Thaigu, IBM RS 6000 ==== IBM Hardware CPU machine . IBM AIX ==== Operating system EMC ==== Storage Device. ( IBM has its own storage units ) . Use the current initsid.ora and convert one initsid.ora to spfile in the test environmnet and when you feel confident than apply this to production and ohter environment. You won't lost any thing at this stage by using initsid.ora spfile, Scope option help you to update the memory and the file in one go else you have to do it in manually. If you change the compatible parameter there is a change that some thing might not work, so do in test and then in production. NT. Thiagoo <thiagoodba@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Sunil, Thanks for the info. It was useful. I've got into an urgent position where somebody left for Asia/Hongkong for some urgent issues and am handling prod support with just 1 hour of handover..and inventing many things for myself in a new organization. I'm not sure whether my question was phrased properly. What OS storage type did you use for your DB? This is one of the questions which I didnt have much idea. The output of your script shows :- PORT O/S VERSION IBM AIX64/RS6000 V4 IBM AIX64/RS6000 V4 8.1.0 IBM AIX , it's OK. I have heard about EMC storage, similarly is RS6000, is this the storage type? I read somewhere lsconfig will tell this.info..but am not able to get any output for this. 2. In some of the Oracle 9i databases, the compatible parameter was set to 8.1.7 and still we use initsid.ora instead of pfile. I've faced some interview questions like what's the advantage of pfile over init.ora, I answered , pfile is in a binary form stored in the DB, we can define the scope, few dynamic parameters we can change and no need to re-start the instance for few parameters..I wanted to tell very important points as I hardly get few seconds to answer these. I want to write out all Q/A for few standard interview questions. I didnt find any attachment, can u pls re-send that to me, I got some documents from metalink also. Thanks & Best Regards, Thiagu Sunil Bhola <oraclebhola@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Hi Everybody, Try this :- DECLARE PORT VARCHAR2(200); A VARCHAR2(200); B VARCHAR2(200); C VARCHAR2(200); BEGIN PORT:= DBMS_UTILITY.PORT_STRING; A:=PORT; B:=SUBSTR(PORT,1,INSTR(PORT,'-')-1); C:=SUBSTR(PORT,INSTR(PORT,'-')+1); DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(RPAD('PORT',20,' ')||LPAD('O/S',20,' ')||LPAD('VERSION ',20,' ')); DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(RPAD(A,20,' ')||LPAD(B,20,' ')||LPAD(C,20,' ')); END; / 2) i think you did some typo. The things are SPFILE and pfile... Please find the attached file for SPFILE description Regards, QUERIES in Oracle, Feel free to Join: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oracle_expert/ Regards, Sunil Bhola Oracle_Expert, Moderator Thiagoo <thiagoodba@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: HI, 1.How can I find the OS storage type? Which command should I execute to find this? Mine is Oracle 8.1.7 and 9.2.0.4 OS :- AIX 5.1 2.What's the advantage of pfile over init.ora? PS:- If somebody is having hot/cold/RMAN backup/restore scripts, pls forward the same to me. -TIA, Thiagu --------------------------------- Yahoo! for Good Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] SPONSORED LINKS Technical support outsourcing Online technical support Technical support Computer technical support Database administrator Technical support software --------------------------------- YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "dba_gurus" on the web. To uns ubscribe from this group, send an email to: dba_gurus-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------- --------------------------------- Yahoo! for Good Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] SPONSORED LINKS Technical support outsourcing Online technical support Technical support Computer technical support Database administrator Technical support software --------------------------------- YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "dba_gurus" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dba_gurus-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------- ================================================== Thanks & Best Regards, Thiagu ================================================== __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com --------------------------------- Yahoo! for Good Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.