A Guide to Rman Backup & Recovery

RMAN, also called the Recovery Manager, is the online backup manager used by Oracle database products. Although many systems administrators find RMAN frustrating, the RMAN tool is the only way to perform a full backup of an Oracle system while the database remains online. Any other cold backup method requires shutting down the database before attempting a backup. For this reason alone, it is important for Oracle administrators to understand how to use the RMAN console.

Instructions

Basic Backup

1. Launch your preferred terminal emulator from the Oracle desktop.

2. Type "rman nocatalog target /" to connect to the target database "/" without any database catalog.

3. Type "backup database;" to back up the entire database locally instead of to a specific device.

4. Type "quit" to exit the RMAN console.

Basic Recovery

1. Launch your preferred terminal emulator from the Oracle desktop.

2. Type "rman nocatalog target /" to connect to the target databse "/" without any database catalog.

3. Type "list backup;" to view a list of currently available backups.

4. Type "restore datafile 'filename';" where "filename" is the name of the backup file, typically containing a ".dbf" file extension.

5. Type "recover datafile 'filename';" where "filename" is the name of the same backup file from before.

Tips & Warnings

• These steps describe the basic use of RMAN and none of the advanced features available to systems administrators. Using RMAN, you can set up automatic backups of specific parts of a database to various types of devices and storage mediums. RMAN can automate a number of backup tasks that normally would be done manually.

References

• Oracle: Backup and Recovery Quick Start Guide
• CuddleTech: Using RMAN