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backup database keep forever logs

April 13th, 2007
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If you want to keep some backups forever, you maybe tried

RMAN> backup database keep forever logs;

Starting backup at 13.04.2007 13:58:04
...
backup will never be obsolete
archived logs required to recover from this backup 
will expire when this backup expires
...
Finished backup at 13.04.2007 13:58:23

but the problem is that the archivelogs to recover this backup at any time after the backup will NEVER be obsolete.

You could well try the NOLOGS option, but this requires you to take the database in the MOUNT state.

RMAN> backup database keep forever nologs;

Starting backup at 13.04.2007 14:06:36
...
backup will never be obsolete
archived logs required to recover from this backup 
will not be kept
...
Finished backup at 13.04.2007 14:07:25

This is fine if you can stop your database. But you probably wants online backup. What’s next?

Ok, here is the way to go. You do your online backup, then you mark what you want to keep !

First I backup the old archivelogs, because I do not need to keep those yet.

RMAN> backup archivelog all;

Starting backup at 13.04.2007 14:10:00
...
Finished backup at 13.04.2007 14:10:08

Now I do a backup plus archivelog (with a tag for simplicity)

RMAN> backup database tag backuplsc 
plus archivelog tag backuplsc;

Starting backup at 13.04.2007 14:10:42
...
Finished backup at 13.04.2007 14:11:00

Now I can mark my backup as keep

RMAN> change backup tag backuplsc keep forever;

...
keep attributes for the backup are changed
backup will never be obsolete
backup set key=405 RECID=116 STAMP=619798257
keep attributes for the backup are changed
backup will never be obsolete
backup set key=406 RECID=117 STAMP=619798260

Now if I do a delete obsolete, it will never delete my backup.

RMAN> backup database plus archivelog
Starting backup at 13.04.2007 14:16:46
...
Finished backup at 13.04.2007 14:17:10

RMAN> delete noprompt obsolete;

RMAN retention policy will be applied to the command
RMAN retention policy is set to redundancy 1
...
Deleting the following obsolete backups and copies:
...
Deleted 7 objects

RMAN> list backup summary;

List of Backups
===============
Key     TY LV S Device Type Completion Time    
------- -- -- - ----------- ------------------- 
 #Pieces #Copies Compressed Tag
------- ------- ---------- ---
...
405     B  F  A DISK        13.04.2007 14:10:57 
1       1       YES        BACKUPLSC
406     B  F  A DISK        13.04.2007 14:11:00 
1       1       YES        BACKUPLSC
...

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  1. meyer
    April 17th, 2007 at 15:56 | #1
    Reply | Quote

    Or you could use the Archiving feature of the Backup prOxy Server (BOS) solution and avoid all those headaches :-)

  2. laurentschneider
    April 18th, 2007 at 09:20 | #2
    Reply | Quote

    is it related to RMAN?

  3. Chris
    April 26th, 2007 at 00:20 | #3
    Reply | Quote

    This doesn’t appear to work; RMAN won’t mark a copy that includes archive logs KEEP.

  4. laurentschneider
    April 26th, 2007 at 13:13 | #4
    Reply | Quote

    with which version did you try?

  5. David
    May 1st, 2007 at 15:59 | #5
    Reply | Quote

    I’ve tried this in 10.2.0.3.0. It produces the following error: -

    RMAN> change backup tag LNACBP01_20070430_110744 keep forever;

    RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
    RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
    RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
    RMAN-00558: error encountered while parsing input commands
    RMAN-01009: syntax error: found “;”: expecting one of: “consistent, logs, nologs”
    RMAN-01007: at line 1 column 56 file: standard input

    RMAN> change backup tag LNACBP01_20070430_110744 keep forever nologs;

    allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
    channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=89 devtype=DISK
    RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
    RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
    RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
    RMAN-03002: failure of KEEP command at 05/01/2007 15:54:31
    RMAN-06530: CHANGE … KEEP not supported for backup set which contains archive logs

    RMAN>

    This is a real pain, as I know that the backup set contains enough redo to make for a consistent restore which will give me my month end position.

  6. Laurent Schneider
    May 4th, 2007 at 14:04 | #6
    Reply | Quote

    this is strange, either I made a copy paste error or there is something magic in the site where I tried, but it seems it works with NOLOGS.

