RE: Shooting yourself in the spfile
- From: "Jacques Kilchoer" <Jacques.Kilchoer@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Oracle-L (E-mail)" <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 16:59:27 -0800
$@$#@$#@ re-sending for better formatting
It seems to me that Oracle is moving away from the text-based init.ora file.
And since you can change the init parameters with alter system, why edit an
init.ora file with vi? At least the 'alter system' command has some syntax
checking. If I say
alter system set optimizer_index_cost_adK = 25 scope = spfile ;
then I get an error message, but if I type in
optimizer_index_cost_adK = 25
in my init.ora file and try to start up the database, I get an error at startup
time and have to go edit the init.ora file a second time.
I would use as a standard practice, backup the spfile along with the database
(of course) and then before each change save a copy of the spfile. For example
create a script called "backup_spfile.sql" containing
host cp $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/spfile$ORACLE_SID.ora
$ORACLE_HOME/dbs/spfile$ORACLE_SID.ora.`date +"$Y%m%d_%H%M%S`
and run backup_spfile.sql before any "alter system set ..." command.
Why the spfile is not text-based - could it be that Oracle is moving to making
it totally "encrypted"?
> -----Original Message-----
> Jonathan Gennick
>
> I just went through an episode in which I changed a
> parameter setting using scope=spfile, attempted to bounce my
> instance, and found that I was hosed. Fortunately, I had an
> up-to-date text version of my parameter file (i.e. init.ora)
> that I was able to fall back on, and I easily used that to
> restart my instance. Now I have to recreate my server
> parameter file, because, having started my instance using
> init.ora, it won't let me change a parameter using
> scope=spfile. Arg!
>
> All this has underscored the importance of backing myself up
> when it comes to parameter changes, and I'm wondering about
> best-practices. What do you all do to protect yourself here?
> I can think of two alternatives:
>
> * Follow each successful spfile change by creation of a new,
> text-based (init.ora) parameter file, to use in case you
> muck up your spfile in the future.
>
> * Make a copy of your binary spfile after each successful
> change, or before making a change, so that you can fall back
> by copying the last known-good spfile over the one you
> screwed up.
>
> Are there any alternatives that I've missed here? What
> approach is best, and why? Right now, I lean towards keeping
> a current, text-based parameter file, because that gives you
> the flexibility to go in with vi and tweak a parameter. In
> fact, I wonder why the server parameter file can't be
> text-based. If I have to constantly make text-based backups
> to protect myself, why not just make the spfile text-based
> to begin with?
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