Renaming Columns - Renaming columns is a time-honored problem when it comes to Oracle... Once a table is created, there is no way to change the name of a column,  other than to drop the table and re-create it with the changed column name. That is, there is no official way to do it.... An unofficial way is to manipulate one of the underlying fixed tables.

Un-documented SQL*Net Parameters - This section shows in summary some un-documented or misunderstood configuration parameters and tools for Net V2 and Net8.

Useful Alter Commands - This document was created to help users become familiar with new Oracle8 & Oracle8i functionality. It by no means is comprehensive but it does point out matters of interest that might be of assistance to the DBA community in general.

Which, When and Whys: Rebuilding Indexes - Periodically, indexes become skewed due to deletions and, therefore, become good candidates for rebuild.

Archiver Halted - There are times when the database ARCH process (ARCHIVER) will become hung. This problem is typically due to a disk out of space or a hardware problem. The method described will permit recovery of the database archiver without downtime.

Corrupted Rollback Segments - There are two undocumented parameters in Oracle to help in the resolution of problems related to corrupted rollback segments.

Fast Full Scan - The Fast Full scan permits the database to perform full-index scan more efficiently by resolving queries in which all of the columns in the SELECT and WHERE clause are included in the specified index.

Invoker/Definer Rights - The purpose of the document is to explain object resolution and procedure privileges that are executed. These are called using either invoker's or definer's rights.

Pipelined/Parallel PL/SQL Table Functions - New pipelined and parallel PL/SQL table functions available in Oracle9i. Contributed by Claudiu Ariton.

PL/SQL Wrapper - The PL/SQL Wrapper utility can be used to encrypt PL/SQL source code, while still providing a platform independent solution, it protects hard-earned development techniques.

Recover Control File - In extreme cases, it is necessary for the DBA to re-build the control file for the database. The havoc that this can cause can be devistating. And ultimately, the DBA would be required to re-build or recover the database from a previous good backup. Now, there is another option....

Remote Database Links/Synonyms - The first thing to note is that Oracle's Export and Import utilities are not designed to work with SQL*Net. As a result, database links and synonyms that reference remote databases are not exported.

Resizing Redo Logs - It has never been possible to resize the redo logs within the controlfile. If a CREATE CONTROLFILE is attempted with a RESETLOGS, an I/O error will be triggered. This is due to the fact that the redo log header doesn't match the newly created controlfile. Currently, there is no direct way to change the size of the members of a redo log group. This technique identifies how to change database redo logs without incurring downtime.

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