Standby not applying the online redo logs

Hi,
The redo apply process does not seem to apply the current logs to the standby database.
The output from the query
Select last_change#, sequence# from v$standby_log;
LAST_CHANGE# GROUP# SEQUENCE#
4 0
10120537 5 8586
6 0
7 0
gives me the current SCN as that of the primary.
But the CURRENT_SCN from v$database on the standby lags from that of the output above.
Select CURRENT_SCN from v$database;
CURRENT_SCN
10119641
The STATUS and PROCESS information from the v$managed_standby show the following:
PROCESS STATUS SEQUENCE#
ARCH CONNECTED 0
ARCH CONNECTED 0
ARCH CONNECTED 0
ARCH CONNECTED 0
RFS IDLE 0
RFS IDLE 0
RFS IDLE 8586
RFS IDLE 0
RFS IDLE 0
RFS IDLE 0
RFS IDLE 0
PROCESS STATUS SEQUENCE#
MRP0 APPLYING_LOG 8586
Any thoughts on why the standby has not applied the recived logs from the primary?
I am currently using version Oracle 11.2.0.2 for Active dataguard setup. I currently have a primary server and one standy server.
Thanks

I had sent the output of the queries in the earlier post. Here it is again
The output for the query
select thread#, max(sequence#) from v$archived_log group by thread#; (on primary)
THREAD# MAX(SEQUENCE#)
1 8585
The output for
select thread#, max(sequence#) from v$archived_log where applied = 'YES' group by thread#; (on standby)
THREAD# MAX(SEQUENCE#)
1 8585
Also the query
select LAST_CHANGE#, STATUS from V$STANDBY_LOG;
gives me the current scn generated at the primary.
LAST_CHANGE# STATUS
10149990 ACTIVE
10146538 ACTIVE
10150844 ACTIVE
But the current_scn from v$database is lagging.
select current_scn from v$database;
CURRENT_SCN
10146535
Also the query
select THREAD#, LOW_SEQUENCE#, HIGH_SEQUENCE# from v$archive_gap;
returns no rows. So there are no archive logs missing on the standby either.
So I beleive that the RFS has recieved the logs from the primary but the logs have not been applied at the standby.
Thanks

Similar Messages

Asynch Hot Log mode does not use hot (online) redo logs

Version 10.2
We have just set up a test of the Asynch Hot Log replication according to Chap 16 of the Data Warehousing guide.
We can see data put into the change table. However, it seems that data gets written to the change table ONLY after a log switch. This would suggest that the capture process is not reading the online logs, but is only reading the archived logs.
I don't think this can be correct behavior because the docs indicate that Oracle "seamlessly switches" between the online and the archived redo logs.
Is there a flag or something to set to cause the online logs to be available to the capture process? Or is this a bug? Has anyone else observed this behavior?
Thanks for any insight.
-- Chris Curzon

According to the 10g Dataguard docs, section 2.5.1:
"Physical standby databases do not use an online redo log, because physical standby databases are not opened for read/write I/O."yes, those are used when database is open.
You should not perform any changes in Standby. Even if those exist online redo log files, whats the difficulty you have seen?
These will be used whenever you performed switchover/failover. So nothing to worry on this.
Is this a case of the STANDBY needing at least a notion of where the REDO logs will need to be should a failover occur, and if the files are already there, the standby database CONTROLFILE will hold onto them, as they are not doing any harm anyway?Then oracle functionality itself harm if you think in that way. When they not used in open then what the harm with that?
Standby_File_management --> for example if you add any datafile, those information will be in archives/redos once they applied on standby those will be added automatically when it is set to AUTO if its manual, then it creates a unnamed file in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs location later you have to rename that file and recovery need to perform .
check this http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B14117_01/server.101/b10755/initparams206.htm
HTH.

