RMAN: Tape backups as Expired while files physically exist

Sometimes all current backups are marked as expired when performing a crosscheck backup while backupsets physically exist and these backupsets are not expired according to Media Manager like Legato or Netbackup. You should first check the Parms used in allocate channel command are correct, if they are correct you should enable the debug for RMAN for more details.
RMAN> DEBUG ON;

RMAN> ALLOCATE CHANNEL FOR MAINTENANCE DEVICE TYPE 'sbt_tape' SEND 'NB_ORA_CLIENT=OR-11, NB_ORA_SERV=mg-2' trace 1;

RMAN> crosscheck backup;
RMAN> DEBUG OFF;

Check sbtio.log in user_dump_dest location which will have the errors during the time of crosscheck.

Possible Reasons:

1- Some times errors are due to the SBT library, enabling debug can provide more insight.

2- CROSSCHECK was run with the wrong PARMS settings. RMAN will query the media manager and get response back that the backup piece cannot be found. It will then set the status of the piece to Expired.

RMAN doesn't have a concept of what media manager it is using. As long as you specify device type SBT, it's up to the user to make sure that the configuration and PARMS settings are correct. RMAN will just query the media manager generically, as it only knows that the backup was made to SBT.

RMAN: Incremental Backup

Below explains a method which can be used to restore oracle incremental level backup to restore rman backups on new server to  significantly reduce restore time.
Following steps are involved.

Migrating non-ASM database to ASM - 11gR2

Requirement: Migrate a database from Non-ASM to ASM.
Environment: Oracle 11gR2 (11.2.0.3) , non-ASM Database: migdb (in Archivelog mode), Diskgroup on ASM: +DGDUP

Restore RMAN RAC database backup to other RAC enviornment

Scenerio:
We have a disk backup of a 2 nodes RAC database (homedb) and want to restore it to other RAC environment 2 nodes.
Environment:
Source: Oracle RAC 11gR2 11.2.0.3 (Windows 2008R2) , Diskgroups:  +HOMEDBDATA & +HOMEDBFLASH, Instances: homedb1,homedb2

Destination:  Oracle RAC 11gR2 11.2.0.3 (Windows 2008R2) only software installed. No database existing. Diskgroups: +DBDATA & +DBFLASH

Backup and Restore using AVAMAR

Brief:
The Avamar Plug-in for Oracle works with Oracle and Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) to
back up an Oracle database, a tablespace, or datafiles to an Avamar server.

Creating duplicate database using rman backup 11gR2 (Single instnace)

Scenerio:
Duplication required for a single instance database (11gR2) on the same server. OS environment Windows 64bit.

Restoring RMAN backup to new server

Scenerio:
RMAN backup has been taken on the production server and now it is required to restore it on the new fresh server. OS environment is Windows 64bit. Source system was on RAC 11gR2 and Destination was 11gR2 Single instance.

Scheduling RMAN Batch job for backup

Scenerio:

To take the RMAN backup by OS scheduled job (on Windows)

Deleting obsolete rman backup information from controlfile

Scenario:
We took database backup disk including controlfile from production server to refresh a staging server for application testing purpose. On production server TAPE (Netbackup) already configured. After copying the RMAN backup files to Stage DB Server, upon restore when we checked database backups it was showing the TAPE backups also. So we deleted the backups.

RMAN: Taking Cold backup using RMAN and restore it

Cold backup is particular useful when you plan to test some changes on the database and in case something goes wrong you can always fall back to this Cold backup.

Cold backup is a consistent backup when the database has been shutdown immediate or Shutdown Normal.If the database is shutdown with abort option then its not a consistent backup.

Cold backup can be taken by RMAN in mount stage after database has been shutdown immediate.

RMAN: Recovery of missing datafile that is never backed up

Environment:
Oracle Database 11gR2 on Windows 7
DB in archivelog mode

Example:
Assuming that already a tablespace "TS1" is existing with one datafile, if not you can use the statements below.
 create tablespace ts1 datafile 'C:\app\Inam\oradata\orcl\ts01.dbf' size 10m reuse;

RMAN: Recover A Dropped Tablespace Using TSPITR (11gR2)

RMAN automatic Tablespace Point-In-Time Recovery ( TSPITR) enables you to quickly recover one or more tablespaces in an Oracle database to an earlier time, without affecting the state of the rest of the tablespaces and other objects in the database.

RMAN: Incomplete Recovery from TAPE to Single Instance

Environment: Windows 2008R2 64bit, backup located at Netbackup (Tape media), DB is RAC one with two nodes on ASM.

RMAN Duplicate Database from RAC ASM to RAC ASM (11gR2)

Duplicating RAC database is very simple, first duplicate RAC Database to a single instance using RMAN and convert the single instance into a RAC cluster.
Testing Environment:
- Two nodes RAC 11gR2 (11.2.0.3) on Windows 2008R2
- Source RAC Database: TESTRAC (testrac1,testrac2)
- Target RAC Database: DUPDB (dupdb1,dupdb2) on the same hosts where TESTRAC is running
- ASM instances with three diskgroups (DGDUP for dupdb)
- Backup took already (on Netbackup) for Source Database, We CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO SBT_TAPE; for our environment

About Netbackup

NetBackup integrates the database backup and recovery capabilities of the Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) with the backup and recovery management capabilities of NetBackup. NetBackup for Oracle also lets you export and import Oracle data in XML format for long-term archival and retrieval.

RMAN Backup using Netbackup

After Netbackup configuration on the Oracle Server, you can use rman to take backup on tape.

Create Duplicate DB with RMAN - Single Instance

You can use the RMAN DUPLICATE command to create a duplicate database from target database backups while still retaining the original target database. The duplicate database can be either identical to the original database or contain only a subset of the original tablespaces.

Clear Flash Recovery Area

Scenerio:

If you see error in your alert log like below

ORA-19815: WARNING: db_recovery_file_dest_size of 6442450944 bytes is 100.00% used, and has 0 remaining bytes available.

Diffrent Clauses to be used in RMAN script

There can be many different clauses can be used in RMAN script. You should use any clause which suites your environment. I'm providing them as single by single so that concept is clear with the help of the output.

Restore With RMAN (Examples)

Steps for media recovery: 

1. Mount or open the database.
Mount the database when performing whole database recovery, or open the database when performing online tablespace recovery.