Message-Id: <10607.116119@fatcity.com> From: "Boivin, Patrice J" Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2000 15:28:55 -0300 Subject: global ORACLE_SID in UNIX and concurrent oracle user sessions Imagine you have a UNIX server with multiple instances on it. You have one user called "oracle". To work on either instance, you ensure that you set the global variable ORACLE_SID=3Dinstance; export ORACLE_SID Now. I open one terminal window. I set ORACLE_SID=3Dinstance1; export ORACLE_SID, then start an import = into one database, and let it run. I open a second terminal window because I want to work on the second instance. I set ORACLE_SID=3Dinstance2, export ORACLE_SID. Does the import in the first session still point to instance1, or is it = now trying to import data into the second instance because the value of the global variable has changed? I am asking because while restoring two instances on one server, I = ended up with one instance's control file pointing to files belonging to the = second instance. Thankfully the imported tablespaces in the second instance = did not already exist in the first, so there was no overlap. I just = dropped them and re-imported them into the right database. I also made sure = that the import was the ONLY session open on the server during the import. It is possible that I did an import into the wrong instance, but now I = am wondering what happens when you change a global variable like that on-the-fly. I am not a UNIX guru obviously. I asked the sa here but he didn't think changing the global variable = would affect other UNIX processes that have already started. I am wondering though if import might not be reading that variable each time it is to = begin importing another schema, as a matter of course. Thanks. Patrice Boivin Systems Analyst (Oracle Certified DBA) Systems Admin & Operations | Admin. et Exploit. des syst=E8mes Technology Services | Services technologiques Informatics Branch | Direction de l'informatique=20 Maritimes Region, DFO | R=E9gion des Maritimes, MPO E-Mail: boivinp@mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca =20