Vit Spinka technical blog

One of the well know error everyone meets in Oracle is the ORA-01041: inserted value too large for column (while s/he is cursing Oracle why it did not returned ORA-12899: value too large for column ... with the details). The error is usualy right - you tried to insert a value too large for the column definition, so Oracle rejects the statement. Although it mentions insert, one can understand such error for updates, too. But recently I got this issue for a delete statement. And no, there was not any trigger nor other advanced feature doing an insert in the background. So why on Earth, why ? The application (apply process of Dbvisit Replicate) was using OCI and the error indeed came from the OCIStmtExecute call. As it turns out, however, the devil is somewhere else. One of the confusing topic in OCI is string handling - there are four ways how to pass a string to Oracle, depending on whether it's null-terminated or length-specified and whether it should be space-padded (think ...

Originally published on Dbvisit blog at http://blog.dbvisit.com/manual-archiving-of-redo-logs-gone-with-9i-or-is-it-not/ . If you memory dates back to the pre-10g times, you will maybe recall the steps to enable archivelog mode on the database at that time. Perhaps the greatest catch was that the online logs did not get archived automatically by default – you had to do it manually. Or, let Oracle come to rescue, and let the ARCH process(es) do it for you by starting them with log_archive_start = true (or even dynamically with alter system archive log start/stop ). You could even start ARCH in noarchivelog mode, so they did completely nothing, just writing error messages to alert.log. One of the new features of 10g was getting rid of all of this – ARCH starting is governed solely by (no)archivelog mode and the DBA does not need to fiddle with anything else to get it right. Great applause, many thanks, scene over. Well, all above is just a short transcript of my memory of those ...

Originally published on Dbvisit blog at http://blog.dbvisit.com/installing-rac-on-oracle-vm/ . One of the nice features of Oracle VM (and perhaps the most compelling one when you are evaluating different virtualization products for testing and development) is the comprehensive list of prepackaged templates available at Oracle e-delivery. The list is not complete and probably cannot ever be, as Oracle is expanding it’s product offerings very fast. Of the missing basic configurations, there is for example no Oracle Database on Solaris template (although plain Solaris is available). However, let’s look at the RAC templates. The list is comprehensive and you can choose between 11.1 and 11.2 on Oracle Enterprise Linux, both 32- and 64-bit. The first-time setup is quite easy and easy if you follow supplied pdf documentation. The usual setup is 2-node RAC, but you can semi-manually add further nodes as well. Still, there is a catch: the pdf declares that one of the prerequisities i...

The documentation says to ALTER FLASHBACK ARCHIVE REMOVE TABLESPACE following: If the tablespace to be removed contains any data within the retention period of the flashback archive, then that data will be dropped as well. Therefore, you should move your data to another tablespace before removing the tablespace with this clause. However, the question is: how do you move the data? Attempt to move the internal tables stored in flashback archive raises ORA-55622: DML, ALTER and CREATE UNIQUE INDEX operations are not allowed on table "SCOTT"."SYS_FBA_DDL_COLMAP_69926" And the response of Oracle support is simple: What you are trying to do is not currently possible. You cannot move the FDA history tables from one tablespace to another, nor can you move the FDA to another tablespace using ALTER FLASHBACK ARCHIVE. Development however acknowledges that this is a desired feature that they will look into adding for a future release.

I was asked to analyze a situation, when an attempt to recover a 11g (standby) database resulted in bunch of "ORA-27048: skgfifi: file header information is invalid" errors. I tried to reproduce the error on my test system, using different versions (EE, SE, 11.1.0.6, 11.1.0.7), but to no avail. Fortunately, I finally got to the failing system: SQL> recover standby database; ORA-00279: change 9614132 generated at 11/27/2009 17:59:06 needed for thread 1 ORA-00289: suggestion : /u01/flash_recovery_area/T1/archivelog/2009_11_27/o1_mf_1_208_%u_.arc ORA-27048: skgfifi: file header information is invalid ORA-27048: skgfifi: file header information is invalid ORA-27048: skgfifi: file header information is invalid ORA-27048: skgfifi: file header information is invalid ORA-27048: skgfifi: file header information is invalid ORA-27048: skgfifi: file header information is invalid ORA-00280: change 9614132 for thread 1 is in sequence #208 Interestingly, nothing interesting is written to...

Just a quick note: Oracle set the 11g OCM upgrade release date to November 30, 2009. However, schedule is still "comming soon"...

After all, I learned one new thing I did not expect to find out at OOW: at the OCP Lounge (where, contrary to promises, no networking took place), I was told new info regarding the 11g OCM exam. While from supposedly trustworthy source, don't take the following as 100%-sure; still, it's worth to know, that: - the 11g OCM Upgrade exam is scheduled to start late November this year, and will be delivered on 11gR1. - the full 2-day 11g OCM has no schedule yet, and will be delivered on 11gR2 from it's start. The only trouble I see is the attendance - with 10g OCM, every local Oracle was cancelling it if only one person signed for it - two persons was minimum. With the upgrade, how many people will sign up? I plan to take it quite soon after it's available, somewhere in Europe (UK has usually densest exam schedule, while countries like Czech Republic/Slovakia/Italy etc. have lower prices for the exam). Drop me a line if you would be interested in taking the exam, so we can f...