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I had a script that backs up all the individual datafiles like:

RMAN> BACKUP AS COMPRESSED BACKUPSET DATAFILE 'datafile<1>.dbf'

So i have backupsets of all the datafiles. I'm confused as to whether it would be sufficient to use RESTORE DATABASE, as can be done after a full database backup using BACKUP DATABASE? Isn't the end result of both BACKUP operations the same?

Thank you in advance.

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Why do you backup this way? – Colin 't Hart Nov 5 '12 at 12:59
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restore database validate; will tell you if the DB is restorable from the backups you have taken. – Phil Nov 5 '12 at 16:58
@colin Full backup was too slow and i don't think multi channel is possible with 10g – Jay Nov 5 '12 at 23:29
@Phil Thanks! All the individual datafiles could be validated. But I'm not sure if that implies that the entire database, and not just the datafiles can be restored – Jay Nov 5 '12 at 23:54
@Jay Multiple channels are indeed available in Oracle 10g, but as with 9i and 11g this requires Enterprise Edition. – Roy Nov 9 '12 at 13:10

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Jay, this isn't officially documented, so I'm speaking only from my own experience.

In RMAN, the command BACKUP DATABASE ... is synonymous with BACKUP DATAFILE 1, 2, ..., n-th ....

Also the command RESTORE DATABASE ... is synonymous with RESTORE DATAFILE 1, 2, ..., n-th ....

I'm not sure about RECOVER DATABASE; it might be also a synonym of RECOVER DATAFILE 1,2, ... n-th , although I've never tested the latter. In your scenario, the former would work as expected.

In particular, neither RESTORE DATABASE or RECOVER DATABASE require all the datafiles to come from "a single backup of database" (from a single run of BACKUP DATABASE). Actually, RMAN doesn't even have a concept of "a single backup of database".

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