Configuring authentication for RMAN

RMAN, being a database tool, needs to connect with the user using a valid username that has proper privileges and roles to perform backups. The user needs to be authenticated as well, and RMAN supports two types of authentications:

• Operating system (OS) authentication

• Password file authentication

Let's see how to set up OS authentication first.

Operating system authentication

OS authentication validates the username, using the operating system user and group(s). For a RMAN connection, two things need to be set: the first is the Oracle Home and the second is the OS user which must be part of either the DBA group or the OSBACKUPDBA group; this is required for connecting to the new SYSBACKUP role. This role is designated for those who want to work on either RMAN or SQLPLUS to manage the tasks of backup and recovery only.

The default privilege used is sysdba for RMAN. If you want to connect using OS authentication and the SYSBACKUP privilege, you need to explicitly...