Starting RMAN without a Recovery Catalog

RMAN (Recovery Manager) is Oracle's database backup and recovery manager. It is a feature included with every Oracle Database license and is thus available in all editions. A recovery catalog is not required to use RMAN. When no recovery catalog is used, RMAN connects to the target database and uses the control file in the target database as the sole repository of metadata for RMAN.
Here's how you start RMAN without a recovery catalog:

1. Log into the Oracle server: Begin by logging into the Oracle database server. This can be done using the server's operating system commands. The specific commands will vary based on the operating system your Oracle database is hosted on.
2. Set the Oracle environment: Next, set the Oracle environment by using the oraenv or coraenv script.
   

   . oraenv
   

   
   When prompted, enter the SID of the database you want to connect to.
3. Start RMAN: After setting the Oracle environment, start the RMAN utility by typing the following command in your terminal:
   

   rman
   

   
   This command starts the RMAN command-line interface. Note that RMAN does not require a username or password when you start it.
4. Connect to the target database: Once you are in the RMAN interface, you need to connect to the target database. This is the database that you want to backup or recover. Use the following command:
   

   CONNECT TARGET /
   

   
   This command connects RMAN to the target database. The '/' tells Oracle to connect to the database using OS authentication, meaning it uses the username and password of the currently logged-in user.

After running these commands, RMAN is now connected to your target database without the use of a recovery catalog. You can now proceed with backup, recovery, or maintenance tasks as required. Remember, while operating RMAN without a recovery catalog simplifies operations and reduces resources, it does limit some of the available features. For more advanced

Earlier, you learned how to start Recovery Manager with a recovery catalog. You use essentially the same process to start Recovery Manager without a recovery catalog. The only difference is that nocatalog tells the Recovery Manager that you will be using the control file information rather than the information stored in the recovery catalog. Following are examples that use the same assumptions from the previous lesson: Target database is orc1 and the username/password combination is system/manager.

In this example, you identify the Oracle SID for your target database and then connect using OS verification.

Set Oracle_sid=orc1
rman nocatalog
rman>connect target

rman target system/manager nocatalog

rman target system/manager@MYDB nocatalog

Click the Quiz link below to test your understanding of the recovery catalog options.
Recovery Manager Catalog - Quiz