Backing Up Image Copy Backups with RMAN

Use the BACKUP COPY OF command to back up image copies of datafiles, control files, and archived logs. The output of the BACKUP COPY OF command can be either backup sets or image copies, so you can generate backup sets from your image copies. This form of backup is used to back up a database backup created as image copies on disk to tape. You can use the MAXSETSIZE parameter of the BACKUP command to set a maximum size for each backup set.

Assuming that you have configured an automatic sbt channel, issue this command to back up the latest image copy backup of the database to tape:

RMAN> BACKUP DEVICE TYPE sbt COPY OF DATABASE;

This example backs up the latest image copy backup of a database to backup sets on tape, and then deletes the input disk backups:

RMAN> BACKUP DEVICE TYPE sbt COPY OF DATABASE DELETE INPUT; 

When backing up your image copies, identifying the image copy to back up is easier if you provide tags for your backups. Image copies of datafiles have associated tags (if you do not provide one, one is automatically generated). The tag of an image copy is inherited by default when the image copy is backed up as a new image copy. You can also specify your own tag.

To take advantage of the tags associated with your image copy backups, use the WITH TAG selector. The new backup will be tagged with the same tag as the image copy backup being backed up. When multiple image copies have the same tag, the most recent image copy of a file with the specified tag will be backed up.