Moving the online redo log files to different location

We just installed few more drives into our sandbox system and I want to move the online redo log files for better performance. We've got the SAPARCH directory moved to a different location.
Does anyone know how/where I can change the parameters so redo log files are pointed at different drives? It's not in the <b>init<SID>.ora</b> file...
Regards,
Sumit

Hi Sumit,
The following link contains information about moving the redo logs:
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/itss/docs/oracle/9i/server.920/a96521/onlineredo.htm
Best regards,
Alwin

Why the time of the online redo logs doesn't change?

Oracle 11.1.0.7 on windows 2008.I find the time of the online redo logs doesn't change since Jan 18 when I had restarted database,and the time of some datafiles doesn't change either.the database is always online and changes are wrriting to the files, I don't know how this happened?
would anyone help me? thank you.

ROCK wrote:
I found some datafiles have the latest date,but the other not. They all have write/read operations on them.
and the switching of the redo logs doesn't change the timestamps of the logfiles since Jan.18 when I had restarted the database. this situation does not appear on the early 8.1.7 database on windows 2000
Does this situation normal?Hi,
Why dont you post the output of the query you are using such as
select group#, first_time, status from v$log;
select name, last_time, status from v$datafile;
select name, CHECKPOINT_TIME, status from v$datafile_header;Time stamp wont change for offline and may be for temp tablespace.
Regards
Anurag

Physical Standby Online Redo log files,

Hi,
I'm trying to create a physical standby database (10.2.0.3). I'm a little confused about the requirement for online redo logs on the standby.
in my standby alert log I get the following when I issue:
SQL> alter database recover managed standby database disconnect from session
"ORA-00313: open failed for members of log group 1 of thread 1
ORA-00312: online log 1 thread 1: '/appl/oradata/prod/prod_1_redo_01_02.log'
ORA-27037: unable to obtain file status
SVR4 Error: 2: No such file or directory
Additional information: 3"
/appl/oradata/prod/prod_1_redo_01_02.log is the path to the location of the online redo logs on the production system. This file does not exist on the standby filesystem so the error is correct.
I assume that it gets this information from the standby control file I created on the production system and copied over to the standby.
Do I need to copy the online redo logs from the primary over to the standby site or do I need to create online redo logs on the standby?
Does the standby need to have redo log files?
I'm not talking about 'standby log files' of the type created using 'alter database add standby log file'. I've not got that far yet.
I just need to establish if a physical standby requires online redo log files?
Thanks in advance,
user234564

I wanted to update this thread since I've been dealing with the exact same errors. The basic question is: "does a physical standby need the online redo logs?"
Answer: Not really, until one wants to switchover or failover (and become a primary database). Furthermore, whenever the MRP process is started, Oracle prepares for a possible switchover/failover by "clearing" the online redo logs (MetaLink note# 352879.1). It is not a big deal, since Oracle will build the actual redo files when the "alter database open resetlogs" is accomplished during a "role transition."
In our situation, we have decided to use our standby for nightly exports. We stop MRP, open the database read-only, then restart MRP. We built these standby DBs with RMAN. The RMAN duplicate process will not build the online redo log files until the database is opened for read/write (with resetlogs). However, we haven't had a need for read/write (i.e. a switchover).
Thus, every morning we have been getting the same errors that "user234564" posted above. At first the errors seemed scary, then we realized they were just a nusiance. In order to clean things up, all I did was just "cp" our stanby redo logs (SRL) into our online redo directories ensuring the names matched what was in v$logfile. When I restarted MRP, the alert log clearly showed Oracle clearing these "newly found" online redo logs.

