Re: Rule number 1 of an Oracle recovery process

Hi Nuno,

Ok, my vote for Number One Rule.

Know what you're doing *before* the recovery. By that I mean being trained and having tested the possible recovery scenarios in your environment so often that when a problem arises, you instinctively know what to do. Make as many mistakes as possible before it really matters so such mistakes are never repeated. Determine failings in your backup strategy before you curse and wish you had done things differently. Verify your backup files before you rely on them.

Recovering the database is one of the most crucial aspects of the DBA role. Trying to work out what to do *when* the problem occurs is too late. At best, you're going to waste possible precious availability times. At worst, well at worst, close you're eyes and imagine the end of the world. Cause that's what it could feel like.

There's nothing like seeing the message "Media Recovery Complete" a few minutes after detecting the problem ;)

Cheers

Richard

"Nuno Souto" <nsouto_at_optushome.com.au.nospam> wrote in message news:3d636635$0$28866$afc38c87_at_news.optusnet.com.au...
>
> TAKE AN IMMEDIATE BACKUP OF YOUR CURRENT CONTROLFILES, IF THEY ARE
> ACCESSIBLE.
>
> I've seen this happen so many times it's not even funny anymore:
> if a recovery process needs to be re-started because something went wrong
> and you haven't kept a copy of a controlfile as it was before you started
> the recovery, you are stuck big time.
>
> Alternatively enable only one of the copies of the controlfile before
> the recovery starts(through init.ora) and replace if and when needed with
> a copy from one of the other pre-recovery images.
>
> Corollary to first rule:
>
> if your redo log files are accessible, then take a backup of all of them
> (or at least the currently active one - check the alert log to find out
> which) BEFORE you start the recovery process.
>
>
> These simple steps saved me so much hassle over the years I can't even
> begin to stress how important they are.
>
> --
> Cheers
> Nuno Souto
> nsouto_at_optushome.com.au.nospam
Received on Wed Aug 21 2002 - 21:35:40 CDT