Seems you have already gotten some great answers! I might also suggest, if you are in 10g, that you look at adding compression to your backups (backup as compressed backupset database plus archivelog delete input). You might be amazed at how much smaller your backupsets are and how much time using compression can save on your backups (at the cost of some CPU of course). When I do RMAN courses I like to demonstrate a compressed vs. non-compressed RMAN backup. The compression itself can be impressive, the time to backup savings can likewise be impressive (Ceteris paribus.... oooops, can I say that.....?) One of the things I find with some RMAN setups is that they are way over engineered. RMAN (particularly in 9i and later) is a very simple tool to use. If people would acquaint themselves with the feature set and the proper command set to use, you would not end up seeing some of the whacked out RMAN scripts that I've seen in the past!! :-) I'd mention a great book that I know on RMAN, but humility prevents me from doing so! :-) RF Robert G. Freeman Oracle Consultant/DBA/Author Principal Engineer/Team Manager The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Father of Five, Husband of One, Author of various geeky computer titles from Osborne/McGraw Hill (Oracle Press) Oracle Database 11g New Features Now Available for Pre-sales on Amazon.com! BLOG: http://robertgfreeman.blogspot.com/ Sig V1.2 -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l