CREATE CATALOG

Purpose

Use the CREATE CATALOG command to create a recovery catalog.

The recovery catalog can be a base recovery catalog, which is a database schema that contains RMAN metadata for a set of target databases. A virtual recovery catalog is a set of synonyms and views that enable user access to a subset of a base catalog.

See Also:

Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User's Guide to learn how to create the recovery catalog

Prerequisites

Execute this command only at the RMAN prompt. RMAN must be connected to the recovery catalog database either through the CATALOG command-line option or the CONNECT CATALOG command, and the catalog database must be open. A connection to the target database is not required.

The recovery catalog owner, whether the catalog is a base catalog or a virtual catalog, must be granted the RECOVERY_CATALOG_OWNER role. This user must also be granted space privileges in the tablespace where the recovery catalog tables will reside. The recovery catalog is created in the default tablespace of the recovery catalog owner.

If you are creating a virtual recovery catalog, then the base recovery catalog owner must have used the GRANT command to grant either the CATALOG or REGISTER privilege (see Example 2-57).

See the CONNECT CATALOG description for restrictions for RMAN client connections to a virtual catalog when the RMAN client is from release Oracle Database 10g or earlier.

Usage Notes

Typically, you create the recovery catalog in a database created especially for this purpose. It is not recommended to create the recovery catalog in the SYS schema.

The best practice is to create one recovery catalog that serves as the central RMAN repository for many databases. For this reason it is called the base recovery catalog.

The owner of the base recovery catalog can GRANT or REVOKE restricted access to the catalog to other database users. Each restricted user has full read/write access to his own metadata, which is called a virtual private catalog. The RMAN metadata is stored in the schema of the virtual private catalog owner. The owner of the base recovery catalog controls what each virtual catalog user can access.

You must take an extra step when intending to use a 10.2 or earlier release of RMAN with a virtual catalog. Before using the virtual private catalog, this user must connect to the recovery catalog database as the virtual catalog owner and execute the following PL/SQL procedure (where base_catalog_owner is the database user who owns the base recovery catalog):

base_catalog_owner.DBMS_RCVCAT.CREATE_VIRTUAL_CATALOG

See Also:

Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for more information about the RECOVERY_CATALOG_OWNER role

Syntax

createCatalog::=

Description of the illustration createcatalog.gif

Semantics

Syntax Element Description

Syntax Element	Description
`VIRTUAL`	Creates a virtual private catalog in an existing recovery catalog. Run this command after connecting RMAN to the recovery catalog database as the virtual catalog user. Note: All of the mechanisms for virtual private catalogs are in the recovery catalog schema itself. The security is provided by the catalog database, not by the RMAN client.

VIRTUAL

Creates a virtual private catalog in an existing recovery catalog.

Run this command after connecting RMAN to the recovery catalog database as the virtual catalog user.

Note: All of the mechanisms for virtual private catalogs are in the recovery catalog schema itself. The security is provided by the catalog database, not by the RMAN client.

Examples

Example 2-56 Creating a Recovery Catalog and Registering Databases

Assume that you start SQL*Plus and issue the following commands to create a user catowner in database catdb and grant the catowner user the RECOVERY_CATALOG_OWNER role:

SQL> CONNECT SYS/password@catdb AS SYSDBA
SQL> CREATE USER catowner IDENTIFIED BY oracle 
  2  DEFAULT TABLESPACE cattbs
  3  QUOTA UNLIMITED ON cattbs;
SQL> GRANT recovery_catalog_owner TO catowner;
SQL> EXIT

You then start RMAN and execute the following RMAN commands to connect to the recovery catalog database as catowner and create the recovery catalog:

RMAN> CONNECT CATALOG catowner/password@catdb
RMAN> CREATE CATALOG;

In the same RMAN session, you connect to the target database prod1 and use the REGISTER DATABASE command to register prod1 in the catalog and then exit RMAN:

RMAN> CONNECT TARGET SYS/password@prod1
RMAN> REGISTER DATABASE;
RMAN> EXIT

Example 2-57 Creating a Virtual Private Catalog

Assume that you created the recovery catalog and registered a database as shown in Example 2-56. Now you want to create a virtual private catalog for database user vpc1. You create the vpc1 user and grant recovery catalog ownership as follows:

SQL> CONNECT SYS/password@catdb AS SYSDBA
SQL> CREATE USER vpc1 IDENTIFIED BY apwd 
  2  DEFAULT TABLESPACE vpcusers
  3  QUOTA UNLIMITED ON vpcusers;
SQL> GRANT recovery_catalog_owner TO vpc1;
SQL> EXIT

You then start RMAN and connect to the recovery catalog database as the catalog owner catowner. By default, the virtual catalog owner has no access to the base recovery catalog. You use the GRANT command to grant virtual private catalog access to vpc1 for RMAN operations on database prod1 (but not prod2):

RMAN> CONNECT CATALOG catowner/password@catdb
RMAN> GRANT CATALOG FOR DATABASE prod1 TO vpc1;
RMAN> EXIT;

At this point the backup operator who will use virtual private catalog vpc1 is ready to create the virtual catalog. In the following example, the backup operator connects to the recovery catalog database as vpc1 and creates the virtual private catalog for vpc1

RMAN> CONNECT CATALOG vpc1/password@catdb
RMAN> CREATE VIRTUAL CATALOG;
RMAN> EXIT;

Because this operator eventually intends to use the virtual catalog with Oracle Database 10g target databases, the operator must execute the CREATE_VIRTUAL_CATALOG PL/SQL procedure before using the virtual catalog (as explained in "Usage Notes"). In the following example, the backup operator connects to the recovery catalog database as vpc1 and executes the PL/SQL procedure as follows:

SQL> CONNECT vpc1/password@catdb
SQL> BEGIN 
  2  catowner.DBMS_RCVCAT.CREATE_VIRTUAL_CATALOG;
  3  END;
  4  /