Resolved: ORA-19809 limit exceeded for recovery files

How to fix ORA-19809 limit exceeded for recovery files.

In this article we will discuss 'how to resolve ORA-19809 and ORA-19804' error. This has very common issue while doing RMAN backup, we have faced ORA-19809 and ORA-19804 error due to recovery destination full. In this scenario we will have to remove old archivelog (expired or unwanted) or increase the  size of db_recovery_file_dest_size .

RMAN> backup tablespace users;

Starting backup at 24-SEP-19
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=130 device type=DISK
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00006 name=/data01/12cdatabase/oracle/oradata/gcdb1/users01.dbf
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 24-SEP-19
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03009: failure of backup command on ORA_DISK_1 channel at 09/24/2019 14:38:54
ORA-19809: limit exceeded for recovery files

ORA-19804: cannot reclaim 67108864 bytes disk space from 5033164800 limit


Check the current value of db_recovery_file_dest_size.

SQL> show parameter db_recovery

NAME                                 TYPE        VALUE
------------------------------------ ----------- ------------------------------
db_recovery_file_dest      string     /data01/12cdatabase/oracle/fast_recovery_area
db_recovery_file_dest_size             big integer 4800M


Now we will check the space used .

SQL> select SPACE_USED/1024/1024/1024 "SPACE_USED(GB)" ,SPACE_LIMIT/1024/1024/1024 "SPACE_LIMIT(GB)" from  v$recovery_file_dest;

SPACE_USED(GB) SPACE_LIMIT(GB)
-------------- ---------------
    4.68073177          4.6875


After that we need to increase the db_recovery_file_dest_size  

SQL>ALTER SYSTEM SET DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST_SIZE=10g SCOPE=SPFILE;
SQL> shut immediate;
SQL> Startup;


If you don't want to shutdown database.You may delete the expired archive log online. We should 'delete files from recovery area using rman' on regular basis.


RMAN> delete expired archivelog all;
RMAN>delete noprompt expired backup;
RMAN>delete noprompt expired archivelog all;
RMAN>delete noprompt obsolete recovery window of 7 days;



Verify the recovery_file_dest size.


SQL> select SPACE_USED/1024/1024/1024 "SPACE_USED(GB)" ,SPACE_LIMIT/1024/1024/1024 "SPACE_LIMIT(GB)" from  v$recovery_file_dest;


SPACE_USED(GB) SPACE_LIMIT(GB)
-------------- ---------------
    4.80296659              10


Now we can start the backup as below.

[oracle@prod ~]$ rman target /

Recovery Manager: Release 12.1.0.1.0 - Production on Tue Sep 24 16:32:38 2019

Copyright (c) 1982, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates.  All rights reserved.

connected to target database: GCDB1 (DBID=1045104251)

RMAN> backup tablespace users;

Starting backup at 24-SEP-19
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=305 device type=DISK
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00006 name=/data01/12cdatabase/oracle/oradata/gcdb1/users01.dbf
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 24-SEP-19
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 24-SEP-19
piece handle=/data01/12cdatabase/oracle/fast_recovery_area/GCDB1/backupset/2019_09_24/o1_mf_nnndf_TAG20190924T163242_grmxymnv_.bkp tag=TAG20190924T163242 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
Finished backup at 24-SEP-19

Starting Control File and SPFILE Autobackup at 24-SEP-19
piece handle=/data01/12cdatabase/oracle/fast_recovery_area/GCDB1/autobackup/2019_09_24/o1_mf_s_1019838764_grmxyplb_.bkp comment=NONE
Finished Control File and SPFILE Autobackup at 24-SEP-19


Now we can see in RMAN Backup logs no 'ORA-19809 limit exceeded for recovery files' showing.