Re: RMAN and tape backup

Oracle comes with Legato Storage Manager. If you have a tape drive attached, you can install LSM and backup to tape, so I don't see your problem. RMAN *can* backup to tape, provided, you use backup sw which supports the MM API, Oracle provides.
In 9i you can also backup a backupset, so you can backup to disk and backup the backupset to tape.

The obvious challenge in using a backup product which doesn't support RMAN, is usually the backup product will just backup without knowing the RMAN backup failed, especially when there are two standalone procedures involved.

I wouldn't start writing home grown procedures to do this. Using commercial sw is cheaper, and you don't have to maintain it.

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Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA