10
Offline Database Verification Utility

This chapter describes how to use the off-line database verification utility, DB_VERIFY. The chapter includes the following topics:

• Functionality
• Restrictions
• Usage
  • Command-Line Syntax
  • Parameters
• Server Manager Compatibility

DB_VERIFY

DB_VERIFY is an external command-line utility that performs a physical data structure integrity check on an offline database. It can be used against backup files and online files (or pieces of files). You use DB_VERIFY primarily when you need to insure that a backup database (or datafile) is valid before it is restored or as a diagnostic aid when you have encountered data corruption problems.

Because DB_VERIFY can be run against an offline database, integrity checks are significantly faster.

Additional Information: The name and location of DB_VERIFY is dependent on your operating system (for example, dbv on Sun/Sequent systems). See your operating system-specific Oracle documentation for the location of DB_VERIFY for your system.

Restrictions

DB_VERIFY checks are limited to cache managed blocks.

Syntax

Parameters

FILE	The name of the database file to verify
START	The starting block address to verify. Block addresses are specified in Oracle blocks (as opposed to operating system blocks). If START is not specified, assumes first block in the file.
END	The ending block address to verify. If END is not specified, assumes last block in the file.
BLOCKSIZE	BLOCKSIZE is only required if the file has a non 2Kb block size. In these cases the block size must be explicitly specified or the error DBV-00103 will be returned.
LOGFILE	Specifies the file to which logging information should be written. The default is to send output to the terminal display. If errors are reported, you should contact Oracle Technical Support.
FEEDBACK	Specifying FEEDBACK causes DB_VERIFY to display a single `.' for n pages verified. If n is 0, then feedback is disabled.
HELP	Provides onscreen help.
PARFILE	Specifies the name of the parameter file to use. DB_VERIFY parameters can be stored in a flat file in different combinations and with differing values. This way, you can have parameter files for specific types of integrity checks or for different datafiles.

Server Manager

Server Manager can be used to perform the verification process as well. The verification of the entire database or a tablespace will be managed by server manager in that it will invoke the verification process on each individual file.

For more information, see Oracle Server Manager User's Guide.

Sample DB_VERIFY Output

The following example shows how to get online help:

% dbv help=y 

 

DBVERIFY: Release 7.3.1.0.0 - Wed Aug  2 09:14:36 1995 

 

Copyright (c) Oracle Corporation 1979, 1994.  All rights reserved. 

 

Keyword   Description        (Default) 

---------------------------------------------- 

FILE      File to Verify     (NONE) 

START     Start Block        (First Block of File) 

END       End Block          (Last Block of File) 

BLOCKSIZE Logical Block Size (2048)

LOGFILE   Output Log         (NONE) 

This is sample output of verification for the file, t_db1.f. The feedback parameter has been given the value 100 to display one dot onscreen for every 100 pages processed:

% dbv file=t_db1.f feedback=100 

 

DBVERIFY: Release 7.3.1.0.0 - Wed Aug  2 09:15:04 1995 

 

Copyright (c) Oracle Corporation 1979, 1994.  All rights reserved. 

 

DBVERIFY - Verification starting : FILE = t_db1.f 



.......................................................................
..................... 

 


DBVERIFY - Verification complete 

 

Total Pages Examined         : 9216 

Total Pages Processed (Data) : 2044 

Total Pages Failing   (Data) : 0 

Total Pages Processed (Index): 733 

Total Pages Failing   (Index): 0 

Total Pages Empty            : 5686 

Total Pages Marked Corrupt   : 0 

Total Pages Influx           : 0 

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