Hi,

I am looking to create a local copy of an Oracle 8i database from existing datafiles.

The original database was Oracle 8.1.7 on Solaris and I have installed Oracle 8.1.7 on our local Solaris server. A cold backup of the original database was performed and the datafiles (*.dbf) then copied to the local server.

How do I use the datafiles to create a local database instance? Being a novice DBA, I am unsure as to whether create a new database and associate the datafiles with it; create a new database using the datafiles; use RMAN etc.

Advice on the correct approach and how to go about it much appreciated.