RE: RMAN - To Catalog or not to catalog, that is the question

From: DENNIS WILLIAMS <DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM>
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 09:36:16 -0500
Message-ID: <0186754BC82DD511B5C600B0D0AAC4D607B0078B@EXCHMN3>

Julio

Congratulations. Is there a point here somewhere?

Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com

-----Original Message-----

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org]On Behalf Of QuijadaReina, Julio C Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 9:34 AM
To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: RE: RMAN - To Catalog or not to catalog, that is the question

Dennis,

I have three databases on 9.2.0 (prod, train, and recovery catalog) and use OS schedule jobs to run a couple of scripts, which do the following:

Connect to the target(my prod db) and recovery catalog. I use the 'cmdfile' switch to point to a text file with the backup commands for RMAN to run. I also use the 'mslog' switch to create a log file that I can go check after the backup.
In the text file I have RMAN commands to resync catalog and backup prod db plus archivelog. This backs up a)datafiles, b)SPFILE, and c) Control files
Backup recovery catalog

Once a week, I copy prod into train using the 'dup' command. And just for giggles...I connect to train Monday morning to check I got a fresh copy of prod and it has been faithful since.

At no point in this process a shut down my prod db.

Kind regards,
Julio

-----Original Message-----

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of DENNIS WILLIAMS Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 9:46 AM
To: 'oracle-l_at_freelists.org'
Subject: RE: RMAN - To Catalog or not to catalog, that is the question

Ron

Joe and Fuad make some excellent points, so I won't repeat those. I never got hot backup working, so I can't respond to that issue. Perhaps someone else on the list can. My gut reaction is that if you have something that works, has been tested, and you trust, then stick with that.

As far as RMAN catalog or not, I would make the following points:

Nocatalog (controlfile mode) was enhanced considerably in 9i.
Catalog can give you a central view of all backups across your system. For example, on 9i I went nocatalog and have a script that sends me the success/failure. But if somehow the cron job stops working, I might not notice that I didn't receive an email.
Catalog mode can make upgrades frustrating. In general the catalog database must be kept at a level ahead of the target databases.
Even in catalog mode, the backup information is still stored in the controlfile, so you can still perform a distaster recovery without using the catalog. That is my standard procedure.

-----Original Message-----

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org]On Behalf Of Smith, Ron L.
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 8:29 AM
To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: RMAN - To Catalog or not to catalog, that is the question

We are getting ready to start using RMAN on several new 9i Linux databases.
I guess the first question would be is RMAN really that much better then using home grown dynamic hot backup scripts? We have developed these for our Oracle/NT environment and they seem to work fine. The second question would be should we use a recovery catalog? The catalog seems to add a lot of complexity to the setup and to a disaster recovery plan.

Thanks!
Ron

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Received on Wed Jun 09 2004 - 09:36:19 CDT