Flashback Recovery area Full in Oracle 10g

Question

Before the flashback recovery area is full our
Archive destination is USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST
Our DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST =/S01/app/oracle/flash_recovery_area/
We got the Error:- ORA-00257
Inorder to resolve the error we changed the log_archive_dest_1='/S01/app/oracle/db/archive'
now the archive destination is changed to /S01/app/oracle/db/archive
Archive logs getting generated in the above directory from now onwards.
In the mean time i moved all the files from /S01/app/oracle/flash_recovery_area/
to diff directory.
But the below query gives still the space used is 3935.27 MB, where physically there are no files in /S01/app/oracle/flash_recovery_area/
When will these values in the query update. Is there anything i have to do to reclaim the space 3935.27 MB (in the query below). Now after reclaiming the space, i want to use the Flash Back Recovery area (/S01/app/oracle/flash_recovery_area/) for the archive logs, like a switchback to where we are initially. How to reclaim the space ? How to switch back archive logs to Flash Back Recovery Area (/S01/app/oracle/flash_recovery_area/).
Please the below report for the above conversation.
Sat May 20 page 1
Flash Recovery Area Status
Space Space Reclm
Limit Used Space
File Name (MB) (MB) (MB) Files
/S01/app/oracle/flash_recovery_a 4000.00 3935.27 3935.27 90
rea
Experts share your experience. Appreciate your reply in this regard..........
Thanks

Answer 1

In UNIX style environments you often don't see reclaimed space until the database is restarted. Backup the database and archivelogs and the flashback area shoudl take care of itself in future. If not, you can always delete obsolete archivelogs manually by using the DELETE command in RMAN.
To cleanup now, first you must tell RMAN that the files you've moved are no longer available:
crosscheck archivelog all;
You can then delete the obsolete archivelogs using the following RMAN command:
delete obsolete;
I'm assuming you use RMAN for all your backups :)
Cheers
Tim...