In 11g, all databases are now identified uniquely by DBIDs. In earlier versions, every database copy made by a method other than the duplicate
command had the same DBID. In previous versions of Oracle, you would use the NID
utility to change the DBID
and ORACLE_SID
for certain cloning procedures to a test database. You couldn't do this for standby databases because changing the DBID
or ORACLE_SID
would invalidate the configuration and the Data Guard process would not work. This is no longer needed—RMAN can now duplicate a production database for any reason. There is just a small difference in the commands run for the different types.
It is very easy to create a copy of a production instance with RMAN using the duplicate command. Most often this is to refresh a database for testing environments. Duplicating a database for a standby is slightly different, but the basic concepts are the same. What is great about doing this process on a...