https://www.oraclescripts.com/tags/vbackup_piece/Recent content in V$backup_piece on Oracle ScriptsHugo -- gohugo.ioenOracleScripts.comThu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.oraclescripts.com/post/oracle-rman-delete-obsolete-remove-unneeded-backups/Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.oraclescripts.com/post/oracle-rman-delete-obsolete-remove-unneeded-backups/ <h2 id="oracle-rman-delete-obsolete---remove-unneeded-backups">Oracle RMAN Delete Obsolete - Remove Unneeded Backups</h2> <h2 id="purpose">Purpose</h2> <p>A backup disk fills up slowly. Every night adds another set of backup files, and nobody removes the old ones. One morning the nightly backup fails because there is no space left. RMAN already knows which backups are no longer needed, but it does not remove them on its own. The <code>DELETE OBSOLETE</code> command does that job.</p> <p>RMAN decides what is obsolete by applying the retention policy. The policy is either a redundancy count (how many full backups to keep) or a recovery window (how many days back you must be able to recover). A backup that the policy no longer needs is obsolete. It uses space and gives you no extra recovery options.</p>