• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 20, 21, 22,23

Description:
You get this message doing util f 4, SQL commands, or any kind of access of any Oracle table:.
Oracle error: handle_connection.
ORA-00257: archiver error. Connect internal only, until freed. Why?

Resolution:
This message occurs when the space in the filesystem the Oracle archive log files (./oradata/alephnn/arch) reside on is (as seen in "df -h") at 100%. This causes the database to be "on hold" until it can write to the archive directory. 

Deleting files from this filesystem (to increase the %Available), moving files to a different filesystem, or adding disk space to the filesystem will correct the problem.  

Note:  the archive log files themselves should *not* be deleted -- especially if they are managed by RMAN, which is very particular about the removal of such files.   RMAN *will* automatically remove the files, as appropriate, such as when a cold backup occurs.

• Article last edited: 10/8/2013