Jared, thanks for your input. the syntax is correct i have tried that, but the problem is i DO NOT HAVE recover catalog...that command will not work if i do not have a recovery catalog...that command will only work if you have recovery catalog...the only way to restore is using(restore spfile from 'LOCATION/FILE_NAME')...but i do not know the file name as there maybe hunderds of file there..... RMAN> list backup summary; List of Backups =============== Key TY LV S Device Type Completion Time #Pieces #Copies Compressed Tag ------- -- -- - ----------- -------------------- ------- ------- ---------- --- 322 B F A DISK 06-DEC-2013 11:24:42 1 1 NO RETAIN 323 B F A DISK 06-DEC-2013 11:24:44 1 1 NO RETAIN 324 B A A DISK 06-DEC-2013 11:24:45 1 1 NO RETAIN 325 B F A DISK 06-DEC-2013 11:24:48 1 1 NO RETAIN RMAN> exit Recovery Manager complete. [oracle@april test]$ sq SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.3.0 Production on Fri Dec 6 13:15:08 2013 Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved. Connected to: Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.3.0 - 64bit Production With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options SQL> shutdown abort; ORACLE instance shut down. SQL> exit Disconnected from Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.3.0 - 64bit Production With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options [oracle@april test]$ [oracle@april test]$ -- RENAMED CURRENT SPFILE TO SOMETHING ELSE [oracle@april test]$ rman target / Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.3.0 - Production on Fri Dec 6 13:16:01 2013 Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. connected to target database (not started) RMAN> startup force nomount; startup failed: ORA-01078: failure in processing system parameters LRM-00109: could not open parameter file '/oracle/app/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/dbs/inittest.ora' starting Oracle instance without parameter file for retrieval of spfile Oracle instance started Total System Global Area 158662656 bytes Fixed Size 2226456 bytes Variable Size 92276456 bytes Database Buffers 58720256 bytes Redo Buffers 5439488 bytes RMAN> restore spfile from tag RETAIN; Starting restore at 06-DEC-2013 13:17:28 using target database control file instead of recovery catalog allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1 channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=111 device type=DISK RMAN-00571: =========================================================== RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS =============== RMAN-00571: =========================================================== RMAN-03002: failure of restore command at 12/06/2013 13:17:29 RMAN-06563: control file or SPFILE must be restored using FROM AUTOBACKUP RMAN> On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 1:04 PM, Jared Still <jkstill@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 9:54 AM, max scalf <oracle.blog3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> how would i get the spfile/control file restore? > > > Recovery Manager complete. > > poirot-jkstill-~-11:04:00 > > rman target / checksyntax > > RMAN> restore controlfile from tag 'SYS'; > > The command has no syntax errors > > RMAN> restore spfile from tag 'SYS'; > > The command has no syntax errors > > > Jared Still > Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist > Oracle Blog: http://jkstill.blogspot.com > Home Page: http://jaredstill.com >