RMAN restore fails with RMAN-06023 but backups are available

Today while I was restoring one RMAN backup to a new host , I got very different error while restoring even though backup pieces are available and cataloged also. PFB error details :-

Error:-

creating datafile file number=1 name=/u01/oracle/amit/system01.dbf
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of restore command at 07/27/2015 03:19:59
ORA-01180: can not create datafile 1
ORA-01110: data file 1: '/u01/oracle/amit/system01.dbf'

Checked backup was also available for datafile 1

RMAN> list backup of datafile 1;


List of Backup Sets

===================

.

.

   List of Backup Pieces for backup set 30299 Copy #1

    BP Key  Pc# Status      Piece Name

    ------- --- ----------- ----------

    30299   1   EXPIRED     /u00/oracle/admin/amit/backup/hot_amit_30306_1_20140701

  Backup Set Copy #2 of backup set 30299

  Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time     Compressed Tag

  ----------- ------------ ------------------- ---------- ---

  DISK        00:52:02     2015-07-27 03:18:48 YES        HOT_DISK_amit

    List of Backup Pieces for backup set 30299 Copy #2

    BP Key  Pc# Status      Piece Name

    ------- --- ----------- ----------

    30310   1   AVAILABLE   /ora_backup/test/amit/hot_amit_30306_1_20140701

Cause :-

When we restore using a backup controlfile and run the catalog command to catalog backup pieces, Oracle does two things, First it does an implicit crosscheck for files available in the recovery area and then it does an explicit crosscheck for the location you mentioned to catalog the pieces.

While doing an implicit catalog, if there is any file available(archive log, online log, any datafile) of different incarnation from the control file, Oracle register that file details to the controlfile and changes the incarnation value for the control file as per the available file in the Recovery area.

Now when we try to restore our datafiles from backup pieces, controlfile is not able to recognize the backup pieces as they are from different incarnation.

So we get "ORA-01110: data file 1: '/u01/oracle/amit/system01.dbf'" even if we have backup pieces available.

Solution :-

1. Clean up you recovery area before doing a catalog for backup pieces. Run a Crosscheck and delete expired backup details.
2. Disable Recovery area details before running catalog command, you can do it by removing db_recovery_file_dest and db_recovery_file_dest_size parameters in parameter file.

After doing any of the above try to restore the backup , it will complete without any issues.

I hope this article helped you

Thanks
Amit Rath