I'd like to know if the time to restore the database is equal the time using restore validate database
. If not, How can I know how much time the restore will spend?
RMAN Restore Validate time equals to actual restore time
backuporaclerestorerman
Related Solutions
The answer to your question is no, however....
It sounds like a flashback query is what you need. Query the data as of a time when it existed and when it returns the correct data, insert it into the current table. This solution does require space in the UNDO tablespace sufficient to meet your UNDO_RETENTION
requirements. It also doesn't use RMAN, but is significantly simpler than importing the entire schema.
INSERT INTO T1 (
SELECT * FROM T1 AS OF TIMESTAMP sysdate-1
WHERE MyDateColumn = to_date('05/25/2011','MM/DD/YYYY')
);
TL;DR: Just supply the tag of the backup you want to restore the database from, for example restore database from tag 'INTERESTING_TAG';
DISCLAIMER
The solution provided here is based solely on my own experience, you use it on your own risk. I'm not liable for any damages (including data loss) caused by using this solution.
Also, do I always need to restore spfile and control file because I did not create some additional backups (just ran command
backup database
)?
By default RMAN is configured to automatically back up control file and spfile after every successful backup and on every database structural change (for example, adding datafiles) which causes these changes to be reflected in control files. Thus after every successful database backup with backup database
, the spfile and control file will be automatically backed up.
You can determine if autobackup is enabled by issuing show controlfile autobackup;
in RMAN, and enable it saying configure controlfile autobackup on;
in RMAN.
Since you supplied the paths to the backup sets you want to restore your database from, I assume that you obtained them from your current control file using RMAN. It won't hurt to save this information and other information about your existing backups to a plain text file because you will restore one of the previous control files and chances are this information will be lost:
[oracle@oca ~]$ export NLS_DATE_FORMAT='DD-MON-YY HH24:MI:SS'
[oracle@oca ~]$ rman target=/ log 'list_backup.txt'
RMAN> list backup;
RMAN> exit;
You'll need to restore your database AND control file(s), because the database datafile headers of every datafile should be in sync with control file(s), i. e. they should have the same System Change Number (SCN).
As I already said, you just need to supply the tag name to restore the database from a specific backup. You can determine which tags were assigned to the backups by you or by the system, the completion date and time of the backups, and other information about backups saying list backup
in RMAN (we already saved this info to the text file). Here's the output of list backup
in my sample installation:
RMAN> list backup;
BS Key Type LV Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
------- ---- -- ---------- ----------- ------------ ------------------
78 Full 300.26M DISK 00:01:40 10-APR-13 05:10:32
BP Key: 78 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: YES Tag: TAG20130410T050852
Piece Name: /u01/app/oracle/fast_recovery_area/OCAEXAM/backupset/2013_04_10/o1_mf_nnndf_TAG20130410T050852_8pbc14yv_.bkp
List of Datafiles in backup set 78
File LV Type Ckp SCN Ckp Time Name
---- -- ---- ---------- ------------------ ----
1 Full 3985848 10-APR-13 04:52:40 /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ocaexam/system01.dbf
2 Full 3985848 10-APR-13 04:52:40 /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ocaexam/sysaux01.dbf
3 Full 3985848 10-APR-13 04:52:40 /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ocaexam/undotbs01.dbf
4 Full 3985848 10-APR-13 04:52:40 /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ocaexam/users01.dbf
5 Full 3985848 10-APR-13 04:52:40 /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ocaexam/example01.dbf
BS Key Type LV Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
------- ---- -- ---------- ----------- ------------ ------------------
79 Full 9.39M DISK 00:00:02 10-APR-13 05:10:39
BP Key: 79 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: NO Tag: TAG20130410T051037
Piece Name: /u01/app/oracle/fast_recovery_area/OCAEXAM/autobackup/2013_04_10/812350360_8pbk.bkp
SPFILE Included: Modification time: 10-APR-13 04:55:39
SPFILE db_unique_name: OCAEXAM
