ORA-00201: control file version 11.2.0.0.0 incompatible with ORACLE version 10.2.0.0.0

One of my readers today send me an error they got while restoring a database via RMAN

RMAN> startup mount; Oracle instance started RMAN-00571: =========================================================== RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS =============== RMAN-00571: =========================================================== RMAN-03002: failure of startup command at 01/22/2019 00:42:14 ORA-00201: control file version 11.2.0.0.0 incompatible with ORACLE version 10.2.0.0.0 ORA-00202: control file: '/u01/oracle/control01.ctl'

 

The crucial error in this restore process is ORA-00201: control file version 11.2.0.0.0 incompatible with ORACLE version 10.2.0.0.0. It clearly states that the control file is of 10gR2 and being restored to a 11gR2 instance. ORA-00201 can be triggered due to the below reasons:

 

  1. Source Database is newer and Target Database is older. Remember in RMAN you can only upgrade database and not downgrade it
  2. Compatible parameter is not set correctly in the parameter file

 

Solution :

1. Use compatible parameter in the pfile properly when restoring to the older version. But this way you won’t be using any new database features

2. Use data pump to do the migration

3. Restore to a Database version higher than the current version. Working as a production DBA for many years, I have learned this undocumented trick the hard way. Always restore a 11g to 11g and 12c to 12c

 

 

Category: DatabaseRMAN

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Article by: Shadab Mohammad