DataPump Imports and Tablespace Quota

I was asked recently to export a schema from PROD and import into DEVL. No problem, I thought, I have done this many times before, except importing into TEST. I have even automated it to some degree.  

I did the export from PROD (using data pump), and ftp'd the file to the box hosting our DEVL database. I dropped the schema from DEVL, then tried to import (using data pump again). To my surprise I received an error saying the user did not exist. I had never encountered this error when doing the same process against TEST. I eventually fixed this problem by creating the schema in DEVL and granting it quota on the USERS tablespace. Now the datapump import worked.  

Question is, why didn't I have to create the user in TEST and grant quota? In TEST the process was slightly different. I would shutdown the Windows Service for the application then I would manually kill the 4 or 5 database sessions for this user. I think that after this v$session would show the session as "killed". After this I would drop the user then import using data pump. And it always worked. I never needed to manually create the user and grant quota on the USERS tablespace. I confirmed the schema does not have the unlimited tablespace privilege in TEST or PROD that would automatically give it quota in USERS. The only thing I can think of is that on the TEST database Oracle has not completed the cleanup yet because v$session still shows a status of "killed" for the user. And that this somehow enabled the user to be imported without quota.  

Does anybody else have insights on this anomaly? Thanks!  

All databases are Oracle 10.2.0.3 on AIX 5.3.  

Sam Bootsma

Oracle Database Administrator

Information Technology Services
George Brown College

Phone: 416-415-5000 x4933
Fax: 416-415-4836
E-mail: sbootsma_at_georgebrown.ca <mailto:sbootsma_at_georgebrown.ca>  

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