When on command prompt, if you have noticed, the directories and files with different permissions are shown in different colors. Sometimes its very annoying when the colors match the backgroud color you have chosen for the terminal software, but here is how you undo it : 

Just type ‘unalias ls ‘ or include this in your .profile /.bash_profile

Nobody wants to give 777 permissions to users on a production environment, I also wanted to keep few application users away from my oracle server software and so I installed a separate oracle client for them and provided permissions on the same to a specific user/group.  Also the Oracle generated files like datapump exports/traces can have ownership as oracle:dba and non dba gorup users cant access it. But using ACL, we can give appropriate permissions to users without having to give permissions to world. (Another way is to add the 2 users in one group and set group level permissions but this may not always be feasible)

Backup the primary database using RMAN.

Setup the standby directory structures similar to Primary and create the init.ora

#Standby specific Configuration  
*.fal_client=’MYDB_S’  
*.fal_server=’MYDB_P’  
*.log_archive_dest_1=’LOCATION=/export/oracle/archive/MYDB/log mandatory’  
*.log_archive_dest_2=’SERVICE=MYDB_S optional reopen=60′  
*.log_archive_dest_state_1=’ENABLE’  
*.log_archive_dest_state_2=’DEFER’  
*.service_names=’PRODCDW’  
*.standby_file_management=’AUTO’  
*.standby_archive_dest=’LOCATION=/export/oracle/archive/MYDB/log’  
log_archive_format = ‘arch_%t_%r_%s.dbf’  
log_checkpoint_interval = 0  
*.aq_tm_processes=0

scp does not provide an option to "Not-Overwrite" a file if already exists on the destination server. So finally I implemented the rsync, its very simple and straigt forward.

This can be used mainly when you want to take incremental backup of filesystems or keep servers in sync etc. With a simple wrapper, this can be setup a a cron job as well.

Prerequisites:

Enable the Flashback Recovery

Step 1: Add the initialization parameters

Open the init.ora file and add following parameters:

*.db_recovery_file_dest='/app/oracle/product/flash_recovery_area'
*.db_recovery_file_dest_size=2G
*.db_flashback_retention_target=10080   # Represents 7 days (60 minutes*24*7)

Note: DB_FLASHBACK_RETENTION_TARGET specifies the upper limit (in minutes) on how far back in time the database may be flashed back. How far back one can flashback a database depends on how much flashback data Oracle has kept in the flash recovery area.

                    We are a group of enthusiastic Database Administrators, launching this new website and  a new discussion forum at http://www.dbalifeline.com/forums to bring together academics and industry people interested in the subject of RDBMS and related technologies, such as oracle, SQL Server, *nix like Operating systems, etc. We hope to create a place in which anyone related to these demanding technologies can ask questions, publish articles and read about what others are doing.