topic Re: Missing datafiles after reboot in Operating System - HP-UX

Missing datafiles after reboot

James A. Donovan — Tue, 19 Nov 2002 01:00:09 GMT

Recently, we had a server crash, and after the system came back up, we found that several Oracle data files were missing. We ended up having to do a restore from tape.

Would the following settings in fstab for the vxfs filesystems be a reason why the files went missing? And if so, please explain...

rw,suid,delaylog,nodatainlog

thanks...

Re: Missing datafiles after reboot

harry d brown jr — Tue, 19 Nov 2002 01:24:11 GMT

"mount" options are not going to cause the system to "delete" files. I could understand if they were corrupt, but deleted? Nay. You might want to look into peoples shells for that answer.

You also might want to consider mirrored or raid'ed disk storage.

live free or die
harry

Re: Missing datafiles after reboot

harry d brown jr — Tue, 19 Nov 2002 01:32:50 GMT

Jim,

I realize this might sound silly, but how is your system for patches? Don't feel bad, I recently found "current" servers we are deploying, with 268 missing "recommended" patches.

live free or die
harry

Re: Missing datafiles after reboot

Michael Tully — Tue, 19 Nov 2002 01:34:07 GMT

Hi Jim,

I have one Oracle system and I have the filesystem mounting options like this:

rw,suid,log,datainlog

These options are fully explained in the 'mount_vxfs' man page.

Having the options you have does not explain missing files. I could understand if the filesystem got corrupted in some way, but definitely not missing files. Any one else got access that perhaps they shouldn't have?

Michael

Re: Missing datafiles after reboot

T G Manikandan — Tue, 19 Nov 2002 04:09:14 GMT

This cannot happen.
Probably the file system was not mounted exactly as before or the files were moved by someone.

Thanks

Re: Missing datafiles after reboot

Brian Crabtree — Wed, 20 Nov 2002 00:19:49 GMT

One thing also to consider, is that the fstab was not kept current, and someone mounted additional mount points without updating the file, or changed the mounting. This has happened on a few systems that I support.

Brian

Re: Missing datafiles after reboot

harry d brown jr — Wed, 20 Nov 2002 01:48:43 GMT

Jim,

Why was the system rebooted in the first place?

Also, here's a great jfs paper:

http://www.interex.org/pubcontent/enterprise/may00/08sysadx.html

live free or die
harry

Re: Missing datafiles after reboot

Graham Cameron_1 — Wed, 20 Nov 2002 09:27:36 GMT

If a user with appropriate permissions rm's one or more datafiles, then the kernel does not actually deallocate the space until all attached processes die.

Thus Oracle will keep on running. No more users can connect but those connected are unaffected until you shutdown oracle or reboot.

I know this from personal experience and my heart still sinks when I recall the day I rm'd the files of a live and running database instead of the test system - no-one noticed until a new user tried to log in!

Maybe that's what happened to you.