RE: Accidentally Delete *.dbf Files, OH NO!!!

  • From: "Michael Fontana" <mfontana@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "'Goulet, Dick'" <DGoulet@xxxxxxxx>, <Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 09:24:07 -0600

Dick, thanks for offering condolensces, and I worked very late at night to
"rebuild" a development database from scratch after this happened.

Please note that I never actually SAID an "sa" deleted my files, just
someone with root access.  How could that be?  Well, in my shop, sadly,
developers and DBAs have a form of root access with "sudo".  This is how, at
least in one case, the bad thing happened.

The fact of who did what was not the point of my post, however.  I simply
recall that in AIX, you simply cannot 'rm' a file that is in use by another
program.  What happened in one case is that a fellow DBA whacked a file
under filesystem-a that actually belonged to database-b.  It was placed
there not by mistake, but due to storage deficiencies. 

In my opinion, because we are short of file system space, and our management
does not plan well, they ultimately accept the responsibility when these
things happen.  Especially when the individuals who did these alleged
"naughty things" point out that they've sent messages indicating the disks
were maxxed out, and were they were told in response that funds were
unavailable to resolve the issue.

But that is another discussion for yet another time!




-----Original Message-----
From: Goulet, Dick [mailto:DGoulet@xxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 9:18 AM
To: mfontana@xxxxxxxxx; Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Accidentally Delete *.dbf Files, OH NO!!!

Michael,

        Condolences in having to work with a less than optimal SA.
Sadly I have been in a similar situation, just 6,000 miles away from the
server,  a few years ago when the local SA did the same thing.  HP-UX
has a similar behavior to Sun except that although the file disappears
the file memory remains mapped to the session/database instance until
you shut it down.  You pay the price on startup, especially since "no
one would ever do that, now would they"?!  Yes the local SA not say
anything until after the next cold backup when the DB would not start.
Putting that mess back together was one very long weekend.


Dick Goulet
Senior Oracle DBA
Oracle Certified 8i DBA
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Fontana [mailto:mfontana@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 6:23 PM
To: Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Accidentally Delete *.dbf Files, OH NO!!!


I have been working with Solaris for several years now.  We have had a
rare
but particularly debilitating problem where certain people who will
remain
nameless, in an effort to "clean up" disk space, have nailed a .dbf file
or
two.  I know I should have the solution to this on close at hand, but I
seem
to recall this was difficult, if not impossible, on other Unix platforms
(such as AIX), because the file would be "locked" or "in use", and the
nefarious "rm" command would fail.  Alas, Solaris is all too willing to
comply when asked.  

Is there something that can be done, at the OS or Oracle level, to
prevent
such a thing?  Needless to say, the "whackers" are using root to enter
the
command, so changing permissions would accomplish little.  They are
already
set to only allow "oracle" write access.

Any help or even ridiculing chuckles and admonitions would be greatly
appreciated.



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