Using User-managed Backups With RMAN Repository

Use the CATALOG command to propagate information about user-managed copies to the RMAN repository. After the files are cataloged, you can run LIST or query V$BACKUP_FILES to confirm.

To create and catalog a user-managed copy of a datafile:

1.Make a datafile copy with an operating system utility. ALTER TABLESPACE BEGIN/END BACKUP is necessary if the database is open and the datafiles are online while the backup is in progress. This example backs up an online datafile.

SQL> ALTER TABLESPACE users BEGIN BACKUP;
% cp $ORACLE_HOME/oradata/trgt/users01.dbf /tmp/users01.dbf;
SQL> ALTER TABLESPACE users END BACKUP;

2.After connecting to the target database and, if desired, the recovery catalog, run the CATALOG command. For example, enter:

CATALOG DATAFILECOPY '/tmp/users01.dbf';
If you try to catalog a datafile copy from a database other than the connected target database, then RMAN issues an error such as the following:

RMAN-00571: ===========================================
RMAN-00569: ======= ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS =======
RMAN-00571: ===========================================
RMAN-03009: failure of catalog command on default channel at 08/29/2001 14:44:34
ORA-19563: datafile copy header validation failed for file /tmp/tools01.dbf