Re: Please help salvage database

brian duart wrote in message <3598EB77.5D959AD8_at_mindspring.com>...
>Gentle People,
>
>We are attempting to salvage most of the data in this database. Oracle 7.2
on
>OpenVMS 6.1

Oh dear!

>
>(1) we inherited a nearly non-documented oracle database in the throes of
>death, so we have very little information currently about the nature of the
>database configuration (ie. what tables exist in which tablespaces, and
what
>each of the datafiles are related to).

Ok.

>
>(2) we lost an 8GB hard drive which contained three datafiles (which we are
>willing to sacrifice to the gods in order to bring the db back online). The
HD
>was restored, and a back-up of the three datafiles was restored as well
from tape.
>
>(3) when starting Oracle, it requests media recovery on the three files.
>
>(4) we have not been able to complete the media recovery process. The
database
>is in noarchivelog mode, AND there are no online redo log files to be found
>anywhere on the system. Thus, we can only cancel out of the recovery
process.
>
>(5) we tried dropping the datafiles offline and restarting the db, but in
this
>scenario oracle would not start, due to a missing table needed for
dml/query.
>Presumably this table is in one of the three datafiles, and judging from
the
>datafile names, I would guess it is an index.
>
>What we would like to do is: force the database to startup and mount,
>regardless of the state of those 3 datafiles, as we will be exporting one
main
>table and starting over on a different environment. We have poured through
all
>the scenarios in the Server Admin guide, but there is little guidance if
>recovery is not successful. We need concrete instructions to give to the db
to
>either drop the datafiles and have the db 'forget' them, or to make the
>recovery proceed without online redo logs.

Ok Brian,

I help run a company which specialises in this type of recovery (www.bluestar-sales.demon.co.uk), salvaging data, re-constructing system datafiles, controlfile manipulation etc. We can extract any data you want from broken or unrecoverable datafiles. This type of problem is not unusual. I'd try restoring everything from a cold backup from the same point in time, then bring the db up. If you're faced with the same problems, do a complete cold restore again (trust me), then try recreating the control files and open up using resetlogs.

If you've been through all the options and still cannot recover, drop us a line - we'd be more than happy to help.

Steven Toth Received on Wed Jul 01 1998 - 15:31:28 CDT