RMAN question

Background: We go back and forth about whether it is better to use a repository or to just rely on the control files. I have read many emails on this list about this issue also. We have decided that using the catalog gives us more redundancy than relying on the cf alone. This is really the only reason we are using a catalog. However, we know that we can always use the cf if the catalog restore failed.

We have some backups running using a catalog as the repository which is version 9i. We also have a newer repository which is 10gR2. Our policy is to test our production backups whenever anything about them changes. We want to replace the older repository with the new release but don't want to have to test the backups everytime the repository changes.

Question: Does anyone see anything wrong with our logic in saying that even if a restore using the new repository failed we could always use the cf? Do people test their backups when all that changes is the repository being used? We are not changing the version of oracle that is being used to run the rman command so the cf repository isn't changing. Basically we are only risking our redundancy.

Thanks.
Joe

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