When to delete archive logs- using rman 10.1.0.5

Question

Hello,
I am using rman to backup my database(10.1.0.5) along with backing up the archivelogs delete input. The retention of the backup is set to 1. I am backing the datafiles and archivelogs to disk /backupdata. I noticed that the /backupdata is filling up with a lot of backup archivelogs. Since the retention of the database is set to 1, does that mean that rman will also clean the archivelogs in /backupdata too? What I am asking is, since the retention is set to 1, does rman automatically determine witch archivelogs in the /backupdata to delete if rman determines that the archivelogs is not needed to satisfied the retention 1 condition??? Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

rman won't automatically purge your backups. Retention policy can be defined to be 1 (what?) redundancy copies or recovery window?
You may have defined, let's say 1 redundant copy, which means you must have at least one backup to consider the other obsolete, and you will keep one redundant copy. The other backups are not automatically deleted, they are just marked obsolete, and you can delete them.
I suggest you to manually purge your backups, as they will fill up your storage. issue, from a recovery manager session:
rman> report obsolete;
rman > delete noprompt obsolete;
rman> report obsolete;
The delete noprompt obsolete will physically purge all backups reported as obsolete by the first command. You can confirm actions from the last command.
I suggest you to perform a periodic task to purge obsolete backups, schedule last command, it can be done once your regular backup ends.
If you have Enterprise manager DB Control console enabled, it can be scheduled using the internal scheduler, and it can be monitored from within EM.
~ Madrid.