Block Recovery using RMAN

The purpose of this article is to simulate a block level corruption and recover from the same using RMAN.
In this situation the datafile remains online throughout the recovery operation and hence other segments within the tablespace remain accessible.

Corrupt a block
Let us take the EMP table and find out the segment header of the same.
SQL> select header_file,header_block from dba_segments where segment_name='EMP';


HEADER_FILE HEADER_BLOCK
----------- ------------
4 24163

We now use the bbed utility to corrupt a block below the segment header which contains the actual data belonging to the EMP table.
In the exercise below we are corrupting the block which belongs to file 4 and block 24165

C:\>bbed parfile=bbed.par
Password:

BBED: Release 2.0.0.0.0 - Limited Production on Sat Feb 19 16:25:09 2005

Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

************* !!! For Oracle Internal Use only !!! ***************

BBED> set dba 4,10
DBA 0x0100000a (16777226 4,10)

BBED> copy to block 24166

Warning: contents of previous BIFILE will be lost. Proceed? (Y/N) Y
File: E:\ORACLE\ORADATA\TENG\USERS01.DBF (4)
Block: 24166 Offsets: 0 to 511 Dba:0x01005e66
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1e820000 09000001 33280000 00000104 2fe10000 04000000 11002d00 00000000
00000000 00780000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

<32 bytes per line>


SQL> select * from emp;
select * from emp
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01578: ORACLE data block corrupted (file # 4, block # 24165)
ORA-01110: data file 4: 'E:\ORACLE\ORADATA\TENG\USERS01.DBF'

Recover the block

We now run a validate database command which
- Checks datafiles for physical and logical corruption
- Confirms that all database files exist and are in the correct locations


RMAN> run {BACKUP VALIDATE DATABASE;}

Starting backup at 19-FEB-05
using target database controlfile instead of recovery catalog
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=91 devtype=DISK
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting full datafile backupset
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backupset
input datafile fno=00004 name=E:\ORACLE\ORADATA\TENG\USERS01.DBF
input datafile fno=00001 name=E:\ORACLE\ORADATA\TENG\SYSTEM01.DBF
input datafile fno=00002 name=E:\ORACLE\ORADATA\TENG\UNDOTBS01.DBF
input datafile fno=00003 name=E:\ORACLE\ORADATA\TENG\SYSAUX01.DBF
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:01:35
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting full datafile backupset
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backupset
including current controlfile in backupset
including current SPFILE in backupset
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:11
Finished backup at 19-FEB-05


SQL> select * from V$backup_corruption;

RECID STAMP SET_STAMP SET_COUNT PIECE# FILE# BLOCK# BLOCKS CORRUPTION_CHANGE# MAR CO
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- --------------------------
1 550688483 550688389 46 1 4 24165 1 0 YES CORRUPT

The above output confirms that block 24165 in file 4 is indeed corrupt!
We can recover the same using the following command.

RMAN> run {blockrecover datafile 4 block 24165;}

Starting blockrecover at 19-FEB-05
using channel ORA_DISK_1

channel ORA_DISK_1: restoring block(s)
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying block(s) to restore from backup set
restoring blocks of datafile 00004
channel ORA_DISK_1: restored block(s) from backup piece 1
piece handle=E:\ORACLE\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\TENG\BACKUPSET\2005_02_19\O1_MF_NNNDF_TAG20050219T164615_11FNO9BQ_.BKP tag=TAG20050219T164615
channel ORA_DISK_1: block restore complete

starting media recovery
media recovery complete

Finished blockrecover at 19-FEB-05

SQL> select * from emp;

EMPNO ENAME JOB MGR HIREDATE SAL COMM DEPTNO
---------- ---------- --------- ---------- --------- ---------- ---------- ----------
7369 SMITH CLERK 7902 17-DEC-80 800 20
7499 ALLEN SALESMAN 7698 20-FEB-81 1600 300 30
7521 WARD SALESMAN 7698 22-FEB-81 1250 500 30
7566 JONES MANAGER 7839 02-APR-81 2975 20
7654 MARTIN SALESMAN 7698 28-SEP-81 1250 1400 30
7698 BLAKE MANAGER 7839 01-MAY-81 2850 30
7782 CLARK MANAGER 7839 09-JUN-81 2450 10
7788 SCOTT ANALYST 7566 19-APR-87 3000 20
7839 KING PRESIDENT 17-NOV-81 5000 10
7844 TURNER SALESMAN 7698 08-SEP-81 1500 0 30
7876 ADAMS CLERK 7788 23-MAY-87 1100 20
7900 JAMES CLERK 7698 03-DEC-81 950 30
7902 FORD ANALYST 7566 03-DEC-81 3000 20
7934 MILLER CLERK 7782 23-JAN-82 1300 10

14 rows selected