ORA-16765 + ORA-16826: apply service state is inconsistent with the DelayMins property with Dataguard Broker

Last Saturday I had to start-up our DR Database as the server went down 3 days before due to maintenance.

It should have been an easy task as the DR database was lagging “only” 400 files behind and all archivelogs were on the primary database.

The problem:

I had the following errors on the Dataguard Broker:

ORA-16765: Redo Apply is running

and

ORA-16826: apply service state is inconsistent with the DelayMins property

I first thought it was related to how much time we allow the standby database to be behind the primary, but it is not the case.

The solution:

I did copy all necessary archivelogs from the primary server to the standby server using SCP.

Once I had the necessary archivelogs, I registered using the following script:


spool /tmp/register.sql
begin
for i in 38010 .. 38060 loop
dbms_output.put_line ('alter database register logfile ''/u01/oradata/dbname/arch/1_'||i||'_697561259.arc'';');
end loop;
end;
/
@/tmp/register.sql


where:
1.- 38010 is the first archivelog file the standby was waiting for.
2.- 38060 is the last archivelog being generated by the primary database.

Once archivelogs were registered, the database started to apply them.

With only two logfiles behind, I decided to enable dataguard broker but the same error happened.

The only way I could get around was:

1.- To remove the standby database from the configuration:
DGMGRL> remove database 'dr_database';
Removed database "dr_database" from the configuration

2.- Add the database back to the configuration:
DGMGRL> add database 'dr_database' as connect identifier is 'dr_database';
Database "dr_database" added

3.- And then enable it again:
DGMGRL> enable database 'dr_database';
Enabled.

And voila, it started to work again.

As always, comments are welcome.