Oracle recommends that you regularly back up the server parameter file for recovery purposes. Do this using Oracle Enterprise Manager (as described in the Oracle Database 2 Day + Real Application Clusters Guide) or use the CREATE PFILE statement. For example:
CREATE PFILE='/u01/oracle/dbs/test_init.ora' FROM SPFILE='/u01/oracle/dbs/test_spfile.ora';
You can use Recovery Manager (RMAN) to create backups of the server parameter file. You can also recover an SPFILE by starting an instance using a client-side initialization parameter file. Then re-create the server parameter file using the CREATE SPFILE statement. Note that if the parameter file that you use for this operation was for a single instance, then the parameter file does not contain instance-specific values, even those that must be unique in Oracle RAC instances. Therefore, ensure that your parameter file contains the appropriate settings as described earlier in this chapter.
To ensure that your SPFILE (and control files) are automatically backed up by RMAN during typical backup operations, use Oracle Enterprise Manager or the RMAN CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP statement to enable the RMAN autobackup feature
See Also:
Oracle Database 2 Day + Real Application Clusters Guide to perform backup jobs using Oracle Enterprise Manager
Oracle Database SQL Language Reference for more information about the CREATE SPFILE statement
Oracle Database Backup and Recovery Reference for more information about the CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP statement