The backups of Oracle databases can be cataloged with Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) to store the backup information in the Oracle RMAN repository.
The cataloged backups can be used later for block-level restore or tablespace point-in-time recovery operations. When you do not need these cataloged backups, you can remove the catalog information.
By default, the target database control file is used for cataloging. If you want to add external catalog database, you can configure it by specifying the credential and Transparent Network Substrate (TNS) name of the external catalog using the Database Settings wizard from the SnapCenter graphical user interface (GUI). You can also configure the external catalog database from the CLI by running the Configure-SmOracleDatabase command with the -OracleRmanCatalogCredentialName and -OracleRmanCatalogTnsName options.
If you enabled the cataloging option while creating an Oracle backup policy from the SnapCenter GUI, the backups are cataloged using Oracle RMAN as a part of the backup operation. You can also perform deferred cataloging of backups by running the Catalog-SmBackupWithOracleRMAN command. After cataloging the backups, you can run the Get-SmBackupDetails command to obtain the cataloged backup information such as the tag for cataloged datafiles, the control file catalog path, and the cataloged archive log locations.
You can perform crosschecks to update outdated RMAN repository information about backups whose repository records do not match their physical status. For example, if a user removes archived logs from disk with an operating system command, the control file still indicates that the logs are on disk, when in fact they are not. The crosscheck operation enables you to update the control file with the information. You can enable crosscheck by running the Set-SmConfigSettings command and assigning the value TRUE to the ENABLE_CROSSCHECK parameter. The default value is set to FALSE. sccli Set-SmConfigSettings -ConfigSettingsType Plugin -PluginCode SCO -ConfigSettings "KEY=ENABLE_CROSSCHECK, VALUE=TRUE"
If the cataloging and uncataloging fails because the operation time exceeded the time out value specified for the ORACLE_PLUGIN_RMAN_CATALOG_TIMEOUT parameter, you should modify the value of the parameter by running the following command: /opt/Netapp/snapcenter/spl/bin/sccli Set-SmConfigSettings -ConfigSettingsType Plugin -PluginCode SCO -ConfigSettings "KEY=ORACLE_PLUGIN_RMAN_CATALOG_TIMEOUT,VALUE=user_defined_value" After modifying the value of the parameter, restart the SnapCenter Plug-in Loader (SPL) service by running the following command: /opt/NetApp/snapcenter/spl/bin/spl restart
The information regarding the parameters that can be used with the command and their descriptions can be obtained by running help command_name. Alternatively, you can also refer to the Command Reference Guide.