RMAN-06563: control file or SPFILE must be restored using FROM AUTOBACKUP

Backup and Recovery best practices dictate that we must use a RMAN recovery catalog and also have the controlfile AUTOBACKUP enabled.

If we do not do either and we lose all the controlfiles, we cannot restore the controlfiles even if we have taken a backup to tape as shown in the case below.

We will encounter the RMAN-06563 error even if we set the DBID or explicitly alllocate a channel for a tape device.

  set dbid=693232013;

executing command: SET DBID

RMAN> run {
2> restore controlfile;
3> recover database;
4> }

Starting restore at 28-JUL-09
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=159 devtype=DISK

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of restore command at 07/28/2009 12:17:19
RMAN-06563: control file or SPFILE must be restored using FROM AUTOBACKUP
RMAN>  run {
2>  allocate channel c1 device type  sbt_tape;
3> restore controlfile;
4> alter database mount;
5> recover database;
6> }

released channel: ORA_DISK_1
allocated channel: c1
channel c1: sid=159 devtype=SBT_TAPE
channel c1: Data Protection for Oracle: version 5.5.1.0

Starting restore at 28-JUL-09

released channel: c1
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of restore command at 07/28/2009 12:19:36
RMAN-06563: control file or SPFILE must be restored using FROM AUTOBACKUP
However, if we connect to a RMAN recovery catalog, we can restore a controlfile without using the AUTOBACKUP keyword.

$ rman target / catalog rman9p/xxx@rcatp

Recovery Manager: Release 9.2.0.8.0 - 64bit Production

Copyright (c) 1995, 2002, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.

connected to target database: ofsap (not mounted)
connected to recovery catalog database

RMAN> run {
2> allocate channel ch1 type 'sbt_tape' parms 'ENV=(TDPO_OPTFILE=/usr/tivoli/tsm/client/oracle/bin64/tdpo.opt)';
3> restore controlfile;
4> release channel ch1;
5> }

allocated channel: ch1
channel ch1: sid=8 devtype=SBT_TAPE
channel ch1: Data Protection for Oracle: version 5.4.1.0

Starting restore at 27-JUN-08

channel ch1: starting datafile backupset restore
channel ch1: restoring controlfile
output filename=/u04/oradata/ofsap/control01.ctl
channel ch1: restored backup piece 1
piece handle=c-2764499561-20080627-08 tag=null params=NULL
channel ch1: restore complete
replicating controlfile
input filename=/u04/oradata/ofsap/control01.ctl
output filename=/u04/oradata/ofsap/control02.ctl
Finished restore at 27-JUN-08

released channel: ch1