The recovery catalog consists of a set of Oracle tables and views, which are used by Recovery Manager to manage the backup, restore, and recovery of Oracle databases. The logon credentials for the Recovery Catalog database consist of a user name, a password, and optionally a service name (TNS alias) which together make up the database connect string.

For information on the recovery catalog refer to the Oracle Backup and Recovery Guide.

User name refers to the login name for the Oracle database that contains the recovery catalog. The user must be the recovery catalog owner.

Password refers to the login password for user name.

A Net service name, also known as TNS alias, is used to indicate what database to use. Oracle translates the service name to a connect descriptor through the tnsnames.ora file. If this field is left blank, RMAN will not use a network listener to connect to the database. In this case the selected Oracle SID determines what database to connect to. Note that if you are using a Recovery Catalog and thereby multiple SIDs, you will want to use a service name for either the target database or the recovery catalog database because only one Oracle SID can be specified at any one time in the environment.

For more information on a Net service name refer to the Oracle Net Services Administrator's Guide.