Validating Backups for Restore Operations

You can test whether a sufficient set of backups exists that can be used to restore the specified database files. After you specify which tablespaces to restore and, possibly, a time as of which to restore them, RMAN selects a set of backups that contain the needed data. RMAN reads the selected backups in their entirety to confirm that they are not corrupt, but does not produce output files.

Validating the restoration of files tests whether the file can be restored given the available backups, but it does not test whether all backups of the specified object are valid.

To verify whether specified database files can be restored:

1. On the Database Home page, click Availability to display the Availability subpage.

2. In the Manage section of Availability page, click Perform Recovery.

   The Perform Recovery page appears.

3. In the User-Directed Recovery section, select Datafiles or Tablespaces from the Recovery Scope list, depending on what you want to validate.

4. For the Operation Type, select Restore Datafiles or Restore Tablespaces and then click Recover.

   The Perform Object Level Recovery page appears.

5. Click Add to add tablespaces or data files for the validate operation. Select the data files or tablespaces to restore, then click Select. After making your selections, click Next.

   The Perform Object Level Recovery: Restore page appears.

6. In the Backup Selection section, specify which backups should be restored. Typically you would select the most recent backup.

7. In the Backup Validation section, select Validate the specified backup without restoring the data files. Then, click Next.

   The Perform Object Level Recovery: Schedule page appears.

8. The job to validate the backup runs immediately. You can specify a Job Name and Job Description, or use the default values. Click Next.

   The Perform Object Level Recovery: Review page appears.

9. Click Submit Job to run the validation.

   The Perform Recovery: Result page appears.

10. (Optional) Click View Job to see the results of the Backup Validation job.