Oracle RMAN Pocket Reference

Catalog advantages

When you use a catalog repository, you get more flexibility and access to all the features of RMAN. The advantages of using a catalog accrue in the following areas:

• If you are using Oracle8i, it can be difficult to recover control files if you don’t have a catalog.

• You can retain backup and recovery metadata for long periods of time.

• You can centralize operations.

• RMAN becomes more flexible in certain backup and recovery scenarios.

A catalog enables you to recover your control files in the event that they are all corrupted or lost. If you are not using a catalog, and you haven’t backed up your control files via an ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILEcommand, you could find yourself in the unenviable position of not being able to recover your target.

Another good reason to use a catalog is that information pertaining to your RMAN backup and recovery activities can be stored for very long periods of time. If for any reason you had to use a backup set that was several months old, a catalog provides more flexibility to go back further in time than with the NOCATALOG option.

With a catalog, you can manage all of your backup and recovery activities from one repository. The advantage of this is that if you have multiple databases to maintain, you’re storing all of your backup and recovery metadata in one place.

Finally, when using the catalog, you have greater flexibility during certain recovery situations. For example, you can use previous incarnations of the database for ...