RESTORE VALIDATE, then what?

Question

Hi,
Everyday I do,
LIST BACKUPSET SUMMARY COMPLETED AFTER...
VALIDATE BACKUPSET XXXX,XXXX...
RESTORE VALIDATE CONTROLFILE
RESTORE VALIDATE SPFILE
RESTORE VALIDATE ARCHIVELOG FROM TIME 'XX-XXX-XX'
RESTORE VALIDATE DATABASE
1: Assuming the Server crashed, what is the quickest way to bring the database up and running, if on another server, and how to revert back to the original server.
2: I'm a bit confused as to everyday I do backup/validate, suppose I don't have a cold backup, but I've archivelog for 1 month, how do I restore/recover the database, do I need a timely cold backup as well? (current backup includes, daily incrementally updated, and weekly hot backup).

Answer 1

Regarding your question 2: it makes not one jot of difference whether you're doing hot, cold or tepid backups. Complete recovery always demands (a) some baseline to restore from (b) all the redo taken from the time that baseline was created until now (whenever "now" is).
If you don't backup for a month, no worries: so long as you've got one month's-worth of redo safe and available, you'll (or RMAN will) be able to restore the one-month-old backup and roll it forward to the current time by recovering it (that is, applying redo to it).
Of course, that will be slow. The purpose of taking any sort of backup (hot or cold, it's irrelevant) is to provide a baseline which is a little nearer to "now" than before, and thus to obviate the need to apply so much redo (which is generally a lot slower to do than restoring a more up-to-date backup is).
Specifically, therefore, no: you don't need "a timely cold backup as well". You just need to be taking regular physical backups of the entire database at a pace that suits your recovery needs. Your weekly hot backup is a perfectly acceptable baseline: there's no need to do cold backups unless you feel the need to do so. They are not intrinsically safer of more recoverable than a hot backup, provided only that your redo is always kept safe.