Use the CONNECT command to establish a connection between RMAN and a target, auxiliary, or recovery catalog database.




See Also:

RMAN for command-line connection options


You can only run the CONNECT TARGET, CONNECT CATALOG, and CONNECT AUXILIARY commands at the RMAN prompt and only if RMAN is not already connected to the databases specified by these commands. To connect to a different target, catalog, or auxiliary database you must start a new RMAN session.

Usage Notes

An RMAN session runs in NOCATALOG mode by default if all of the following conditions are met:

  • You did not specify CATALOG or NOCATALOG when you started RMAN.

  • You have not yet run CONNECT CATALOG in an RMAN session.

  • You run a command such as BACKUP that requires an RMAN repository connection (as shown in Example 2-49).



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Syntax Element Description
CONNECT AUXILIARY Establishes a connection between RMAN and an auxiliary database instance.

Auxiliary instances are used with the TRANSPORT TABLESPACE and DUPLICATE commands, and during RMAN TSPITR.

CONNECT CATALOG Establishes a connection between RMAN and a recovery catalog database.

If the recovery catalog is a virtual private catalog (see CREATE CATALOG), then the RMAN client connecting to this catalog must be at patch level or Oracle9i RMAN clients cannot connect to a virtual private catalog. This version restriction does not affect RMAN client connections to an Oracle Database 11g base recovery catalog, even if it has some virtual private catalog users.

RMAN issues an RMAN-06445 error if you attempt to use the CONNECT CATALOG command in an RMAN session when RMAN is already in the default NOCATALOG mode (see "Usage Notes").

Note: You must use RMAN with a recovery catalog in a Data Guard environment.

CONNECT TARGET Establishes a connection between RMAN and a target database.

Note: RMAN can connect to physical standby databases as TARGET in a Data Guard environment. If you run CONNECT TARGET for a database that has a DB_UNIQUE_NAME that is unknown to the recovery catalog, but the DBID is the same as a registered database, then RMAN automatically and implicitly registers the database in the recovery catalog.

    connectStringSpec Specifies the connection information for the database.


Example 2-48 Connecting to a Target Database Without a Recovery Catalog

This example starts RMAN in NOCATALOG mode and then connects to the target database with an Oracle Net service name prod1. RMAN prompts for the SYS password.


target database Password: password
connected to target database: PROD1 (DBID=39525561)

Example 2-49 Connecting to a Target Database in the Default NOCATALOG Mode

This example starts RMAN without specifying either CATALOG or NOCATALOG and then uses operating system authentication to connect to a target database with operating system authentication. Because no CONNECT CATALOG command has been run, RMAN defaults to NOCATALOG mode when you run the BACKUP command.

% rman

At this point in the RMAN session, you cannot run CONNECT CATALOG because the session has defaulted to NOCATALOG mode. An attempt to connect to the catalog in this session receives an error:



Example 2-50 Connecting to Target, Recovery Catalog, and Auxiliary Databases

This example connects to a target database by means of operating system authentication and connects to the recovery catalog and auxiliary databases by means of password files. RMAN prompts for the password.

% rman

connected to target database: PROD (DBID=39525561)

recovery catalog database Password: password
connected to recovery catalog database


auxiliary database Password: password
connected to auxiliary database: DUPDB (not mounted)