    Ok, here I try again

    RMAN> backup archivelog all tag KEEP_ME_PLEASE;

Starting backup at 04.05.2007 14:58:47
current log archived
using channel ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting compressed archived log backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying archived log(s) in backup set
input archived log thread=1 sequence=13 RECID=8 STAMP=621701927
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 04.05.2007 14:58:48
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 04.05.2007 14:58:49
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_2/dbs/0iigsqp8_1_1
tag=KEEP_ME_PLEASE comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
Finished backup at 04.05.2007 14:58:49

RMAN>  change backup tag KEEP_ME_PLEASE keep forever nologs;

using channel ORA_DISK_1
keep attributes for the backup are changed
backup will never be obsolete
archived logs will not be kept or backed up
backup set key=427 RECID=18 STAMP=621701929

RMAN> backup database;

Starting backup at 04.05.2007 14:59:44
using channel ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00001 name=/oradata/LSC05/datafile/o1_mf_system_3212yrbj_.dbf
input datafile file number=00003 name=/oradata/LSC05/datafile/o1_mf_undotbs_3212z2lo_.dbf
input datafile file number=00002 name=/oradata/LSC05/datafile/o1_mf_sysaux_3212yxrx_.dbf
input datafile file number=00004 name=/oradata/LSC05/datafile/o1_mf_users_3212z3jt_.dbf
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 04.05.2007 14:59:44
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 04.05.2007 14:59:59
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_2/dbs/0jigsqr0_1_1 
tag=TAG20070504T145944 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:15
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
including current control file in backup set
including current SPFILE in backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 04.05.2007 15:00:01
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 04.05.2007 15:00:02
piece handle=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_2/dbs/0kigsqrg_1_1 
tag=TAG20070504T145944 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
Finished backup at 04.05.2007 15:00:02

RMAN> list backup summary;

List of Backups
===============
Key     TY LV S Device Type Completion Time     
------- -- -- - ----------- ------------------- 
#Pieces #Copies Compressed Tag
------- ------- ---------- ---
427     B  A  A DISK        04.05.2007 14:58:49 
1       1       YES        KEEP_ME_PLEASE
483     B  F  A DISK        04.05.2007 14:59:52 
1       1       YES        TAG20070504T145944
484     B  F  A DISK        04.05.2007 15:00:01 
1       1       YES        TAG20070504T145944

RMAN> delete noprompt obsolete;

RMAN retention policy will be applied to the command
RMAN retention policy is set to redundancy 1
using channel ORA_DISK_1
Deleting the following obsolete backups and copies:
Type                 Key    Completion Time    
-------------------- ------ ------------------ 
Filename/Handle
--------------------
Archive Log          400    04.05.2007 14:58:47 
/opt/oracle/product/11/db_2/dbs/arch1_13_619870058.dbf
deleted archived log
archived log file 
name=/opt/oracle/product/11/db_2/dbs/arch1_13_619870058.dbf RECID=8 STAMP=621701927
Deleted 1 objects

RMAN> list backup summary;

List of Backups
===============
Key     TY LV S Device Type Completion Time     
------- -- -- - ----------- -------------------
#Pieces #Copies Compressed Tag
------- ------- ---------- ---
427     B  A  A DISK        04.05.2007 14:58:49 
1       1       YES        KEEP_ME_PLEASE
483     B  F  A DISK        04.05.2007 14:59:52 
1       1       YES        TAG20070504T145944
484     B  F  A DISK        04.05.2007 15:00:01 
1       1       YES        TAG20070504T145944

    so the KEEP FOREVER NOLOGS seems to work with backup of archivelogs

  7. Chris
    May 23rd, 2007 at 16:02 | #7
    Reply | Quote

    How do you restore that backup once you’ve taken other backups sometime later?

  8. Laurent Schneider
    May 23rd, 2007 at 18:12 | #8
    Reply | Quote

    something like

    restore database until sequence 14 thread 1
    recover database until sequence 14 thread 1

    where 13 is your highest saved redo log.

    should work

  9. Chris
    June 13th, 2007 at 13:50 | #9
    Reply | Quote

    Another quick question as I can’t find the answer. Anyway to change the actual tag name of the backup? I.E. change TAG20070613T000231 to something like BKUP_06132007_KEEP_30?

  10. Laurent Schneider
    June 13th, 2007 at 17:08 | #10
    Reply | Quote

    backup database tag BKUP_06132007_KEEP_30

    ?

  11. Chris
    June 27th, 2007 at 13:22 | #11
    Reply | Quote

    No, I meant for a backup that is already completed. Backups run nightly, and sometimes the next day, the proj mgr wants to keep the previous nights backup and rename it.

