Applies to:

Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition - Version: 10.1.0.2 and later   [Release: 10.1 and later ]
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Goal

How to ensure that RMAN will not delete archivelogs from the Primary site before they are shipped
to Standby.

Solution

Traditionally, the RMAN command 'backup archivelog all delete input' deletes archivelogs once they have been successfully backed up; the deletion is done automatically and if run at a Primary site in a Data Guard configuration, logs that have not yet shipped to standby may be deleted after backup which results in the standby instance hanging as it waits for a log that will never arrive.  This behaviour is changed by the fix for Bug:3643786 .
The bug fix ensures when DataGuard is in use, that archivelogs will only be deleted after backup if the log has been shipped to the standby instance. If the log transfer to the standby site is interrupted, those logs backed up but NOT yet shipped to standby will raise the warning:

WARNING: archive log not deleted, not yet applied by standby

This change in behaviour only occurs if logs are deleted using the command 'backup archivelog all delete input'; the action of deleting the archivelogs by any other rman command for example 'delete archivelog until time 'sysdate -1'  or 'backup database plus archivelog delete all input' is unchanged: logs will be deleted with no additional checks.

If you use this method to delete archivelogs from the Primary site be vigilant; if a log fails to ship to standby NO ARCHIVELOGS WILL BE DELETED FROM PRIMARY SITE UNTIL THE LOG GAP IS RESOLVED. 

Bug:3643786 is fixed in Patch Set Release 9.2.0.7 (but due to Bug 4919478 you should apply 9.2.0.8) and   Patch Set Release 10.1.0.5 or later.

For details on Bug 4919478  refer to Note 360643.1Archived Logs Not Deleted from Primary After Archiving is
Interrupted: Not Applied to Standy