Re: Restore Oracle 8i database

serge wrote:

> I apologize if I am not asking the right questions. I'll give it
> a final try, if my question is still unclear then ignore it.
>

[...]
>
> I asked her to send me the message so I post it as is
> here, i hope it's clear what she is trying to do.
> What i understand is she is trying to export an 9i
> database using an 8i client but as you can see below,
> she is getting an error message. Does that error message
> indicate anything that she is doing wrong?
>
> "I tried to export data from 9i database using 8i
> (8.1.7.4.0.0) client, but I got that error.
> What can I do to fix it?
>
>

[...]
>
> EXP-00008: ORACLE error 904 encountered
>
> ORA-00904: "SPOLICY": invalid identifier
>
> EXP-00000: Export terminated unsuccessfully"
>
>

[...]

The ORA-904 error is only a side-effect of your problem.

Normally, Oracle expects you to only move forward in versions, not backward. There are things in the 9i dictionary that 8i client software (including exp/imp) do not know about, and vice versa. When going from 8i to 9i, this is not a problem as long as you exp using 8i exp and import using 9i imp. But 8i exp does not understand the 9i dictionary which is causing your error.

Anyway, someone with more experience (such as the consultant that Sybrand suggested) might do the following. DO NOT try this without complete confidence that you can put everything back the way it was if it fails. This is untested, I'm just giving you an outline.

1. find the catexp.sql script for the 8i database, and run it against the 9i database (WARNING: have backups and be sure you know how to use them first). You will most likely want to shut down all normal access to the database by users at this time.
2. export using the 8i utility, then import into the 8i database.
3. run the 9i catexp.sql script against the 9i database to put it back the way it is supposed to be.

-Mark Bole Received on Thu Jun 23 2005 - 18:05:11 CDT