Question

RMAN DUPLICATE WITHOUT CONNECTING TO TARGET DATABASE IN 11GR2

Answer 1

Prior versions of Oracle required a connection to the TARGET and optional rman catalog for duplicate database. 

In 11GR2, we can perform RMAN duplicate database to a new server without connecting to the target database or a recovery catalog.

Steps.

1) Take backup of the database.

RMAN> Configure controlfile autobackup on;
RMAN> backup database plus archivelog;

2) Copy the backupsets to auxilliary server. ( In this example to /orabackup directory)

3) Create an init.ora for duplicate database.

4) Start auxilliary instance

$ export ORACLE_SID=NEWDB

$ sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

SQL> startup nomount;

5) Start rman and connect to auxiliary instance

rman auxiliary /

RMAN> DUPLICATE DATABASE TO NEWDB BACKUP LOCATION '/orabackup/' NOFILENAMECHECK