single file, or single mount point? (minimal setup on PC server)

Oh come on.

Even though you can do an absolute *minimized* Oracle setup (at least in Oracle 7.3) and put all your tables, indexes, etc., in one file (not that it is not necessarily a good idea except for small test or "toy" databases, demos, etc.), I have never heard of any way of running Oracle without *at least* a seperate control file, redo log file(s?) (and probably password file).

Like someone else mentioned, this is probably just confusion about the terminology the SysAdmn is using.

On PC server platforms it is very easy to put all the Oracle database files stuff in one server *directory*, and you can probably get this down to a minimum of about half a dozen files or so pretty easily (even with the "default" Oracle installed files).

Like Rocky said, have a good backup plan in place, eg, daily cold backups to tape. If that is problematic for some reason, at least do a shutdown, and do an operating system "zip file" copy of the Oracle database file to a desktop system that has lots of 100Mbs or Gbs of disk space. This isn't 100% reliable, but it does give a bit of extra "insurance" without having to deal with tape backup issues on the server (which really should be a SysAdmn issue). You can get a 9 Gb hard drive for a desktop PC for 1/3 the cost of a DDS/4 DAT drive! Sounds kinda funky, but for small databases that are not 24x7 mission critical, you have a lot more flexibility than big sites. It might even be cost effective to copy such stuff (zip files) to writable CD media on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

Make sure the SysAdmn has a good talk with the you, management & any involved users about backup/recovery responsibilities, etc., and make sure everyone signs off on any kind of funkiness that is going on.

regards,
ep

Date sent:      	Thu, 13 Jul 2000 08:04:19 -0800
To:             	Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com>
Send reply to:  	ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com
From:           	Franck_Vasseur_at_ingerrand.com
Subject:        	Re: The BIG picture - Advanced file system

>
>
> Yes, why not, as a matter of test, then simulate a crash and let them see the
> result... if they accept...
>
> Or organize a fund collect (like weding, departure) to buy several disks.
>
> Franck

> We have the latest and greatest EMC advanced file systems. Our sys admin has
> set up a
> single datafile for me to use to create a small database. I am told that I can
> put EVERYTHING
> on a single datafile and it will be performant because of the built-in striping
> and load sharing, etc.
> of this EMC disk farm.
>
> I am still a bit skepticle. Is it true that I can put redo logs, data
> tablespaces, index tablespaces,
> rollback, etc. on the same datafile?
Received on Thu Jul 13 2000 - 14:37:06 CDT