RMAN - Extra Item Created in Backup

Question

For development purposes, I have started to use RMAN to take backups of an XE database I have.

When I back the database up using RMAN, it is adding an additional item onto my backups. In the images attached, you can see that my intended backups are all tagged as XE but this additional backup item with a unique tag also appears each time. Can someone explain to me what this is for please? I am backing up the database (the extra item appears in full or incremental level 0 mode), the archive logs and the control file.

RUN
{
    CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP ON;
    CONFIGURE CHANNEL DEVICE TYPE DISK MAXPIECESIZE 10G;
    BACKUP AS COMPRESSED BACKUPSET TAG = 'XE Backup' FULL DATABASE FORMAT 'C:\Backups\%d_%D_%M_%Y\Database_%d_%U'
    CURRENT CONTROLFILE
    FORMAT 'C:\Backups\%d_%D_%M_%Y\ControlFile_%d_%U'
    SPFILE
    FORMAT 'C:\Backups\%d_%D_%M_%Y\SPFile_%d_%U'
    PLUS ARCHIVELOG 
    FORMAT 'C:\Backups\%d_%D_%M_%Y\ArchiveLog_%d_%U';
}
CROSSCHECK BACKUP;
DELETE NOPROMPT OBSOLETE;
DELETE EXPIRED BACKUP;
LIST BACKUP SUMMARY;

Backup Summary Report

Thanks.

Backup Detail Report

Answer 1

It's your "autobackup". Just look at your detail report. It tells you what is included in that backup piece. You'll see it is the control file and the spfile, which is what gets backed up by autobackup.

BTW, I see from that, that you have enabled the FRA. That being the case, why are you trying to direct your backups to some other location?