CROSSCHECK BACKUP DEVICE TYPE sbt;

Page 7
 DBA GENESIS
CROSSCHECK BACKUP; # checks backup sets, proxy copies, and image copies
CROSSCHECK COPY OF DATABASE;
CROSSCHECK BACKUPSET 1338, 1339, 1340;
CROSSCHECK BACKUPPIECE TAG ‘nightly_backup’;
CROSSCHECK BACKUP OF ARCHIVELOG ALL SPFILE;
CROSSCHECK BACKUP OF DATAFILE “?/oradata/trgt/system01.dbf” COMPLETED AFTER
‘SYSDATE-14’;
CROSSCHECK CONTROLFILECOPY ‘/tmp/control01.ctl’;
CROSSCHECK DATAFILECOPY 113, 114, 115;
CROSSCHECK PROXY 789;

Delete backup
DELETE BACKUPPIECE 101;
DELETE CONTROLFILECOPY ‘/tmp/control01.ctl’;
DELETE NOPROMPT ARCHIVELOG UNTIL SEQUENCE 300;
DELETE BACKUP TAG ‘before_upgrade’;
DELETE ARCHIVELOG ALL BACKED UP 3 TIMES TO sbt;
DELETE EXPIRED BACKUP;
DELETE OBSOLETE;

Backup Database command

BACKUP DEVICE TYPE sbt BACKUPSET COMPLETED BEFORE ‘SYSDATE-7’ DELETE INPUT;
BACKUP DEVICE TYPE DISK COPIES 3 DATAFILE 7 FORMAT
‘/disk1/%U’,’?/oradata/%U’,’?/%U’;
BACKUP DEVICE TYPE sbt BACKUPSET COMPLETED BEFORE ‘SYSDATE-7’ DELETE INPUT;
BACKUP AS BACKUPSET DATABASE;
BACKUP AS BACKUPSET DEVICE TYPE DISK DATABASE;
BACKUP AS BACKUPSET DEVICE TYPE SBT DATABASE;
BACKUP AS COPY DEVICE TYPE DISK DATABASE;
BACKUP AS BACKUPSET COPIES 1 DATAFILE 7 TAG mondaybkp;
BACKUP AS COMPRESSED BACKUPSET DATABASE PLUS ARCHIVELOG;
BACKUP DEVICE TYPE sbt DATAFILE 1,2,3,4 DATAFILECOPY ‘/tmp/system01.dbf’;
BACKUP AS COPY DB_FILE_NAME_CONVERT (‘/maindisk/oradata/users’,’/backups/users_ts’)
TABLESPACE users;
BACKUP INCREMENTAL LEVEL 0 DATABASE;
BACKUP AS BACKUPSET DATABASE FORMAT ‘/disk1/%U’,’/disk2/%U’;

Page 8
 DBA GENESIS
BACKUP AS BACKUPSET DEVICE TYPE DISK COPIES 3 INCREMENTAL LEVEL 0 DATABASE;
BACKUP VALIDATE DATABASE ARCHIVELOG ALL;
BACKUP VALIDATE CHECK LOGICAL DATABASE ARCHIVELOG ALL;
backup as compressed backupset incremental level 0 database plus archivelog;
BACKUP DEVICE TYPE sbt ARCHIVELOG ALL DELETE ALL INPUT;
BACKUP INCREMENTAL LEVEL 1 TABLESPACE SYSTEM, tools;
BACKUP INCREMENTAL LEVEL 1 CUMULATIVE TABLESPACE users;
BACKUP VALIDATE CHECK LOGICAL DATABASE ARCHIVELOG ALL;
BACKUP ARCHIVELOG FROM TIME ‘SYSDATE-1’;
BACKUP ARCHIVELOG FROM TIME ‘SYSDATE-5’ UNTIL TIME ‘SYSDATE-1’

RUN
{
ALLOCATE CHANNEL disk1 DEVICE TYPE DISK FORMAT ‘/disk1/%d_backups/%U’;
ALLOCATE CHANNEL disk2 DEVICE TYPE DISK FORMAT ‘/disk2/%d_backups/%U’;
BACKUP DATABASE PLUS ARCHIVELOG;
}

Incremental backup
backup incremental level 0 database;
backup incremental level 1 database ;

Backup of CDB and PDB in 12c

CDB backup
export ORACLE_SID=ORCL1
[oracle@rac1 ~]$ rman target /
RMAN> backup database plus archivelog;

CDB root backup

RMAN> backup pluggable database “CDB$ROOT”;

Backup pluggable database

backup pluggable database test;
backup pluggable database test plus archivelog;

Page 9
 DBA GENESIS

By the way, what you are seeing here is not just the frequently used
RMAN commands. These are the same commands used by DBAs like
you to perform some serious database recoveries.

