3 Starting and Exiting RMAN

The RMAN client is started by issuing the rman command at the command prompt of your operating system.

RMAN must connect to a target database (with SYSDBA privileges) to perform backup and recovery tasks. RMAN can also connect to a recovery catalog database if you are using one. Specify target and recovery catalog databases using command line options or using the CONNECT command.

This command illustrates connecting RMAN to a target database and a recovery catalog at startup:

% rman TARGET / CATALOG cat_usr/pwd@cat_str 

Connect to a target database without using a recovery catalog:

% rman TARGET SYS/pwd@target_str 

Starting RMAN without connecting to a database:

% rman

Once started, RMAN displays an "RMAN>" prompt for your commands.

Syntax of Common RMAN Command-line Options

RMAN 
[ TARGET [=] connectStringSpec 
| { CATALOG [=] connectStringSpec } 
| LOG [=] ['] filename ['] [ APPEND ]
.
.
. 
]...

connectStringSpec::=
['] [userid] [/ [password]] [@net_service_name] [']

This example appends the output from an RMAN session to a text file at $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/log/msglog.log

% rman TARGET / LOG $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/log/msglog.log APPEND

To quit the RMAN client, type EXIT at the RMAN prompt:

RMAN> EXIT