DBA Tips Archive for Oracle

Resizing / Recreating Online Redo Log Files

by Jeff Hunter, Sr. Database Administrator

One of the best ways I have found to resize or recreate online redo log files and keep the current sequence is to perform it online. In this example, we will resize all online redo logs from 100MB to 250MB while the database is running and use SQL*Plus to drop/recreate them in stages.

Before looking at the tasks involved to perform the resize, let's look at the current online redo log groups and their sizes:

SQL> SELECT a.group#, a.member, b.bytes 2 FROM v$logfile a, v$log b WHERE a.group# = b.group#; GROUP# MEMBER BYTES ---------- ---------------------------------------- ------------ 1 /u03/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g01a.log 104,857,600 1 /u04/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g01b.log 104,857,600 1 /u05/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g01c.log 104,857,600 2 /u03/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g02a.log 104,857,600 2 /u04/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g02b.log 104,857,600 2 /u05/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g02c.log 104,857,600 3 /u03/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g03a.log 104,857,600 3 /u04/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g03b.log 104,857,600 3 /u05/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g03c.log 104,857,600 9 rows selected.

Now let's take a look at the steps involved to resize / recreate all online redo log groups:

1. Make the last redo log CURRENT

   Force a log switch until the last redo log is marked "CURRENT" by issuing the following command:

   SQL> select group#, status from v$log; GROUP# STATUS ---------- ---------------- 1 CURRENT 2 INACTIVE 3 INACTIVE SQL> alter system switch logfile; SQL> alter system switch logfile; SQL> select group#, status from v$log; GROUP# STATUS ---------- ---------------- 1 INACTIVE 2 INACTIVE 3 CURRENT

2. Drop first redo log

   After making the last online redo log file the CURRENT one, drop the first online redo log:

   SQL> alter database drop logfile group 1; Database altered.

   As a DBA, you should already be aware that if you are going to drop a logfile group, it cannot be the current logfile group. I have run into instances; however, where attempting to drop the logfile group resulted in the following error as a result of the logfile group having an active status: SQL> ALTER DATABASE DROP LOGFILE GROUP 1; ALTER DATABASE DROP LOGFILE GROUP 1 * ERROR at line 1: ORA-01624: log 1 needed for crash recovery of instance ORA920 (thread 1) ORA-00312: online log 1 thread 1: '<file_name>' Easy problem to resolve. Simply perform a checkpoint on the database: SQL> ALTER SYSTEM CHECKPOINT GLOBAL; System altered. SQL> ALTER DATABASE DROP LOGFILE GROUP 1; Database altered.

3. Re-create dropped online redo log group

   Re-create the dropped redo log group with different size (if desired):

   SQL> alter database add logfile group 1 ( 2 '/u03/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g01a.log', 3 '/u04/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g01b.log', 4 '/u05/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g01c.log') size 250m reuse; Database altered.

4. Force another log switch

   After re-creating the online redo log group, force a log switch. The online redo log group just created should become the "CURRENT" one:

   SQL> select group#, status from v$log; GROUP# STATUS ---------- ---------------- 1 UNUSED 2 INACTIVE 3 CURRENT SQL> alter system switch logfile; SQL> select group#, status from v$log; GROUP# STATUS ---------- ---------------- 1 CURRENT 2 INACTIVE 3 ACTIVE

5. Loop back to Step 2 until all logs are rebuilt

   After re-creating an online redo log group, continue to re-create (or resize) all online redo log groups until all of them are rebuilt.

After rebuilding (resizing) all online redo log groups, here is a snapshot of all physical files:

SQL> SELECT a.group#, a.member, b.bytes 2 FROM v$logfile a, v$log b WHERE a.group# = b.group#; GROUP# MEMBER BYTES ---------- ---------------------------------------- ------------ 1 /u03/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g01a.log 262,144,000 1 /u04/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g01b.log 262,144,000 1 /u05/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g01c.log 262,144,000 2 /u03/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g02a.log 262,144,000 2 /u04/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g02b.log 262,144,000 2 /u05/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g02c.log 262,144,000 3 /u03/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g03a.log 262,144,000 3 /u04/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g03b.log 262,144,000 3 /u05/app/oradata/ORA920/redo_g03c.log 262,144,000 9 rows selected.

About the Author

Jeffrey Hunter is an Oracle Certified Professional, Java Development Certified Professional, Author, and an Oracle ACE. Jeff currently works as a Senior Database Administrator for The DBA Zone, Inc. located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His work includes advanced performance tuning, Java and PL/SQL programming, developing high availability solutions, capacity planning, database security, and physical / logical database design in a UNIX, Linux, and Windows server environment. Jeff's other interests include mathematical encryption theory, programming language processors (compilers and interpreters) in Java and C, LDAP, writing web-based database administration tools, and of course Linux. He has been a Sr. Database Administrator and Software Engineer for over 17 years and maintains his own website site at: http://www.iDevelopment.info. Jeff graduated from Stanislaus State University in Turlock, California, with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science.