Re: how to send messages to other users

<BOFH>
On unix, there is a utility called "init". You should log in as root and type the following:

init 0 "please log off the oracle database"

and everybody will get the message.
</BOFH>

Other then that, you could use an exotic utiity called "Outlook Express" to schedule a database shutdown a week in advance and put the maintenance times on your internal web page. The chosen times should be offpeak so that the normal business can continue. When you inform everybody and schedule downtime in advance, then you simply shut the database down, say, on Saturday, 18:00 hours. In other words, your problem is organizational, not technical. If you need to shut the database down immediately for whatever reason there is a gadget called "a telephone". It works like this: every company has a person called "CIO" (stands for "Career Is Over"). When you need to shut down a database that is critical for business during the working hours then you tell your boss to call the CIO, and if he's not around, you tell your boss/director to page him (they usually cary beepers). He will then either inform his peers in the business process or schedule a conference call to pass the good news to the business. You are probably going to be on that conference call so better be prepared to argue why is shutting down the database critical or you will be in a very bad predicament. After that, no further information is necessary. You just do what needs to be done.
In other words, shutting down an important database is not a DBA decision but a decision made by people who manage the normal business process. Those people are sometimes referred to as "management". They are the ones who make decisions and define schedule.

On 2003.11.25 20:49, mglim2_at_softhome.net wrote:
> hi,
>
> I need to send messages like 'system shutting down in 1 min' to all users
> currently login.
> How can i do this in oracle or a third party software that i can use? users
> are connected using web browser. Messages are send over the wan.
>
> thanks.
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
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> Author:
> INET: mglim2_at_softhome.net
>
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-- 
Mladen Gogala
Oracle DBA
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Mladen Gogala
  INET: mgogala_at_adelphia.net

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