Backup Database keep FOREVER Logs

If you want to keep some backups forever, you maybe tried

RMAN> backup database keep forever logs;

Starting backup at 13.04.2007 13:58:04
...
backup will never be obsolete
archived logs required to recover from this backup
will expire when this backup expires
...
Finished backup at 13.04.2007 13:58:23

but the problem is that the archivelogs to recover this backup at any time after the backup will NEVER be obsolete.

You could well try the NOLOGS option, but this requires you to take the database in the MOUNT state.

RMAN> backup database keep forever nologs;

Starting backup at 13.04.2007 14:06:36
...
backup will never be obsolete
archived logs required to recover from this backup
will not be kept
...
Finished backup at 13.04.2007 14:07:25

This is fine if you can stop your database. But you probably wants online backup. What’s next?

Ok, here is the way to go. You do your online backup, then you mark what you want to keep !

First I backup the old archivelogs, because I do not need to keep those yet.

RMAN> backup archivelog all;

Starting backup at 13.04.2007 14:10:00
...
Finished backup at 13.04.2007 14:10:08

Now I do a backup plus archivelog (with a tag for simplicity)

RMAN> backup database tag backuplsc
plus archivelog tag backuplsc;

Starting backup at 13.04.2007 14:10:42
...
Finished backup at 13.04.2007 14:11:00

Now I can mark my backup as keep

RMAN> change backup tag backuplsc keep forever;

...
keep attributes for the backup are changed
backup will never be obsolete
backup set key=405 RECID=116 STAMP=619798257
keep attributes for the backup are changed
backup will never be obsolete
backup set key=406 RECID=117 STAMP=619798260

Now if I do a delete obsolete, it will never delete my backup.

RMAN> backup database plus archivelog
Starting backup at 13.04.2007 14:16:46
...
Finished backup at 13.04.2007 14:17:10

RMAN> delete noprompt obsolete;

RMAN retention policy will be applied to the command
RMAN retention policy is set to redundancy 1
...
Deleting the following obsolete backups and copies:
...
Deleted 7 objects

RMAN> list backup summary;

List of Backups
===============
Key     TY LV S Device Type Completion Time
------- -- -- - ----------- -------------------
#Pieces #Copies Compressed Tag
------- ------- ---------- ---
...
405     B  F  A DISK        13.04.2007 14:10:57
1       1       YES        BACKUPLSC
406     B  F  A DISK        13.04.2007 14:11:00
1       1       YES        BACKUPLSC
...