Restore a single tablespace from full backup erroring out

Question

Hi,
I have backed up the full database using RMAN:
$ rman catalog rman/rman@catdb target /
RMAN> run {
backup as compressed backupset
format '<Full Path>/databkp/DATA_%d_%s_%p'
database
plus archivelog format '<Full Path>/arcbkp/ARC_%d_%s_%p';
Backup was successful.
Now dropped the tablespaces:
SQL> alter tablespace rtestusr offline;
SQL> drop tablespace RTESTUSR including contents and datafiles;
Now trying to restore the tablespace RTESTUSR
$ rman catalog rman/rman@catdb target /
RMAN> restore tablespace rtestusr;
Starting restore at 25-FEB-11
starting full resync of recovery catalog
full resync complete
using channel ORA_DISK_1
using channel ORA_DISK_2
using channel ORA_DISK_3
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of restore command at 02/25/2011 14:28:47
RMAN-06004: ORACLE error from recovery catalog database: RMAN-20202: tablespace not found in the recovery catalog
RMAN-06019: could not translate tablespace name "RTESTUSR"
Also performed the Tablespace Point-in-time recovery:
RMAN> run {
2> set until time "to_date('2011-02-25:12:44:00','yyyy-mm-dd:hh24:mi:ss')";
3> restore tablespace RTESTUSR;
4> }
executing command: SET until clause
Starting restore at 25-FEB-11
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=46 devtype=DISK
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_2
channel ORA_DISK_2: sid=45 devtype=DISK
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_3
channel ORA_DISK_3: sid=44 devtype=DISK
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting datafile backupset restore
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) to restore from backup set
restoring datafile 00006 to /dev2db/rmantst/db/oradata/rtest/rtestusr01.dbf
channel ORA_DISK_1: reading from backup piece /dev2db/rmantst/archrtst/databkp/DATA_RTEST_76_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: restored backup piece 1
piece handle=/dev2db/rmantst/archrtst/databkp/DATA_RTEST_76_1 tag=TAG20110225T114341
channel ORA_DISK_1: restore complete, elapsed time: 00:00:02
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of restore command at 02/25/2011 15:07:42
ORA-19654: must use backup control file to switch file incarnations
Please help.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Bikram

Answer 1

I think you misunderstand some concepts.
1) drop tablespace RTESTUSR including contents and datafiles;
is a valid command, it removes the named tablespace from the database. There's nothing wrong with the database (although it may be a logical (human) error). Restore/recovery is used to repair media failures. RMAN is right: 'RMAN-06019: could not translate tablespace name "RTESTUSR"', since there's no such tablespace in the actual database, the restore/recover process fails.
2) Unfortunately you hide your database version. Up to 10gR2 tablespace point-in-time recovery cannot be used to recover dropped tablespaces, in 11gR1 and higher it's possible.
And - TSPITR - requires a little bit more than 'set until ...'. Refer to the doumentation for your unknown database version.
Werner