Oracle 11g RMAN VIRTUAL PRIVATE CATALOG

Earlier before 11g, we use to have N number of databases registered with Only one catalog database. So the administration of the whole RECOVERY CATALOG becomes harder to maintain.

To overcome this Oracle 11g has bought in a new feature called VIRTUAL PRIVATE CATALOG.

One of the New Features in Oracle 11g is the RMAN VIRTUAL PRIVATE CATALOG.

Using this feature we can grant restricted access to the RMAN CATALOG to some users, so that they can only access a limited number of databases which are registered with the RMAN CATALOG.

In the below scenario, there are two databases namely GGDB1 and GGDB2 registered with one catalog owned by the user RMAN.

SQL> select * from rman.rc_database;

DB_KEY DBINC_KEY DBID NAME RESETLOGS_CHANGE# RESETLOGS
————- —————– ————— ——— ——————————— ——————
1 2 4150396312 GGDB2 995548 12-JUN-14
417 418 3580803551 GGDB1 995548 12-JUN-14

Now we will restrict the access to the GGDB1 database to a single user RMAN_GGDB1. In order to proceed with further, firstly we need to create a user called RMAN_GGDB1.

SQL> create user rman_ggdb1 identified by rman_ggdb1
2 default tablespace TBSRMAN
3 temporary tablespace temp
4 quota unlimited on tbsrman
5 /

User created.

SQL> grant recovery_catalog_owner to rman_ggdb1;

Grant succeeded.

Connect to catalog as catalog owner and grant permissions on the one database “GGDB1”.

[oracle@ogg2 ~]$ rman catalog rman/rman@ggdb2 target /

Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.3.0 – Production on Wed Jul 30 17:17:32 2014

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

connected to target database: GGDB2 (DBID=4150396312)
connected to recovery catalog database

RMAN> grant catalog for database GGDB1 to rman_ggdb1;

Grant succeeded.

Now connect as the RMAN_GGDB1 user and create the VIRTUAL PRIVATE CATALOG.

[oracle@ogg2 ~]$ rman target / catalog rman_ggdb1/rman_ggdb1@GGDB2

Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.3.0 – Production on Wed Jul 30 17:18:24 2014

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

connected to target database: GGDB2 (DBID=4150396312)
connected to recovery catalog database

RMAN> create virtual catalog;

found eligible base catalog owned by RMAN
created virtual catalog against base catalog owned by RMAN

Connect as a Original RMAN user and issue the command LIST INCARNATION.

[oracle@ogg2 ~]$ rman catalog rman/rman@ggdb2 target /

Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.3.0 – Production on Wed Jul 30 17:30:12 2014

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

connected to target database: GGDB2 (DBID=4150396312)
connected to recovery catalog database

RMAN> list incarnation;

List of Database Incarnations

DB Key Inc Key DB Name DB ID STATUS Reset SCN Reset Time
——- ———– ————- ————– ————- ————– —————–
417 434 GGDB1 3580803551 PARENT 1 17-SEP-11
417 418 GGDB1 3580803551 CURRENT 995548 12-JUN-14
1 18 GGDB2 4150396312 PARENT 1 17-SEP-11
1 2 GGDB2 4150396312 CURRENT 995548 12-JUN-14

Connect as the rman_ggdb1 user and check the command LIST INCARNATION.

Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.3.0 – Production on Wed Jul 30 17:30:36 2014

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

connected to target database: GGDB2 (DBID=4150396312)
connected to recovery catalog database

RMAN> list incarnation;

List of Database Incarnations

DB Key Inc Key DB Name DB ID STATUS Reset SCN Reset Time
——- ———– ————- ————– ————- ————– —————–
417 434 GGDB1 3580803551 PARENT 1 17-SEP-11
417 418 GGDB1 3580803551 CURRENT 995548 12-JUN-14

From the above output we can clearly see that only one database is registered in this catalog when we connect as RMAN_GGDB1.