RE: Confused about RMAN Functioning

I think the explanation is that the BACKUP command makes a backup piece, which is an rman-proprietary file that can only be read by RMAN. The COPY command (and the ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE command) makes a byte-for-byte copy of the file, which can be used by an Oracle database directly w/o any further manipulation required from RMAN. For example datafile and control file *copies* can be copied from disk to disk or CD or another server as-is and used to startup a cloned instance, but a *backup piece* containing datafiles and/or log files and controlfiles must first be RESTOREd by rman before it can be used by a database.

Regards,
Brandon

-----Original Message-----
From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of William Wagman

I find myself puzzled about how RMAN is functioning.

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