I need to delete a number of old DBs for which I do not have the
passwords (these are failed restore attempts of a customers DB). Since
I can not access them I want to remove the from Oracle 10G completely,
however I am finding it very difficult to find information on how to
delete an Oracle database outside of using the Oracle Console, deleting
the physical files associated with a DB is easy, but I still find that
Oracle thinks they exist and thus I can not reuse the SSID, I did at
one point find some information on how to destroy a DB, but I can not
find this anywhere now. Does anyone know how I can complete this task?


Thanks,
ERIC GANDT

egandt@gmail.com wrote:
> I need to delete a number of old DBs for which I do not have the
> passwords (these are failed restore attempts of a customers DB). Since
> I can not access them I want to remove the from Oracle 10G completely,
> however I am finding it very difficult to find information on how to
> delete an Oracle database outside of using the Oracle Console, deleting
> the physical files associated with a DB is easy, but I still find that
> Oracle thinks they exist and thus I can not reuse the SSID, I did at
> one point find some information on how to destroy a DB, but I can not
> find this anywhere now. Does anyone know how I can complete this task?
>
>
> Thanks,
> ERIC GANDT

Do you know what a database is in Oracle? I don't think so based on
what you wrote above. I think you have come to Oracle from SQL Server
or another product and have learned nothing about Oracle.

If you truly want to delete a database ... rm -r applied at the
correct location will do quite nicely. Of course at the wrong
location you'll be reinstalling the operating system.

What do you think a database is? Lets clear that up first.
--
Daniel A. Morgan
http://www.psoug.org
damorgan@x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)

What's wrong with resetting the passwords from within oracle, using a
system level account?
Do you have an OS account identified externally that you could use?

If not - I'm not so sure about 10g, but in previous versions, I'd do
the following:

1) key in this query in SQL+:
select 'del ' || name from sys.v_$datafile; ** if you're in windows
select 'rm ' || name from sys.v_$datafile; ** if you're in UNIX
- this will generate the commands to delete all data files in use by
the db.
2) print out the parameter file (pfile) for the db (should be in
$ORACLE_HOME/dbs) ; this will indicate where your control files are
3) Shut down the db
4) Delete the data files with the generated delete commands
5) Delete the control files
6) Delete the init and config files from the dbs directory
7) Remove entries for the db from your oratab file (if you can't reuse
the SID, my guess is this is what's holding you up).

I think that should pretty much do it....

Cheers,

BD.

Duh. Just rereading my post - I guess if you can't log in, you can't
very well run a SQL statement, can you?

And I thought I was doing so well...

BD wrote:
> Duh. Just rereading my post - I guess if you can't log in, you can't
> very well run a SQL statement, can you?
>
> And I thought I was doing so well...
>

connect / as sysdba
usually does the trick.
--
Regards,
Frank van Bortel

I'd thought that was only true if you'd created the corresponding
account within Oracle, with the 'identified externally' parameter...

"BD" <bobby_dread@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1122830801.965516.48240@g47g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> I'd thought that was only true if you'd created the corresponding
> account within Oracle, with the 'identified externally' parameter...
>

nope, this is os authentication via the os group you are in (different from
identified externally)

just export ORACLE_SID=xxx

sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

Dave wrote:
> "BD" <bobby_dread@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1122830801.965516.48240@g47g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>
>>I'd thought that was only true if you'd created the corresponding
>>account within Oracle, with the 'identified externally' parameter...
>>
>
>
> nope, this is os authentication via the os group you are in (different from
> identified externally)
>
> just export ORACLE_SID=xxx
>
> sqlplus "/ as sysdba"
>
>
correct

--
Regards,
Frank van Bortel

http://download-west.oracle.com/docs...6.htm#BHACBJFD

http://download-west.oracle.com/docs....htm#sthref868

http://download-west.oracle.com/docs...l.htm#sthref78

metalink had docs for earlier versions on windows, none of which were
completely correct AFAICD. Usually they said something like "find all
references to oracle in the registry and delete them," and not tell you
how to delete the ones that wouldn't delete. Also, some files wouldn't
delete because they were open by services such as MS DTS or something.

jg
--
@home.com is bogus.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniont...b31lerach.html