Category: Backup

The RMAN database registration process encountered an error, specifically ORA-01403 (no data found), during its initial synchronization due to an existing restore point. Despite entering commands correctly, the registration failed because RMAN could not process the restore point metadata across the CDB. Upon identifying this issue through trace analysis, the restore point was deleted, allowing successful completion of the database registration process, highlighting the importance of internal procedures in troubleshooting.

This post explains how a Data Pump export in an Oracle RAC environment failed with misleading errors, including ORA-48128, related to symbolic links and file access. The actual cause was an NFS-mounted Data Pump directory that was accessible from only one RAC node. Adding CLUSTER=N resolved the issue by keeping all Data Pump workers on the local instance. Alternatively, mounting the NFS filesystem on all RAC nodes also resolves the problem.

This content discusses simulating tape backups using RMAN and a dummy SBT library (oracle.disksbt) to troubleshoot backup failures. The article details how to perform fake tape backups with Oracle’s disk-based SBT library, effectively isolating issues within the Oracle layer or the vendor’s Media Management Library (MML). It also introduces the sbttest tool for assessing media manager installation and its usage with Oracle Test Disk API.

Oracle recommends adopting a merged incremental disk backup strategy to ensure efficient database protection and faster recovery times. This includes keeping an up-to-date image copy as the base while applying incremental backups. Key practices involve setting a REDUNDANCY 1 retention policy, utilizing the Fast Recovery Area, and employing Block Change Tracking for efficiency. DBAs must manage leftover datafiles after tablespace deletion to ensure that the base image copy remains in sync with the database, as detailed throughout the blog post.