RMAN Duplicate UNTIL TIME

If one uses RMAN to perform database backups, then the RMAN Duplicate command can be used to create new databases from these backups (also called clones or copies or duplicates of the source database).  If no additional options are provided in the RUN block of the RMAN interface, Oracle will build the new database as an exact duplicate of the source database upto the current time.

But sometimes IT application teams request for a copy that contains data "only until a time in the past".  In the user-managed backup and recovery strategy, we call it the "Time Based Recovery". One can achieve the same results with the RMAN DUPLICATE command also using the "set until time" option just before specifying the auxiliary channels.

The following is an example that creates a new database called PRODTEST which contains the same data present in PRODDB at "Jul 07 2012 08:00:00"

rman
connect  target sys/*****@PRODDB
connect  auxiliary /
run
{
set until time "to_date('Jul 07 2012 08:00:00','Mon DD YYYY HH24:MI:SS')";
allocate auxiliary channel c1 type disk;
allocate auxiliary channel c2 type disk;
allocate auxiliary channel c3 type disk;
allocate auxiliary channel c4 type disk;
duplicate
target database to PRODTEST
pfile=/sw/app/oracle/product/db_1/dbs/initPRODTEST.ora;
}