RMAN :: How To Restore Backup From A Server To A Test Server

I have two Solaris 5.11 x86 64 bit servers. I need to be able to copy the backup files to a temp location on the 2nd server and restore that server so it is a test version of the first server. There is no RMAN catalog, I simply want to backup on A move to B restore from files copied to b.

On the first server installed Oracle Enterprise 11.2.0.3. sid = orcl. i created one schema with a new table space added a table and inserted 500,000 rows.

i set the db to archivelog=on, set configure controlfile autobackup on

i then did RMAN backup as backupset database spfile;

on the second server, i installed Oracle Enterprise 11.2.03, sid=orcl exactly like i did on the first server.i scp'd all of the files created by the backup to one location on the test server. i renamed spfileorcl.ora in dbs to somethinge else. startup nomount, exit and go to rman and run this:

DUPLICATE DATABASE TO 'orcl' SPFILE BACKUP LOCATION '/tmp/backups' NOFILENAMECHECK;

this runs for a while and looks like it works but eventually fails with :

RMAN-05541: no archived logs found in target database

subsequent attempts to 'startup' the database receive the error ORA-19838: Cannot use this control file to open database.

This is very frustrating. I have gone over all of the manuals, documentation and more but there is no 'step by step' process that i can find that is current with my version of Oracle that documents the steps necessary to simply backup a db, move it to a test server to a disk and then restore that test server as a copy of the first server.