Installation of Oracle RMAN Catalog

1.PURPOSE AND SCOPE

When using RMAN for taking backup, database records to backup informations to controlfile. Oracle suggest to use RMAN catalog option because of probability to losing controlfile.With help of RMAN catalog we can save rman informations at catalog database.Also it can use for saving rman scripts and information about rman backups.For to use this product we also need another database which act like a catalog database.

In this artichle i am going to explain how to install oracle RMAN catalog,how to register your database to catalog database and how to control backups.

2.PRACTICE

2.1. Information about database.

192.168.166.128 sourcesrv (Production database)
192.168.166.129 targetsrv (Oracle RMAN catalog database)

2.2. I am creating catalog user at targetsrv database and grant him some necessery privilages.

[oracle@targetsrv ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Thu Jun 28 14:10:05 2012

Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> create user catalog identified by catalog;

User created.

SQL> grant recovery_catalog_owner to catalog;

Grant succeeded.

SQL> alter user catalog quota unlimited on users;

User altered.

2.3. At targetsrv database  we need to connect rman using catalog user.And we will create catalog.

[oracle@targetsrv ~]$ rman

Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production on Thu Jun 28 14:13:23 2012

Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

RMAN> connect catalog catalog/catalog@TARGET

connected to recovery catalog database

RMAN> create catalog

recovery catalog created

2.4. Now we need to register our source  database to TARGET database using rman.

[oracle@sourcesrv ~]$ rman

Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production on Thu Jun 28 14:19:32 2012

Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

RMAN> connect target sys/sys@SOURCE

connected to target database: SOURCE (DBID=2888707862)

RMAN> connect catalog catalog/catalog@TARGET

connected to recovery catalog database

RMAN> register database;

database registered in recovery catalog
starting full resync of recovery catalog
full resync complete

2.5. We can use “report schema” command to check is registration of database succeed or not.

RMAN> report schema;

Report of database schema for database with db_unique_name SOURCE

List of Permanent Datafiles
===========================
File Size(MB) Tablespace           RB segs Datafile Name
---- -------- -------------------- ------- ------------------------
1    700      SYSTEM               YES     /oracle/app/oradata/source/system01.dbf
2    510      SYSAUX               NO      /oracle/app/oradata/source/sysaux01.dbf
3    60       UNDOTBS1             YES     /oracle/app/oradata/source/undotbs01.dbf
4    10       USERS                NO      /oracle/app/oradata/source/users01.dbf
5    313      EXAMPLE              NO      /oracle/app/oradata/source/example01.dbf

List of Temporary Files
=======================
File Size(MB) Tablespace           Maxsize(MB) Tempfile Name
---- -------- -------------------- ----------- --------------------
1    20       TEMP                 32767       /oracle/app/oradata/source/temp01.dbf

2.6. I didnt take any backup at source database, lets go target database and check catalog.

[oracle@targetsrv ~]$ sqlplus catalog/catalog
SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Thu Jun 28 14:40:06 2012
Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
SQL> SELECT BS_KEY, BACKUP_TYPE, COMPLETION_TIME
FROM   RC_DATABASE_INCARNATION i, RC_BACKUP_SET b
WHERE  i.DB_KEY = 1
AND    i.DB_KEY = b.DB_KEY
AND    i.CURRENT_INCARNATION = 'YES';  2    3    4    5  

no rows selected

2.7. Nice there is no record about backups so i am starting backup at source database.

[oracle@sourcesrv ~]$ rman 

Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production on Thu Jun 28 14:19:32 2012 
Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 

RMAN> connect target sys/sys@SOURCE 
connected to target database: SOURCE (DBID=2888707862) 

RMAN> connect catalog catalog/catalog@TARGET 
connected to recovery catalog database

RMAN> backup database;

Starting backup at 28-JUN-12
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=40 device type=DISK
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00001 name=/oracle/app/oradata/source/system01.dbf
input datafile file number=00002 name=/oracle/app/oradata/source/sysaux01.dbf
input datafile file number=00005 name=/oracle/app/oradata/source/example01.dbf
input datafile file number=00003 name=/oracle/app/oradata/source/undotbs01.dbf
input datafile file number=00004 name=/oracle/app/oradata/source/users01.dbf
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 28-JUN-12
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 28-JUN-12
piece handle=/oracle/app/fast_recovery_area/SOURCE/backupset/2012_06_28/o1_mf_nnndf_TAG20120628T143335_7yrj8kg6_.bkp tag=TAG20120628T143335 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:01:37
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
including current control file in backup set
including current SPFILE in backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 28-JUN-12
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 28-JUN-12
piece handle=/oracle/app/fast_recovery_area/SOURCE/backupset/2012_06_28/o1_mf_ncsnf_TAG20120628T143335_7yrjcnnz_.bkp tag=TAG20120628T143335 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
Finished backup at 28-JUN-12

2.8. Lets execute same query at target database to see our backup at catalog.

[oracle@targetsrv ~]$ sqlplus catalog/catalog
SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Thu Jun 28 14:40:06 2012
Copyright (c) 1982, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
SQL> SELECT BS_KEY, BACKUP_TYPE, COMPLETION_TIME
FROM   RC_DATABASE_INCARNATION i, RC_BACKUP_SET b
WHERE  i.DB_KEY = 1
AND    i.DB_KEY = b.DB_KEY
AND    i.CURRENT_INCARNATION = 'YES';  

    BS_KEY B COMPLETIO
---------- - ---------
        33 D 28-JUN-12
        34 D 28-JUN-12

2.9. It seems fine.If you need need to unregister your source db from target database these are the steps.

[oracle@sourcesrv ~]$ rman
Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production on Thu Jun 28 14:45:46 2012
Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

RMAN> connect catalog catalog/catalog@TARGET

connected to recovery catalog database

RMAN> connect target sys/sys@SOURCE

connected to target database: SOURCE (DBID=2888707862)

RMAN> unregister database;

database name is "SOURCE" and DBID is 2888707862

Do you really want to unregister the database (enter YES or NO)? yes
database unregistered from the recovery catalog

RMAN> report schema
2> ;

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of report command at 06/28/2012 14:46:46
RMAN-06004: ORACLE error from recovery catalog database: RMAN-20001: target database not found in recovery catalog

RMAN>

2.10. This step for deleting catalog at target database

[oracle@targetsrv ~]$ rman 

Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.2.0 - Production on Thu Jun 28 14:49:15 2012
Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

RMAN> connect catalog catalog/catalog@TARGET

connected to recovery catalog database

RMAN> drop catalog;

recovery catalog owner is CATALOG
enter DROP CATALOG command again to confirm catalog removal

RMAN> drop catalog;

recovery catalog dropped