The source of the quote was likely the nfs clonedb feature introduced in 11g (maybe R2). Kevin Closson has an intro at http://kevinclosson.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/oracle-database-11g-direct-nfs-clonedb-feature-part-i/ it is a cool feature, but probably won't help Alan. On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 5:17 PM, <rajendra.pande@xxxxxxx> wrote: > I don’t believe there is any such feature. Notice the words “I believe” > J**** > > What I believe is available in 11G is that RMAN is capable of backing up > only used blocks**** > > But in 1 iTB file if only 200M is used then my understanding will be that > somehow magically the output file will still be 1TB even though only 200MB > was backed up.**** > > Of course I have not tested it yet.**** > > ** ** > > Thanks **** > > ** ** > ------------------------------ > > *From:* oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto: > oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Guillermo Alan Bort > *Sent:* Tuesday, June 28, 2011 11:51 AM > *To:* oracle-l-freelists > *Subject:* RMAN duplicate only used blocks?**** > > ** ** > > So, the situation is this, I have a tablespace with about 600GB of free > space (spread out in about 80 datafiles). The entire database itself has > about 2TB and we need to copy it to another server. The problem is that we > have 1.5TB allocated in the ASM instance in the destination server. We > wanted to use RMAN, but the database won't fit. We could use export/import > but it would take too long and we don't have anywhere to store the export. > > Someone pointed to me that RMAN was capable of duplicating only the used > blocks... I researched a lot but I couldn't find it... so I'm either looking > in the wrong place or that someone was wrong. (there is also the possibility > that I'm very sleepy). > > I know rman can compress backups and that it only backs up used blocks > (when doing a backupset anyway) but I think duplicate just... duplicates... > I don't think it resizes and moves stuff around. > > Anyway... I think we will have to go with datapump for this one (we are on > 11g anyway), but I was just wondering if I was missing a key feature in > rman... > > thanks > Alan.-**** > > Please visit our website at > http://financialservicesinc.ubs.com/wealth/E-maildisclaimer.html > for important disclosures and information about our e-mail > policies. For your protection, please do not transmit orders > or instructions by e-mail or include account numbers, Social > Security numbers, credit card numbers, passwords, or other > personal information. > -- Niall Litchfield Oracle DBA http://www.orawin.info