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RMAN Components…


Notes:

An RMAN environment is comprised of several components, each of which has a release (or version) number.
The RMAN executable is an Oracle client application. This client application spawns server sessions on the target database to do the work of backup or recovery. It is similar in some ways to SQL*Plus in that it allows connections to databases and provides a line mode command interface. It is different in that it allows multiple concurrent connections (one to the target, one to the catalog database and optionally a third to an “auxiliary” database) and it does not support SELECT statements. (RMAN actually spawns multiple sessions on the target database, but supports one CONNECT to the target.)
The Target database is the database to be backed up or recovered. It is where the server sessions spawned by the RMAN executable run. The target database’s control file contains recovery metadata - that is, information about backups that have been taken. This information is needed to perform recovery.
The Catalog database is a separate database created to hold the recovery catalog. It is optional database because the recovery catalog is optional. See the next page for more information on the Recovery Catalog.