Oracle RMAN Pocket Reference

Backing Up Control Files

A nice feature of Oracle9i is its ability to configure the control file to be backed up automatically whenever you issue a backup or copy command. You can do this by using the configure command as follows:

RMAN> configure controlfile autobackup on;

Or, if you want to manually back up an Oracle9i control file:

RMAN> backup current controlfile;

Here’s an example that backs up the control file via a shell script that works both for Oracle9i and Oracle8i:

#!/bin/ksh
# File: backup_ctrl.ksh 
#----------------------------------------------
export ORACLE_HOME=/d00/app/oracle/product/9.0.0
export ORACLE_SID=brdstn
export PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
export MAILX="/usr/ucb/Mail"
export MAIL_LIST="[e-mail]"
#----------------------------------------------
BOX=`uname -a | awk '{print$2}'`
#----------------------------------------------
date
#----------------------------------------------
rman nocatalog log=rman_control.log <<EOF
  connect target /
  run {
    allocate channel d1 type disk;
    setlimit channel d1 kbytes 1900000;
    backup
      format '/d99/rmanback/brdstn/rman_cntl_%d_%t_%U.bct'
      (current controlfile);
    release channel d1;
  }
EOF
#
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
$MAILX -s "RMAN problem with $ORACLE_SID on $BOX" \
$MAIL_LIST <<EOF
Check control file RMAN backups...
EOF
  #
else
  print "RMAN controlfile backup ran okay..."
fi
#----------------------------------------------
date
#----------------------------------------------