Guaranteed Restore Points Oracle 11g

https://coskan.wordpress.com/2007/08/07/guaranteed-restore-points/
http://oracledbazone.com/2012/04/17/using-guaranteed-restore-points-for-primaryand-failover/
Guaranteed Restore Points are a life-saver when it comes to Application changes.
It can ensure that you can rewind the database to a time without tradional point
in time recovery. Guaranteed restore points are basically aliases for SCNs
A normal restore point assigns a restore point name to an SCN or specific point
in time.The control file can maintain a record of thousands of normal restore po
ints with no significant effect on database performance. Normal restore points e
ventually age out of the control file if not manually deleted, so they require n
o ongoing maintenance.
SQL> CREATE RESTORE POINT before_upgrade;
Creating a normal restore point eliminates manually recording an SCN in advance
or determine the correct SCN after the fact by using features such as Flashback
Query.
Like a normal restore point, a guaranteed restore point serves as an alias for a
n SCN in recovery operations. A principal difference is that guaranteed restore
points never age out of the control file and must be explicitly dropped. In gene
ral, you can use a guaranteed restore point as an alias for an SCN with any comm
and that works with a normal restore point. Except as noted, the information abo
ut where and how to use normal restore points applies to guaranteed restore poin
ts as well.
A guaranteed restore point ensures that you can use Flashback Database to rewind
a database to its state at the restore point SCN, even if the generation of fla
shback logs is disabled. If flashback logging is enabled, then a guaranteed rest
ore point enforces the retention of flashback logs required for Flashback Databa
se to any SCN after the earliest guaranteed restore point.
This example shows how to create a guaranteed restore point:
SQL> CREATE RESTORE POINT before_upgrade GUARANTEE FLASHBACK DATABASE;
Listing Restore Points
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You can use the LIST command to list either a specific restore point or all rest
ore points known to the RMAN repository. The variations of the command are as fo
llows:
LIST RESTORE POINT restore_point_name;
LIST RESTORE POINT ALL;
RMAN indicates the SCN and time of the restore point, the type of restore point,
and the name of the restore point. The following example shows sample output:
RMAN> LIST RESTORE POINT ALL;
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
SCN
RSP Time Type
Time
Name
- - 341859
28-JUL-06
28-JUL-06 NORMAL_RS
343690
28-JUL-06 GUARANTEED 28-JUL-06 GUARANTEED_RS

To see a list of all currently defined restore points (normal and guaranteed), u
se the V$RESTORE_POINT control file view, by means of the following query:
SQL> SELECT NAME, SCN, TIME, DATABASE_INCARNATION#,
GUARANTEE_FLASHBACK_DATABASE,STORAGE_SIZE
FROM V$RESTORE_POINT
Dropping Restore Points
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When you are satisfied that you do not need an existing restore point, or when y
ou want to create a new restore point with the name of an existing restore point
, you can drop the restore point, using the DROP RESTORE POINT SQL*Plus statemen
t. For example:
SQL> DROP RESTORE POINT before_app_upgrade;
Restore point dropped.
The same statement is used to drop both normal and guaranteed restore points.
Note:
Normal restore points eventually age out of the control file, even if not explic
itly dropped.
Guaranteed restore points never age out of the control file. They remain until t
hey are explicitly dropped.
Flashing back database till Restore Point
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Login to RMAN and bring the database to mount mode.
FLASHBACK DATABASE TO RESTORE POINT before_upgrade;
FLASHBACK DATABASE TO SCN 202381;
Open the database.
I normally create guaranteed retore points before doing a Dataguard switchover.
It helps you assure you can go back to the state before you started (in case any
thing goes wrong).