RE: Manually editing the oratab file - is this OK?

Paul,

I always update it manually. I don't use dbca at all.

Tom

-----Original Message-----

From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
[mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of Paul Vincent Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 8:20 AM
To: Oracle-L Freelists
Subject: Manually editing the oratab file - is this OK?

We're currently running Oracle 9.2.0.6 on all our servers, both Windows and Solaris.

After using OEM in stand-alone mode for some time, I've been given the task of implementing the full 3-tier architecture. So I've set up a Management Server and created a repository. I then tried to auto-discover all the nodes running Oracle database instances. It soon became apparent that all the Windows servers (on which the databases had all been created using DBCA) were running Intelligent Agent, and were discovered OK. However, our two SUN Solaris boxes didn't auto-discover, because they weren't running the Intelligent Agent. So i started IA on each server, and tried again. OEM discovered the nodes, but no databases. I soon discovered that the oratab file on each of these servers contained only a single line:

*:/opt/oracle9i:N

Knowing that the whole Discovery algorithm starts by extracting the SIDs from the oratab file, I manually added a line to oratab, for one of the database instances. And Hey Presto! That database was auto-discovered.

Now, i know that the databases on the two Solaris servers were all created by the application vendors when they installed the corporate apps on those servers, and that they were created manually, rather than via DBCA. Does this mean that they omitted a step which would have made an entry in oratab? In any case, is it an OK procedure for me to simply manually edit the oratab file, as above, adding a line for each database I want auto-discovering? Or are there hidden pitfalls? I've tried my darnedest to RTFM on this one, but references to oratab are few and far between in the Oracle documentation, so it's time for me to consult the experts (that's you lot - I hope!).

Paul Vincent
Oracle DBA
UCE Birmingham
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http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l Received on Tue Apr 11 2006 - 07:34:21 CDT