Validating Selected Backups

Validating specific backups checks whether these backups exist and can be restored. It does not test whether the set of available backups meet your recoverability goals. For example, image copies of data files for several tablespaces from your database may exist, each of which can be validated. If there are some tablespaces for which no valid backups exist, however, then you cannot restore and recover the database.

To validate selected backups:

Connect Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) to the target database as described in "Connecting to the Target Database Using RMAN."

Validate the required backup.

The following VALIDATE command validates the datafile users_02.dbf.

VALIDATE DATAFILE '/ora112/oradata/users_02.dbf';

Starting validate at 27-MAR-12
using channel ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting validation of datafile
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) for validation
input datafile file number=00020 
name=/ora112/oradata/users_02.dbf
channel ORA_DISK_1: validation complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01

List of Datafiles
=================
File Status Marked Corrupt Empty Blocks Blocks Examined High SCN
---- ------ -------------- ------------ --------------- ----------
20   OK     0              248          256             618976

File Name: /ora112/oradata/users_02.dbf
Block Type Blocks Failing Blocks Processed
  ---------- -------------- ----------------
  Data       0              0
  Index      0              0
  Other      0              8

Finished validate at 27-MAR-12

When you suspect that one or more backup pieces in a backup set are missing or have been damaged, use the VALIDATE BACKUPSET command to validate the backup set.