  12. Laurent Schneider
    June 28th, 2007 at 16:04 | #12
    Reply | Quote

    Sorry, I do not know how to change the tag :-(

  13. Ghyslain
    February 18th, 2008 at 23:55 | #13
    Reply | Quote

    Starting backup at 13.04.2007 13:58:04
    How do you get RMAN to include the time ? (like you have)
    I only get the date in “Starting backup at 13.04.2007″ !…

    Thank you,

  14. Laurent Schneider
    February 19th, 2008 at 09:32 | #14
    Reply | Quote

    NLS_DATE_FORMAT=’YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS’

    either OS variable or registry entry depending on your os

  15. Philip Douglass
    August 5th, 2008 at 23:49 | #15
    Reply | Quote

    There must be something magical at the site you did this, because it most definitely does not work for me on 10.2.0.3 either:

    $rman target / nocatalog

Recovery Manager: Release 10.2.0.3.0 - Production on Tue Aug 5 21:37:22 2008

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

connected to target database: ORASID (DBID=204994610)
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog

RMAN>  backup archivelog all tag KEEP_ME_PLEASE;

Starting backup at 05-AUG-08
current log archived
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=1023 devtype=DISK
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_2
channel ORA_DISK_2: sid=1064 devtype=DISK
skipping archive log file /FRA/archivelog/2008_06_18/o1_mf_1_1378_y8JAYjEt_.arc; already backed up 1 time(s)
[...snipped...]
skipping archive log file /FRA/archivelog/2008_08_05/o1_mf_1_1411_z4nRigt3_.arc; already backed up 1 time(s)
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting compressed archive log backupset
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying archive log(s) in backup set
input archive log thread=1 sequence=1412 recid=1399 stamp=661988258
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 05-AUG-08
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 05-AUG-08
piece handle=/FRA/backupset/2008_08_05/o1_mf_annnn_KEEP_ME_PLEASE_z4nhfQSB_.bkp tag=KEEP_ME_PLEASE comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:02
Finished backup at 05-AUG-08

Starting Control File and SPFILE Autobackup at 05-AUG-08
piece handle=/FRA/autobackup/2008_08_05/o1_mf_s_661988261_z4nhkEYn_.bkp comment=NONE
Finished Control File and SPFILE Autobackup at 05-AUG-08

RMAN> change backup tag KEEP_ME_PLEASE keep forever nologs;

using channel ORA_DISK_1
using channel ORA_DISK_2
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of KEEP command at 08/05/2008 21:37:58
RMAN-06530: CHANGE ... KEEP not supported for backup set which contains archive logs

RMAN> delete backup tag KEEP_ME_PLEASE;

using channel ORA_DISK_1
using channel ORA_DISK_2

List of Backup Pieces
BP Key  BS Key  Pc# Cp# Status      Device Type Piece Name
------- ------- --- --- ----------- ----------- ----------
71      71      1   1   AVAILABLE   DISK        /FRA/backupset/2008_08_05/o1_mf_annnn_KEEP_ME_PLEASE_z4nhfQSB_.bkp

Do you really want to delete the above objects (enter YES or NO)? yes
deleted backup piece
backup piece handle=/FRA/backupset/2008_08_05/o1_mf_annnn_KEEP_ME_PLEASE_z4nhfQSB_.bkp recid=71 stamp=661988260
Deleted 1 objects

RMAN> quit

Recovery Manager complete.

    My brief trip to the Backup and Recovery Advanced User’s Guide seems to indicate that the only way to accomplish this is from the consistent mount state: Keeping a Long-Term Backup: Example

  16. Rick
    October 7th, 2008 at 18:58 | #16
    Reply | Quote

    @Philip,

    I am fairly certain you need to be using a recovery catalog to use KEEP FOREVER. I’ve read it in Oracle documentation, but cannot find it at the moment.

  17. Vladimir Barac
    October 26th, 2008 at 18:52 | #17
    Reply | Quote

    Hi

    I hope somebody will visit this page again.

    Oracle 10.2.0.4, standard edition. It seems it is not possible to keep backupsets that contain archived logs?

    RMAN> change backup tag KEEP_ME_PLEASE keep forever nologs;

    using channel ORA_DISK_1
    RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
    RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
    RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
    RMAN-03002: failure of KEEP command at 10/26/2008 19:21:04
    RMAN-06530: CHANGE … KEEP not supported for backup set which contains archive logs

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