Application of online redo logs

Dear all,
In my organisation recently standby database has been configured. Now my task is to restore a full online+redo backup which is created in primary database in the standby database. Once it is over I have to apply the newly created redo logs generated after the online backup.
I am planning to restore the online+redo backup using the following command
brrestore -b "BRBACKUP log file" -m full. Once it is done I have to apply the online redo logs. I am confused how to apply manually the newly created redo logs. Is there any document regarding it. I searched and found many information in net but nothing seems to be very convincing as this is a critical activity.
Best Regards,
Tapan

Hello Tapan,
> brrestore -b "BRBACKUP log file" -m full. Once it is done I have to apply the online redo logs.
Bad idea, you need a standby controlfile and not a backup controlfile on the standby site.
> I am confused how to apply manually the newly created redo logs. Is there any document regarding it.
You can do this manually by your own or by Oracle Dataguard.
I would suggest that you get a training on Oracle Dataguard and then you will understand the concepts and will be able to setup a DR solution. It makes not much sense to explain you all the steps and the functions, because of in a critical moment you should know what to do and why.
If you really want to try it by your own - so start with this:
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14239/toc.htm
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14230/toc.htm
Regards
Stefan

Clearing Online redo logs on the target physical standby

Hi,
Version 11202.
Primary on machine A
Standby on machine B
Following note: 11.2 Data Guard Physical Standby Switchover Best Practices using SQL*Plus [ID 1304939.1].
Online redo logs on the target physical standby need to be cleared before that standby database can become a primary database. And later :
On the target physical standby run the following query to determine if the online redo logs have not been cleared... 1) I did not understand where i should run the query. On machine A or on machine B ?
2)
Online redo logs on the target physical standby need to be CLEARED
What does it mean that it need to be CLEARED ? Does transaction might be lost by running the clearing command?
Thanks

I have used my note many times in production.
For example they needed to do some power work on the main server room a few months back on the weekend.
We did switchovers until the work was complete and then a switch back.
I wrote a short document called "Switchover post-mortem lessons" the main point from that was :
1.
getting ORA-01017 issues in Oracle forms ( Application ) after the switchover to standby.
The issue was caused by the Standby database having a different parameter for passwords than the Primary database.
This did not show up in testing because all the tester we used had converted passwords from Oracle 10.
Solution
When in doubt issue this on the new Primary :
SQL>ALTER SYSTEM SET SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON = FALSE;
Note: This command can be issued repeatedly with no negative effect on the system.2.
The query to check switch_over status was returning "LOG SWITCH GAP"
select switchover_status from v$database;
This is an issue because Oracle says the return values should be one of these :
NOT ALLOWED
SESSIONS ACTIVE
SWITCHOVER PENDING
SWITCHOVER LATENT
TO PRIMARY
TO STANDBY
RECOVERY NEEDED
LOG SWITCH GAP is not one of the expected value. In addition this phase is not search friendly either on the Oracle support site or your favorite search engine.
Given this I ran this query :
SELECT
NAME AS STANDBY,
SEQUENCE#,
APPLIED,
COMPLETION_TIME
FROM
V$ARCHIVED_LOG;
Solution
SQL>ALTER SYSTEM SWITCH LOGFILE;
And wait a few minutesMy switchover document had no issue.
Best Regards
mseberg

Online redo logs on a physical standby?

A question on REDO logs on physical standby databases. (10.2.0.4 db on Windows 32bit)
My PRIMARY has 3 ONLINE REDO groups, 2 members each, in ..ORADATA\LOCP10G
My PHYSICAL STANDBY has 4 STANDBY REDO groups, 2 members each, in ..ORADATA\SBY10G
I have shipping occurring from the primary in LGWR, ASYNC mode - max availablility
However I notice the STANDBY also has ONLINE REDO logs, same as the PRIMARY, in the ..ORADATA\SBY10G folder
According to the 10g Dataguard docs, section 2.5.1:
"Physical standby databases do not use an online redo log, because physical standby databases are not opened for read/write I/O."
I have tried to drop these on the STANDBY when not in apply mode, but I get the following:
SQL> ALTER DATABASE RECOVER MANAGED STANDBY DATABASE CANCEL;
Database altered.
SQL> ALTER DATABASE DROP LOGFILE GROUP 3;
ALTER DATABASE DROP LOGFILE GROUP 3
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01275: Operation DROP LOGFILE is not allowed if standby file management is
automatic.
I also deleted them while the STANDBY instance was idle, but it recreated them when moved to MOUNT mode.
So my question is why is my PHYSICAL recreating and using these, if the docs say the shouldn't?
I saw the same error mentioned here: prob. with DataGuard
Is this a case of the STANDBY needing at least a notion of where the REDO logs will need to be should a failover occur, and if the files are already there, the standby database CONTROLFILE will hold onto them, as they are not doing any harm anyway?
Or, is this a prooduct of having management=AUTOMATIC - i.e. the database will create these 'automatically'
Ta
bt

