Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
If the issue is that your archived redo logs are still on disk, but RMAN is unaware of the location (because either
the archive redo logs were created before you started using RMAN or for some reason you've moved the files), then
use the
catalog
command to update the RMAN repository with the new location of the files:
RMAN> catalog start with '/oradump01/oldarchive';
The
start with
clause of the
catalog
command instructs RMAN to look in the specified directory and update
its repository with any archive redo log files, backup pieces, or image copies located within that directory (and its
subdirectories).
How It Works
When you switch from user-managed backups to RMAN backups, you will most likely have many historical archived
redo log files that have been generated and removed from disk by your user-managed backup scripts. The control file
will still retain information regarding these old files. In situations where you have used operating system commands
to remove or move archived redo log files, you must inform RMAN that files have been deleted or moved. The
crosscheck
command instructs RMAN to check to see if the files physically exist in the last known location. If the files
have been moved, then use the
catalog
command to update the RMAN repository.
You can tell RMAN to back up data files and archived redo log files with the
backup database plus archivelog
command, or you can just back up archived redo log files via the
backup archivelog all
command. Both of
these commands instruct RMAN to back up any archived redo log files that have an AVAILABLE status in the
V$ARCHIVED_LOG view. You can query the STATUS column of V$ARCHIVED_LOG as follows:
select thread#, sequence#,
decode(status,'A','available','D','deleted','U','unavailable','X','expired')
from v$archived_log;
If RMAN can't find on disk an archived redo log file that has an AVAILABLE status, then it will throw the
RMAN-06059
error and abort the backup. If you are not using RMAN to delete archived redo log files from disk, then
the archived redo log file status remains AVAILABLE, even though the file isn't in the expected location.
When running the
crosscheck archivelog all
command, RMAN will change the status of an archived redo
log file to EXPIRED if it cannot locate the file. RMAN will not attempt to back up an archived redo log file with an
EXPIRED status.
The
catalog
command is handy because you can use it to update the RMAN repository with information about
relocated archived redo log files, RMAN backup pieces, and image copies. Use the
catalog start with
command
to tell RMAN which directory to look in for your relocated files. Alternatively, you can tell RMAN to catalog just one
archived redo log file, as shown here:
RMAN> catalog archivelog '/oldarchvies/arch1_3144_234562.arc';
Now you can query from V$ARCHIVED_LOG, and it will reflect the new location of the archived redo log file.
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We strongly recommend that you always use rMan to delete archived redo log files and backup pieces from the
backup media. if you use an os command to delete these files, then rMan is unaware that the files have been removed
from the backup media. This causes issues when you run subsequent backup, restore, and recover commands.
Tip
