Re: Warning: avoid env. variables ARCH, PMON, DBWR etc.

Thanks for the heads up.

Satar Naghshineh

In article <6vcnqo$47$1_at_dns.camcnty.gov.uk>,   Dave Wotton <Dave.Wotton_at_no-spam.it.camcnty.gov.uk> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I have discovered that if you create environment variables
> called ARCH, PMON, DBWR, LGWR or SMON under the oracle database
> owner id, this will prevent your database from starting up.
>
> This is because the sqldba or svrmgrl executable checks these
> variables and, if they're defined, tries to execute the files
> they refer to, rather than the real executables. ( Presumably
> this is a testing feature used by Oracle Corporation. It doesn't
> seem to be documented anywhere. )
>
> The problem surfaced at my installation when I created a variable,
> ARCH, pointing to the directory containing the archived redo logs.
>
> I've demonstrated the problem under Oracle 7.3.3 on Solaris 2.4
> and under Oracle 7.2.3 on AIX 4.2.1. I suspect it also occurs
> under other versions of the database and operating systems.
>
> Under Oracle 7.3.3 on Solaris 2.4, the symptom is that svrmgrl
> 'hangs' when executing startup and eventually gives:
>
> ORA-00445: background process "ARCH" did not start after 120 seconds.
>
> Under Oracle 7.2.3 on AIX 4.2.1, you get:
>
> SQLDBA> startup
> ORA-00443: background process "ARCH" did not start
> ORA-07259: spdcr: exec error, detached process failed in startup.
> IBM AIX RISC System/6000 Error: 13: Permission denied
>
> See also my posting:
>
> Oracle/AIX unable to start database
>
> Dave.
> --
> Remove the no-spam bit from my email address to reply.
>

--
Oracle DBA/UNIX System Admin
Advanced Enterprise Solutions
(949) 756-0588
Oracle Re-Seller

-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own Received on Wed Oct 07 1998 - 12:53:26 CDT