"recover database until cancel" asks for archive log file that do not exist

Question

Hello,
Oracle Release : Oracle 10.2.0.2.0
Last week we performed, a restore and then an Oracle recovery using the recover database until cancel command. (we didn't use backup control files) .It worked fine and we able to restart the SAP instances. However, I still have questions about Oracle behaviour using this command.
First we restored, an online backup.
We tried to restart the database, but got ORA-01113,ORA-01110 errors :
sr3usr.data1 needed media recovery.
Then we performed the recovery :
According Oracel documentation, "recover database until cancel recovery" proceeds by prompting you with the suggested filenames of archived redo log files.
The probleme is it  prompts for archive log file that do not exist.
As you can see below, it asked for SMAarch1_10420_610186861.dbf that has never been created. Therefore, I cancelled manually the recovery, and restarted the database. We never got the message "media recovery complete"
ORA-279 signalled during: ALTER DATABASE RECOVER    LOGFILE '/oracle/SMA/oraarch/SMAarch1_10417_61018686
Fri Sep  7 14:09:45 2007
ALTER DATABASE RECOVER    LOGFILE '/oracle/SMA/oraarch/SMAarch1_10418_610186861.dbf'
Fri Sep  7 14:09:45 2007
Media Recovery Log /oracle/SMA/oraarch/SMAarch1_10418_610186861.dbf
ORA-279 signalled during: ALTER DATABASE RECOVER    LOGFILE '/oracle/SMA/oraarch/SMAarch1_10418_61018686
Fri Sep  7 14:10:03 2007
ALTER DATABASE RECOVER    LOGFILE '/oracle/SMA/oraarch/SMAarch1_10419_610186861.dbf'
Fri Sep  7 14:10:03 2007
Media Recovery Log /oracle/SMA/oraarch/SMAarch1_10419_610186861.dbf
ORA-279 signalled during: ALTER DATABASE RECOVER    LOGFILE '/oracle/SMA/oraarch/SMAarch1_10419_61018686
Fri Sep  7 14:10:13 2007
ALTER DATABASE RECOVER    LOGFILE '/oracle/SMA/oraarch/SMAarch1_10420_610186861.dbf'
Fri Sep  7 14:10:13 2007
Media Recovery Log /oracle/SMA/oraarch/SMAarch1_10420_610186861.dbf
Errors with log /oracle/SMA/oraarch/SMAarch1_10420_610186861.dbf
ORA-308 signalled during: ALTER DATABASE RECOVER    LOGFILE '/oracle/SMA/oraarch/SMAarch1_10420_61018686
Fri Sep  7 14:15:19 2007
ALTER DATABASE RECOVER CANCEL
Fri Sep  7 14:15:20 2007
ORA-1013 signalled during: ALTER DATABASE RECOVER CANCEL ...
Fri Sep  7 14:15:40 2007
Shutting down instance: further logons disabled
When restaring the database we could see that, a recovery of online redo log has been performed automatically, is it the normal behaviour of a recovery using "recover database until cancel"  command ?
Started redo application at
Thread 1: logseq 10416, block 482
Fri Sep  7 14:24:55 2007
Recovery of Online Redo Log: Thread 1 Group 4 Seq 10416 Reading mem 0
  Mem# 0 errs 0: /oracle/SMA/origlogB/log_g14m1.dbf
  Mem# 1 errs 0: /oracle/SMA/mirrlogB/log_g14m2.dbf
Fri Sep  7 14:24:55 2007
Completed redo application
Fri Sep  7 14:24:55 2007
Completed crash recovery at
Thread 1: logseq 10416, block 525, scn 105140074
0 data blocks read, 0 data blocks written, 43 redo blocks read
Thank you very much for your help.
Frod.

Answer 1

Hi,
Let me answer your query.
=======================
Your question: While performing the recovery, is it possible to locate which online redolog is needed, and then to apply the changes in these logs
1.   When you have current controlfile and need complete data (no data loss),
      then do not go for until cancel recovery.
2.   Oracle will apply all the redologs (including current redolog) while recovery
     process is    on.
3.  During the recovery you need to have all the redologs which are listed in the    view    V$RECOVERY_LOG and all the unarchived and current redolog. By querying  V$RECOVERY_LOG  you    can find out about the redologs required.
4. If the required sequence is not there in the archive destination, and if recovery process    asks for that sequence you can query V$LOG to see whether requested sequence is part of the    online redologs. If yes you can mention the path of the online redolog to complete the recovery.
Hope this information helps.
Regards,
Madhukar