No problem, and I wouldn't call the info you provided "bad", just slightly incomplete maybe - nothing to apologize for. The assumption I stated (that retention is set correctly) is a big one, and one that I would never make. I always verify the retention on my Netbackup tape backups with the bpclimagelist command - and I strongly recommend everyone else do the same if you value the ablility to restore your backups months or years down the road. And be sure to make sure that the retention is set correctly on ALL required backup pieces - that means the control file, data files and log files. I've seen some cases were these are split out into different backup pieces with different retentions and your hot data file backups aren't going to do much good w/o the archive logs or vice-versa. This ties into another recent discussion on the list where the general consensus was to run your hot database backups with the "plus archivelog" clause. I also recommend that anyone relying on control files only as their rman repository turn on controlfile autobackups - and test your restores of these (w/o using a catalog) so you are familiar with the process in advance. Regards, Brandon -----Original Message----- From: Alvaro Jose Fernandez [mailto:alvaro.fernandez@xxxxxxxxx] Brandon, you're right, and many thanks for the correction. Sorry the bad info. I have not exercised this scenario (and I must to). Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message or attachments hereto. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of this company shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l