In this blog article, I will illustrate the ability to change RMAN configuration through SQL using DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE package. This package is not well known and is not documented.

Traditionally we use RMAN interface utility as shown:

rman target /

RMAN> show all;

Let us now explore changing RMAN configuration through the package:

SQL> VARIABLE rman_config NUMBER;

SQL> EXECUTE :rman_config := SYS.DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE.SETCONFIG(‘BACKUP OPTIMIZATION’,’ON’);

Checking through the RMAN interface utility, we can see that the configuration change is reflected successfully:

What are the benefits?

This will help you with the provisioning and automation of your new databases to have identical RMAN configuration. Also, this will enable you to propagate RMAN configuration changes to all of your landscape.