RMAN new features

RMAN new features in Oracle 10g

• Managing recovery related files with flash recovery area.
• Optimized incremental backups using block change tracking (Faster incremental backups) using a file (named block change tracking file). CTWR (Change Tracking Writer) is the background process responsible for tracking the blocks.
• Reducing the time and overhead of full backups with incrementally updated backups.
• Comprehensive backup job tracking and administration with Enterprise Manager.
• Backup set binary compression.
• New compression algorithm BZIP2 brought in.
• Automated Tablespace Point-in-Time Recovery.
• Automatic channel failover on backup & restore.
• Cross-Platform tablespace conversion.
• Ability to preview the backups required to perform a restore operation.
  RMAN> restore database preview [summary];
  RMAN> restore tablespace tbs1 preview;

RMAN new features in Oracle 11g Release 1

• Multisection backups of same file - RMAN can backup or restore a single file in parallel by dividing the work among multiple channels. Each channel backs up one file section, which is a contiguous range of blocks. This speeds up overall backup and restore performance, and particularly for bigfile tablespaces, in which a datafile can be sized upwards of several hundred GB to TB's.
• Recovery will make use of flashback logs in FRA (Flash Recovery Area).
• Fast Backup Compression - in addition to the Oracle Database 10^g backup compression algorithm (BZIP2), RMAN now supports the ZLIB algorithm, which offers 40% better performance, with a trade-off of no more than 20% lower compression ratio, versus BZIP2.
  RMAN> configure compression algorithm 'ZLIB' ;
• Will backup uncommitted undo only, not committed undo.
• Data Recovery Advisor (DRA) - quickly identify the root cause of failures; auto fix or present recovery options to the DBA.
• Virtual Private Catalog - a recovery catalog administrator can grant visibility of a subset of registered databases in the catalog to specific RMAN users.
  RMAN> grant catalog for database db-name to user-name;
  
• Catalogs can be merged/moved/imported from one database to another.
• New commands in RMAN
  • RMAN> list failure;
  • RMAN> list failure errnumber detail;
  • RMAN> advise failure;
  • RMAN> repair failure;
  • RMAN> repair failure preview;
  • RMAN> validate database; -- checks for corrupted blocks
  • RMAN> create virtual catalog;

RMAN new features in Oracle 11g Release2

• The following are new clauses and format options for the SET NEWNAME command:A single SET NEWNAME command can be applied to all files in a database or tablespace.
  SET NEWNAME FOR DATABASE TO format;
  SET NEWNAME FOR TABLESPACE tsname TO format;
• # New format identifiers are as follows:
  # %U - Unique identifier. data_D-%d_I-%I_TS-%N_FNO-%f
  # %b - UNIX base name of the original datafile name. For example, if the original datafile name was $ORACLE_HOME/data/tbs_01.f, then %b is tbs_01.f.

RMAN related views

Control File V$ View	Recovery Catalog View	View Describes
V$ARCHIVED_LOG	RC_ARCHIVED_LOG	Archived and unarchived redo logs
V$BACKUP_DATAFILE	RC_BACKUP_CONTROLFILE	Control files in backup sets
V$BACKUP_CORRUPTION	RC_BACKUP_CORRUPTION	Corrupt block ranges in datafile backups
V$BACKUP_DATAFILE	RC_BACKUP_DATAFILE	Datafiles in backup sets
V$BACKUP_FILES	RC_BACKUP_FILES	RMAN backups and copies in the repository
V$BACKUP_PIECE	RC_BACKUP_PIECE	Backup pieces
V$BACKUP_REDOLOG	RC_BACKUP_REDOLOG	Archived logs in backups
V$BACKUP_SET	RC_BACKUP_SET	Backup sets
V$BACKUP_SPFILE	RC_BACKUP_SPFILE	Server parameter files in backup sets
V$DATAFILE_COPY	RC_CONTROLFILE_COPY	Control file copies on disk
V$COPY_CORRUPTION	RC_COPY_CORRUPTION	Information about datafile copy corruptions
V$DATABASE	RC_DATABASE	Databases registered in the recovery catalog (RC_DATABASE) or information about the currently mounted database (V$DATABASE)
V$DATABASE_ BLOCK_CORRUPTION	RC_DATABASE_ BLOCK_CORRUPTION	Database blocks marked as corrupt in the most recent RMAN backup or copy
V$DATABASE_INCARNATION	RC_DATABASE_INCARNATION	All database incarnations registered in the catalog
V$DATAFILE	RC_DATAFILE	All datafiles registered in the recovery catalog
V$DATAFILE_COPY	RC_DATAFILE_COPY	Datafile image copies
V$LOG_HISTORY	RC_LOG_HISTORY	Historical information about online redo logs
V$OFFLINE_RANGE	RC_OFFLINE_RANGE	Offline ranges for datafiles
V$PROXY_ARCHIVEDLOG	RC_PROXY_ARCHIVEDLOG	Archived log backups created by proxy copy
V$PROXY_CONTROLFILE	RC_PROXY_CONTROLFILE	Control file backups created by proxy copy
V$PROXY_DATAFILE	RC_PROXY_DATAFILE	Datafile backups created by proxy copy
V$LOG and V$LOGFILE	RC_REDO_LOG	Online redo logs for all incarnations of the database since the last catalog resynchronization
V$THREAD	RC_REDO_THREAD	All redo threads for all incarnations of the database since the last catalog resynchronization
V$RESTORE_POINT	RC_RESTORE_POINT	All restore points for all incarnations of the database since the last catalog resynchronization
-	RC_RESYNC	Recovery catalog resynchronizations
V$RMAN_CONFIGURATION	RC_RMAN_CONFIGURATION	RMAN persistent configuration settings
V$RMAN_OUTPUT	RC_RMAN_OUTPUT	Output from RMAN commands for use in Enterprise Manager
V$RMAN_STATUS	RC_RMAN_STATUS	Historical status information about RMAN operations
V$TABLESPACE	RC_TABLESPACE	All tablespaces registered in the recovery catalog, all dropped tablespaces, and tablespaces that belong to old incarnations
RC_TEMPFILE	V$TEMPFILE	All tempfiles registered in the recovery catalog

RMAN related Packages

DBMS_RCVCAT

DBMS_RCVMAN
DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE