Re: Why there is no controlfile in Informix like Oracle ?

Madison Pruet wrote: > "Daniel Morgan" <damorgan@x.washington.edu> wrote in message > news:1093580806.482596@yasure... > > >>Failure to understand one's environment and back up required resources >>is the sign of a moron at the wheel. That is not a reflection on the >>product. More importantly ... anyone with even mediocre skills knows how >>to dynamically regenerate the control files. >> >>-- >>Daniel A. Morgan >>University of Washington >>damorgan@x.washington.edu >>(replace 'x' with 'u' to respond) >> > > > Daniel, > > Fundamental rule of encapsulation --- Everything that's needed for an object > is to be self-contained within that object. > > Fundamental rule for backups --- Everything that's needed to restore the > system is to be self-contained within the backup. > > Fundamental rule of operations --- If it can go wrong - it will. > > Fundamental rule of DBAs --- Most DBA's are not internalists. > > Fundamental rule of most businessess... The DBA is expendable. Why not > hire an entry clerk to monitor the system. ;-) > > > M.P. > > FWIW in SQL-Server shops this set of rules couldn't be more true. I had to write scripts to generate the equivalent of a control file to recreate the databases from scripts--but totally optional as all the information is indeed contained in the database itself. In SQL-Server you can detach a database, move the file(s) to another server and re-attach them, without any "files" other than the containers that hold the data. The system knows what the parts are, deriving the information right out of the PRIMARY.DBF. Only downside is if you have more than 16 containers Enterprise Manager will not be able to re-attach, and then you must use a script to re-attach the database.