having had to do restores with and without the
recovery catalog, ill take the recovery catalog any
day over not having it.  

not that what oracle says should always be followed,
oracle advises using the catalog if you have over 20
datafiles. my viewpoint is: if your oracle db is large
or mission critical, use the recovery catalog. 
relying on the control files alone isnt a good thing
from my point of view.  also, if you need to keep
backup data for some time, your control file may grow
to a much bigger size than you may expect... 

it is quite fair to say the recovery catalog isnt a
requirement, but if you have the resources i would use
it.

if you lose the controlfiles you could (note could) be
in deep trouble.  when we ran restore scenarios with
and without the catalog, we found some restores were
brutal (with the steps required) to get the db up and
running with no catalog.  when used with the catalog,
things went much easier.  choose carefully the method
for backup/recovery.  check out the forums on oracle,
google, etc. if that will help you decide.

--- Jared.Still AT radisys DOT com wrote:

> > What is the pros and cons of running RMAN on
> delicated NB backup 
> > server vs HA oracle database server ?
> > 
> > The Oracle database servers are VCS cluster, in
> order for me to 
> > backup I have two choices
> > 
> > 1. To run RMAN on delicated NB Backup server to
> backup VCS oracle 
> database.
> > - Need Oracle enterprise software installed on NB
> Backup server 
> > (cost more money)
> > etc ?
> 
> It may or may not cost more, it depends on your
> licensing.  If you have
> named user licensing, you can install Oracle on the
> NBU server without
> incurring additional licensing costs.
> 
> Ask your Oracle REP to explain, or check out the
> licensing requirements
> at store.oracle.com.
> 
> 
> > 
> > 2. To run RMAN on VCS oracle database servers.
> > - If one node failed, need to failover RMAN, more
> complicated
> > etc ?
> 
> Overly complex. Personally, I wouldn't even consider
> it.
> 
> You left out another option.  Don't use a central
> RMAN repository.
> 
> It is a convenience, not a requirement.
> 
> Set the control_file_record_keep value in init.ora
> to the length
> of time you need to retain restore information in
> the control file,
> and run rman in nocatalog mode.
> 
> Jared
> 


=====
aaarrrggghhh!!!!
FreeBSD rocks


                
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