Tales From A Lazy Fat DBA

No SPFILE before control file if both are backed up at the same time.

RMAN> backup current spfile controlfile;

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00558: error encountered while parsing input commands
RMAN-01009: syntax error: found “spfile”: expecting one of: “controlfile”
RMAN-01007: at line 1 column 16 file: standard input

RMAN> backup current controlfile spfile;

Starting backup at 29-MAY-12
using channel ORA_DISK_1
….

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* RMAN don’t support PFILE backups. SPFILE is only support parameter type in RMAN.

* RMAN does not backup TEMP tablespaces.
That is because “TEMP” was not backed up at the outset. RMAN does not backup Temporary Tablespaces. Such tablespaces do NOT need to be backed up, and, therefore are not restored or cloned.

* Redo logs can’t be backed up using RMAN but REDO Archivelogs can.