editing .ora files

[Omar Alvi_1]

Hi,

I'm totally new to oracle. In fact I'm installing a product called visionael, which requires oracle, and the manuals assume that you know Oracle.

neway, my question at the moment is, how do you edit .ora files, like spfiledb.ora, tnsnames.ora. In Windows it gives part rubbish when opening it.

Any help greatly appreciated.

A pointer to a good basics guide would be extremely helpful as well

Regards,

-Alvi

[Sanjay_6]

Hi,

Have you tried the oracle docs website.

http://otn.oracle.com/documentation/index.html

I don't know about spfiledb.ora but tnsnames.ora is a text file and any editor should be able to open it without showing the content as junk. I would hope the other file would be text too. Check your editor.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[Tom Geudens]

Hi,
As was stated you should be able to edit those files with a "normal" texteditor (preferably do not try Word :-). Try "vi" on the Unix host itself. If that works (and does not show "rubbish") there's probably a conversion problem between your Windows Workstation an the Unix host.

Regards,
Tom Geudens

[Tom Geudens]

Hi,
Correction !!!
I checked up on this spfiledb.ora (which did not sound familiar, I'm an ex-DBA) and found the following link : http://databasejournal.com/features/oracle/article.php/2212711
This would suggest that spfiledb.ora is a binary file that you do NOT edit with a texteditor.

tnsnames.ora is definitly a textfile however ...

Regards,
Tom Geudens

[Omar Alvi_1]

Thanks Sanjay and Tom,

especially for following up on the answer.

This step by step installation guide leaves a lot to be desired, assuming the reader to be an oracle and sql expert :(

Thanks again for your help. There should be some tool to edit some of these files.

Is there some good forum for Oracle and SQL, similar in value to this forum. Now i'm getting some sql error

ORA-12913: Cannot create dictionary managed tablespace

Sanjay, the docs you suggested seem to require previleges

Regards,

Omar Alvi

[Tom Geudens]

Hi again,
http://metalink.oracle.com/ is the oracle-equivalent of ITRC. I don't know if registration is "free" though (I'm registered because we have an Oracle support contract).

I'm not familiar with the software you're trying to install (so take my suggestions for what they are, suggestions !), but are you running the oracle-installation with the correct user ? Databases should be created with the "oracle" user (or a user in the primary group of "oracle" - usually "dba") ...

Regards,
Tom Geudens

[Omar Alvi_1]

Hello Tom

The producti'm installaing is visionael network audit , similar to HP NNM.

The metalik site requires some serial number stuff for registration.

I'm installing Oracle on windows, using ITRC only because of the wealth of experience the members have.

I recall adding the dba group and user and setting a host of variables when I installed Oracle on Unix, but I did nothing of the kind in windows. All I have is the Administrator user.

Maybe I blundered because of the approaching deadline :) So, do you think I need to reinstall? Is there a summarised guide for the oracle installation?

Thanks a lot

-Alvi

[Tom Geudens]

Hi,
I have - alas - no experience with Oracle installation on Windows servers. However, I believe your can register for free on the Oracle Technology Network.
http://otn.oracle.com/documentation/index.html
You'll find all the manuals you need there !

Regards,
Tom Geudens

[Michael Schulte zur Sur]

Hi,

editing the spfiledb.ora is not good. As someone stated before, it is binary. You can create a pure text file by create pfile from spfile. This pfile you can edit and then you use create spfile from pfile to change the spfile. For this, the database must not be open. The alter system command are usually written into the spfile. You also can use the enterprise manager do configure existing databases.

greetings,

Michael

[Omar Alvi_1]

Thanks Tom, for persisting, and Michael for the solution.

Now, with the pfile, sfile issue solved ... i'm having a problem with sql as follows, just in case you can help.

SQL> create tablespace visionael_tempspace
2 datafile 'c:\oracle\oradata\orak\orak_tmp01.dbf' size 10 M
3 autoextend on next 10M
4 default storage (
5 initial 50K
6 next 50K
7 minextents 1
8 maxextents 121
9 pctincrease 10
10 ) temporary online;
create tablespace visionael_tempspace
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-12913: Cannot create dictionary managed tablespace

Regards

-Alvi