How to Exclude Tablespace from Rman Backup ?

Sometimes we  may want to omit a  specified  tablespace  from  part of  the regular  backup schedule. Suppose  in  a tablespace  the data don't change  or  the tablespace  contains test  data only or  sometimes  a scenario may occur when we are  clonning  the database  using   the  rman backup where we  do not  need all  the schemas . In such cases, either we  might change our  backup  strategy or  skip the certain tablespace  in  the database. 

To overcome this type of issue, we can configure the exclude option to exclude the specified tablespace from the Backup Database command . Though we can generally skip the tablespace during the Backup Database command but only when the tablespace is offline or readonly .The exclusion condition applies to any data files that we add to this tablespace in the future. Below are the steps to configure the Exclude  option 

C:\> rman  target  /
Recovery Manager: Release 11.2.0.1.0 - Production on Wed Dec 28 18:58:05 2011
Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.
connected to target database: NOIDA (DBID=1523131116)


RMAN> configure exclude for tablespace "EXAMPLE" ;
Tablespace EXAMPLE will be excluded from future whole database backups
new RMAN configuration parameters are successfully stored

To check this parameter , use the below command 

RMAN> show exclude ;
RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name NOIDA are:
CONFIGURE EXCLUDE FOR TABLESPACE 'EXAMPLE';

If  "exclude" option is configured ,  even then we can backup the excluded tablespsace by explicitly specifying them in a Backup command or by specifying the NOEXCLUDE option on a "Backup Database" command as 

RMAN> backup database noexclude ;

or
RMAN> backup tablespace example ;
Starting backup at 29-DEC-11
using channel ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00005 name=C:\APP\NEERAJS\ORADATA\NOIDA\EXAMPLE01.DBF
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 29-DEC-11
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 29-DEC-11
piece handle=E:\RMAN_BACKUP\0UMVEC3G_1_1 tag=TAG20111229T150832 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:07
Finished backup at 29-DEC-11

We can disable the exclusion feature tablespace example as : 

RMAN> configure exclude for tablespace example clear ;
Tablespace EXAMPLE will be included in future whole database backups
old RMAN configuration parameters are successfully deleted


RMAN> show exclude ;
RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name NOIDA are :
RMAN configuration has no stored or default parameters


In order to skip  READONLY  and  OFFLINE  tablespace we can issue backup database command as,
RMAN>backup database skip readonly, skip offline ;


Enjoy       :-)