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RMAN: Merged Incremental Backup Strategies (Doc ID 745798.1)

Last updated on MARCH 29, 2023

Applies to:

Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 10.1.0.2 and later
Oracle Database Cloud Schema Service - Version N/A and later
Oracle Database Exadata Express Cloud Service - Version N/A and later
Gen 1 Exadata Cloud at Customer (Oracle Exadata Database Cloud Machine) - Version N/A and later
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure - Database Service - Version N/A and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Goal

There are several ways to use a Merged Incremental Backup Strategy. However, before implementing the strategy, there are several things to consider when not using the basic Oracle Suggested Strategy as given in EM.  This note will cover the different ways to implement your strategy tailored to fit your business needs.

What is a Merged Incremental Backup?

Merged Incremental creates a level 0 image copy backup of all of your database's datafiles in a disk location.  All datafiles are backed up using the same tag name. The Oracle Database 10g feature Block Change Tracking can be used for the incremental level 1 backups for Fast Incremental Backups.

Once a level 0 backup copy is created on disk there is no need for future level 0 backups to be taken.  This reduces the load and backup window for VLDB systems. All future backups will be level 1 backupsets and are used to recover the image copies on disk thus making the current level 0 image backup copies more current each time the level 1 incremental is applied.  Having the level 0 image copy newer with each level 1 incremental backupsets means there is no need to make another level 0 backup/image copy of your database. 

Solution

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In this Document
Goal
Solution
References

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