Scenario - Archive Destination Full

This post will discuss what action you can take if your Archive Destination is full. There are many ways to solve this scenario but I found this solution very easy to understand and it is working (in my environment.)

So lets get started. I will now tell you how to simulate so that your archive destination will be full. This is very simple technique, there is nothing complicated in this simulation just follow the steps as described.

rlwrap for Command Line History and Editing in SQL*Plus and RMAN

The rlwrap (readline wrapper) utility provides a command history and editing of keyboard input for any other command. This is comes in handy when we are using sqlplus or rman on linux, which don't come with command line history feature.

This post will explain how to install and configure rlwrap for sqlplus and rman.

Start Oracle Database without SPFILE / PFILE.

This post will explain how can we can start an Oracle Database Instance in nomount mode, for retrival of spfile from the backup sets.

This is called as dummy instance where you don't have to define any SGA components, Oracle will take care of all the SGA related components.

So lets start, I have attached a demo just go through it.

Difference between Recovery Window & Backup Window

Recovery Window :
A recovery window is a period of time that begins with the current time and extends backward in time to the point of recoverability. The point of recoverability is the earliest time for a hypothetical point-in-time recovery, that is, the earliest point to which you can recover following a media failure.
To configure a retention policy based on recovery window, use

 CONFIGURE RETENTION POLICY TO RECOVERY WINDOW no DAYS;  

Silent Installation of Oracle Database Software 11gR2

Before proceeding I am assuming that you've completed Pre-Installation tasks for Oracle Database Software Installation. If you have not completed then do it before proceeding, click here to goto that page.

Silent Installation is an alternative for GUI installation. It's very useful method when you want to prepare standard installation using shell scripts. A response file can be use to provide all the required information for the installion, so no user interaction is required. 

There are 3 response files which can used, for now we will use db_install.rsp to install database software only. So now download oracle database software from Oracle Official site and unzip. Now locate the unzipped files and locate response folder so that we can get db_install.rsp, copy this file to a temporary location and edit it.

Pre-Installion tasks for pretty much database versions

 Here are some pre-installation tasks before installing Oracle Database software, some of the steps or statement may vary from versions to versions.

• First of all create groups like oinstall, dba. (must 2 groups) Other groups like oper is optional and asmadmin, asmdba, asmoper are related to ASM / Grid Installation. Create user oracle who will be responsible for installation.

 [root@localhost /]# groupadd -g 501 oinstall  
 [root@localhost /]# groupadd -g 502 dba  
 [root@localhost /]# groupadd -g 503 oper  
 [root@localhost /]# groupadd -g 504 asmadmin  
 [root@localhost /]# groupadd -g 505 asmdba  
 [root@localhost /]# groupadd -g 506 asmoper  
 [root@localhost ~]# useradd -u 501 -g oinstall -G dba,oper,asmadmin,asmdba,asmoper oracle  

Roll Forward Standby Database (Resolving Gap) by Incremental Backup

This situation was once occurred to me, that time I created a new Standby Database by dropping the last one. That time there was no time to test but then I test same situation on my test environment by creating somehow same situation. 
So lets begin, to create that situation follow the procedure,

RMAN Restartable Backups or Re-Initiating RMAN Backups

Using the restartable backups feature, RMAN can backup only those files that have not been backup since a specified date. You can use this feature after a failed backup to re-initiate that backup. The unit of restartability is a backup set.

Solving the error - ohasd failed to start (While installing GRID infrastructure on OEL 5+

To solve the CRS-4124 & CRS-4000 error which is occurred during installing grid infrastructure on OEL / RHEL 5+. The error follows (cropped some of the code):

 LOCAL ADD MODE  
 Creating OCR keys for user 'oracle', privgrp 'oinstall'..  
 Operation successful.  
 CRS-4664: Node localhost successfully pinned.  
 Adding daemon to inittab  
 CRS-4124: Oracle High Availability Services startup failed.  
 CRS-4000: Command Start failed, or completed with errors.  
 ohasd failed to start: Inappropriate ioctl for device  
 ohasd failed to start: Inappropriate ioctl for device at /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/grid/crs/install/roothas.pl line 296.

Installing Grid Infrastructure to use ASM on Linux

These steps are tested VirtualBox, it can or can not work on VMWare.

• First  add virtual hard disks in your VirtualBox / VMWare by going in machine settings.
• Then create partitions by using fdisk a UNIX/LINUX command. I will show a demo below you just do the same for how many partitions you’ve added earlier in the Step 1. The following will show all the connected partitions.

How to drop Database manually without using DBCA?

First of all check all the physical paths of your database contents by doing,

•  Login using SYSDBA privilege and check for you diagnostic location by looking into v$diag_info view.