Oracle 12c rman backup gone with drop pluggable database pdb

Today, I was testing backup and restore process for new oracle 12c pluggable database and part of test i thought to test drop and restore of pluggable database.


I have created a small two tablespace database PDB1 from PDB$SEED datbase for this test.

Before attempting the drop , i thought to backup the database so i can restore later when database is droppped and perform recovery operation.


RMAN> backup pluggable database PDB1;

Starting backup at 28-OCT-15
using channel ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00021 name=/u01/oradata/CDBORA/232C3E643AA01E17E0530100007FCD5B/datafile/o1_mf_sysaux_c31rdofq_.dbf
input datafile file number=00020 name=/u01/oradata/CDBORA/232C3E643AA01E17E0530100007FCD5B/datafile/o1_mf_system_c31rdofp_.dbf
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 28-OCT-15
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 28-OCT-15
piece handle=/u01/oadata/fast_recovery_area/CDBORA/232C3E643AA01E17E0530100007FCD5B/backupset/2015_10_28/o1_mf_nnndf_TAG20151028T080754_c31s6cop_.bkp tag=TAG20151028T080754 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:36
Finished backup at 28-OCT-15

Starting Control File and SPFILE Autobackup at 28-OCT-15
piece handle=/u01/oadata/fast_recovery_area/CDBORA/autobackup/2015_10_28/o1_mf_s_894269310_c31s7gmk_.bkp comment=NONE
Finished Control File and SPFILE Autobackup at 28-OCT-15

List of Backup Sets

===================

BS Key  Type LV Size       Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time

------- ---- -- ---------- ----------- ------------ ---------------

5       Full    660.88M    DISK        00:00:26     28-OCT-15      

        BP Key: 5   Status: AVAILABLE  Compressed: NO  Tag: TAG20151028T080754

        Piece Name: /u01/oadata/fast_recovery_area/CDBORA/232C3E643AA01E17E0530100007FCD5B/backupset/2015_10_28/o1_mf_nnndf_TAG20151028T080754_c31s6cop_.bkp

  List of Datafiles in backup set 5

  Container ID: 5, PDB Name: PDB1

  File LV Type Ckp SCN    Ckp Time  Name

  ---- -- ---- ---------- --------- ----

  20      Full 1964340    28-OCT-15 /u01/oradata/CDBORA/232C3E643AA01E17E0530100007FCD5B/datafile/o1_mf_system_c31rdofp_.dbf

  21      Full 1964340    28-OCT-15 /u01/oradata/CDBORA/232C3E643AA01E17E0530100007FCD5B/datafile/o1_mf_sysaux_c31rdofq_.dbf

BS Key  Type LV Size       Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time

------- ---- -- ---------- ----------- ------------ ---------------

6       Full    17.20M     DISK        00:00:00     28-OCT-15      

        BP Key: 6   Status: AVAILABLE  Compressed: NO  Tag: TAG20151028T080830

        Piece Name: /u01/oadata/fast_recovery_area/CDBORA/autobackup/2015_10_28/o1_mf_s_894269310_c31s7gmk_.bkp

  SPFILE Included: Modification time: 28-OCT-15

  SPFILE db_unique_name: CDBORA

  Control File Included: Ckp SCN: 1964358      Ckp time: 28-OCT-15

SQL> SELECT CON_ID,NAME, OPEN_MODE FROM V$PDBS;

    CON_ID NAME      OPEN_MODE

---------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------

2 PDB$SEED      READ ONLY

3 PDB2      READ WRITE

4 DPBSALES      READ WRITE

5 PDB1      READ WRITE

SQL> DROP PLUGGABLE DATABASE PDB1;

DROP PLUGGABLE DATABASE PDB1

*

ERROR at line 1:

ORA-65179: cannot keep datafiles for a pluggable database that is not unplugged

as it failed to drop without deleting files, I used including datafiles option.

SQL> DROP PLUGGABLE DATABASE PDB1 INCLUDING DATAFILES;

Pluggable database dropped.

now database was dropped , i thought to go back to my backup and restore .

RMAN> LIST Backup;

List of Backup Sets

===================

BS Key  Type LV Size       Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time

------- ---- -- ---------- ----------- ------------ ---------------

6       Full    17.20M     DISK        00:00:00     28-OCT-15      

        BP Key: 6   Status: AVAILABLE  Compressed: NO  Tag: TAG20151028T080830

        Piece Name: /u01/oadata/fast_recovery_area/CDBORA/autobackup/2015_10_28/o1_mf_s_894269310_c31s7gmk_.bkp

  SPFILE Included: Modification time: 28-OCT-15

  SPFILE db_unique_name: CDBORA

  Control File Included: Ckp SCN: 1964358      Ckp time: 28-OCT-15

I couldn't find my backup in rman ,because information from controlfile is gone. Fortunately my backup file are still there, so its not big issue, i could use those to restore my database. but as current controlfile no longer knows about PDB1 i will have to restore the controlfile of time before dropping the database.

Happy Learning !!!