Re: URGENT! Need help recovering old datafile into new database after disastrous crash

Since the versions of Oracle are only a low rev letter different, there may be an easier way to potentially recover the data under 7.3.3 by recreating the controlfile.

If you've never issued the 'create controlfile to trace' command, now is the time. Whether on this instance or another one. This will give you the framework of the syntax required for recovering. By editing the script, you can recreate the controlfile for the current version of Oracle (7.3.3) with the old data and log file locations. A caveat of this process ... I've only successfully done this when the versions of Oracle are a low rev number different, and never between major revs like 7.2 to 7.3

1. Get 'create controlfile' syntax by issuing 'create controlfile to trace' command and editing trace file.
2. Make sure you have the 'create controlfile' script set up with the proper locations of datafiles and logfiles. CAUTION: Be extra careful on this point.
3. Shutdown the database. Make sure the init.ora parameters are correctly set (specifically db_name) for the new installation.
4. Remove any controlfiles from the filesystem (you can move them somewhere else - for safety).
5. Restart the database in mount mode, run the 'create controlfile' script and then issue the 'alter database open' command to bring the database all the way back up.

This is a pretty good way to upgrade between minor rev changes too, but as always make sure you have a viable backup before attempting anything method not reallu supported by Oracle.

Good Luck.
- sooz  

On Sun, 30 Aug 1998 18:03:37 -0400, "Eric A. Litman" <elitman+oracle_at_viaduct.com> wrote:

>
>Greetings,
>
>I had a media failure on a disk holding both binaries and datafiles for an
>Oracle 7.3.2 database. I brought the drive to Ontrack for recovery (1GB
>drive recovered on a Saturday=$4,500) and once again have the database and
>control files for the database. Unfortunately, I no longer posess the media
>for Oracle 7.3.2, and have instead installed 7.3.3.
>
>My questions are as follows:
>
>1. I have all the dbf, ctl, and log files from the earlier installation.
>What do I need to do to get my data out of these? Should I be able to do
>this?
>
>2. I tried rm'ing all of the ctl,dbf, and log files for the newly installed
>database, and put in their place all of the files from the previous
>database. When I tried to open the database, I saw a version incompatibility
>issue which did not relate to the version numbers I am dealing with (7.3.2
>and 7.3.3):
>
> ORA-00402: database changes by release 7.1.0.0.0 cannot be used by
>release 7.0.12.0.0
> ORA-00405: compatibility type "Undo contents"
>
>Obviously, I'm missing something (my guess is that this is not the correct
>procedure).
>
>Thanks for any help you can offer.
>
>Eric Litman
>
>
Received on Wed Sep 02 1998 - 00:00:00 CDT