Restoring RMAN backup to another instance: database name in control file is not instance name

Question

I've been tasked with developing an Oracle 11g backup/restore strategy for some remote instances. My goal is to have one script that will backup the instance, which I will be able to use with an existing instance (possibly on the same server) or create an entirely new instance with.

Let's say I have two instances, a source and destination.

The source instance configuration, as a result of RMAN> show all:

using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name SOURCE are:
CONFIGURE RETENTION POLICY TO REDUNDANCY 1; # default
CONFIGURE BACKUP OPTIMIZATION OFF; # default
CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO DISK; # default
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP OFF; # default
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '%F'; # default
CONFIGURE DEVICE TYPE DISK PARALLELISM 1 BACKUP TYPE TO BACKUPSET; # default
CONFIGURE DATAFILE BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 1; # default
CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG BACKUP COPIES FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO 1; # default
CONFIGURE MAXSETSIZE TO UNLIMITED; # default
CONFIGURE ENCRYPTION FOR DATABASE OFF; # default
CONFIGURE ENCRYPTION ALGORITHM 'AES128'; # default
CONFIGURE COMPRESSION ALGORITHM 'BASIC' AS OF RELEASE 'DEFAULT' OPTIMIZE FOR LOAD TRUE ; # default
CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY TO NONE; # default

I've written a backup script, seen below:

#!/bin/bash
export ORACLE_SID=SOURCE
rman target / <<EOF
CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP ON;
SET CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '/backup/%F';
SET CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE SBT_TAPE to '/backup/%F';    
DELETE NOPROMPT BACKUP;
BACKUP CURRENT CONTROLFILE;
BACKUP AS BACKUPSET CHECK LOGICAL DATABASE PLUS ARCHIVELOG DELETE INPUT;
QUIT;
EOF

In /backup there appears some files such as backup_4noqqute_151_1, backup_4noqqute_152_1, and so on, as well as c-454077755-20131206-07 -- I believe that the former files are the database/archive log backups, the latter the controlfile.

I run the following commands in attempt to restore the backup to another instance, DESTINATION:

export ORACLE_SID=DESTINATION
rman target /
RMAN> SET CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP FORMAT FOR DEVICE TYPE DISK TO '/backup/%F';
RMAN> RESTORE CONTROLFILE FROM '/backup/c-454077755-20131206-07';
RMAN> ALTER DATABASE MOUNT;

And receive this error message:

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of alter db command at 12/06/2013 10:44:51
ORA-01103: database name 'SOURCE' in control file is not 'DESTINATION'

How do I solve this problem? I can't rename DESTINATION as SOURCE is on the same server and is still running. I saw a similar problem in this post, but it is incompletely explained and I don't understand it. I'm hoping that since I've provided a lot of information, someone is able to adequately explain to me how to fix this problem.

Thanks.

Answer 1

RESTORE is not the most convenient command to fulfill you requirements (in this case you would need to temporarily set db_name= parameter on a new instance to be identical to the existing database, then restore all files to different names and then to perform a procedure to change database name and id - quite a difficult task).

On 11g, the proper command intended to use in this situation is DUPLICATE DATABASE. The source that DUPLICATE use is either from backup (exactly as RESTORE does) or FROM ACTIVE DATABASE.

Answer 2

set init.ora
db_name=source
db_unique_name=destination

and restore