HP 3PAR Application Software Suite for Oracle - Manual (Page 29)

2.13 Recovery Manager Utilities
Recovery Manager for Oracle User’s Guide
The virtual copy used for cloning a database must be either an online or offline virtual copy
(created using the vcdba_create or vcdba_sync command). The virtual copy must have
been mounted using the vcdba_mount command prior to running this command.
A clone database can be created using an ascii or binary controlfile which was saved in the
Recovery Manager repository at the time the virtual copy was created. Using an ascii
controlfile is more flexible as it allows you to change database instance name as well as the
structure of the database.
When using an ascii controlfile, the structure of the clone database is not required to be
exactly the same as the structure of the primary (original) database. Therefore the virtual copy
can be mounted at any mount point. However, since the virtual copy does not contains online
redo-logs and control files, their locations can be specified using the -d option (can be one or
more directories or ASM diskgroups, depending on the desired multiplexing). The number of
multiplex redo log locations must be equal to, or less than, the primary database when
creating the clone database. Otherwise, the extra redo log multiplex location will be ignored.
If the locations of the redologs and controlfiles are not specified, they will be created at the
repository location for the virtual copy (/etc/3par/solutions/<host>.ora.<sid>/
<vc_name> ).
When using a binary controlfile the structure of the clone database must be exactly the same
as the structure of the primary database. Therefore, the virtual copy must be mounted at '/' if
the datafiles and archive logs are on file systems. Also, since the virtual copy does not contain
redologs and archivelogs, the same directory structure or same ASM diskgroups for the
redologs and controlfiles must be pre-created on the backup host.
When creating a clone database for backup (RMAN) purposes, the database is started in
MOUNTED mode using the binary controlfile from the repository without recovering the
database. This can be achieved by using the -o for_backup or -o binary, norecovery
option.
A clone database can be created with or without automatic recovery (applying archivelogs
from the virtual copy) using the –o recovery or -o norecovery option. If recovery is chosen
the clone database is open with a reset log, otherwise, the clone database is in a mounted
status.