Recovery from complete loss of all online redo log files using RMAN:

 

Database name and version

 

SQL> select instance_name,version from v$instance;

 

INSTANCE_NAME    VERSION

---------------- -----------------

opsdba           10.2.0.2.0

 

SQL> select member from v$Logfile;

 

MEMBER

-------------------------------

/u02/ORACLE/opsdba/redo03.log

/u02/ORACLE/opsdba/redo02.log

/u02/ORACLE/opsdba/redo01.log

 

opsdba:/u02/ORACLE/opsdba>rm redo*.log

 

 

If one or all of the online redo logfiles are delete then the database hangs and in the alert log file we can see the following error message:

 

Tue Jan 30 00:47:19 2007

ARC1: Failed to archive thread 1 sequence 93 (0)

Tue Jan 30 00:47:24 2007

Errors in file /opt/oracle/admin/opsdba/bdump/opsdba_arc0_32722.trc:

ORA-00313: open failed for members of log group 2 of thread 1

ORA-00312: online log 2 thread 1: '/u02/ORACLE/opsdba/redo02.log'

ORA-27037: unable to obtain file status

Linux-x86_64 Error: 2: No such file or directory

 

The file is missing at the operating system level.

 

Using RMAN we can recover from this error by restoring the database from the backup and recovering to the last available archived redo logfile.

 

From the error message in the log file we can get the last archived file in our case it is sequence 92 as the error shows that it fails to archive the log file sequence 93.

 

SQL> select * from v$Log;

 

    GROUP#    THREAD#  SEQUENCE#      BYTES    MEMBERS ARC STATUS           FIRST_CHANGE# FIRST_TIM

---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- --- ---------------- ------------- ---------

         1          1         95   52428800          1 NO  CURRENT                3203078 30-JAN-07

         2          1         93   52428800          1 NO  INACTIVE               3202983 30-JAN-07

         3          1         94   52428800          1 NO  INACTIVE               3203074 30-JAN-07

 

At the operating system also we can find the last archived logfile:

 

opsdba:/u02/ORACLE/opsdba/arch> ls –lrt

total 54824

-rw-r-----    1 oracle   dba        714240 Jan 29 16:02 arch_1_90_613129285.dbf

-rw-r-----    1 oracle   dba      46281216 Jan 30 00:37 arch_1_91_613129285.dbf

-rw-r-----    1 oracle   dba         11264 Jan 30 00:41 arch_1_92_613129285.dbf

 

 

Shutdown the database

 

SQL> shutdown immediate;

Database closed.

Database dismounted.

ORACLE instance shut down.

 

Mount the database

 

SQL> startup mount;

ORACLE instance started.

 

Total System Global Area  167772160 bytes

Fixed Size                  2069680 bytes

Variable Size              92277584 bytes

Database Buffers           67108864 bytes

Redo Buffers                6316032 bytes

Database mounted.

 

 

 

Using RMAN connect to the target database:

 

opsdba:/u02/ORACLE/opsdba>rman target /

 

Recovery Manager: Release 10.2.0.2.0 - Production on Tue Jan 30 00:53:21 2007

 

Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

connected to target database: OPSDBA (DBID=1493612009, not open)

 

RMAN> run {

2> set until sequence 93;

3> restore database;

4> recover database;

5>  alter database open resetlogs;

6> }

 

executing command: SET until clause

 

Starting restore at 30-JAN-07

allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1

channel ORA_DISK_1: sid=156 devtype=DISK

allocated channel: ORA_SBT_TAPE_1

channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: sid=155 devtype=SBT_TAPE

channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: Data Protection for Oracle: version 5.2.4.0

 

channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: starting datafile backupset restore

channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: specifying datafile(s) to restore from backup set

restoring datafile 00001 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/system01.dbf

restoring datafile 00002 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/undotbs01.dbf

restoring datafile 00003 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/sysaux01.dbf

restoring datafile 00004 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/users01.dbf

restoring datafile 00005 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/users02.dbf

restoring datafile 00006 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/users03.dbf

restoring datafile 00007 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/users05.dbf

restoring datafile 00008 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/users06.dbf

restoring datafile 00009 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/users07.dbf

restoring datafile 00010 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/users04.dbf

restoring datafile 00011 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/drtbs1.dbf

restoring datafile 00012 to /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/drtbs2.dbf

restoring datafile 00013 to /tmp/undonew.dbf

channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: reading from backup piece 5mi8ornj_1_1

channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: restored backup piece 1

piece handle=5mi8ornj_1_1 tag=TAG20070130T004019

channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1: restore complete, elapsed time: 00:01:06

Finished restore at 30-JAN-07

 

Starting recover at 30-JAN-07

using channel ORA_DISK_1

using channel ORA_SBT_TAPE_1

 

starting media recovery

 

archive log thread 1 sequence 92 is already on disk as file /u02/ORACLE/opsdba/arch/arch_1_92_613129285.dbf

archive log filename=/u02/ORACLE/opsdba/arch/arch_1_92_613129285.dbf thread=1 sequence=92

media recovery complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01

Finished recover at 30-JAN-07

 

database opened

 

RMAN>exit

 

The recovery process creates the online redo logfiles at the operating system level also.

 

opsdba:/u02/ORACLE/opsdba>ls -lrt redo*

-rw-r-----    1 oracle   dba      52429312 Jan 30 01:00 redo03.log

-rw-r-----    1 oracle   dba      52429312 Jan 30 01:00 redo02.log

-rw-r-----    1 oracle   dba      52429312 Jan 30 01:00 redo01.log

 

Since we have done an incomplete recover with open resetlogs, we should take a fresh complete backup of the database.

 

NOTE: Please make sure you remove all the old archived logfiles from the archived area.