Mir Sayeed Hassan – Oracle Blog

Backup database when NOARCHIVELOG Mode by using RMAN in Oracle database 11gR2

Consider the database is running in noarchivelog mode, in this case you can take only the offline full db backup & cannot take the online backup

If you want to take the full db backup in noarchivelog mode, the db should be in mount mode, not the open mode.

Imagine your db is not started & need to perform this full db backup in noarchivelog mode

Fallow the below procedure:

[oracle@testdb ~]$ !sq
sqlplus
SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.4.0 Production on Tue Feb 13 15:57:47 2018
Copyright (c) 1982, 2013, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
Connected to an idle instance.
testdb>exit
Disconnected

Set the ORACLE_SID Env variable to your db & start the RMAN

[oracle@testdb ~]$ export ORACLE_SID=testdb
[oracle@testdb ~]$ rman target system/manager nocatalog
Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.4.0 - Production on Tue Feb 13 15:58:21 2018
Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.
connected to target database (not started)
RMAN>

Start the database in mount mode

RMAN> startup mount
Oracle instance started
database mounted
Total System Global Area    2455228416 bytes
Fixed Size                     2255712 bytes
Variable Size                771753120 bytes
Database Buffers            1660944384 bytes
Redo Buffers                  20275200 bytes

testdb>select status from v$instance;
STATUS
------------
MOUNTED

testdb>select log_mode from v$database;

LOG_MODE
------------
NOARCHIVELOG

Now take the full database backupsets in default location, the DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST parameter or you can specify your own location

If you want to take in default location:

RMAN> backup full database tag 'fulldb_bkp_noarchmode';

Or

In my case I have used “backup/fdb_bkp_noarchivelog_mode” as another directory as my own location as shown below:

[root@testdb backup]# mkdir fdb_bkp_noarchivelog_mode
[root@testdb backup]# chmod -R 777 fdb_bkp_noarchivelog_mode/
RMAN> backup full database format '/backup/fdb_bkp_noarchivelog_mode/%U' tag 'fulldb_bkp_noarchmode';

Start the backup of database in noarchivelog mode with mount status

[oracle@testdb fdb_bkp_noarchivelog_mode]$ rman target system/manager nocatalog

RMAN> run {
startup mount
backup as compressed backupset incremental level 0 database format '/backup/fdb_bkp_noarchivelog_mode/%U' tag 'fulldb_bk_noarchmode';
}

Note:

Format option is used to place the backup in non default location

%U means RMAN should generate unique filenames for backupsets

Once the backup is completed, Open the database

RMAN> alter database open;
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
database opened

====Hence the backup of the database in noarchivelog mode is completed successfully=====