Re: Remote login password file questions.

Michael J. Moore wrote:

> That makes sence. I guess I was thinking that Oracle should recover the
> password file
> because it was a DDL statement that updated it and not the result of some
> external
> utility or a text file editor as is the case with the init file.

Actualy, it's a piece of DCL, not DDL... Data Control Language, IIRC.

>But as
> you pointed out, it ain't
> necessiarily so. I guess the probability that I would "grant sysdba to
> mike" and have to
> follow that up with a point in time recovery prior to that "grant" is so
> unlikely, that it is
> not even worth considering.

See, this is apples and pears time. Point in time recovery merely means 'stop recovering *datafiles* some point short of where they'd naturally want to get to'. Data Files. Nothing else. So, you can't do a point in time recovery for a password file. The definition of a point in time recovery precludes that from even being a possibility, never mind 'unlikely'.

It would be like saying 'I must remember to put some aviation fuel in my bicycle': it doesn't compute, because it's two completely different things.

>Like you say, I can use ORAPWD to fix whatever
> problem
> might arise. I have never seen a suggested procedure that says you should
> back up
> the password file right after doing a "grant sysdba".

Oracle documentation says that *every* backup you take (which one would normally expect to be nightly) should include the init.ora, or the spfile if you have one, and the password file.

If you had a failure after granting sysdba to someone, recover the password file from last night's backup, and issue the grant again.

In sum, the password file is not a big deal. You can back it up just as you would backup any other non-Oracle file, such as a Word document. You can re-create it from scratch if you don't have a viable backup to hand. And you can re-perform the commands which put stuff in the password file in the first place.

And since it's not part of an Oracle database, that might be why books and papers on backing up your database don't mention it very often.

Regards
HJR Regards
HJR   Received on Sun Sep 28 2003 - 16:42:40 CDT