DB won't start due to full db_recovery_file_dest_size - how to increase?

Question

Hi,
I have a 11.2.0.2.0 installation which suffered a power failure and I'm trying to restart.
The startup fails with:
SQL> startup
ORA-32004: obsolete or deprecated parameter(s) specified for RDBMS instance
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 1.9241E+10 bytes
Fixed Size                  2234616 bytes
Variable Size            1.4361E+10 bytes
Database Buffers         4831838208 bytes
Redo Buffers               45686784 bytes
Database mounted.
ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channelWhich lead me to the alert log:
ORA-19815: WARNING: db_recovery_file_dest_size of 214748364800 bytes is 100.00% used, and has 0 remaining bytes available.I would like to fix this by increasing the size of the recovery area. Is there a way to determine how much space would be required? Or should I just go for 300G? 400G? The disk itself has 500G free.
The problem is that I'm unable to start the database to run the 'alter system set db_recovery_file_dest_size=...' command.
But I should be able to at least temporarily alter this in the init.ora file, right?
I've changed my init.ora to contain the line:
db_recovery_file_dest_size=400GBut when I try to startup, I get the same error, and the log showing the initialization params shows:
Starting up:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options.
Using parameter settings in server-side spfile /oracle/11gr2/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_2/dbs/spfilemimic2.ora
System parameters with non-default values:
...[snip]
  db_recovery_file_dest_size= 200GSo perhaps it's not reading my init.ora file? Or overriding it with the spfile?
Can someone help me alter the recovery_file size?
Thanks,
Dan

Answer 1

danscott wrote:
Hi,
I have a 11.2.0.2.0 installation which suffered a power failure and I'm trying to restart.
The startup fails with:
SQL> startup
ORA-32004: obsolete or deprecated parameter(s) specified for RDBMS instance
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 1.9241E+10 bytes
Fixed Size                  2234616 bytes
Variable Size            1.4361E+10 bytes
Database Buffers         4831838208 bytes
Redo Buffers               45686784 bytes
Database mounted.
ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channelWhich lead me to the alert log:
ORA-19815: WARNING: db_recovery_file_dest_size of 214748364800 bytes is 100.00% used, and has 0 remaining bytes available.I would like to fix this by increasing the size of the recovery area. Is there a way to determine how much space would be required? Or should I just go for 300G? 400G? The disk itself has 500G free.
The problem is that I'm unable to start the database to run the 'alter system set db_recovery_file_dest_size=...' command.
But I should be able to at least temporarily alter this in the init.ora file, right?
I've changed my init.ora to contain the line:
db_recovery_file_dest_size=400GBut when I try to startup, I get the same error, and the log showing the initialization params shows:
Starting up:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options.
Using parameter settings in server-side spfile /oracle/11gr2/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_2/dbs/spfilemimic2.ora
System parameters with non-default values:
...[snip]
db_recovery_file_dest_size= 200GSo perhaps it's not reading my init.ora file? Or overriding it with the spfile?
Can someone help me alter the recovery_file size?
Thanks,
DanNotice that the error is occuring after the database is mounted (control file has been opened and processed, data files still not opened). All you need to "ALTER SYSTEM SET .... SCOPE=SPFILE" is to STARTUP NOMOUNT. Issue your ALTER SYSTEM to resize the recovery file dest size, then ALTER DATABASE
[oracle@vmlnx01 ~]$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production on Thu Jan 19 10:56:14 2012
Copyright (c) 1982, 2007, Oracle.  All Rights Reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.4.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options
SQL> shutdown immediate
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL> startup nomount
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area  285212672 bytes
Fixed Size                  1267068 bytes
Variable Size             104860292 bytes
Database Buffers          176160768 bytes
Redo Buffers                2924544 bytes
SQL> alter system set db_recovery_file_dest_size=20g scope=spfile;
System altered.
SQL> alter database open;
alter database open
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01507: database not mounted
SQL> alter database mount;
Database altered.
SQL> alter database open;
Database altered.
SQL>And no need to mess with an init.ora file.
And just to clarify, when I said all you need to do is STARTUP NOMOUNT, what I meant was that that is the minimum requirement for being able to ALTER SYSTEM ... SCOPE=SPFILE. Since you are already at a MOUNT state, you should be able to just issue the ALTER from there -- maybe with SCOPE=BOTH, and continue with ALTER DATABASE OPEN.
Edited by: EdStevens on Jan 19, 2012 11:31 AM