According to the 10g Dataguard docs, section 2.5.1:
"Physical standby databases do not use an online redo log, because physical standby databases are not opened for read/write I/O."yes, those are used when database is open.
You should not perform any changes in Standby. Even if those exist online redo log files, whats the difficulty you have seen?
These will be used whenever you performed switchover/failover. So nothing to worry on this.
Is this a case of the STANDBY needing at least a notion of where the REDO logs will need to be should a failover occur, and if the files are already there, the standby database CONTROLFILE will hold onto them, as they are not doing any harm anyway?Then oracle functionality itself harm if you think in that way. When they not used in open then what the harm with that?
Standby_File_management --> for example if you add any datafile, those information will be in archives/redos once they applied on standby those will be added automatically when it is set to AUTO if its manual, then it creates a unnamed file in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs location later you have to rename that file and recovery need to perform .
check this http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B14117_01/server.101/b10755/initparams206.htm
HTH.

When occurs crash recovery,why use active online redo log not archived log?

If current redo log had archived, but it's still 'ACTIVE'. As we all know, archived log is just an archived copy of the current redo log which is still 'ACTIVE', they have the same data. But why use active online redo log not archived log for crash recovery?(I think, if crash recovery can use archived log, then whether the online redo log is 'ACTIVE' or not, it can be overwritten)
Quote:
Re: v$log : How redo log file can have a status ACTIVE and be already archived?
Hemant K Chitale
If your instance crashes, Oracle attempts Instance Recovery -- reading from the Online Redo Logs. It doesn't need ArchiveLogs for Instance Recovery.
TanelPoder
Whether the log is already archived or not doesn't matter here, when the instance crashes, Oracle needs some blocks from that redolog. Archivelog is just an archived copy of the redolog, so you could use either the online or achive log for the recovery, it's the same data in there (Oracle reads the log/archivelog file header when it tries to use it for recovery and validates whether it contains the changes (RBA range) in it what it needs).

Aman.... wrote:
John,
Are you sure that the instance recovery (not the media recovery) would be using the archived redo logs? Since the only thing that would be lost is the isntance, there wouldn't be any archived redo log generated from the Current redo log and the previous archived redo logs, would be already checkpointed to the data file, IMHO archived redo logs won't participate in the instance recovery process. Yep, shall watch the video but tomorrow .
Regards
Aman....
That's what I said. Or meant to say. If Oracle used archivelogs for instance recovery, it would not be possible to recover in noarchive log mode. So recovery relies exclusively on the online log.
Sorry I wasted your time, I'll try to be less ambiguous in future

