In my earlier article, I have covered How to show, change & clear RMAN persistent configuration – RMAN Part-5, In this article I am going to explain how to configure default device type i.e. Disk/sbt.

In case we haven’t provide any kind of backup destination device in RMAN script while backup, than RMAN considered Default Device Type value configured with RMAN parameters. No more configuration is required in case of RMAN parameter is pre-configured to use Disk/sbt as default device type.

Default Device Type: Disk

 RMAN> CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO DISK;
 new RMAN configuration parameters:
 CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO DISK;
 new RMAN configuration parameters are successfully stored

 RMAN> show DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE;
 RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name GALAXY are:
 CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO DISK;

Above command specifies that, All RMAN backups should go to disk.( i.e. default )
In case of flash recovery area is enabled, than RMAN default backup location would be fast recovery area, But in case of FRA is disabled than default backup location would be system specific directory on disk.

Default Device Type: sbt

 RMAN> CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO sbt;
 new RMAN configuration parameters:
 CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO 'SBT_TAPE';
 new RMAN configuration parameters are successfully stored

 RMAN> show DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE;
 RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name GALAXY are:
 CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO 'SBT_TAPE';

Above command specifies that all RMAN backup should go to sbt. ( i.e. SBT_TAPE )( i.e. default )

DEVICE TYPE clause:
With the help of above command, we can override default device type with the help of BACKUP command.
Ex:

 BACKUP DEVICE TYPE DISK DATABASE;
 BACKUP DEVICE TYPE sbt DATABASE;

Clear Default Device Type:

 RMAN> CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE clear;
 old RMAN configuration parameters:
 CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO 'SBT_TAPE';
 RMAN configuration parameters are successfully reset to default value

 RMAN> show DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE;
 RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name GALAXY are:
 CONFIGURE DEFAULT DEVICE TYPE TO DISK; # default

This all about configuring default device type.

Stay Tune. 🙂