RE: RMAN disaster recovery

From: Mercadante, Thomas F <NDATFM_at_labor.state.ny.us>
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 08:31:30 -0800
Message-ID: <F001.003D1F93.20011130081522@fatcity.com>

Dennis,

RMan is able to restore files to different locations with the following command:

run {

     sql 'ALTER TABLESPACE tbs_3 OFFLINE IMMEDIATE';
     allocate channel ch1 type disk;
     set newname for datafile '/oracle/dbs/tbs_33.f' to
'/oracle/temp/tbs_33.f';
     restore tablespace tbs_3;
     switch datafile all;
     recover tablespace tbs_3;
     sql 'ALTER TABLESPACE tbs_3 ONLINE';

}

The above is out of Chapter 6 of the Oracle Recovery Manager Users Guide. I think your disaster recovery steps would be:

1). Secure a new server.
2). Install the same versions of Oracle software that was on your prod servers.

3).  Re-Create your Rman Catalog and import the data from your export.
4).  I think you would need to re-create a minimal production instance.
5).  Run Rman to restore the control files for this instance, and then
perform 
     a full restore.

If I were you, I would try this scenario if you can get your hands on another server. There is nothing like practice to get familiar with all the steps.
You can try part of this by creating a test instance, back it up via Rman, delete all of the files, and try restoring it to another location on the same machine. You could even go nuts and create a different Rman catalog, importing an export file to simulate most of what a disaster recovery would require.

Hope this helps!

Tom Mercadante
Oracle Certified Professional

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 9:25 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

I am wondering how RMAN would work for disaster recovery. Our manager's statement is "assume your server is reduced to a pile of ash. Now take your backup tape and build me a new system on a loaner from the vendor." I am trying to figure how that would work with RMAN. We are still at the stage of just using RMAN to create disk copies, and we are on Compaq Tru64 UNIX. He wants us to demonstrate that level of recoverability, but I'm not sure how that would work. I think we could assume that we have a database to load the RMAN catalog from an export.

One issue would be whether the disk location of the RMAN files might be different, and I'm not sure how to get RMAN to accept a different location. A more minor issue is if the database file locations are different, but I think that is pretty well documented.

Has anyone else tried this? What am I overlooking? Any ideas will be appreciated.
Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com

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Author: DENNIS WILLIAMS
INET: DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM

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Author: Mercadante, Thomas F
INET: NDATFM_at_labor.state.ny.us

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