Today, I came across the “ORA-00265: instance recovery required, cannot set ARCHIVELOG mode” while
converting database into archive log mode.
This error usually caused when database crashed unfortunately or we shutdown database with the help of database shutdown command as: shutdown abort, startup force mount or shutdown abort. These types of command will required instance recovery in next startup. In short it need clean database startup.
SQL> alter database archivelog;
alter database archivelog
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00265: instance recovery required, cannot set ARCHIVELOG mode
Reason :
ORA-00265: instance recovery required, cannot set ARCHIVELOG mode
*Cause: The database either crashed or was shutdown with the ABORT
option. Media recovery cannot be enabled because the online
logs may not be sufficient to recover the current datafiles.
*Action: Open the database and then enter the SHUTDOWN command with the
NORMAL or IMMEDIATE option.
Solution: SQL> select status from v$instance;
STATUS ———————————— MOUNTED
SQL> alter database open; Database altered.
SQL> shutdown immediate;
Database closed. Database dismounted. ORACLE instance shut down.
SQL> startup mount;
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area 293601280 bytes Fixed Size 1248600 bytes Variable Size 88081064 bytes Database Buffers 197132288 bytes Redo Buffers 7139328 bytes Database mounted.
SQL> alter database archivelog;
Database altered.
SQL> alter database open;
Database altered.