Oracle Database Discussions

Dear All,

I'm running Oracle 11g database and trying to recover from a "ORA-19815" where our Full Flash Recovery Area has gotten full. This should be a fairly simply issue to resolve but I'm unable to do so. The following document explains how to do it:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/backup.102/b14192/maint009.htm#i1009006

Which basically comes to either using RMAN to delete files or increasing DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST_SIZE (we still have disk space left on the device).

I'm not sure how to connect with RMAN taking into consideration that the database is stopped and I don't know the required credentials.

Also I've been trying to modify the DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST_SIZE value but after I edit the config file /oracle/app/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/dbs/spfileESSO.ora with a text editor it seems to become corrupt and the database doesn't start anymore. This is what happens after I edit it directly:

SQL> startup
ORA-01078: failure in processing system parameters
LRM-00109: could not open parameter file '/oracle/app/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/dbs/initESSO.ora'

So I'm assuming that this is not the way to modify the .ora file.

Could someone provide some pointers on how to connect with RMAN to my stopped database (and I don't know the credentials) or how to modify the .ora file? I have root access to the box.

Thank you so much.