Re: imp/exp - what database?

Peter wrote:
> Hi All -
>
> Please excuse what is, no doubt, a stupid question - I'm having to act
> as DBA for the time being...
>
> I need to exp a database from one server and imp it on another. The
> originating server hase 2 Oracle instances running on it, each hosting
> one database. When I run exp, I am required to enter a username and
> password (+ other info) but at no point is the instance or database
> required - nor are they commandline options. The same is the case for
> imp.
>
> The exp completes successfully, but what database have I exported?
> Both instances have the same username and password.
>
> Thanks
> Peter

My suspicion here is that not only are you not te DBA but you also are coming to Oracle from SQL Server or another commercial RDBMS and have no idea what the word "database" means in Oracle. Just a suspicion so don't jump too hard if I am incorrect.

A server has one or more instances.
Databases are physical files on a hard disk or disk array. A schema (combination of userid and password) is what you export.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
http://www.psoug.org
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)