Open database if an active online redo log is missing

Hi,
Sorry for the rather long post, but I specified all the steps I performed and couldn't make it shorter :-(
I need an advice on how to open the database if an active online redo log is missing.
For test purposes I intentionally performed a shutdown abort when the redo log group 1 was in active state and then renamed its only member (REDO01.LOG) so that the database couldn't perform crash recovery using it. Then upon startup I obviously got the message:
ORA-00313: open failed for members of log group 1 of thread 1
ORA-00312: online log 1 thread 1: 'H:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG'
ORA-27041: unable to open file
OSD-04002: unable to open file
O/S-Error: (OS 2) The system cannot find the file specified.Ok, so I checked the state of the logs:
{noformat}
SQL>SELECT a.GROUP#, first_change#, SEQUENCE#, a.status, SUBSTR(b.MEMBER, 1, 40) MEMBER, b.status mem_status, a.archived
2    FROM v$log a, v$logfile b
3   WHERE a.GROUP# = b.GROUP#
4 ORDER BY a.GROUP#, b.MEMBER;
GROUP# FIRST_CHANGE# SEQUENCE# STATUS           MEMBER                         MEM_STA ARC
     1        592134         29 ACTIVE           H:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG           YES
     2        592268         30 CURRENT          C:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO02.LOG           NO
     3        592129         28 ACTIVE           C:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO03.LOG           YES
{noformat}Since opening the database to perform a log switch and thus change the status of the redo log group 1 from ACTIVE to INACTIVE to recreate the member isn't possible, I performed database recovery.
SQL>recover database until cancel;
ORA-00279: change 592129 generated at 02/04/2009 10:31:15 needed for thread 1
ORA-00289: suggestion : C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\TESTDB\ARCHIVELOG\2009_02_04\O1_MF_1_28_%U_.ARC
ORA-00280: change 592129 for thread 1 is in sequence #28
Specify log: {<RET>=suggested | filename | AUTO | CANCEL}
ORA-00279: change 592134 generated at 02/04/2009 10:31:28 needed for thread 1
ORA-00289: suggestion : C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\TESTDB\ARCHIVELOG\2009_02_04\O1_MF_1_29_%U_.ARC
ORA-00280: change 592134 for thread 1 is in sequence #29
ORA-00278: log file 'C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\TESTDB\ARCHIVELOG\2009_02_04\O1_MF_1_28_4RLR3JS9_.ARC' no longer needed for this rec
overy
Specify log: {<RET>=suggested | filename | AUTO | CANCEL}
'C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\TESTDB\ARCHIVELOG\2009_02_04\O1_MF_1_29_4RLR4MF3_.ARC'
ORA-00279: change 592268 generated at 02/04/2009 10:32:03 needed for thread 1
ORA-00289: suggestion : C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\TESTDB\ARCHIVELOG\2009_02_04\O1_MF_1_30_%U_.ARC
ORA-00280: change 592268 for thread 1 is in sequence #30
ORA-00278: log file 'C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\FLASH_RECOVERY_AREA\TESTDB\ARCHIVELOG\2009_02_04\O1_MF_1_29_4RLR4MF3_.ARC' no longer needed for this rec
overy
Specify log: {<RET>=suggested | filename | AUTO | CANCEL}
'C:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO02.LOG'
Log applied.
Media recovery complete.
SQL>So for log sequence #28 I accepted the proposed archived redo log in the FRA, for sequence #29 (that's the online redo log that is missing!) I manually specified its archived copy, and for sequence #30 I specified the CURRENT online redo log. And as it seems the media recovery was successful.
Next I tried to open the database but again got the error:
SQL>alter database open noresetlogs;
alter database open noresetlogs
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00313: open failed for members of log group 1 of thread 1
ORA-00312: online log 1 thread 1: 'H:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG'
ORA-27041: unable to open file
OSD-04002: unable to open file
O/S-Error: (OS 2) The system cannot find the file specified.
The status of the log groups and its members is exactly as it was in the first query I wrote above, i.e. the redo log group 1 is still ACTIVE, so it's needed for crash recovery (which I had already done manually if I understand correctly how Oracle works!). I also checked if the datafiles are inconsistent (described in metalink doc id 1015544.102):
SQL>SELECT DISTINCT CHECKPOINT_CHANGE#, FUZZY FROM V$DATAFILE_HEADER;
CHECKPOINT_CHANGE# FUZ
            592269 NOSo, everything seems ok as far as datafile consistency is concerned.
My question is: how can I rename/drop/clear/whatever the member of redo log group 1 to open the database?
I tried to rename the log file member, to add another member to it, to open the database with resetlogs, to clear the logfile group 1, but all without success:
1)
SQL>alter database clear logfile group 1;
alter database clear logfile group 1
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01624: log 1 needed for crash recovery of instance testdb (thread 1)
ORA-00312: online log 1 thread 1: 'H:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG'
2)
SQL>alter database open resetlogs;
alter database open resetlogs
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01139: RESETLOGS option only valid after an incomplete database recovery
3)
SQL>alter database rename file 'H:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG' to 'C:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG';
alter database rename file 'H:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG' to 'C:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG'
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01511: error in renaming log/data files
ORA-01512: error renaming log file H:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG - new file C:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG not found
ORA-27041: unable to open file
OSD-04002: unable to open file
O/S-Error: (OS 2) The system cannot find the file specified.
4)
SQL>alter database add logfile member 'C:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG' to group 1;
alter database add logfile member 'C:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG' to group 1
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00313: open failed for members of log group 1 of thread 1
ORA-00312: online log 1 thread 1: 'H:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG'
ORA-27041: unable to open file
OSD-04002: unable to open file
O/S-Error: (OS 2) The system cannot find the file specified.Sorry again for the long post and thank you in advance for any suggestion.
Regards,
Jure

