Re: Oracle Issue Report

On Thu, 06 Mar 2003 08:59:19 +0000, Pete Sharman wrote:

> In article <pan.2003.03.06.10.53.12.914777_at_yahoo.com.au>, "Howard
> says...
>>
> snip
>>
>>Personally, I think anyone who is using the spfile when they haven't got
>>a 32-node RAC to manage wants their head examined. I wouldn't touch it
>>with a barge pole, and this just confirms it.
>>
>>Regards
>>HJR
>>
>>
> You know, I've seen you say this time and time again, and I've seen your
> arguments. IIRC, your arguments boil down to:
>
> 1. It takes three steps rather than two to startup if you make an error
> (CREATE PFILE, edit, start versus edit, start). So what?

Don't forget the create spfile from pfile (presuming you want to stick with this wonderous invention), and the second shutdown and startup if you want to actually use it. That's extra time before it's ready to let your users on to do work.

> 2. It's possible to put stupid values in. Again, so what? You can
> enter stupid values in a PFILE as well. Again, it's just an extra step
> (CREATE PFILE) to fix it.

IIRC, the first release also let you put in different values for SHARED_POOL_SIZE and shared_pool_size . God knows which one you ended up using! And again, it's not just one extra step if you want to continue using the SPFILE.

3. It confuses users (normally, I wouldn't mind...!) 4. It's buggy (recall that you can't edit DISPATCHERS by issuing 'alter system' commands... I asked about that a while back) 5. I dislike the fact that it makes a difference to the order of events, albeit occasionally. If you want to move a redo log, you shutdown -edit init.ora - mv the file - startup. Or you shutdown - mv the file -edit the init.ora -startup. It makes no difference. Until you use an spfile, because to edit the spfile, you have to have an Instance running. So suddenly the order *has to be* edit the spfile-shutdown-mv-startup. 6. In a RAC on an O/S that doesn't have symbolic links, you have to have an init.ora anyway, albeit one that only contains the line 'SPFILE=s:\blah\blah'.

And against that little lot, what are the advantages? Dynamic changes to parameters are made persistent across shutdown? Fair enough. It's shareable between instances... so is the 9i init.ora, which also uses dot notation. And, er... er... that's about it.

> What's the big deal about that? I can't see it justifies comments like
> I need my head examined, because I DO prefer using an SPFILE.

I was talking parenthetically, not personally!

>Saves me having to
> recall my vi commands,

Hmmm. Pico, methinks.

>or opening another window to edit a text file.

Crickey! You really do have problems, Pete!!

>Still,
> it's so miniscule an issue in the overall scale of things that we can
> just agree to disagree. :)

Do you have shares in the SPFILE, Pete??

Interestingly, I've taken to having a vote on it in classes, having striven strenuously to explain the SPFILE in as neutral a way as I can manage. The overwhelming consensus is consistently that it's another set of complexities with minimal advantages.

Regards
HJR Received on Thu Mar 06 2003 - 13:10:09 CST