ORA-19809: limit exceeded for recovery files tips

Question:  I'm getting these errors upon instance startup:

Database mounted.
ORA-16038: log 1 sequence# 49 cannot be archived
ORA-19809: limit exceeded for recovery files
ORA-00312: online log 1 thread 1:
'/opt/oracle/db/home/data/imapdb/redo01.log'

. . .
ORA-01033: ORACLE initialization or shutdown in progress

How do I fix this ORA-19809 error?

Answer:  The ORA-19809 error involves adjusting a parameter and bouncing your instance.  The storage in db_recovery_file_dest is disk, not RAM.  The db_recovery_file_dest is located instance-wide, you it is not specified for a specific instance:

• In Windows: c:\oracle\app\oracle\flash_recovery_area\

• In UNIX/Linux /u01/app/oracle/flash_recovery_area

The docs note:

ORA-19809: limit exceeded for recovery files

Cause: The limit for recovery files specified by the db_recovery_file_dest_size was exceeded.

Action: The error is accompanied by 19804. See message 19804 for further details

ORA-19804: cannot reclaim string bytes disk space from string limit

Cause: Oracle cannot reclaim disk space of specified bytes from the DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST_SIZE limit.

Action: There are five possible solutions:
   1) Take frequent backup of recovery area using RMAN.
   2) Consider changing RMAN retention policy.
   3) Consider changing RMAN archivelog deletion policy.
   4) Add disk space and increase DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST_SIZE.
   5) Delete files from recovery area using RMAN.

Also see ADRCI flash archiver error tips on Oracle Applications.

The solution to the ORA-19809 error is to increase the value of your db_recovery_file_dest_size parameter and bounce the instance:

SQL> alter database open;
alter database open
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-16038: log 1 sequence# 230 cannot be archived
ORA-19809: limit exceeded for recovery files
ORA-00312: online log 1 thread 1: '/opt/oracle/db/home/data/imapdb/redo01.log'

SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST_SIZE=2048576000 SCOPE=BOTH;

SQL> shutdown abort

SQL> startup

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