How to Fix Oracle Database Error ORA- 00214?

My Oracle database was working fine. There was no any single problem with my database but suddenly power went out and my database got shutdown. When I restarted Oracle database, it gave an error message ORA- 00214 that is given below:

SQL> startup

ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area 83605532 bytes

Fixed Size 75804 bytes

Variable Size 57016320 bytes

Database Buffers 26435584 bytes

Redo Buffers 77824 bytes

ORA-00214: controlfile 'D:\ORACLE\ORADATA\DATA\CONTROL01.CTL' version 11541 inconsistent with file 'D:\ORACLE\ORADATA\DATA\CONTROL03.CTL' version 11538

The description of error message is “ORA-00214: control file "string" version string inconsistent with file "string" version string.”

Possible Causes: I am not an expert database administrator so I had connected to my senior and he had suggested me following possible causes for the problem:

• You have tried to move one or more copies of control file at the different location when Oracle database was up and running.
• You have tried to restore from database backup but your backup has not taken properly. It may taken when database is up and running.
• Your database or system got corrupt/damaged during updation was in process.

How to Solve the Problem? To solve above described problem, I had performed following actions:

1. First of all, I had shutdown my database because my database was up. If your database is shutdown already then you have no need to do it.
2. I had edited my CONTROL_FILES parameter from init.ora & modified it for adding one copy of control file.
3. Now start oracle database in restricted mode with Startup Restrict. If you will get an error message then go back and perform second step with another control file otherwise go with the next step.
4. Shutdown the database with SQL>shutdown.
5. Copy the mirror copied control files that are used to bring Oracle database up and running.
6. Edit init.ora file of control files to add all mirror copy.
7. At last, start the Oracle database and problem has been fixed.

Last Minute: My name is Mark Willium. I have written several articles on oracle database recovery scenarios. You can check those articles from my blog. Your comments are valuable for me so share your thought through comments.