Oracle DBA Runbooks

Fix it fast.
Understand it deeply.

Eight production-tested runbooks for Oracle's most common emergencies. Written from 20+ years of real incidents — not documentation rewrites.

About these runbooks: Each one is verified against Oracle 12c, 19c, 23ai, and EBS 12.2 environments. Commands include diagnostic queries first, then fixes, then post-fix verification. Root cause sections explain why each problem happens so you can prevent recurrence.
🗄️ Storage
Tablespace Full Recovery
ORA-01653 or ORA-01688 bringing down your DB? Step-by-step: identify the culprit, add datafiles, set AUTOEXTEND, and verify the fix. Covers SYSTEM, SYSAUX, UNDO, TEMP, and user tablespaces.
⏱ 10–30 min recovery Oracle 12c / 19c / EBS
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📦 Archive Log
Archive Log Destination Full
ORA-19809 or ORA-00257: archiver error — the database has stopped accepting transactions. Immediate RMAN cleanup, space reclaim, and archivelog retention policy fixes.
⏱ 5–20 min recovery ARCHIVELOG mode DBs
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⚙️ EBS / OPP
OPP Tuning for Oracle EBS
Output Post Processor queue backlog, deadlocked OPP workers, or post-processing failures causing output file unavailability. Diagnose, clear, and tune OPP thread counts.
⏱ 15–45 min EBS 12.1 / 12.2
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📧 Workflow
Workflow Mailer SMTP Recovery
Oracle Workflow Mailer has stopped sending notifications. SMTP authentication errors, connection timeouts, stuck deferred queue. Full diagnosis and restart sequence for EBS 12.2.
⏱ 20–60 min EBS 12.1 / 12.2
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💾 Backup
RMAN Backup Failure Triage
RMAN job failed — but why? Systematic triage covering ORA-19566, ORA-27030, ORA-19809, channel errors, catalog issues, expired backups, and crosscheck/recovery validation.
⏱ 30–90 min Oracle 11g / 12c / 19c
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🔄 ADOP
ADOP Cutover & Rollback
ADOP cutover stalled, cleanup phase failed, or you need to roll back a patch cycle. Covers stuck phases, abandoned sessions, filesystem cleanup, and emergency adop cleanup commands.
⏱ 30–120 min EBS 12.2 only
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⬆️ Database Upgrade
Oracle Database Upgrade Triage
Upgrade failed? Systematic triage for preupgrade.jar errors, catctl.pl restarts, invalid objects post-upgrade, timezone file mismatches, component failures (APEX, JVM, Spatial), and rollback via Guaranteed Restore Point. Covers 12c→19c and 19c→23ai.
⏱ 1–8 hrs 12c → 19c / 23ai
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🏗️ EBS Upgrade
EBS Upgrade Triage
EBS upgrade or tech stack upgrade stalled? Covers 12.1→12.2 path, ADOP phase failures (prepare/apply/finalize/cutover/cleanup), AutoConfig errors, WebLogic/OHS failures, Concurrent Manager not starting, AD-A-01022, ADZDCLN, and OUI-67076 errors.
⏱ 2–24 hrs EBS 12.1 / 12.2
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