RMAN Restore Error - media recovery requesting unknown log: thread 1 seq 7

Question

Im using RMAN to copy a database to another server. The new server is IDENTICAL to the old one. By identical I mean it has the same sever name, ip address, operating system, Oracle version and directory structure.
The new server already has the instance created, (same name as the old server instance, paths etc)
The backup files have been manually restored to the new server, same locations as they were on the old one. ( RMAN did an automatic controlfile backup and also the archivelogs on the old server ).
Ive restored the control file on the new server from the RMAN backup pieces.
Ive catalogued the RMAN backup pieces on the new server.
I know the last sequence available in the archivelogs backup by running on the new server :
list backup of archivelog all;
List of Backup Sets
===================
BS Key Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
5 14.43M DISK 00:00:03 11-MAY-11
BP Key: 9 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: NO Tag: TAG20110511T163502
Piece Name: C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\SAT\BACKUPSET\
011_05_11\O1_MF_ANNNN_TAG20110511T163502_6WOC5833_.BKP
List of Archived Logs in backup set 5
Thrd Seq Low SCN Low Time Next SCN Next Time
1 2 550217 10-MAY-11 556559 11-MAY-11
1 3 556559 11-MAY-11 559776 11-MAY-11
1 4 559776 11-MAY-11 560093 11-MAY-11
1 5 560093 11-MAY-11 560794 11-MAY-11
BS Key Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
7 15.50K DISK 00:00:01 11-MAY-11
BP Key: 10 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: NO Tag: TAG20110511T163653
Piece Name: C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\SAT\BACKUPSET\
011_05_11\O1_MF_ANNNN_TAG20110511T163653_6WOC8PMP_.BKP
List of Archived Logs in backup set 7
Thrd Seq Low SCN Low Time Next SCN Next Time
1 6 560794 11-MAY-11 560851 11-MAY-11
So far its all going swimmingly well.
Now I want to restore the datafiles and recover. So I ran :
RMAN run { restore database; recover database; alter database open resetlogs; }
This gave me the output below which goes great but I get a final error, I think the error is because its looking for an archive log thats not in the backup set, but it should be. However, I think SCN 560851 is for a log that hadnt been created yet on the old server when the backup was ran ?
How do I address resolving the error ? Its worth pointing out log, "archive log filename=C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\SAT\ARCHIVELOG
\2011_05_11\O1_MF_1_6_6WOK1X4W_.ARC recid=10 stamp=750881741" isnt on the old server either which is why its not in the backup set.
I can do a alter database open reset logs but Id prefer to know why its failing.
Any help would be much appreciated.
RMAN> run { restore database; recover database; alter database open resetlogs; }
Starting restore at 11-MAY-11
using channel ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting datafile backupset restore
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) to restore from backup set
restoring datafile 00001 to C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\SAT\SYSTEM01.DBF
restoring datafile 00002 to C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\SAT\UNDOTBS01.DBF
restoring datafile 00003 to C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\SAT\SYSAUX01.DBF
restoring datafile 00004 to C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\SAT\USERS01.DBF
channel ORA_DISK_1: reading from backup piece C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_REC
OVERY_AREA\SAT\BACKUPSET\2011_05_11\O1_MF_NNNDF_TAG20110511T163507_6WOC5CM7_.BKP
channel ORA_DISK_1: restored backup piece 1
piece handle=C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\SAT\BACKUPSET\2011_05_
11\O1_MF_NNNDF_TAG20110511T163507_6WOC5CM7_.BKP tag=TAG20110511T163507
channel ORA_DISK_1: restore complete, elapsed time: 00:00:55
Finished restore at 11-MAY-11
Starting recover at 11-MAY-11
using channel ORA_DISK_1
starting media recovery
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting archive log restore to default destination
channel ORA_DISK_1: restoring archive log
archive log thread=1 sequence=6
channel ORA_DISK_1: reading from backup piece C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_REC
OVERY_AREA\SAT\BACKUPSET\2011_05_11\O1_MF_ANNNN_TAG20110511T163653_6WOC8PMP_.BKP
channel ORA_DISK_1: restored backup piece 1
piece handle=C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\SAT\BACKUPSET\2011_05_
11\O1_MF_ANNNN_TAG20110511T163653_6WOC8PMP_.BKP tag=TAG20110511T163653
channel ORA_DISK_1: restore complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
archive log filename=C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\SAT\ARCHIVELOG
\2011_05_11\O1_MF_1_6_6WOK1X4W_.ARC thread=1 sequence=6
channel default: deleting archive log(s)
archive log filename=C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\SAT\ARCHIVELOG
\2011_05_11\O1_MF_1_6_6WOK1X4W_.ARC recid=10 stamp=750881741
unable to find archive log
archive log thread=1 sequence=7
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of recover command at 05/11/2011 18:15:42
RMAN-06054: media recovery requesting unknown log: thread 1 seq 7 lowscn 560851
RMAN>
Edited by: user12173666 on 11-May-2011 10:28

Answer 1

You need to do incomplete recovery i.e. to ask RMAN to restore/recover to some specific point in time. This is usually done with some UNTIL clause or SET UNTIL statement. Example in your case:
SET UNTIL SEQUENCE 7;See http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/backup.102/b14194/rcmsynta065.htm#RCMRF160.