Do you see any differences between these two RMAN SHOW commands?<\/p>\n
RMAN> SHOW CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT;\n\nRMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name OCM121 are:\nCONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '%F'; # default<\/pre>\nand<\/p>\n
RMAN> SHOW CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT;\n\nRMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name OCM121 are:\nCONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '%F';<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n
They are the same, except that the first output has the “# default” at the end and the second one doesn’t.<\/p>\n
Whenever you see a “# default” at the end of a RMAN show command, it simply means that this is the default value which comes out of the box, and even if you change it to the same value, the “# default” at the end disappears.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, Oracle is funny. \ud83d\ude42 The strange thing about it, is that ‘%F’ #default and ‘%F’ are not the same. Due to the Oracle documentation, the format specification for ‘%F’ means the following:<\/p>\n
‘%F’ combines the DBID, day, month, year, and sequence into a unique and repeatable generated name.
\nThis variable translates into c-IIIIIIIIII-YYYYMMDD-QQ, where:<\/p>\n
HINT: %F is valid only in the CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT command.<\/p>\n
Ok. Let’s take a look into the ASM directory, where my controlfile autobackups are located.<\/p>\n
ASMCMD> pwd\n+fra\/ocm121\/autobackup\/2016_10_29\nASMCMD> ls -l\nType Redund Striped Time Sys Name\nAUTOBACKUP UNPROT COARSE OCT 29 11:00:00 Y s_926509179.514.926509183\nAUTOBACKUP UNPROT COARSE OCT 29 12:00:00 Y s_926511850.517.926511853<\/pre>\nRegarding the format specification ‘%F’, I see no DBID, no time stamp and also no sequence number. Looks like, that the format specification is not valid for the autobackups located in ASM.<\/p>\n
So … with the RMAN Default (‘%F’; # default), RMAN will send the autobackup to the flash recovery area, if it is used, and in my case, it sends it to ASM. However, the format specification has nothing to do with the ‘%F’ described in the documentation. I do have something totally different.<\/p>\n
Ok. Let’s change the controlfile autobackup format to exactly the same thing like it was before and check what happens. Afterwards, lets quickly force a controlfile autobackup creation.<\/p>\n
RMAN> CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '%F';\n\nnew RMAN configuration parameters:\nCONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '%F';\nnew RMAN configuration parameters are successfully stored\n\nSQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET \"_controlfile_autobackup_delay\"=0;\n\nSystem altered.\n\nSQL> create tablespace DBI datafile size 16M;\n\nTablespace created.<\/pre>\nA new controlfile should have been created right away, but in the ASM directory we see no new controlfile autobackup.<\/p>\n
ASMCMD> ls -l\nType Redund Striped Time Sys Name\nAUTOBACKUP UNPROT COARSE OCT 29 11:00:00 Y s_926509179.514.926509183\nAUTOBACKUP UNPROT COARSE OCT 29 12:00:00 Y s_926511850.517.926511853<\/pre>\nWhere did Oracle put my new controlfile autobackup? I just changed the same value with the same value. After a little bit of looking around, I have noticed that a new controlfile autobackup was created in the good old $ORACLE_HOME\/dbs\/<\/p>\n
oracle@oel001:\/u00\/app\/oracle\/product\/12.1.0.2\/dbs\/ [OCM121] ls -rtl c-*\n-rw-r----- 1 oracle asmadmin 10387456 Oct 31 10:03 c-3827054096-20161031-00<\/pre>\nAnd furthermore, the format specification looks now exactly, how it is documented, incl. the DBID, the time stamp
\nand so on.<\/p>\nSo, with ‘%F’ non-default, Oracle will put it in $ORACLE_HOME\/dbs on UNIX and to %ORACLE_HOME%Database in case you are on Windows. In the end, the following configurations look the same, but they are totally different.<\/p>\n
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '%F'; # default\n\n<\/pre>\nCONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '%F';<\/pre>\nNow you could say, I don’t care if Oracle puts it into ASM or into $ORACLE_HOME\/dbs. In case you are running RAC you should care, because it makes a major difference. If one host crashes, you can’t access your controlfile autobackups anymore. And what about crosschecks? If you run now a crosscheck from host B, it does not see the controlfile autobackups from host A, and after a while you will end up with a big mess.<\/p>\n
Conclusion. Sometimes, the same value is not the same value. \ud83d\ude09 And for RAC and RAC One Node, better stay with the default, which is ‘%F’; #default.
\nCheers,
\nWilliam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By William Sescu Do you see any differences between these two RMAN SHOW commands? RMAN> SHOW CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT; RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name OCM121 are: CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO ‘%F’; # default and RMAN> SHOW CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT; RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name OCM121 are: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[209,270],"type_dbi":[],"class_list":["post-9188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-database-administration-monitoring","tag-oracle-12c","tag-rman"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Oracle 12c - Difference between '%F' #default and '%F' - dbi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oracle 12c - Difference between '%F' #default and '%F'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By William Sescu Do you see any differences between these two RMAN SHOW commands? RMAN> SHOW CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT; RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name OCM121 are: CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '%F'; # default and RMAN> SHOW CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT; RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name OCM121 are: […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"dbi Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-31T11:14:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Oracle Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Oracle Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Oracle Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66ab87129f2d357f09971bc7936a77ee\"},\"headline\":\"Oracle 12c – Difference between ‘%F’ #default and ‘%F’\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-31T11:14:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/\"},\"wordCount\":571,\"commentCount\":2,\"keywords\":[\"Oracle 12c\",\"RMAN\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Database Administration & Monitoring\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/\",\"name\":\"Oracle 12c - Difference between '%F' #default and '%F' - dbi Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-31T11:14:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66ab87129f2d357f09971bc7936a77ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Accueil\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Oracle 12c – Difference between ‘%F’ #default and ‘%F’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"dbi Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66ab87129f2d357f09971bc7936a77ee\",\"name\":\"Oracle Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f711f7cd2c9b09bf2627133755b569fb5be0694810cfd33033bdd095fedba86d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f711f7cd2c9b09bf2627133755b569fb5be0694810cfd33033bdd095fedba86d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f711f7cd2c9b09bf2627133755b569fb5be0694810cfd33033bdd095fedba86d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Oracle Team\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/author\/oracle-team\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Oracle 12c - Difference between '%F' #default and '%F' - dbi Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Oracle 12c - Difference between '%F' #default and '%F'","og_description":"By William Sescu Do you see any differences between these two RMAN SHOW commands? RMAN> SHOW CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT; RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name OCM121 are: CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '%F'; # default and RMAN> SHOW CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT; RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name OCM121 are: […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/","og_site_name":"dbi Blog","article_published_time":"2016-10-31T11:14:29+00:00","author":"Oracle Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Oracle Team","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/"},"author":{"name":"Oracle Team","@id":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66ab87129f2d357f09971bc7936a77ee"},"headline":"Oracle 12c – Difference between ‘%F’ #default and ‘%F’","datePublished":"2016-10-31T11:14:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/"},"wordCount":571,"commentCount":2,"keywords":["Oracle 12c","RMAN"],"articleSection":["Database Administration & Monitoring"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/","url":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/","name":"Oracle 12c - Difference between '%F' #default and '%F' - dbi Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-31T11:14:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66ab87129f2d357f09971bc7936a77ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/oracle-12c-difference-between-f-default-and-f\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Accueil","item":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Oracle 12c – Difference between ‘%F’ #default and ‘%F’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/","name":"dbi Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66ab87129f2d357f09971bc7936a77ee","name":"Oracle Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f711f7cd2c9b09bf2627133755b569fb5be0694810cfd33033bdd095fedba86d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f711f7cd2c9b09bf2627133755b569fb5be0694810cfd33033bdd095fedba86d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f711f7cd2c9b09bf2627133755b569fb5be0694810cfd33033bdd095fedba86d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Oracle Team"},"url":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/author\/oracle-team\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9188"},{"taxonomy":"type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dbi-services.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_dbi?post=9188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}