Fixing Oracle Database ORA-29913 Error

Using External Tables is becoming more and more popular, eliminating the need of SQL*Loader to load tables. However, you also face issues while working with external tables, one of which is described here:

When you perform a SELECT operation on an external table, you may face something similar to the following:

“ORA-29913: error in executing ODCIEXTTABLEOPEN callout
ORA-29400: data cartridge error
KUP-04063: unable to open log file EXTERN_17063.log
KUP-04040: file TEST.TXT in TEST_DIR not found
ORA-06512: at “SYS.ORACLE_LOADER”, line 19”

RMAN: Backup & Recovery solution

RMAN (Recovery Manager) is the backup and recovery solution of Oracle database. Oracle Corporation recommends RMAN as the preferred method of backup and recovery. The best part about RMAN is that it detects block corruption while performing backup. You can access RMAN through command line or Oracle Enterprise Manager. Since RMAN is the feature of Oracle so no separate installation is required. RMAN backup provides some advanced features like parallelization of backup/restore, keep history of all backup etc. You can backup following files through RMAN:

Oracle Backup & Recovery Best Practices

Backup is essential to survive the database failure and loss. To successfully recover data in case of unforeseen events not only you should have a proper backup strategy but you must also follow best practices for backup and recovery. Here are Oracle backup and recovery best practices:

Overview of hot and cold backup in Oracle

Backups either hot or cold are taken to protect database from media failure. Oracle provides different types of backups, you can use the one that satisfies your business requirement. Here I will discuss about hot and cold backup.

How to repair Oracle block corruption using DBMS_REPAIR utility

Oracle block corruption happens very rarely but when it happens you may lose all your data. Oracle block corruption is nothing but just some incorrect information in the Oracle data file. Oracle will never be aware of this corruption unless you establish a proper block checking configuration system. To detect & repair block corruption, Oracle provides different methods. One method is to simply drop and recreate the object but this method may not work in all situations. Another method that mostly works is the DBMS_REPAIR package.

Types of corruption in Oracle and how to avoid them

Corruption in Oracle mostly occurs in data block on hard disk or in memory. It is easy to handle memory corruption using Oracle Kernel detection mechanism and to handle block corruption Oracle provides various methods. A data block is said to be corrupted when it is not in proper format. Block corruption can damage a single block or your whole database which can lead to loss of data. The most common reasons behind block corruption are creepy hardware, OS bug or faulty disk.

Oracle 11g: Health Monitor

How do you check whether your Oracle database is running smoothly or not? Do you check everything from scratch or have hired a DBA staff for doing it? Well both are very time consuming process. Oracle 11g has introduced Automatic Health Monitor to monitor the health of database. It checks various components like data dictionary and data files for physical and logical corruption. As the name suggests it automatically monitor the database components and store all the details in Automatic Diagnostic Repository. When an error is detected, packages are created by Packing services and send it to Oracle support.

Do you know why your Oracle database is performing poorly? Find out here

There might be hundreds of reasons for Oracle poor performance but I am discussing the top 10. Hope it helps you in improving your database performance.