Backup and Recovery with RMAN

Why RMAN

RMAN is the Oracle-native backup tool. It understands database internals, tracks backup sets and automates restore and recovery.

Basic Backup

rman target /
BACKUP DATABASE PLUS ARCHIVELOG;

Recovery

rman target /
STARTUP MOUNT;
RESTORE DATABASE;
RECOVER DATABASE;
ALTER DATABASE OPEN;

Backup Strategy

Take periodic full backups, daily incrementals, and continuous archive logs. Practice restores on a scratch instance so production recovery is never a surprise.

Key Points

• RMAN tracks and automates backups.
• Back up the database plus archive logs.
• Incrementals shorten recovery time.
• Test restores on a regular basis.