Re: log archive question

"Glen A Stromquist" <glen_stromquist_at_nospam.yahoo.com> wrote in message news:_bhV9.622$536.27097_at_news2.telusplanet.net...
> I noticed the following in one of my alert.logs:
>[snip]
> From which I gather that the ARC0 process is stepping on the ARC1
process's
> toes. What I dont understand is why there are 2 arc processes running,
> nothing is specified in the init.ora file and I thought the default was 1
> process, unless I'm mistaken.

It's true: you can please some people all of the time, all people some of the time, and Oracle DBAs never at all. Oracle is doing you a favour, and here you go wishing it wasn't so!!!

(I'm jesting, in case there's any doubt).

LOG_ARCHIVE_MAX_PROCESSES is my favourite bete-noir in the init.ora, because it doesn't do the least thing like its name suggests it should. It's not the MAXIMUM number of processes (well, it's that too), but the INITIAL number of ARCx processes you get at startup. And you're quite right: the default for that is 1.

However, whenever Oracle notices that there's a backlog of unarchived redo logs building up (because you're switching faster than the single ARCH can deal with them), it *automatically* spawns extra ARCx processes to deal with it. It is then supposed to kill off the extra processes if and when they become superfluos to requirements... but I've yet to find an operating system or a version where it correctly does that. You tend to be stuck with the extras for ever and a day (or at least until the next instance bounce).

> I've enabled some tracing with alter system set log_archive_trace=127 and
> will see what that tells me (got this sugg. from someone elses thread back
> in aug)
>
> Should I add a log_archive_max_processes param in the init.ora anyway,
> just so this doesnt happen again?
>

Why would you want Oracle to stop spawning processes which are designed to get you out of impending difficulty?

If you really need to, go right ahead -but then, if you're that worried about a couple of extra processes on your box, I would probably leap to the conclusion that you were running this database on a spare 286 you had dusted off for the purpose. It's really not going to kill you having the extra processes, and as your alert log indicates, whatever toe-stepping there might be at times is soon sorted out, and archive 7 got successfully archived in the end.

It's seems just plain daft to want to switch off something that was customers' big ask when version 8i was being thought about.

Either that, or you're just a die-hard Oracle 7 or 8 user who *likes* having single ARCH processes. No accounting for taste I suppose!! ;-)

Regards
HJR
> TIA
>
Received on Wed Jan 15 2003 - 19:17:13 CST