The main reason why ​these scripts are not for beginner DBA​ is
because one single RMAN mistake can lead to loss of entire database

These scripts are for advanced DBA who have already worked on
Oracle database

For beginners, I would recommend to get yourself formal

training in Oracle and then use these scripts

Page 10
 DBA GENESIS

3) Oracle RMAN Scripting

RMAN Run Block File

Script file which will be called in backup script: /u02/rman/script/rman_run_cmd.rman

run
{
allocate channel ch1 device type disk format '/u02/rman/backup/PRODDB_DBFULL_BKP_%u';
allocate channel ch2 device type disk format '/u02/rman/backup/PRODDB_DBFULL_BKP_%u';
allocate channel ch3 device type disk format '/u02/rman/backup/PRODDB_DBFULL_BKP_%u';
crosscheck backup;
delete nopromtp obsolete;
backup database;
backup archivelog all delete input;
release channel ch1;
release channel ch2;
release channel ch3;
}

Shell Script file that will call above file

/u02/rman/scripts/PRODDB_rman_bkp.sh

#!/bin/bash
. /home/oracle/.bash_profile
export DATE=$(date +%m%d%y_%H%M%S)
export ORACLE_HOME=/u02/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1
export ORACLE_SID=proddb
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/rman target / catalog rman_rc/rman_rc@rcat
cmdfile=/u02/rman/script/rman_run_cmd.rman
log=/u02/rman/logs/${DATE}_proddb_BACKUP.log

Page 11
 DBA GENESIS

4) Oracle RMAN Recovery

Commands
Preview Database Restore
RESTORE DATABASE VALIDATE;
RESTORE ARCHIVELOG ALL VALIDATE;
RESTORE ARCHIVELOG FROM TIME ‘SYSDATE-7’ PREVIEW;
RESTORE DATABASE PREVIEW SUMMARY;
VALIDATE DATABASE;

RUN{
ALLOCATE CHANNEL c1 DEVICE TYPE DISK;
ALLOCATE CHANNEL c2 DEVICE TYPE DISK;
VALIDATE DATAFILE 1 SECTION SIZE 1200M;
}

VALIDATE DATAFILE 4 BLOCK 10 TO 13;

VALIDATE BACKUPSET 3;
RECOVER CORRUPTION LIST;

Recover database flashback technology

SELECT OLDEST_FLASHBACK_SCN, OLDEST_FLASHBACK_TIME FROM
V$FLASHBACK_DATABASE_LOG;
SELECT CURRENT_SCN FROM V$DATABASE;
SELECT NAME, SCN, TIME,
DATABASE_INCARNATION#,GUARANTEE_FLASHBACK_DATABASE FROM
V$RESTORE_POINT WHERE GUARANTEE_FLASHBACK_DATABASE=’YES’;
SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE;
STARTUP MOUNT;
FLASHBACK DATABASE TO SCN 46963;
FLASHBACK DATABASE TO RESTORE POINT BEFORE_CHANGES;

Page 12
 DBA GENESIS
FLASHBACK DATABASE TO TIME “TO_DATE(’09/20/05′,’MM/DD/YY’)”;
ALTER DATABASE OPEN READ ONLY;
SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE
STARTUP MOUNT
ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS;
SET UNTIL TIME ‘Nov 15 2004 09:00:00’;
SET UNTIL SEQUENCE 9923;
SET UNTIL RESTORE POINT before_update;
RESTORE DATABASE;
RECOVER DATABASE;
ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS;

Recover individual tablespace and datafile

sql “alter tablespace working_data offline”;
sql “alter database datafile 13 offline”;
restore tablespace working_data;
restore datafile 13;
recover tablespace working_data;
recover datafile 13;
sql “alter tablespace working_data online”;
sql “alter database datafile 13 online”;
SWITCH DATAFILE 4 TO COPY;
RECOVER DATAFILE 4;
backup as copy datafile 4;

run{
SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE 4 TO ‘/oracle/oradata/tcstest/users01.dbf’;
restore datafile 4;
switch datafile 4;
recover datafile 4;
}

SET NEWNAME FOR DATAFILE ‘/disk1/oradata/prod/users01.dbf’

TO ‘/disk2/users01.dbf’;
RESTORE TABLESPACE users;
SWITCH DATAFILE ALL; # update control file with new filenames
RECOVER TABLESPACE users;

Page 13
 DBA GENESIS

Recover individual block

RECOVER DATAFILE 8 BLOCK 13 DATAFILE 2 BLOCK 199 FROM TAG mondayam;
RECOVER CORRUPTION LIST;

Recovery of database if inactive redo log is deleted

sql>startup mount;
sql>alter database clear logfile group 2;
sql>alter database open;

Recovery after loss of controlfile

rman target /
startup nomount;
restore controlfile from autobackup;
alter database mount;
recover database;
alter database open (resetlogs);

Tablespace point in time recovery

Database should be in opened state
recover tablespace “APP_DATA” until time
“to_date(‘2009-08-04 12:15:00’,’YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS’)”
auxiliary destination ’/opt/oracle/temp’;

Recovery after loss of current redolog file

RUN
{
# SET UNTIL TIME ‘Nov 15 2002 09:00:00’;
# SET UNTIL SCN 1000; # alternatively, specify SCN
SET UNTIL SEQUENCE 1; # alternatively, specify log sequence number
RESTORE DATABASE;
RECOVER DATABASE;
}

Page 14
 DBA GENESIS

Alright,​ if you are wondering how to become RMAN expert and play
with above advanced scripts, here is the link to official ​Oracle RMAN
documentation​.

Now it’s time for you to execute these commands in your test
environment and customize according to your database SIDs

Page 15
 DBA GENESIS

I know that was a lot of commands. But this was honestly

just the beginning ...

I didn’t even get to provide you with:

● Different database recovery scenarios (Full and Incremental)
● How to recover entire production database after server crash
● How to clone production to test database using RMAN
● Trigger Cumulative and Differential incremental backups

And without these steps, you won’t be able to become and RMAN
expert and perform RMAN activities like a pro.

So in the ​next 1-2 days I’ll be sending you some “insider”

information​ about them so you get to learn more.

And who knows… You may crack your next Oracle DBA interview ;)

These emails are going to surprise you A LOT, keep an eye on your
Inbox

Hope this helped!

Page 16