no pfile neither spfile

[hannah00]

HI all,

I just took over this client database and I can't find pfle anywhere on the server, I asked this contractor and he doens't know either.

how can we create one if the DB still running???

thanks,

[bazza]

No spfile? No pfile? How where they planning to restart the thing if the box crashed?

Run the following to see how it was started last time:

select decode(count(*), 1, 'spfile', 'pfile' ) as INIT_FILE_TYPE
from v$spparameter
where rownum=1
and isspecified='TRUE';

You can create a pfile from scratch, the alert log (if you have that!!!) shows all the non default parameters at startup. Copy and paste job. Perhaps someone else has an easier way.

Bazza

[gandolf989]

HI all,

I just took over this client database and I can't find pfle anywhere on the server, I asked this contractor and he doens't know either.

how can we create one if the DB still running???

thanks,

There must be a pfile to tell the database where the control files are and the name of the database. Have you looked in %ORACLE_HOME/database, or in $ORACLE_BASE/admin/yoursid/pfile?

you can also query the data dictionary. Although I forget which view to look at. It could be v$instance, v$database, or v$parameter. If you are on unix you can look in the oratab file, and if you are on windows you can look in the registry.

There is either an init file or an spfile somewhere.

[davey23uk]

just do show parameter spfile to see if one has been used

[hannah00]

thank you, I have to create manually from scratch, I did check everywhere and this guys is clueless.

[davey23uk]

you can get the non default values from the alert log

[dbtoo]

sounds like windoze...
open a command window, from the root of each drive enter:
dir init*.ora /S

[bazza]

There is either an init file or an spfile somewhere.

Not necessarily, it could have been deleted and the database will continue to run normally.

Davey, didn't I already say about using the alert log?!?! ;-)

Bazza

[davey23uk]

Davey, didn't I already say about using the alert log?!?! ;-)

Bazza

maybe, implying I even read it huh

[jmodic]

sounds like windoze...
open a command window, from the root of each drive enter:
dir init*.ora /S

The problem with this method is that the initialization file could be named anything - it doesn't need to have the suffix ".ora" nor the string "init" in its name. What if the previous DBA was so clever to name it something like 'sqlserver.win'