Move controlfiles from the Filesystem to ASM

1. Identify the location of the current controlfile:

SQL> select name from v$controfile;
NAME
——————————————————————————–
/opt/app/oracle/product/11/db_1/dbs/standby_control.ctl’

2. Shutdown the database and start the instance:
SQL> shutdown normal
SQL> startup nomount

3. Use RMAN to move the controlfile to ASM :

rman target /

RMAN> restore controlfile to ‘+DATA’ from ‘/opt/app/oracle/product/11/db_1/dbs/standby_control.ctl’;

Starting restore at 30-MAR-09
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=539 device type=DISK
channel ORA_DISK_1: copied control file copy
Finished restore at 30-MAR-09

RMAN> exit

We are only specifying the name of the diskgroup, so Oracle will create an OMF (Oracle Managed File).
Use ASMCMD or sqlplus to identify the name assigned to the controlfile

4. On the ASM instance, identify the name of the controlfile:

Using ASMCMD:
$ asmcmd
ASMCMD> pwd
+data/standby/controlfile
ASMCMD> ls
current.1384.681888623
current.1385.681888685

This is just the name assigned for the identical copy of the current controlfile.

5. On the database side:

* Modify init.ora or spfile, replacing the new path to the init parameter control_files.
* if using init.ora, just modify the control_files parameter and restart the database.

6. start the instance.

Verify that new control file has been recognized. If the new controlfile was not used, the complete procedure needs to be repeated.

7. SQL> show parameter control_file

NAME TYPE VALUE
———————————— ———– ——————————
control_file_record_keep_time integer 7
control_files string +DATA/standby/controlfile/curr
ent.1384.681888623, +DATA/standby/controlfile/current.1385.681888685

NOTE : Steps 3 to 5 Could be repeated to multiplex the contolfiles to more than one on each diskgroup .