Configuring RMAN

RMAN can invoked from the command line on the database host machine like so:
C:\>rman target sys/sys_password
Recovery Manager: Release 9.2.0.1.0 - Production
Copyright (c) 1995, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
Connected to target database: ORCL (DBID=1036216947)
RMAN> show all;

RMAN configuration parameters are:
CONFIGURE RETENTION POLICY TO REDUNDANCY 2;
CONFIGURE BACKUP OPTIMIZATION OFF; # default
CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO DISK; # default
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP ON;
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO
'e:\backup\ctl_sp_bak_%F';
CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE DISK PARALLELISM 2;
CONFIGURE DATAFILE BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 1; # default
CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 1; # default
CONFIGURE CHANNEL 1 DEVICE TYPE DISK FORMAT 'e:\backup\%U.bak' MAXPIECESIZE 4G;
CONFIGURE CHANNEL 2 DEVICE TYPE DISK FORMAT 'e:\backup\%U.bak' MAXPIECESIZE 4G;
CONFIGURE MAXSETSIZE TO UNLIMITED; # default
CONFIGURE SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAME TO 'C:\ORACLE\ORA92\DATABASE\SNCFORCL.ORA'; #
default
RMAN>
Retention Policy:
This instructs RMAN on the backups that are eligible for deletion.
For example: A retention policy with redundancy 2 would mean that two backups - the latest and the one prior to that - should be retained. All other backups are candidates for deletion.
Default Device Type:
This can be "disk" or "sbt" (system backup to tape). We will backup to disk and then have our OS backup utility copy the completed backup, and other supporting files, to tape.
Controlfile Autobackup:
This can be set to "on" or "off". When set to "on", RMAN takes a backup of the controlfile AND server parameter file each time a backup is performed. Note that "off" is the default.
Controlfile Autobackup Format:
This tells RMAN where the controlfile backup is to be stored. The "%F" in the file name instructs RMAN to append the database identifier and backup timestamp to the backup filename. The database identifier, or DBID, is a unique integer identifier for the database.
Parallelism:
This tells RMAN how many server processes you want dedicated to performing the backups.
Device Type Format:
This specifies the location and name of the backup files. We need to specify the
format for each channel. The "%U" ensures that Oracle appends a unique identifier to the backup file name. The MAXPIECESIZE attribute sets a maximum file size for each file in the backup set.
Any of the above parameters can be changed using the commands displayed by the "show all" command.
For example, one can turn off controlfile autobackups by issuing:
RMAN> configure controlfile autobackup off;
using target database controlfile instead of recovery catalog
old RMAN configuration parameters:
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP ON;
new RMAN configuration parameters:
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP OFF;
new RMAN configuration parameters are successfully stored
RMAN>