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In this article, i am going to show you how to backup a database using RMAN to tape. First verify the tape configuration from the following commands ...

$ tdpoconf showenvironment
$ tdpoconf showENVironment -TDPO_OPTfile=tdpo.opt
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Databases:
Data Protection for Oracle
Version 5, Release 5, Level 2.0
(C) Copyright IBM Corporation 1997, 2009. All rights reserved.
Data Protection for Oracle Information
Version:              5
Release:              5
Level:                2
Sublevel:             0
Platform:             64bit TDPO Linux86-64
Tivoli Storage Manager Server Information
Server Name:          TDPAURORA
Server Address:       GBTSMSERVER
Server Type:          AIX-RS/6000
Server Port:          1500
Communication Method: TCP/IP
Session Information
Owner Name:           oracle
Node Name:            tdpb600e6tr01
Node Type:            TDPO Linux86-64
DSMI_DIR:             /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/api/bin64
DSMI_ORC_CONFIG:      /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/oracle/bin64/dsm.opt
TDPO_OPTFILE:         tdpo.opt
Password Directory:   /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/oracle/bin64
Compression:          FALSE
License Information:  License file exists and contains valid license data.
[oracle@b600e6tr01 tdpo]$

In this demo i am showing RMAN consistant backup , so shutdown the database and start it again in mount stage.

Then connect to database using rman with catalog database ...

[oracle@b600e6tr01 bkup]$ rman target / catalog rman/rman@rmancat
Recovery Manager: Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production on Mon May 2 08:51:22 2011
Copyright (c) 1982, 2007, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
connected to target database: TESTDB (DBID=38948753088)
connected to recovery catalog database
RMAN>run
{
allocate channel t1 type 'SBT_TAPE' parms="ENV=(TDPO_OPTFILE=tdpo.opt)";
allocate channel t2 type 'SBT_TAPE' parms="ENV=(TDPO_OPTFILE=tdpo.opt)";
allocate channel t3 type 'SBT_TAPE' parms="ENV=(TDPO_OPTFILE=tdpo.opt)";
backup as compressed backupset check logical incremental level 0 database format 'backup_%d_%I_set%s_piece%p_copy%c_%T_%U' TAG=FULL_BACKUP;
backup current controlfile TAG=CURR_CTLFILE;
backup spfile TAG=CURR_SPFILE;
delete obsolete;
}

This will complete the backup of database. But in case if you get any error messages due to tape configuration problems, RMAN will not give you any useful error message. All you have to do is, go to the log file location specified in the configuration file tdpo.opt ( parameter  DSMI_LOG ) and review the logfiles. If you dont have this directory created, the default location for tape log files is $ORACLE_HOME/dbs. These log files will give you some useful error messages.

Rectify the issues  and  execute the RMAN backup script again.

Example error messages from RMAN session :

Starting restore at Apr 13 2011 07:41:20
using channel ORA_AUX_SBT_TAPE_1
using channel ORA_AUX_DISK_1
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of Duplicate Db command at 04/13/2011 07:41:22
RMAN-03015: error occurred in stored script Memory Script
ORA-27191: sbtinfo2 returned error
Additional information: 2

Follow the following video demo showing how to bakckup a database to tape. This is a private video so, send me a personal request if you need access to this video.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcF6oG9s3Gk&hl=en&fs=1]

Hope it helps

SRI