Run RMAN Backups On A Network Drive

Unfortunately RMAN doesn't support to take backups on Mounted (Mapped) Drives but support the Actual Path of Shared Folders.

For example:

1- If we have a Database Server with the IP Address (1.1.1.2) and a File Server with this IP Address (1.1.1.1) and the DBA created a folder called RMAN_BACKUP on the File Server and enabled Sharing on this folder and on the Database Server he mapped the Shared Folder as Drive F:
2- DBA created a Folder called RMAN_BACKUP on the File Server and enabled Sharing on this Folder
3- On the Database Server he mapped the Shared Folder as Drive F:
4- DBA ran RMAN backup on newly created Mapped Drive (F:)

RMAN> backup datafile 111 tag saturday_Diff_Backup format 'F:\RMAN_BACKUP\DIFF_PROD_Level1_%D_%M_%Y_%U';

5- He can’t use this F: Drive to take RMAN backup as Oracle will give you the following error

ORA-19504: failed to create file "F:\DIFF_PROD_LEVEL1_17_11_2008_0LJVUN7C_1_1"
ORA-27040: file create error, unable to create file
OSD-04002: unable to open file
O/S-Error: (OS 3) The system cannot find the path specified.

6- To use this Shared Folder to take RMAN backup you must use the Actual Path of the Shared Folder which is (\\1.1.1.1\RMAN_BACKUP) instead of the Mapped Drive with the following Action Plan.

Action Plan:

1 - Make sure the Shared Folder is accessible as read/write privilege to the Operating System Domain User who will run the backup scripts.

2 - Start the backup operation with format like this

RMAN> backup datafile 111 tag saturday_Diff_Backup format '\\1.1.1.1\RMAN_BACKUP\DIFF_PROD_Level1_%D_%M_%Y_%U';

3 - Check your shared folder for backup data

But if you scheduled backup batches to run at a specific time you must make sure of the availability of this Shared Folder or the backup operation will fail.