Recovery Catalog

Recovery Catalog is a set of Oracle tables and views used by RMAN to store RMAN repository information about one or more Oracle databases. RMAN uses this metadata to manage the backup, restore, and recovery of Oracle databases.

Use of a recovery catalog is optional although it is highly recommended. It is recommended  to have a separate database for the recovery catalog. Also it's recommended to create the recovery catalog database in a different machine.

This catalog schema keeps track of

- Datafile and archived redo log backup sets and backup pieces

- Datafile copies

- Archived redo logs and their copies

- Tablespaces and datafiles on the target database

- Stored scripts, which are named user-created sequences of RMAN commands

- Persistent RMAN configuration settings

Even when you choose to use a recovery catalog, backup information will continue to be stored in the control file as well by default.

Create Recovery Catalog:

1. Creating  Recovery Catalog Owner
2. Creating  Recovery Catalog
3. Registering  Target Database
   

1. Creating the Recovery Catalog Owner:

$ sqlplus '/ as sysdba' SQL>   create tablespace rman_tbs     datafile '/oradata/catdb/rman_tbs01.dbf' size 500M; SQL>   CREATE USER rman IDENTIFIED BY rman     DEFAULT TABLESPACE rman_tbs     TEMPORARY TABLESPACE temp     QUOTA UNLIMITED ON rman_tbs; SQL>   GRANT CONNECT, RECOVERY_CATALOG_OWNER TO rman;

2. Creating the Recovery Catalog

Log in into RMAN using catalog owner and create the catalog schema:

$ rman catalog rman/rman@catadb RMAN> CREATE CATALOG;

 3. Registering  Target Database

$ rman TARGET / CATALOG rman/rman@catdb RMAN> REGISTER DATABASE;

Ensure that you have successfully registered the target database:

RMAN> list incarnation; List of Database Incarnations DB Key  Inc Key DB Name  DB ID            STATUS  Reset SCN  Reset Time ------- ------- -------- ---------------- --- ---------- ---------- 1       1       ORACL    1823011607       PARENT  1          20050630 19:09:40 2       2       ORACL    1823011607       CURRENT 446075     20120310 06:07:22

Upgrade Recovery Catalog Schema

When  you upgrade registered databases to the latest Oracle version you need to upgrade the RMAN catalog schema as well.

$ rman target / catalog rman/rman@catdb RMAN> UPGRADE CATALOG; RMAN-06435: recovery catalog owner is rman RMAN-06442: enter UPGRADE CATALOG command again to confirm catalog upgrade RMAN> UPGRADE CATALOG;

Remove Recovery Catalog

RMAN> connect catalog rman/rman@catdb Connected to recovery catalog database RMAN> drop catalog; recovery catalog owner is RMAN enter DROP CATALOG command again to confirm catalog removal RMAN> --Issue the drop catalog command again RMAN> drop catalog; recovery catalog dropped RMAN>

Unregister Target Database from Recovery Catalog

$ rman target / catalog rman/rman@catdb Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.3.0 - Production on Sat Feb 22 10:35:02 2014 Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved. connected to target database: ORCL (DBID=1718782830) connected to recovery catalog database RMAN> unregister database; database name is "ORCL" and DBID is 1718782830 Do you really want to unregister the database (enter YES or NO)? yes database unregistered from the recovery catalog RMAN>

How to identify recovery catalog schema version?

SQL> conn rman/rman@catdb Connected. SQL> SELECT * FROM rcver;    VERSION ------------------------------------ 11.02.00.03 SQL>

How to restore and Recover Recovery Catalog from Backup?

Restoring and  recover RMAN catalog  is exactly the same as recovering any other Oracle database.

For more information see:

Oracle® Database Backup and Recovery User's Guide

I hope this helps.

Please feel free to leave your questions or suggest improvements to this section.