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: Inconsistencies found during a rebalance or an manual ALTER DISKGROUP CHECK operation.
This command checks the internal consistency of the disk group metadata without making any repairs. It can be run while the disk group is mounted, making it safe for most production environments.
At first glance, this message can induce panic. Does it mean data loss? Is your disk group about to crash? Will your production database go offline? Fortunately, in most cases, this alert is a proactive warning from Oracle’s Automatic Storage Management (ASM) diagnostics framework. However, ignoring it can lead to severe performance degradation or service interruption.
The disk group is partially functional but has reached a warning threshold. KB88485 - My Oracle Support asm health checker found 1 new failures updated
Too many offline disks in the PST disable the read quorum, triggering a forced dismount.
The ASM Health Checker can trigger this alert for a variety of reasons. Below are the most frequent root causes encountered in production environments.
| Cause Category | Description | |---|---| | | Physical damage to storage media, hardware failures, or firmware bugs can lead to blocks being incorrectly written or overwritten. The health checker's metadata verification routines will catch these inconsistencies. | | Metadata Inconsistencies | ASM disk groups store critical metadata (pointers, allocation tables). If this metadata is corrupted due to an abrupt system crash or misconfiguration, the health checker will flag the issue. | | Disk Group Operational Issues | A disk being forcefully dropped, a disk group being dismounted uncleanly, or a failed rebalance operation can all leave the disk group in an inconsistent state. | | External Redundancy Limitations | Attempting to offline a disk in a disk group configured with external redundancy can trigger errors because the disk group lacks the mirrored copies necessary to maintain data integrity. | : Inconsistencies found during a rebalance or an
Proactive monitoring, regular health checks, and a solid backup strategy are your best defenses against these failures. By staying vigilant and addressing issues early, you can minimize disruption and maintain the high availability that Oracle ASM is designed to provide.
The ASM Health Checker functions under Oracle's structural fault diagnosability framework. Whenever an Oracle database or ASM instance encounters a critical internal error or an I/O timeout, the framework generates an .
Stay proactive, monitor your disk groups regularly, and your ASM health checker will reward you with silence—the best alert of all. At first glance, this message can induce panic
: Use the ADR Command Interpreter (ADRCI) to view the specific "incident" or "problem" that was logged. Command: adrci> show problem or adrci> show incident
BEGIN DBMS_SCHEDULER.CREATE_JOB ( job_name => 'WEEKLY_ASM_HEALTH_CHECK', job_type => 'PLSQL_BLOCK', job_action => 'BEGIN DBMS_HM.RUN_CHECK(''DB Structure Integrity Check'', ''WEEKLY_ASM_RUN''); END;', start_date => SYSTIMESTAMP, repeat_interval => 'FREQ=WEEKLY; BYDAY=SUN; BYHOUR=2; BYMINUTE=0;', enabled => TRUE ); END; /
When you see this alert, a methodical investigation is required. Begin by locating the ASM alert log, which is typically found in the following location: <GRID_HOME>/diag/asm/+asm/+<ASM>/alert/log.xml
: Schedule weekly orachk cron jobs to catch silent degradation before it triggers critical system alerts.
This article provides an in‑depth breakdown of the ASM Health Checker, the meaning of “found 1 new failures updated,” and a clear, step‑by‑step guide to diagnosing and resolving the underlying problem.