Re: moving a "development"database to a "production" server.

Given that the OSes and the Oracle software are the same, you can shutdown the database, then rcp or backup/restore the datafiles, logfiles, controlfiles, and init.ora to the new server. You should be able to open the database without any additional changes.

There may be some Net8 files (tnsnames.ora, listener.ora) that need to be modified for the new host.

I wouldn't recommend copying the entire filesystem. OUI with 8i uses an inventory to store/determine the installed products on the system. It is a binary file that is, for all intents and purposes, uneditable. So, if this inventory file becomes mismatched with the software you have on the system (because, say, the stuff in ORACLE_HOME was copied from one system/filesystem to another), the only way to get things in order again is to reinstall the software. This is not something you want to do in a production environment. Why is it a problem having software that is not reflected in the inventory? For one, upgrades (including patchsets) use the inventory to determine the installed version. So, you can not upgrade to the latest patchset if the inventory knows nothing about your ORACLE_HOME. Resolution - reinstall the software. The one thing I'm not sure of is whether or not the inventory associates a hostname with installed software as well. If not, given you have identical directory structures, copying the entire tree, including inventory, may work, but I wouldn't take the chance.

Another suggestion is to make sure the software on the new production server can run a default database before moving the development database over. There may be some config issue (e.g. kernel parameters) that will prevent any database from running. It's nice to find those things before it's go time.

Good luck, Doug.

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http://www.keen.com Received on Fri Aug 11 2000 - 00:00:00 CDT