Restoring from RMAN tablespace backup ; Few questions

Question

11.2.0.3/RHEL 5.8
We have a RAC DB which is used by more than 20 applications. One schema for each application and one tablespace for each schema.
We have a schema with 130gb in size. All Objects in this schema use a single tablespace MCS_DATA.
This weekend we are applying some changes involving DDL, Code and Data .Usually we take an expdp backup of the schema before the activity starts and later if something goes wrong with script deployment we'll revert to old state by dropping the schema and doing an impdp from the expdp backup.
Question1.
Can we do an RMAN tablespace only backup and if something goes wrong with script deployment can we drop the schema and the tablespace and then create an empty schema and then restore from the tablespace backup ?
Question2.
If the above is possible , can you explain how it is going to work out because we are essentially plugging (restore,recover) in a tablespace to the database. Any potential problems ?
Question3. If the above (Question1) is possible, will restore/recover of this tablespace require a downtime for the entire DB ?

Answer 1

Tom;
If you are talking about RMAN TSPITR then yes you can. See - Purpose of RMAN TSPTIR in Backup and Recovery User's Guide E10642-03.
The problem with TSPTIR is bulk. You need a lot of disk space to create a copy and then data pump the information out and back in. I just tested this on 11.2.0.3 and its slow. RMAN created a script which produced an AUX instance and did the data pump, but I had clean up afterwards. If it errors out you can have an AUX instance hanging out in the background.
For TSPTIR you will need an area on the disk to server as an auxiliary destination large enough to hold what you are recovering plus the SYSTEM, UNDO and TEMP tablespaces.
I would probably look at Transportable tablespaces as a possible option too.
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E25054_01/backup.1111/e10642/rcmttbsb.htm
E10642-03 has a section for recovering a tablespace in chapter 2. The Tablespace must be offline, but the database can be up.
This uses "restore tablespace" and "recover tablespace" commands. You would perform this type of recovery when you are say missing a datafile. You can recover any tablespace except SYSTEM and UNDO with this.
Data Pump might be an option too, but given your tablespace size I would have worries about recovery time. Oracle lets you set compression
and a limit to each file produced.
expdp TABLESPACES=YOUR_DATA dumpfile=DATA_PUMP_DIR:ts_dumps_%U.dmp LOGFILE=DATA_PUMP_DIR:ts_dumps_log.log parallel=2 filesize=10G compression=ALL
Given the size of your database a better option might be something like Data Guard as your recovery time would be brutal.
Best Regards
mseberg