Re: Problem with offline restore of database

nkamkar28_at_gmail.com wa:
>I posted this a while back, but haven't been able to get far. I am a
>MSc student and this problem is going to cost me all my hard work. I
>am even willing to pay someone (within my budget) who can help me with
>this data restore.

>Please reply to me if you can help.

>Many thanks
>**********************************************************************

>I have a Windows server 2003 SP2 with all updates (as of 2 months
>ago) running Oracle 10g with some development and test data and a few
>schemas. The windows on the server has been damaged beyond repair, so
>we have setup another Windows server on another hardware. The ORacle
>backup we had is incomplete and not working very well. However, all
>the original Oracle database files and folders on the original server
>are in good shape and in tact.

>Can anyone advise or point e inthe right direction of how to restore
>this database on the new server. Naively, I copied the entire Oracle
>database folder onto the new machine, but that obviously didn't work.
>I think it is because the new installation of Oracle just doesnt know
>about this, so just copying the files is not enough. But surely there
>must be an easy way of doing thisin Oracle. It is dead easy (almost)
>with SQL Server.

>Any advice would be greeeeeeeeeatly and desperately appreciated.

What version of oracle are you running? To 3 decimal places. Also, can I assume by what you say above that your server is in sufficiently bad a state that you cannot start up the database? Or run RMAN?

Necessary oracle components for a valid backup (must be copied when the database is DOWN). This is a very basic, manual backup. You *must* know your RDBMS version (to three decimal places), or else you're going to have severe problems.

1. spfile / pfile 
2. control files
3. online logs
4. datafiles

If you install the _exact same version_ of oracle on your new server and create a DB with the _exact same configuration_ as your old DB, you should be able to restore your backup (the above files) with minimum problems by shutting your new DB down and replacing its version of the above files with the ones from your backups. Let me re-emphasize that your oracle versions (up to three decimal places) must be the exactly the same.  

If your new oracle install uses different paths for the above files, then when you try to start up the DB you will get errors (and will have to edit the pfile and make gratuitous use of ALTER DATABASE RENAME). Also, if this is 10g on windows, this style of backup/restore will more than likely screw up the OEM website (but the DB will still work fine).

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