RMAN-08137: WARNING: archived log not deleted, needed for standby

RMAN-08137: WARNING: archived log not deleted, needed for standby

Recently I met with an Oracle error 

"RMAN-08137: WARNING: archived log not deleted, needed for standby or upstream capture process" while deleting the archived logs through RMAN prompt.
I simulated the same on my test machine.

Note. I had configured standby for my primary database but not the upstream.

Followings are the excerpts from the RMAN output.

RMAN> delete noprompt archivelog all;

allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1

channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=3012 device type=DISK

allocated channel: ORA_DISK_2

channel ORA_DISK_2: SID=1011 device type=DISK

allocated channel: ORA_DISK_3

channel ORA_DISK_3: SID=2030 device type=DISK

allocated channel: ORA_DISK_4

channel ORA_DISK_4: SID=2028 device type=DISK

allocated channel: ORA_DISK_5

channel ORA_DISK_5: SID=3011 device type=DISK

RMAN-08137: WARNING: archived log not deleted, needed for standby or upstream capture process

I could delete those archivelogs using "force" option as well.

RMAN > delete noprompt force archivelog all;

But I dont want to do the same as those archivelogs have not shipped yet to the standby server.

So I changed the rman configuration to do the same.

RMAN> show all;

CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY TO NONE; # default

RMAN> CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY TO SHIPPED TO STANDBY;

new RMAN configuration parameters:

CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY TO SHIPPED TO STANDBY;

new RMAN configuration parameters are successfully stored

RMAN-08591: WARNING: invalid archived log deletion policy

RMAN> show all;

CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY TO SHIPPED TO STANDBY;

Now I was able to delete those archivelogs.

RMAN> delete noprompt archivelog all;

released channel: ORA_DISK_1

allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1

channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=147 device type=DISK

..........

..........

deleted archived log

.........

.........

RMAN> crosscheck archivelog all;

released channel: ORA_DISK_1

allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1

channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=147 device type=DISK

specification does not match any archived log in the repository

Once I deleted those logs, I changed the rman configuration by the default one.

RMAN> CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY CLEAR;

old RMAN configuration parameters:

CONFIGURE ARCHIVELOG DELETION POLICY TO SHIPPED TO STANDBY;

RMAN configuration parameters are successfully reset to default value