New features in Oracle9i RMAN

All of the functionality of RMAN in Oracle8i is still there in 9i. But RMAN in Oracle9i does introduce some new functionality, including:

1. RMAN now supports a recovery window (sometimes called a retention policy). This controls when backups expire. This reduces administration time by automation.
2. RMAN can now recover individual blocks while leaving the datafile online.
3. RMAN can now maintain persistent configuration changes. A number of features can be modified for the session and those changes will endure through future sessions.
4. RMAN can now make a mandatory and automatic controlfile backup. This lets RMAN restore even if the backup catalog is not available.
5. RMAN can now restart a backup should that backup fail for some reason.
6. RMAN now supports the multiple block sizes for tablespaces.
7. RMAN can now be configured to skip specified tablespaces

The RMAN documenation has all of the details on the above features.