Where is my init.ora

[vivekm]

When looking in the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory, I cannot find the init<sid>.ora file. I know that I can edit the parameters via Oracle provided GUI interface but I want to know the files it changes.

Thanks,
Vivek

 

[jee]

Oracle 9i does away with the traditional init.ora file. Instead it uses a &quot;Server parameter file&quot;. You can now change many initialization parameters permanently with ALTER SYSTEM commands - so you don't have to restart the system. You can also &quot;export&quot; the parameter file back to a text file and edit it the traditional way. Then you have to convert this text file back into an SP file for use.

You can read all about this in the 9i Administrators Guide.

http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B10501_01/server.920/a96521/toc.htm

 

[karluk]

You may be looking in the wrong place. On Windows, the init.ora file is in the {Oracle_home}\database directory. Typically the init.ora file points to an ifile stored in {Oracle_home}\admin\{sid}\pfile. It's this ifile that contains the startup parameters.

Jee is right that Oracle 9i allows startup to be based on spfiles rather than pfiles. However, this is not mandatory. You should check to see if you are using one by checking the value of the initialization paramter &quot;spfile&quot;.

 

[cliousa]

If you don't have a symbolic link in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory like init$ORACLE_SID.ora -> /$ORACLE_BASE/admin/$ORACLE_SID/scripts/init.ora

then you created the db with spfile. Leek again and you will see spfile$ORACLE_SID.ora

From spfile you can create pfile:

CREATE pfile='location/init.ora' FROM spfile='location/spfile.ora';


Hope that helps,

clio_usa - OCP DBA
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