crosscheck controlfilecopy all

Yeah right - you wish!  There's no such thing my friend (not as of 10gR2 -
10.2.0.3.0 anyway), but I'll show you how you can do this yourself:

First lets get the basis of this writeup out of the way.  If you are here 
you've probably got a database with gazillion of binary backup controlfiles 
that were created via the following command:

   alter database backup controlfile to '/backup/ctl_bak_TODAY_DATE.ora';

Now you've implemented RMAN backup and you'd like to use the following command 
to delete obsolete backups:

   DELETE NOPROMPT OBSOLETE REDUNDANCY = 2;

Here's the problem though ... this command fails with the following error:


   RMAN-06207: WARNING: 872 objects could not be deleted for DISK channel(s) due
   RMAN-06208:          to mismatched status.  Use CROSSCHECK command to fix status

filling up your RMAN backup logfile with redundant error messages.  You now 
want RMAN to forget about all these "old" backup controlfiles and you tried a 
CROSSCHECK command but realized that it doesn't support "all" keyword so you 
are now faced with an issue of doing a "crosscheck controlfilecopy "clt_name" 
for each and every file - quite a bit of manual labor.

Well, Fear No Oracle buddy because I'll show you a quick and dirty trick that'll 
get you on your way to clean RMAN backups in no time.  Follow along below:

Here's the right command to CROSSCHECK a single CONTROLFILECOPY - this will be 
our template:

   RMAN> crosscheck controlfilecopy "/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_07_21.backup.ctl";
   
   using target database controlfile instead of recovery catalog
   allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
   channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=35 devtype=DISK
   validation failed for controlfile copy
   controlfile copy filename=/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_07_21.backup.ctl recid=25 stamp=564271666
   Crosschecked 1 objects
   

Lets start by creating a small shell script that'll give us a list of all 
missing Controlfile Copies:


   hostname.DBNAME-> cat 1.sh
   NLS_DATE_FORMAT='Mon-DD-YYYY HH24:MI:SS'; export NLS_DATE_FORMAT
   
   rman target / <<EOF
   
   ## delete old (redundant) backups
   ##
   ALLOCATE CHANNEL FOR MAINTENANCE DEVICE TYPE DISK;
   DELETE NOPROMPT OBSOLETE;
   RELEASE CHANNEL;
   
   exit
   EOF


Now run 1.sh and save it's output in 1.log

   hostname.DBNAME-> ./1.sh > 1.log


Here's what we are looking for in the 1.log

   hostname.DBNAME-> grep "Controlfile Copy" 1.log | head
   Controlfile Copy     2      Jun-15-2005 18:41:21 /scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_15.backup.ctl
   Controlfile Copy     3      Jun-16-2005 22:07:40 /scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_16.backup.ctl
   Controlfile Copy     4      Jun-17-2005 22:07:40 /scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_17.backup.ctl
   Controlfile Copy     5      Jun-18-2005 22:07:40 /scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_18.backup.ctl
   Controlfile Copy     6      Jun-19-2005 22:07:44 /scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_19.backup.ctl
   Controlfile Copy     7      Jun-20-2005 22:07:38 /scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_20.backup.ctl
   Controlfile Copy     8      Jun-21-2005 22:07:40 /scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_21.backup.ctl
   Controlfile Copy     9      Jun-22-2005 22:07:40 /scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_22.backup.ctl
   Controlfile Copy     10     Jun-23-2005 22:07:41 /scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_23.backup.ctl
   Controlfile Copy     11     Jun-24-2005 22:07:40 /scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_24.backup.ctl
   hostname.DBNAME->

Add a small AWK parse to match a template of a CROSSCHECK for a single 
CONTROLFILECOPY dumping all parsed output into clear_ctl.rman

   hostname.DBNAME-> grep "Controlfile Copy" 1.log | awk '{ print "crosscheck controlfilecopy \"" $6 "\";"}' > clear_ctl.rman
   
   hostname.DBNAME-> head clear_ctl.rman
   crosscheck controlfilecopy "/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_15.backup.ctl";
   crosscheck controlfilecopy "/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_16.backup.ctl";
   crosscheck controlfilecopy "/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_17.backup.ctl";
   crosscheck controlfilecopy "/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_18.backup.ctl";
   crosscheck controlfilecopy "/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_19.backup.ctl";
   crosscheck controlfilecopy "/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_20.backup.ctl";
   crosscheck controlfilecopy "/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_21.backup.ctl";
   crosscheck controlfilecopy "/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_22.backup.ctl";
   crosscheck controlfilecopy "/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_23.backup.ctl";
   crosscheck controlfilecopy "/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2005_06_24.backup.ctl";
   hostname.DBNAME->

Run clear_ctl.rman.out

   hostname.DBNAME-> rman target / < clear_ctl.rman > clear_ctl.rman.out

Verify output after it's done:

   hostname.DBNAME-> tail -14 clear_ctl.rman.out

   RMAN>
   released channel: ORA_DISK_1
   allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
   channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=35 devtype=DISK
   validation failed for controlfile copy
   controlfile copy filename=/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2007_11_17.backup.ctl recid=874 stamp=638922083
   Crosschecked 1 objects
   
   
   RMAN>
   
   Recovery Manager complete.
   hostname.DBNAME->



And finally re-run DELETE NOPROMPT OBSOLETE; (script 1.sh)
Note how now RMAN is able to remove all of the missing ctl backups because 
they were properly crosschecked (See below)


   hostname.DBNAME-> ./1.sh
   ...
   ...
   ...
   deleted controlfile copy
   controlfile copy filename=/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2007_11_15.backup.ctl recid=872 stamp=638749280
   deleted controlfile copy
   controlfile copy filename=/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2007_11_16.backup.ctl recid=873 stamp=638835768
   deleted controlfile copy
   controlfile copy filename=/scratch/oradata/DBNAME/backups/2007_11_17.backup.ctl recid=874 stamp=638922083
   Deleted 873 objects
   
   
   RMAN>
   released channel: ORA_MAINT_DISK_1
   
   RMAN>
   RMAN>
   
   Recovery Manager complete.
   hostname.DBNAME->

And there you have it "crosscheck controlfilecopy all" ORACLE Angler way.

Got a better way of doing this?

Then what are you waiting for? Share it with us below!