ORA-01610: recovery using the BACKUP CONTROLFILE option must be done

Question

Hello All,
I have an instance on my LAB server. To explore more avenues in cloning a DB I did the following.
1. On my Oracle 10g Instance I fired an large query which would take atleast an hour to execute.
2. Opened another session and executed shu ABORT to shutdown the above instance abruptly.
3. Took backup of datafiles, archive logs and redologs [ prior to shu abort, I had issued ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE TO TRACE]
Restoration steps:
NOMOUNT with pfile edited to hold the name of the new DB_NAME
Create control file script edited to reflect the new paths of datafile and redologs.
MOunted succesfully.
ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS;
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01194: file 1 needs more recovery to be consistent
ORA-01110: data file 1:
'F:\ORACLE\COLD_BACKUP_TRIAL\SET2\DATAFILE\DUPLISYSTEM_553LC8QX_.DBF'
SQL> recover datafile 'F:\ORACLE\COLD_BACKUP_TRIAL\SET2\DATAFILE\DUPLISYSTEM_553LC8QX_.DBF';
ORA-00283: recovery session canceled due to errors
ORA-01610: recovery using the BACKUP CONTROLFILE option must be done
SQL> recover database using backup controlfile;
ORA-00279: change 2962256 generated at 09/03/2009 12:06:49 needed for thread 1
ORA-00289: suggestion :
F:\ORACLE\COLD_BACKUP_TRIAL\SET2\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\DUPLI\ARCHIVELOG\2009_09_23
\O1_MF_1_2_%U_.ARC
ORA-00280: change 2962256 for thread 1 is in sequence #2
Specify log: {<RET>=suggested | filename | AUTO | CANCEL}
F:\oracle\cold_backup_trial\SET2\ONLINELOG_BK\O1_MF_3_553LGCH3_.log
ORA-00342: archived log does not have expected resetlogs SCN 2933995
ORA-00334: archived log:
'F:\ORACLE\COLD_BACKUP_TRIAL\SET2\ONLINELOG_BK\O1_MF_3_553LGCH3_.LOG'
I didn't find the file it was suggesting so I tried many combinations of providing the right recovery file name :-- All the latest Archive logs and Redologs in my backup.
Still the recovery is not successful. Please let me know how can I recover my DATABASE.
Many thanks in advance.
Regards,
Valli

Answer 1

Greetings,
If I understood, you basically have a copy of a primary database and the redo log archives of this pretty same database, you have backed up the control file of this primary database, edited it pointing all paths of your datafiles to the new location but renaming the instance name.
I am assuming that you have edited the first line of your control file to something like "CREATE CONTROLFILE SET DATABASE "DB02" RESETLOGS ARCHIVELOG", in this case are you sure that the redolog archives have not loose the sequence? In this case it will ask more and more archives and it will never end, take a look at the date and time of the thread that your instance is asking for recovery. Is your instance a production database? If it is NOT production and you are SURE that the database is completely recovered and is asking for redolog files that does not even exist you can try to add the ALLOWRESETLOGS_CORRUPTION=TRUE to your init.ora and open the db... This solution is not recommended and you should never use it on production instances... take this hint as a LAST effort to bring your db online.
Regards,
Bruno Carvalho