Solution ORA-00245: control file backup failed; target is likely on a local file system

Hello Friends,

We are getting ORA-00245 in our oracle database 11g 2 Node  RAC Database.

In Alert log we found below error.

Errors in file /u01/app/oracle/diag/rdbms/sid/SID1/trace/SID1_ora_15563.trc:
ORA-00245: control file backup failed; target is likely on a local file system.

This issue is only applicable to oracle RAC database.

First thing you have to check your RMAN configuration.

connect to RMAN prompt and execute show all;

From Below output you can observe that your backup control file location is local file system. To solve this issue you need to change this RMAN configuration to shared folder/filesystem.

RMAN> show all;

CONFIGURE SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAME TO '/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.3/db_1/dbs/snapcf_MTDB1.f'; # default

RMAN>  show snapshot controlfile name;

RMAN configuration parameters for database with db_unique_name MTDB are:
CONFIGURE SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAME TO '/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0.3/db_1/dbs/snapcf_SID1.f'; # default

OBSERVATION:

From 11gR2 onwards, the controlfile backup happens without holding the controlfile enqueue. For non-RAC database, this doesn't change anything. But for RAC database, due to the changes made to the controlfile backup mechanism in 11gR2, any instance in the cluster may write to the snapshot controlfile. Due to this snapshot controlfile need to be visible to all instances.

The snapshot controlfile MUST be accessible by all nodes of a RAC database, if the snapshot controlfile does not reside on a shared device error will be raised at the time of RMAN backup while taking snapshot of controlfile.

So in RAC database your control file must be accessible from all node and  for that your backup location must be shared location.

Solution:

This is a RAC specific 'configuration' issue and the correct configuration is as described below It is changed behaviour which requires that the snapshot controlfile in a RAC environment, is on a shared location.

1. Check the snapshot controlfile location:

RMAN> show snapshot controlfile name;

2. Configure the snapshot controlfile to a shared disk:

RMAN> CONFIGURE SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAME TO '/snapcf_.f';

Or in case of ASM use

RMAN> CONFIGURE SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAME TO '+/snapcf_.f';

example: CONFIGURE SNAPSHOT CONTROLFILE NAME TO '+FRA/snapcf_.f';

-- Please Give your expert suggestions if any.