If the backup strategy involves taking online backups of the database we can encounter the error ORA-01113 'File# Needs Media Recovery', on database startup.

It is very possible if a media failure occurs while a tablespace is being backed up(online) or the database is shutdown (abort).

We need to query the v$backup view which would show us the status of files being backed up online. If any of them has a status of 'ACTIVE' it means that the file is still in 'hot backup' state.

We can get the file name from v$datafile by using the file# from v$backup.

SVRMGR> STARTUP MOUNT

SVRMGR> ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE '/ekdw3/ORACLE/beta/users01.dbf' END BACKUP;

SVRMGR> ALTER DATABASE OPEN;