A flash recovery area, a disk location in which the database can store and

manage files related to backup and recovery.

Flash recovery area where you can store not only the traditional components

found in a backup strategy such as control files, archived log files, and

Recovery Manager (RMAN) datafile copies but also a number of other file

components such as flashback logs. The flash recovery area simplifies backup

operations, and it increases the availability of the database because many

backup and recovery operations using the flash recovery area can be performed

when the database is open and available to users.

Because the space in the flash recovery area is limited by the

initialization parameter DB_ RECOVERY_FILE_DEST_SIZE , the Oracle database

keeps track of which files are no longer needed on disk so that they can be

deleted when there is not enough free space for new files. Each time a file is

deleted from the flash recovery area, a message is written to the alert log.

A message is written to the alert log in other circumstances. If no files

can be deleted, and the recovery area used space is at 85 percent, a warning

message is issued. When the space used is at 97 percent, a critical warning is

issued. These warnings are recorded in the alert log file, are viewable in the

data dictionary view DBA_OUTSTANDING_ALERTS , and are available to you on the

main page of the EM Database Control