Re: Recovery from files only (not backup)

"Mo Abbouchi" <mabbouchi_at_alionscience.com> wrote in message news:<daf0cdb4b87dc6d2d5bdd51825eead49.124377_at_mygate.mailgate.org>...
> We did not have a regular backup and the last backup is more than a
> month old. this is a development environment.
>
> Last week, the server crushed, so the Server Administrator copied all
> the oracle files to a tape.
>
> using Oracle 8.1.7
>
> We re-installed Oracle, and we like to restore whatever we can from the
> files that was copied not from the last backup.
>
> what should we do??? can we do it???
>
> Thanks
> Mo

so the backup was from after the crash occurred? at least its highly likely that the oracle instance was no longer active - but a backup from after a shutdown abort (or worse) is not the preferred method.

check out the file in the path:
%ORACLE_BASE\Admin\%ORACLE_SID%\bdump\alrt%ORACLE_SID%.ora.

If you had a clean shutdown, then the backup of the database has a reasonable chance of being useful.

A file in the location
%ORACLE_BASE%\Admin\%ORACLE_SID%\udump\*.trc may have had the contents of the statement

ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE TO TRACE; which would prove useful - if no good copy of the controlfile exists.

If it was not a clean shutdown, recovery will likely be required prior to the database being opened.

If you have a support contract with Oracle - you might want to discuss options with Oracle support - prior to performing any actions. They can mention the Data UnLoader (DUL) utility - at a price that justifies DBAs time spent on testing backup, restore and recovery.

good luck - and if you get by this time, take a backup and recovery certification exam as your penance ...

In addition to the datafiles, conrrolfiles, online redo logs and archived redo logs, you will also need some other files:

-networking %ORACLE_HOME%\Network\Admin

• sqlnet.ora
• listener.ora
• tnsnames.ora

a simple

C:\> lsnrctl start

will suffice to get a listener service up.

-database %ORACLE_HOME%\Database

• pwd%ORACLE_SID%.ora
• init%ORACLE_SID%.ora

the following will re-create the service required to creat the instance:

C:\> orapwd file=D:\Oracle\Ora81\pwd%ORACLE_SID%.ora password=repentant entries=5
C:\> oradim -new -sid %ORACLE_SID% -startmode m -intpwd repentant -timeout 300

after you get the instance started and the database opened:

C:\> oradim -sid %ORACLE_SID% -edit -startmode a

good luck.

paul Received on Tue Apr 08 2003 - 02:09:42 CDT