Oracle - Need help with RMAN Active Duplication on Windows 32 bit to a 64 bit I need to have an Oracle 11g R1 on a Windows 32-bit duplicated to a Windows 64-bit using RMAN Active Duplication.

32-bit setup:  


  Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Ed. SP2
  Database - Oracle 11g  11.1.0.6.0


64-bit setup:


  Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Ed.
  Startup Database - Oracle 11g 11.1.0.7.0


Although 11g R1 is not certified on Windows Server 2008 R2 it installed fine without any problems.

RMAN was invoked from 11g 11.1.0.6.0 as the TARGET to AUXILIARY 11g 11.1.0.7.0
(This was done for backward compatibility issues; to match the same or higher RMAN version).
Either database is not an RCVCAT, but connections are established as TARGET or AUXILIARY.

For privacy purposes, I replaced the names for the databases to match 32-bit and 64-bit accordingly.

Working from the 32-bit system, after executing RMAN I got the following error:

Starting Duplicate Db at 07-JAN-10
allocated channel: ORA_AUX_DISK_1
channel ORA_AUX_DISK_1: SID=152 device type=DISK

contents of Memory Script:
{
   backup as copy reuse
   file  'D:\dbData\product\11.1.0\db\DATABASE\PWD32bit.ORA' auxiliary format
   'C:\app\oracle\product\11.1.0.7.0\db_1\DATABASE\PWD64bit.ORA'   ;
}
executing Memory Script

Starting backup at 07-JAN-10
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=118 device type=DISK
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of Duplicate Db command at 01/07/2010 16:39:21
RMAN-03015: error occurred in stored script Memory Script
RMAN-03009: failure of backup command on ORA_DISK_1 channel at 01/07/2010 16:39:21
ORA-17627: ORA-12577: Message 12577 not found;  product=RDBMS; facility=ORA


While invoking RMAN from the 64-bit I had the following:

PL/SQL package SYS.DBMS_BACKUP_RESTORE version 11.01.00.06 in TARGET database is notcurrent
PL/SQL package SYS.DBMS_RCVMAN version 11.01.00.06 in TARGET database is not current
connected to target database: 32-bit (DBID=2889597870)


If the problem is RMAN compatibility issues is it possible to upgrade to a higher RMAN version (in the 32-bit) or downgrade to a lower RMAN (if at all possible, in the 64-bit) 
instead of upgrading the 32-bit database to patch 7 (11.1.0.7.0)?
The 32-bit database will be decommissioned after the duplication to the 64-bit.

If this is possible can anyone help in providing information about how to accomplish this?
Or if unrelated to this, then what is causing this problem and which way should I start troubleshooting?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You have to initiate the duplicate from the target database to be able to connect to the not mounted target database. I suggest you to downgrade the oracle version on the 64 bit machine. The easiest way to do this will be to install 11.1.0.6.0 version on the 64-bit server into a separate oracle home and perform the duplicate.  You can upgrade the database  after duplicate and switch it to the 11.1.0.7.0 home.   

The error you are getting on the 32-bit database seems to be  a connection problem to the database. The target instance is not mounted and you cannot connect to is via SQLnet.

When performing the duplicate form 64 bit system, please make sure that you are using username/password in the connection string to the target database and not the system authentication. 

Best regards, 
Yuri