Oracle Dba

Enable a 10046 Trace for an Oracle Session Purpose A 10046 trace returns wait events only if the level includes them. Enabling the trace at level 1 and then wondering why the file shows no waits is the most common 10046 mistake in production diagnosis — the output has elapsed times and call counts, but none of the db …

Run a Consistent Export with expdp FLASHBACK_TIME Purpose A Data Pump export that reads one table at 02:00 and the next at 02:15 is not a consistent snapshot — it is a photograph taken in pieces over time. For schemas where rows in one table reference rows in another, that time spread means the export can capture …

Monitor Data Pump Progress with V$SESSION_LONGOPS Purpose Where the expdp and impdp log files record a status line per completed object — writing output at each table boundary, not while a large table is mid-transfer — V$SESSION_LONGOPS records progress while the operation is still running. That gap matters on a …

Insert Control Characters in vi with Ctrl-V for Oracle Prompts Purpose A custom SQL*Plus prompt that prints the connected instance name in colour, or a login script that clears the screen before the banner, both need one thing the keyboard cannot type directly: a literal control character embedded in the file. Press …

Check RESUMABLE_TIMEOUT and RESUMABLE Status in V$SESSION Purpose V$SESSION carries two columns that tell you whether a session can survive running out of space: RESUMABLE and the resumable timeout that governs it. When resumable space allocation is enabled, a statement that hits a space error — a full tablespace, a …

Monitor PGA Aggregate Target with V$PGASTAT in Oracle Purpose Is PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET set high enough for the work the instance actually does? V$PGASTAT answers that question. It is the instance-level statistics view for the Program Global Area — the private memory Oracle hands to each server process for sorting, …

Search UNIX Man Pages for Oracle DBA Tools with man -k Purpose Where Google answers most "how do I do X in UNIX" questions for a DBA today, man -k answers the narrower one — what tools the host actually has installed, and what each one does, without leaving the SSH session. Production Oracle hosts often run in …

Enable vi Command-Line Editing in ksh for Oracle DBA Shells Purpose Recalling and editing the prior command without retyping it is the single most-used operation in a long DBA shift on an Oracle host. On the Korn shell (ksh) — the default login shell on AIX 7.x, Solaris 11, HP-UX 11i, and many older Oracle 11g/12c …

Disable vi Autoindent Before Pasting SQL Scripts on Oracle Hosts Purpose Pasting a SQL script copied from email, a Confluence page, or a ticket comment into a vi buffer over SSH — and watching every line shift one indent right of the previous one — is the most common and most frustrating vi failure mode an Oracle DBA …

Scan Every Oracle Alert and Trace Log for ORA- Errors with grep Purpose Every Oracle environment generates alert logs and process trace files recording instance events, errors, and diagnostics. When a support call comes in — "the database was slow last night, can you check the logs?" — the fastest first pass is a …