Using RMAN Effectively In A Dataguard Environment. (Doc ID 848716.1)

Last updated on AUGUST 31, 2023

Applies to:

Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 8.1.7.0 to 11.2.0.3 [Release 8.1.7 to 11.2]
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
Oracle Database Exadata Express Cloud Service - Version N/A and later
Oracle Database Cloud Exadata Service - Version N/A and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Purpose

This article basically talks about how RMAN can be used in a dataguard environment effectively.

Scope

Data Guard enables and automates the management of a disaster recovery solution for Oracle databases located on the same campus or across the continent. Data Guard consists of a production database (also known as the primary database) and one or more standby database(s), which are transactionally consistent copies of the production database.

RMAN is a tool integrated with the Oracle Database that satisfies the demands of high performance, manageable backup and recovery. RMAN is designed to work intimately with the server, providing block-level corruption detection during backup and restore. RMAN optimizes performance and space consumption during backup with file multiplexing and compression, and operates with leading backup software systems via the supplied Media Management Library (MML) API.

RMAN brings rich functionality such as online backups, incremental backups, block media recovery, automation of backup management tasks, and integration with 3rd party media management systems into the Data Guard configuration. Since RMAN and Data Guard are part of the integrated Oracle High Availability technology stack, RMAN backups can be seamlessly offloaded to a physical standby database, allowing customers to gain more value out of their disaster recovery investment. Backups do not impact normal Data Guard operation they can be taken while the standby database is in recovery or read-only mode. Backups can be used to recover either primary or standby database servers.

Data Guard and RMAN were both designed with the Oracle database architecture in mind. Together, they offer the most reliable and tightly integrated solution to achieve superior levels of Oracle database availability supporting your mission critical applications. Data Guard and RMAN are both fully supported features of the Oracle Database Enterprise Edition (RMAN is also provided with Oracle Database Standard Edition).

This article basically talks about how RMAN can be used in a dataguard environment effectively. The following topics will be discussed here.

++ Creating a standby database using RMAN.
++ Automatic maintenance of the archivelogs on the standby database using RMAN.
++ Rolling forward a Standby database using RMAN incremental backups.
++ Using RMAN to backup the Standby databases.
++ Reinstating a Physical Standby Using RMAN Backups Instead of Flashback.