Originally posted by julian
Note that 'justageek' never mentioned if he has his DB in archivelog mode. If not he has to restore also the log files from the cold backup!
No, why would he need online logs if his database is in archivelog? You never need online redologs during recovery, so there is no point for backing them up in the first place. Online redologs are needed only during *instance* recovery, for which you don't need any backup at all.

Restore from cold backup simply means open the new database in a state as it was prior to cold backup. For this you don't need online redologs from your backup.

In fact you never have to backup online redologs, neither during cold nor during hot backup. It is particulary *dangerous* to backup online archivelogs during hot backup and one should *never* include them in the hot-backup procedure. With cold backup they are harmless, but they are also useless . You simply don't need them. Having the above mentioned treath of having online redologs in your hot-backup set in mind, one could simply adopt the habit not to backup online redologs during cold-backup procedure too.