Is it possible to restore DB from Obsolete backup?

Question

Hi,
Is it possible to restore DB from Obsolete backup? If yes. How?
Thanks
Rajesh

Answer 1

Catalog your backup again to restore it. Please read the below paragraph.
Cataloging Older Files in the Recovery Catalog
If you have datafile copies, backup pieces or archive logs on disk, you can catalog them in the recovery catalog using the CATALOG command. When using a recovery catalog, cataloging older backups that have aged out of the control file lets RMAN use the older backups during restore operations. For example:
RMAN> CATALOG DATAFILECOPY '/disk1/old_datafiles/01_01_2003/users01.dbf';
RMAN> CATALOG ARCHIVELOG '/disk1/arch_logs/archive1_731.dbf',
'/disk1/arch_logs/archive1_732.dbf';
RMAN> CATALOG BACKUPPIECE '/disk1/backups/backup_820.bkp';
You can also catalog multiple backup files in a directory at once, using the CATALOG START WITH command, as shown in this example:
RMAN> CATALOG START WITH '/disk1/backups/';
RMAN lists the files to be added to the RMAN repository and prompts for confirmation before adding the backups.
Be careful when creating your prefix for CATALOG START WITH. RMAN scans all paths for all files on disk which begin with your specified prefix. The wrong prefix may include more files than you intend. For example, a group of directories /disk1/backups , /disk1/backups-year2003, /disk1/backupsets, and /disk1/backupsets/test and so on, all contain backup files. The command
RMAN> CATALOG START WITH '/disk1/backups';
catalogs all files in all of these directories, because /disk1/backups is a prefix for the paths for all of these directories. In order to catalog only backups in the /disk1/backups directory, the correct command would be:
RMAN> CATALOG START WITH '/disk1/backups/';
Regards
Asif Kabir