Control File Included: Ckp SCN: 3985848 Ckp time: 10-APR-13 04:52:40
BS Key Type LV Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
------- ---- -- ---------- ----------- ------------ ------------------
80 Full 300.30M DISK 00:01:39 10-APR-13 05:18:03
BP Key: 80 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: YES Tag: DELETE_ME
Piece Name: /u01/app/oracle/fast_recovery_area/OCAEXAM/backupset/2013_04_10/o1_mf_nnndf_DELETE_ME_8pbch94j_.bkp
List of Datafiles in backup set 80
File LV Type Ckp SCN Ckp Time Name
---- -- ---- ---------- ------------------ ----
1 Full 3986589 10-APR-13 05:12:33 /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ocaexam/system01.dbf
2 Full 3986589 10-APR-13 05:12:33 /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ocaexam/sysaux01.dbf
3 Full 3986589 10-APR-13 05:12:33 /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ocaexam/undotbs01.dbf
4 Full 3986589 10-APR-13 05:12:33 /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ocaexam/users01.dbf
5 Full 3986589 10-APR-13 05:12:33 /u01/app/oracle/oradata/ocaexam/example01.dbf
BS Key Type LV Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
------- ---- -- ---------- ----------- ------------ ------------------
81 Full 9.39M DISK 00:00:01 10-APR-13 05:18:11
BP Key: 81 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: NO Tag: TAG20130410T051810
Piece Name: /u01/app/oracle/fast_recovery_area/OCAEXAM/autobackup/2013_04_10/812351553_8pbm.bkp
SPFILE Included: Modification time: 10-APR-13 05:13:53
SPFILE db_unique_name: OCAEXAM
Control File Included: Ckp SCN: 3986589 Ckp time: 10-APR-13 05:12:33
From this output, you can see that the first backup was (automatically) assigned the tag TAG20130410T050852
, and that the control file and spfile autobackup follows immediately (check the Completion Time field). You can also see that I performed another database backup, and I manually assigned it the tag DELETE_ME
, and, of course, it's immediately followed by autobackup too. Notice also that the files in every backup have the same SCN, and that SCNs match the SCNs of the control files in the adjacent autobackups.
We will restore the database from the backup tagged TAG20130410T050852
which is older than the other backup tagged DELETE_ME
, and we will restore the control file from the autobackup first.
In order to restore the control file from backup with RMAN, your instance should be in NOMOUNT
state (only spfile is accessed in this state by the instance–control file(s) and datafiles are not accessed):
RMAN> shutdown immediate;
RMAN> startup nomount;
connected to target database (not started)
Oracle instance started
database mounted
(Though, you may use abort
clause instead of immediate
, and Oracle won't bother shutting down the database orderly–you'll restore it from the previous backup anyway.)
Restore the controlfile from autobackup:
RMAN> restore controlfile from
2> '/u01/app/oracle/fast_recovery_area/OCAEXAM/autobackup/2013_04_10/812350360_8pbk.bkp';
Starting restore at 10-APR-13 06:01:25
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=63 device type=DISK
channel ORA_DISK_1: restoring control file
channel ORA_DISK_1: restore complete, elapsed time: 00:00:02
output file name=/u01/app/oracle/oradata/ocaexam/control01.ctl
output file name=/u01/app/oracle/fast_recovery_area/ocaexam/control02.ctl
Finished restore at 10-APR-13 06:01:27
In order for RMAN to be able to read backup records in control file (just like it did when we were issuing list backup
), we need to put the database in MOUNT
state:
RMAN> sql 'alter database mount';
We're now ready to restore the database:
RMAN> restore database from tag 'TAG20130410T050852';
The final step is to open the database:
RMAN> sql 'alter database open resetlogs';
We specified resetlogs
clause here because the existing redo log files are no longer usable since they were in use by the previous database, and thus should be reset so that they can be used by the restored database.
Now query for great good!
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Best Answer
RESTORE VALIDATE
reads the backups, but it skips writing the files to the disk. If writing files to the disk during restore is the limiting factor, then it will be faster. Otherwise it will be the same.Depending on the backup technology in use, this may or may not be a valid method for estimating the time of a real restore. For example, when using tape backups, the placement of backups and the number of currently available drives may vary.