Ravi - yes, I am getting messages that say "already backed up 2 time(s)". Niall - here is the summary: RMAN> list backup of database summary; List of Backups =============== Key TY LV S Device Type Completion Time #Pieces #Copies Compressed Tag ------- -- -- - ----------- --------------- ------- ------- ---------- --- 3636 B F A DISK 29-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3637 B F A DISK 29-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3638 B F A DISK 29-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3639 B F A DISK 29-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3640 B F A DISK 29-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3641 B F A DISK 29-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3642 B F A DISK 29-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3643 B F A DISK 29-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3644 B F A DISK 29-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3649 B F A DISK 30-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3650 B F A DISK 30-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3651 B F A DISK 30-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3652 B F A DISK 30-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3653 B F A DISK 30-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3654 B F A DISK 30-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3655 B F A DISK 30-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3656 B F A DISK 30-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP 3657 B F A DISK 30-JUN-10 1 1 YES DAILY_FULL_BACKUP And here is a sample archivelog that appears in two backup sets: RMAN> list backup of archivelog logseq 23942; List of Backup Sets =================== BS Key Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time ------- ---------- ----------- ------------ ---------------- 3647 712.53M DISK 00:05:58 06-29-2010 20:59 BP Key: 3647 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: YES Tag: DAILY_ARCH_BACKUP Piece Name: H:\ORACLE_BACKUPS\SALES2\ARC_S3661_P1_T722983993.BCK List of Archived Logs in backup set 3647 Thrd Seq Low SCN Low Time Next SCN Next Time ---- ------- ---------- ---------------- ---------- --------- 1 23942 33086482704 06-29-2010 20:46 33086482939 06-29-2010 20:46 BS Key Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time ------- ---------- ----------- ------------ ---------------- 3660 722.99M DISK 00:05:29 06-30-2010 20:54 BP Key: 3660 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: YES Tag: DAILY_ARCH_BACKUP Piece Name: H:\ORACLE_BACKUPS\SALES2\ARC_S3674_P1_T723070169.BCK List of Archived Logs in backup set 3660 Thrd Seq Low SCN Low Time Next SCN Next Time ---- ------- ---------- ---------------- ---------- --------- 1 23942 33086482704 06-29-2010 20:46 33086482939 06-29-2010 20:46 This morning I checked to see if anything is obsolete (all obsolete items should have been purged by last nights backup - in fact the obsolete backups were purged. Archivelogs were not). RMAN> report obsolete; RMAN retention policy will be applied to the command RMAN retention policy is set to redundancy 2 no obsolete backups found Later today I'll be forcing a purge of archivelogs with "delete archivelog all backed up 2 times to disk". Thank you, Jay On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 1:51 AM, Ravi Madabhushanam < ravi.madabhushanam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Jay, > > By default the backup command will not backup an archive log for the second > time. Retention policy will tell what to retain and how long to retain. But > not what not to backup. It has been my belief for long time and I'm yet to > find a reason to contradict myself. > > Are you observing messages like "already backed up *1* time(s)". > Personally I faced this issue, where the backup happens only once and I'll > delete only after taking 2 backups. Result is infinite archive log retention > or disk full -> backup fail :( > > You may want to use below command for archive log backups: > backup archivelog all not backed up 2 times to disk; > > HTH. > >