Oracle RMAN backup fails with ORA-27206 errors if there are spaces in the backup piece name

RMAN passes the backup piece to NetBackup and it is successfully written to storage. However, the subsequent sbtinfo or sbtinfo2 request, by RMAN, to obtain the media ID for the backup image fails because there are spaces in the name of the backup piece. The evidence is as follows:
 

The RMAN output shows that the backup piece name could not be verified.
 

RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03006: non-retryable error occurred during execution of command: backup
RMAN-07004: unhandled exception during command execution on channel t2
RMAN-10035: exception raised in RPC: ORA-27206: requested file not found in media management catalog
RMAN-10031: ORA-19583 occurred during call to DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE.BACKUPPIECECREATE
 

Recovery Manager complete.
 

The dbclient debug log shows the request to verify the backup piece.  Notice the spaces in the piece name and that the results indicated that the backup piece was not found.
 

12:01:03.953 [2988] <4> BuildBprdRequest: request_string=<4.5GA db14g db14g *NULL* 4 1026233989 1026406789 /df 15 1 466862389>
12:01:03.953 [2988] <4> dbc_GetMediaListByName: Request String = <4.5GA db14g db14g *NULL* 4 1026233989 1026406789 /df 15 1 466862389>
...
12:01:03.955 [2988] <2> logconnections: BPRD CONNECT FROM 10.0.0.103.33923 TO 1.1.1.1.13720
12:01:03.957 [2988] <2> bprd_connect: no authentication required
12:01:04.269 [2988] <4> get_client_alias_list: entering get_client_alias_list.
12:01:04.269 [2988] <4> get_client_alias_list: Request String = <db14g 4>
...

12:01:04.270 [2988] <2> logconnections: BPRD CONNECT FROM 10.0.0.103.33924 TO 1.1.1.1.13720
 ...
12:01:04.968 [2988] <4> sbtinfo2: Image Information for file <df 15 1 466862389> :
12:01:04.968 [2988] <8> sbtinfo2: df 15 1 466862389 not found
 

The  bprd debug log shows the backup piece name contained spaces, it was parsed as four separate arguments to bprd.
 

12:01:04.799 [7578] <2> logconnections: BPRD ACCEPT FROM 10.0.0.103.33923 TO 1.1.1.1.13720
...
12:01:04.816 [7578] <2> process_request: command C_MEDIA_LIST_BY_FILE_3_2 (67) received
12:01:04.816 [7578] <2> process_request: media list by file request = 329199 67 4.5GA db14g db14g *NULL* 4 1026233989 1026406789 /df 15 1 466862389 <-- Note: The pathname looks like four parameters on the request.
12:01:04.816 [7578] <2> get_image_by_file: client = db14g 
12:01:04.816 [7578] <2> get_image_by_file: pathname = /df <-- Note: The pathname for the backup piece was truncated at the first space.
...
12:01:04.819 [7578] <2> logconnections: BPDBM CONNECT FROM 3.129.144.135.37556 TO 3.129.144.135.13721
12:01:05.114 [7578] <2> get_image_by_file: unexpected return value from db_IMAGEreceive: no entity was found 227
12:01:05.114 [7578] <2> process_request: get_image_by_file failed - status = no entity was found (227)
12:01:05.114 [7578] <2> process_request: EXIT STATUS 227
12:01:05.115 [7578] <2> bprd: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/userreq_notify media_list_by_file db14g unknown
 

The bplist  output verifies that the backup piece was actually backed up successfully using the filename with spaces:
 

# bplist -C db14g -t 4 -l -R /
/df 15 1 466862389
 

The RMAN backup script confirms that the format command includes spaces in the backup piece name template.
 

BACKUP ... FORMAT 'df %s %p %t' ... ;

 

To fix this issue, replace the spaces with underscores in the backup piece filename template as follows:
 

BACKUP ... FORMAT 'df_%s_%p_%t' ... ;
 

Note: The scripting examples in the NBU 4.5 for Oracle System Administrator's Guide (Unix and Windows and Advanced BLI) incorrectly use spaces in the format templates. However, the actual sample scripts supplied with the install media correctly use underscores in the format templates.

Note: The backup images created with spaces in the piece name will be retained within NetBackup until the retention becomes expired.  Those images can be manually expired sooner by using the bpexpdate command.  If those pieces are critical for restore (i.e. a subsequent backup was not taken without spaces in the piece name), those pieces can be restores successfully after upgrading the client to NetBackup 7.6.1.2 or higher.