Backup polling enables a Recovery Appliance to periodically poll a predefined shared disk directory, called the backup polling location, and pick up new protected database backups that are placed in this location. The protected database administrator does not interact with the Recovery Appliance to send backups. Instead, backups are placed in the backup polling location and the Recovery Appliance periodically checks and picks up these backups.

The backup polling location can store level 0, level 1, and archived redo log backup sets. It is accessible to the Recovery Appliance through Network File System (NFS).

A backup polling policy, created on the Recovery Appliance, defines a path to the backup polling location and the frequency at which the Recovery Appliance polls this location. The polling policy is associated with a protected database through a protection policy.