How to automate the purging of archivelogs on primary when backing up from physical standby?

Question

Hi,
When configuring archivelog backups to run from my Active Standby database (11.2.0.3) I am running into an issue where the archivelogs on the primary database are not getting purged. This is resulting in the archiver hanging on the primary.
run {
allocate channel ch1 type 'sbt_tape'
TRACE 0;
setlimit channel ch1 maxopenfiles 8;
backup
filesperset = 32
(archivelog  all   delete input );
backup  current controlfile  spfile  ;
My archivelog deletion policy is set as follows on both the primary and standby
CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY TO APPLIED ON ALL STANDBY;
When I run REPORT OBSOLETE from RMAN however, the primary database seems to have outdated information in it.
I have also observed the following in the RMAN backup log:
RMAN-08120: WARNING: archived log not deleted, not yet applied by standby.
Do I need to perform additional configuration to automate the purging of archivelogs on the primary database or is there an issue with the backup options and / or deletion policy specified?
Many thanks,
Gary Allen
DBA

Answer 1

The primary and standby databases are in sync and have been for over a week now.
Primary:
SQL> select max(sequence#), applied from v$archived_log group by applied;
MAX(SEQUENCE#) APPLIED
           268 NO
           267 YES
Standby:
SQL> select max(sequence#) from v$archived_log;
MAX(SEQUENCE#)
           268
For some reason though, the primary controlfile is not being updated properly and when I run the RMAN REPORT OBSOLETE command the data is nearly a week old yet on the standby the same command retrieves up to date information:
Primary:
RMAN> report obsolete
Backup Set           136    06-AUG-13
  Backup Piece       136    06-AUG-13          48ogk9ik_1_1
Backup Set           138    06-AUG-13
  Backup Piece       138    06-AUG-13          4aogkqbm_1_1
Backup Set           142    06-AUG-13
  Backup Piece       142    06-AUG-13          4eogl5i6_1_1
Backup Set           144    07-AUG-13
  Backup Piece       144    07-AUG-13          4gogmc0a_1_1
RMAN> report obsolete
Standby:
Backup Set           156    13-AUG-13
  Backup Piece       156    13-AUG-13          4uoh65o7_1_1
Backup Set           159    13-AUG-13
  Backup Piece       159    13-AUG-13          51oh6d0r_1_1
Backup Set           162    13-AUG-13
  Backup Piece       162    13-AUG-13          54oh6n8a_1_1
Backup Set           165    13-AUG-13
  Backup Piece       165    13-AUG-13          57oh78qr_1_1