Question

What is the difference between Delete Expired and Delete Obsolete ?

Answer 1

DELETE OBSOLETE;

that is, no longer needed to satisfy specified recoverability requirements.

Deletes files that are out of retention policy.

DELETE EXPIRED;

to remove records of expired backups from the RMAN repository. If the expired files still exist, then the DELETE EXPIRED command terminates with an error.

RMAN-06207: WARNING: 1 objects could not be deleted for DISK channel(s) due
RMAN-06208:          to mismatched status.  Use CROSSCHECK command to fix status
List of Mismatched objects
==========================
  Object Type   Filename/Handle
--------------- ---------------------------------------------------
Backup Piece    0id270ud_1_1

 

CROSSCHECK command is used to determine whether backups recorded in the repository still exist on disk or tape, if RMAN cannot locate the backups, then it updates their records in the RMAN repository to EXPIRED status.