ORA-27040: file create error, unable to create file tips

Question:  I get several errors when issuing the RMAN format command including the RMAN-03009, ORA-19504, ORA-27040 and OSD-04002 errors:

RMAN-03009: failure of backup command on t1 channel at 10/30/2008 09:25:44
ORA-19504: failed to create file "Z:\MALKUWARI\RMAN\ARC_QF_8_1.BKP"
ORA-27040: file create error, unable to create file
OSD-04002: unable to open file
O/S-Error: (OS 3) The system cannot find the path specified.
channel t1 disabled, job failed on it will be run on another channel
RMAN-03009: failure of backup command on c1 channel at 10/30/2008 09:25:44
ORA-19504: failed to create file "Z:\MALKUWARI\RMAN\ARC_QF_9_1.BKP"
ORA-27040: file create error, unable to create file
OSD-04002: unable to open file
O/S-Error: (OS 3) The system cannot find the path specified.
channel c1 disabled, job failed on it will be run on another channel
released channel: t1
released channel: c1
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-00569: =============== ERROR MESSAGE STACK FOLLOWS ===============
RMAN-00571: ===========================================================
RMAN-03002: failure of backup plus archivelog command at 10/30/2008 09:25:44
 

This is is the RMAN backup commands, which run successfully each night:

run {
crosscheck backup;
crosscheck archivelog all;
allocate channel t1 type disk;
allocate channel c1 type disk;
BACKUP INCREMENTAL LEVEL 1 DATABASE
format 'Z:\meera\RMAN\%d_%s_%p.bkp' tag=fullbkp
PLUS ARCHIVELOG
format 'Z:\meera\RMAN\ARC_%d_%s_%p.bkp' tag=arcbkp;
release channel t1;
release channel c1;
crosscheck backup;
crosscheck archivelog all;
DELETE NOPROMPT OBSOLETE;
}

Answer: The ORA-27040 and the "O/S-Error: (OS 3) The system cannot find the path specified." message are pertinent error messages.

This happened when you issued this command:

RMAN > "format 'Z:\meera\RMAN\ARC_%d_%s_%p.bkp' tag=arcbkp;":

The documentation notes these details on the ORA-27040 error:

ORA-27040: file create error, unable to create file

Cause: create system call returned an error, unable to create file

Action: verify filename, and permissions

The problem is at the OS level, not within Oracle. To troubleshoot ORA-27040 errors, you need to test from the OS. You need to check these disk issues

• permissions - The directory owner should be your "oracle" user, and the permission should be at least 770, to allow RMAN to allocate files within the mount point.
   

• Space - You need to check the Filesystem space and ensure that there is enough room within the directory for the ARCH backup file.
   

In UNIX/Linux you can use the "df -k" command to check the number of free blocks on the filesystem.

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