Oracle RMAN Pocket Reference

Restoring Control Files

In an ideal world you’ll never use RMAN to restore a control file. But if something catastrophic happens, and you lose all control files, here are the steps for getting them back:

1. Start up your database in nomount mode.

2. Run the RMAN RESTORE CONTROLFILE command.

Note

With Oracle9i, if you are not using a catalog, you can still restore the control file if you have used RMAN’s autobackup feature to back it up with each backup that you do.

The following examples assume that you are using a catalog. First, here’s the simplest Oracle9i syntax for restoring a control file:

RMAN> startup nomount;
RMAN> restore controlfile;

For Oracle8i, you need to use the run{} command syntax:

RMAN> run {
2> allocate channel t1 type sbt_tape;
3> restore controlfile;}