You could check if the recovery was complete by (re)creating the controlfile with the resetlogs option.
<CREATE CONTROLFILE REUSE DATABASE define_db_name RESETLOGS NOARCHIVELOG
...>Thanks for the hint. If possible, could you only check if the steps I'm going to perform are ok.
I did an "alter database backup controlfile to trace;" and then extracted the create controlfile definition part. So in essence I should run the following statements:
CREATE CONTROLFILE REUSE DATABASE "TESTDB" RESETLOGS ARCHIVELOG
    MAXLOGFILES 16
    MAXLOGMEMBERS 3
    MAXDATAFILES 100
    MAXINSTANCES 8
    MAXLOGHISTORY 292
LOGFILE
GROUP 1 'C:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO01.LOG' SIZE 20M,
GROUP 2 'C:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO02.LOG' SIZE 20M,
GROUP 3 'C:\ORADATA\TESTDB\REDO03.LOG' SIZE 20M
-- STANDBY LOGFILE
DATAFILE
'C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\TESTDB\SYSTEM01.DBF',
'C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\TESTDB\UNDOTBS01.DBF',
'C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\TESTDB\SYSAUX01.DBF',
'C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\TESTDB\USERS01.DBF'
CHARACTER SET EE8MSWIN1250
ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS;
ALTER TABLESPACE TEMP ADD TEMPFILE 'C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\TESTDB\TEMP01.DBF' REUSE;Is that correct?
About the RMAN backups: Wouldn't a 'CATALOG RECOVERY AREA' populate the controlfile with backup information again (I'm not using a recovery catalog in this case)?
Thanks for the help!
Regards,
Jure

Online redo logs vs backup

Below quoted sentence is from Oracle documentation
"Online redo logs, unlike archived logs, should never be backed up. The chief danger
associated by having backups of online redo logs is that you may accidentally restore
those backups without meaning to, and corrupt your database"
Can any one explain , how the database will be corrupted if we backup online redo logs. I am having a hard time to understand this quote
thanks for your help
shajan

Redo log file contents is very dynamic. It changes minute after minute, so a backup is useless if you try to do it online. (In fact there is no command to perform such backup).
Let's suppose you shutdown (normal, immediate or transactional) The contents of the redo log files become useless as the checkpoint process has already taken place, so it is enough to have a copy of all of the consistent datafiles to have the last applied transaccion.
In a recovery scenario with archivelog it is important to keep all of the requiered archivelog files plus all of the online redo log files.
In case of a missing logfile it is useless to have a backup of it. If you ever had one, and you tried to restore it, an error would arise, warning you that the contents of the logfile is inconsistent with the expected scn. The only way you can succeed is to have them multiplexed and have them on different paths, just to reduce to probability of loosing all of the members of a group.
rman does not perform backup of redo log files. Classical theory of backup/recovery states that during a hot backup it must be backed up the archive log files, not the redo log files.

