ORACLE ORA-00257: archiver error

October 4, 2016

You try to connect to your oracle database and might see the following error, well atleast for me it was, so let’s see what caused this and how we can fix it.

“fix ora-00257: archiver error. connect internal only, until freed”

Cause: The archiver process received an error while trying to archive a redo log.

Therefor the database will stop executing transactions. The most likely cause of this message is the destination device is out of space to store the redo log file or your db ecovery file destination space is filled up and you need to expand it

So Below is how to solve it:

DB size is 80GB.

$  sqlplus / as sysdba
        SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.4.0 Production on Tue Mar 3 13:48:59 2015
        Copyright (c) 1982, 2013, Oracle. All rights reserved.
        Connected to:
        Oracle Database 11g Release 11.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production
$ SQL> sho parameter db_recovery_file
        NAME TYPE                        VALUE
        -------------------------------- ---------------------------------
        db_recovery_file_dest            string/flash_recovery_area
        db_recovery_file_dest_size       big integer 80G

$ SQL> alter system set db_recovery_file_dest_size = 800g;
       Database altered

$ SQL> sho parameter db_recovery_file
        NAME TYPE                        VALUE
        -------------------------------- ---------------------------------
        db_recovery_file_dest            string/flash_recovery_area
        db_recovery_file_dest_size       big integer 800G

Its better to restart your database for further error encountering, if the Database open up nicely there you go.

NOTE : since we gave it 800GB you need to consider your disk space as its generate the archive redo logs ;)