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Procedure documentationRecovering from Errors During the Archiving of Online Redo Logs Locate this document in the navigation structure

 

You use this procedure if there are errors during the archiving of the online redo logs.

For SAP systems with production Oracle databases, the database mode is set to ARCHIVELOG. This mode causes the database system to save an online redo log file – that is, the archive process ARCH is initiated and produces the corresponding offline redo log files in the archiving directory – before the database changes recorded in the redo log files are overwritten during a log file switch.

If the background process ARCH for archiving redo logs fails, the system shuts down until the error is corrected.

This problem is due to the following:

  • The background process ARCH was not started

  • The archiving directory is full (“archiver stuck”) or is not available

Procedure

  1. Make sure the ARCH archiving process was started by entering these SQLPLUS commands:

    archive log list

    If the ARCH process was not started or is not currently active – the line Automatic archival DISABLED is displayed – start it by entering these SQLPLUS commands:

    connect / as sysdba

    archive log start

    Also check the parameters in the init.ora file that control the archiving process. Make sure the archiving process is started automatically during the next database startup. For more information, see Setting Up Archiving.

  2. If the disk or archive directory for the offline redo log files is full or is not available, choose one of the two following alternatives:

    • Enter a new target directory for the online redo log archiving.

      You probably have to cancel the background process ARCH and restart it, specifying a new target directory. To do this, enter these SQLPLUS commands:

      archive log stop

      archive log start '<new path>'

      <new path> is the name of the “directory” that will be used for archiving. Note the following special naming conventions for this directory: Oracle can interpret the last part of the specified path as a file prefix. Therefore, it must not physically exist in the directory.

      Find out about the default settings of the background process ARCH in the init.ora file. For more information, see Setting Up Archiving. The database must remain active when you stop and restart the ARCH process.

      Note that the path is automatically reset to the predefined value in profile init.ora the next time you start up the database.

      Make sure that BRARCHIVE is able to back up the offline redo log files.

    • Use BRARCHIVE to archive and delete the offline redo log files. This frees space in the archive directory.