Diagnosing Connection Problems

When diagnosing errors RMAN encounters in connecting to the target, catalog and auxiliary databases, using SQL*Plus to connect to the databases directly can reveal underlying problems with the connection information or the databases.

Diagnosing Target and Auxiliary Database Connection Problems

RMAN always connects to target and auxiliary databases using the SYSDBA role. Thus, when using SQL*Plus to diagnose connection problems to the target or auxiliary databases, request a SYSDBA connection to reproduce RMAN's behavior.

For example, if the following RMAN command encountered connection errors:

RMAN> CONNECT target sys/oracle@target

you would reproduce the connection attempt with the SQL*Plus command:

SQL> CONNECT sys/oracle@target AS SYSDBA

Diagnosing Recovery Catalog Connection Problems

When RMAN connects to the recovery catalog database, it does not use the SYSDBA role. So, when you are using SQL*Plus to diagnose connection problems to the recovery catalog database, you must enter the catalog connect string exactly as it was entered into RMAN. Do not also specify AS SYSDBA.