Cold backup with online redo logs

I am working on 10G in AIX for a single instance
It is just a general db backup & restore question, but I have something confused.
I am going to perform a cold backup with my ARCHIVELOG database.
No wonder why I perform a cold backup because it is a testing database which can suffer from data lost and down time during backup.
I read some guides. They all mentioned to backup all the datafiles and control files.
During the restoration, I have to copy all the backed up datafiles and control files to the default location.
Then Startup mount;
The last step before open the database is recover database until cancel;
For the acknowledgement, I have to do the command of recover database, because the online redo logs were not backed up, thus we have to recover it in order to reset the redo logs.
For my question,Would I be able to skip the command of recover database, then directly startup the database if I have backed up the online redo logs and copy the default location during the restoration?
However, I read many documents which mention that it is not suggested to backup the online redo logs. Is it just the case which ONLY applied in hot backup? Do you all think that for my case, cold backup for online redo logs is recommended?
Thanks all

jgarry wrote:
Edit: And never forget, those test databases are some developers production.Absolutely true according to my experience. Loosing the work of a payed developer is just as bad as loosing the work of a production system and may even be worse because it may not be possible to re-enter missing data into the system.
I think a cold backup is only suitable on special occasions, for instance, to relocate/copy the database to a different storage media, or if the database doesn't change or if loosing changes is absolutely irrelevant. Otherwise, put the database into archivelog mode and do a hot backup. After that you will also have alternative options which can make the restore and recovery of the database very easy and efficient, like flashback database, etc. but it will take substantial additional disk space.

Backup online redo log files

Hi All
Can you please explain for me the main reason that we do not have to backup the online redo log using RMAN ?
Thanks

The online redo logfiles are necessary to perform a complete recovery of the database. During database recovery, Oracle will apply the archived redo logfiles and online redo logfiles to roll the database forward and finally remove uncommitted transactions. If any of the online redo logfile group is active and missing, the database recovery will be incomplete and the database needs to be opened with restlogs, causing a new database incarnation.
You have to shutdown the datrabase to be able to perform a backup of the online redo logfiles, or find another method to create a time based snapshot of the data to prevent data movement while the redo logfiles are in use in order to keep datafile headers, controlfile and redo logfiles in sync. It is for that reason that you multiplex and mirror redo logfiles.

Can we use online redo log to recover lost datafile in NOARCHIVE mode?

I am working on OCA exam and confued about these 2 sample questions. (similar questions with totally different answer)
Please give me hint about the different between these 2 questions.
** If the database is in NOARCHIVELOG mode, and one of the datafile for tablespace USERS is lost, what kind of recovery is possible? (answer: B)
A. All transactions except those in the USERS tablespace are recoverable up to the loss of the datafile.
B. Recovery is possible only up to the point in time of the last full database backup.
C. The USERS tablespace is recoverable from the online redo log file as long as none of the redo log files have been reused since the last backup.
D. Tablespace point in time recovery is available as long as a full backup of the USERS tablespace exists.
** The database of your company is running in the NOARCHIVELOG mode. You perform a complete backup of the database every night. On Monday morning, you lose the USER1.dbf file belonging to the USERS tablespace. Your database has four redo log groups, and there have been two log switches since Sunday night's backup.
Which is true (answer: B)
A. The database cannot be recovered.
B. The database can be recovered up to the last commit.
C. The database can be recovered only up to the last completed backup.
D. The database can be recovered by performing an incomplete recovery.
E. The database can be recovered by restoring only the USER!.dbf datafile from the most recent backup.

I think Gaurav is correct, you can recover to the last commit even in NOARCHIVELOG, as long as all the changes in the redo logs have not been overwritten. So answer should be B for question 2.
Here is my test:
SQL> select log_mode from v$database;
LOG_MODE
NOARCHIVELOG
SQL> select tablespace_name, file_name from dba_data_files;
TABLESPACE_NAME
FILE_NAME
USERS
C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\ORA101RC\USERS01.DBF
SYSAUX
C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\ORA101RC\SYSAUX01.DBF
UNDOTBS1
C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\ORA101RC\UNDOTBS01.DBF
SYSTEM
C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\ORA101RC\SYSTEM01.DBF
DATA
C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\ORA101RC\DATA01.DBF
SQL> create table names
2 ( name varchar(16))
3 tablespace users;
Table created.
so this segment 'names' is created in the datafile users01.
At this point I shut down and mount the DB, then:
RMAN> backup database;
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:29
Finished backup at 06-OCT-07
SQL>alter database open
SQL> insert into names values ('pippo');
1 row created.
SQL> commit;
Commit complete.
SQL>shutdown immediate;
Database closed.
Database dismounted.
ORACLE instance shut down.
At this point I delete datafile users01 and restart:
SQL> startup
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 167772160 bytes
Fixed Size 1247900 bytes
Variable Size 67110244 bytes
Database Buffers 96468992 bytes
Redo Buffers 2945024 bytes
Database mounted.
ORA-01157: cannot identify/lock data file 4 - see DBWR trace file
ORA-01110: data file 4: 'C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\ORA101RC\USERS01.DBF'
restoring the backup taken before inserting the value 'pippo' in table names:
RMAN> restore database;
Starting restore at 06-OCT-07
using channel ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting datafile backupset restore
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) to restore from backup set
restoring datafile 00001 to C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\ORA101RC\SYSTEM01.D
BF
restoring datafile 00002 to C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\ORA101RC\UNDOTBS01.
DBF
restoring datafile 00003 to C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\ORA101RC\SYSAUX01.D
BF
restoring datafile 00004 to C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\ORA101RC\USERS01.DB
F
restoring datafile 00005 to C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\ORADATA\ORA101RC\DATA01.DBF
channel ORA_DISK_1: reading from backup piece C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\DB_1\DATA
BASE\0AITR52K_1_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: restored backup piece 1
piece handle=C:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\10.2.0\DB_1\DATABASE\0AITR52K_1_1 tag=TAG20071006
T181337
channel ORA_DISK_1: restore complete, elapsed time: 00:02:07
Finished restore at 06-OCT-07
RMAN> recover database;
Starting recover at 06-OCT-07
using channel ORA_DISK_1
starting media recovery
media recovery complete, elapsed time: 00:00:05
Finished recover at 06-OCT-07
SQL> alter database open;
Database altered.
SQL> select * from names;
NAME
pippo
SQL>
enrico

Windows Modified date for online redo logs

I am doing a full database backup (oracle 10g) weekly and incremental backups nightly. The database is running in archivelog mode and I am multiplexing the online redo logs. However, when I look in windows the modified date for all Redo logs is displayed at the time the database was started up (Sunday night)... datafiles, controlfiles etc... show the latest modified date correctly.
Is this normal that the modified date is not updating on redo logs or do I need to do something else to ensure my online redo is operating correctly.
Any help would be appreciated.

Redo3 was the setting before the switch... redo1 is now the current log. As regards the alert log... what file should I check... there is nothing showing in OEM.
MEMBER
GROUP# STATUS
D:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\ORADATA\WATLI1\REDO03.LOG
3 ACTIVE
D:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\ORADATA\WATLI1\REDO02.LOG
2 INACTIVE
D:\ORACLE\PRODUCT\ORADATA\WATLI1\REDO01.LOG
1 CURRENT
MEMBER
GROUP# STATUS
E:\BACKUP\ONLINELOGS\REDO01_A.LOG
1 CURRENT
E:\BACKUP\ONLINELOGS\REDO02_A.LOG
2 INACTIVE
E:\BACKUP\ONLINELOGS\REDO03_A.LOG
3 ACTIVE

Standby not applying the online redo logs

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for