Oracle RMAN Pocket Reference

Backing Up a Datafile

With datafiles, you can either back them up by number or by name. With Oracle9i, the syntax is straightforward. If you’re performing a disk-based backup and know the numbers of the datafiles that you want to back up, the command is:

RMAN> backup datafile 1,2;

For an Oracle8i disk-based backup, the syntax is:

RMAN> run {
2> allocate channel d1 type disk;
3> backup format
4> '/d99/rmanback/brdstn/rman_bckup_%d_%t_%U.bus' 
5> datafile 1, 2;
6> }

Alternatively, you can tell RMAN the name of a specific datafile that you want to back up:

RMAN> run {
2> allocate channel d1 type disk;
3> backup format
4> '/d99/rmanback/brdstn/rman_bckup_%d_%t_%U.bus'
5> '/d01/oradata/workprd/users_01.dbf';
6> }

To specify more than one datafile by name, list the names separated by commas.