Jared,My first thought would be a problem with the environment variables '%FORMAT_PREFIX% and %FORMAT_SUFFIX% the second time round - perhaps a stray curly bracket, a space or a reserved word or so. Did you try to echo them into the logfile?
Cheers, Tony Jared Still wrote:
First, a little background. Two SAP systems running on a single Windows Server. Windows 2003 Server Oracle 10.2.0.4 Databases are using separate ORACLE_HOMEs. Backups consistently fail following the last command of the RMAN script for one of the databases, but not the other. Each database has its own copy of the backup scripts. The only difference is the script that sets the ORACLE_HOME, PATH and ORACLE_SID. Other than that, the backup scripts are identical, as was confirmed by using md5sum in cygwin to compare them. Here's the relevant part of the RMAN script: @( echo RUN { echo SQL 'ALTER SESSION SET OPTIMIZER_MODE=RULE'; echo SQL 'ALTER SYSTEM ARCHIVE LOG CURRENT';echo BACKUP FORMAT '%FORMAT_PREFIX%_arch_%FORMAT_SUFFIX%' ARCHIVELOG ALL NOT BACKED UP 2 TIMES;echo DELETE NOPROMPT ARCHIVELOG ALL BACKED UP 2 TIMES TO DEVICE TYPE sbt;echo BACKUP FORMAT '%FORMAT_PREFIX%_ctl_%FORMAT_SUFFIX%' CURRENT CONTROLFILE;echo }) | %RMAN% target %TARGET_CONNECT_STR% catalog %RCAT_CONNECT_STR% msglog '%RMAN_LOG_FILE%' appendall of the environment variables are being set correctly. On database A, everything works fine. On database B, this error occurs after executing the last line of the script where the current controlfile is to be backed up: RMAN> RMAN-00571: =========================================================== RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS =============== RMAN-00571: =========================================================== RMAN-00558: error encountered while parsing input commandsRMAN-01009: syntax error: found "}": expecting one of: "allocate, alter, backup, beginline, blockrecover, catalog, change, connect, copy, convert, create, crosscheck, configure, duplicate, debug, delete, drop, exit, endinline, flashback, host, {, library, list, mount, open, print, quit, recover, register, release, replace, report, renormalize, reset, restore, resync, rman, run, rpctest, set, setlimit, sql, switch, spool, startup, shutdown, send, show, test, transport, upgrade, unregister, validate"RMAN-01007: at line 1 column 1 file: standard inputIf I remove the last line of the script, so that the script looks like this:@( echo RUN { echo SQL 'ALTER SESSION SET OPTIMIZER_MODE=RULE'; echo SQL 'ALTER SYSTEM ARCHIVE LOG CURRENT';echo BACKUP FORMAT '%FORMAT_PREFIX%_arch_%FORMAT_SUFFIX%' ARCHIVELOG ALL NOT BACKED UP 2 TIMES;echo DELETE NOPROMPT ARCHIVELOG ALL BACKED UP 2 TIMES TO DEVICE TYPE sbt; echo }) | %RMAN% target %TARGET_CONNECT_STR% catalog %RCAT_CONNECT_STR% msglog '%RMAN_LOG_FILE%' append... then the script fails with the same error as previously. Adding SHOW ALL as the last command causes the SHOW ALL output tobe in the logfile, followed by the same error message complaining about '}'querying DBA_REGISTRY_HISTORY shows the same patches applied to both databases.opatch lsinventory -details shows that database B has 2 products installed that are not on database A diff A_details.txt B_details.tx < Installed Products (172): --- > Installed Products (174): 82a83> Oracle Configuration Manager 10.2.7.1.0149a151> Oracle Real Application Testing 10.2.0.4.0comparing the output of SHOW ALL for both shows the only difference to be the value for SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAMEThe logfile includes the PATH information, and it is correct in both instances.It's my hope that someone here can think of something I've missed. The backups are working, but it's move than a little annoying to see the errors in the logs every day, and then have to go check to see if it's the same old "problem", or a real problem. Thanks, Jared Still Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist