BACKUP VALIDATE vs VALIDATE in checking logical/physical corruption

Question

Hello all,
I am checking if our 10gR2 database has any physical or logical corruption. I have read in some places where they state that VALIDATE command is enough to check database for physical corruption. Our database was never backed up by RMAN specifically before. Are any configuration settings needed for running BACKUP VALIDATE command? The reason I am asking is because just the VALIDATE command returns an error and BACKUP VALIDATE command runs without error but it is not showing the
"File Status Marked Corrupt Empty Blocks Blocks Examined High SCN" lines.
I used the command in two different formats and both do not show individual data file statuses:
RMAN> run {
CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO DISK;
CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE DISK PARALLELISM 10 BACKUP TYPE TO BACKUPSET;
BACKUP VALIDATE CHECK LOGICAL DATABASE FILESPERSET=10;
RMAN> BACKUP VALIDATE CHECK LOGICAL DATABASE
RMAN> VALIDATE DATABASE;
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00558: error encountered while parsing input commands
RMAN-01009: syntax error: found "database": expecting one of: "backupset"
RMAN-01007: at line 1 column 10 file: standard input
However on a different database already being backed up by RMAN daily, BACKUP VALIDATE output shows list of datafiles and STATUS = OK as below:
List of Datafiles
=================
File Status Marked Corrupt Empty Blocks Blocks Examined High SCN
How can we check every individual datafile status. Appreciate your responses. Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi,
After you have run:
BACKUP VALIDATE CHECK LOGICAL DATABASE You can use sqlplus and run:
select * from v$database_block_corruption.The output will tell you which block in which datafile is corrupt.
Regards,
Tycho
Edited by: tychos on 8-sep-2011 18:34