You will need to create both a listener and tns entry for b. The backup set pieces need to be available to b (unless you are 11g and doing active database duplication). You then connect to A as the target and B as the auxilliary and do the duplicate. Hope that helps! Robert Robert G. Freeman Author: OCP: Oracle Database 11g Administrator Certified Professional Study Guide (Sybex) Oracle Database 11g New Features (Oracle Press) Portable DBA: Oracle (Oracle Press) Oracle Database 10g New Features (Oracle Press) Oracle9i RMAN Backup and Recovery (Oracle Press) Oracle9i New Features (Oracle Press) Other various titles out of print now... Blog: http://robertgfreeman.blogspot.com The LDS Church is looking for DBA's. You do have to be a Church member in good standing. A lot of kind people write me, concerned I may be breaking the law by saying you have to be a Church member. It's legal I promise! :-) ________________________________ From: Jeffrey Beckstrom <JBECKSTROM@xxxxxxxxx> To: oracle-l-freelists <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; oracle-db-l <oracle-db-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 7:53:26 AM Subject: On which server run RMAN when duplicating database I am reading the duplicate chapter of Robert Freeman's RMAN book. If I copy the backup files from server A to server B as mentioned in the book, do I then run RMAN on server B. If so, I understand that I will need a tns entry on server B back to the database on server A so RMAN can connect to the target. Is this correct?