Hi all, I have a database which is used for reporting on multiple customers. Data for each customer is provided on a monthly basis. Each montly dataset is stored in its own tablespace. For example, customer A's data for Jan, Feb, Mar resides in three separate tablespaces: tblspc_a_2010_01 tblspc_a_2010_02 tblspc_a_2010_03 The same is true for all other customers: tblspc_x_2010_01 tblspc_x_2010_02 tblspc_x_2010_03 etc. I care to only retain three months worth of data. With this way of organizing the data, I can simply drop the tablespaces and datafiles I no longer need, thus preserving storage space. Now I'm trying to find the best backup & recovery method for this scenario. I thought about simply doing incremental RMAN backups. But since I'm only retaining three months worth of data, I think this may be overkill. Instead I'm thinking about using RMAN to make a compressed backup of each new tablespace as the data arrives, so that in case I need to recover, I can pick and choose which tablespaces to recover (I may choose to only recover the last month instead of the last three months). I also want to be able to restore & recover tablespaces to a new database. I would like some ideas and suggestions on the best way to go about this. Thanks, Christoph -- "Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing." - Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes