Interview Questions:(IBM)

1)Introduce urself with education background and company/work profile?

A- EEEhhhhh ma name is BORAT... Nice to meet you

2)Daily activites,how many database,standby?

3)Which ticketing tool is using in your company?

A- OTRS

4)Oracle architecture?(Total)
A- oracle rdbms consists of an instance and a database.
.The instance consists of Background processes and memory.
.The database consists of physical and logical files.
.The mandatory background procosses are pmon, smon, dbwn, lgwr, ckpt.
.The memory consists of SGA and PGA.
.The physical files include the o.s level files like
datafiles(system,sysaux,temp,undo,users,
other datafiles,redologs,Archivelogs,controlfile,spfile/pfile)

.The logical files include tablespaces.

5)Explain role of SMON?

A- 1.Upon restarting an instance that crashed, SMON determines whether the
database is consistent
2.SMON coalesces free extents if you use locally managed tablespaces,which
enables you to
assign larger contiguous free areas on disk to your database objects.
3.SMON cleans up unnecessary temporary segments.

6)How you get the ticket?

A- i book tickets(movie,bus,train) online.. internet banking(makes life easy)

7)Which error you find in alert log file?

A- The alert log captures major changes and events that occur during the running of
the
Oracle instance, including log switches, any Oracle-related errors,
warnings, and other messages.
.In addition, the alert log contains messages regarding internal errors and
corruption errors.
.to investigate background process errors
For example, when the log writer process is unable to write to a log group,
or indicating that the archiver process is stuck due to lack of disk space.

8)What is the use of index,why to rebuid,pre-req for index?

A- Oracle indexes provide speedy access to table rows by storing sorted values
of specified columns, and using those sorted values to easily look up the
associated table rows,

why to rebuid indexes::

::Index data constantly changes due to the underlying tables DML activity.
Indexes often become too
large if there are many deletions, because the space used by the deleted
values is not reused automatically
by the index. You can use the REBUILD command on a periodic basis to
reorganize indexes
to make them more compact and thus more efficient.
 Prerequisites to create index::
To create an index in your own schema, at least one of the following
conditions must be true:
..The table or cluster to be indexed is in your own schema.
..You have INDEX privilege on the table to be indexed.
..You have CREATE ANY INDEX system privilege.
To create an index in another schema, all of the following conditions must
be true:

..You have CREATE ANY INDEX system privilege.

..The owner of the other schema has a quota for the tablespaces to contain
the index or index partitions,
or UNLIMITED TABLESPACE system privilege

9)If ur moving one table from one tbs to another what is pre-req,then whats the
status of index?
A- The status becomes Invalid. rebuild the index

10)How to find no of user connected to ur database?

11)Installation and its pre-req,kernel parameter,scripts(orainstROOT.sh,root.sh)?

12)Upgradation 10.2.0.2.0 to 11.2.0.2.0 and pre-req,any other method to upgrade?

13)Manual database creation and pre-req?

14)How you migrate schema?

15)Shell scripting?
A- I am an expert in shell scripting, but according my company policy i cannot
disclose any details about shell scripting.

16)How to import without taking export,network link?

A- When you use network_link parameter during import,
we are directly connected to the target database using database link(network
link)
` hence no need to take any export. and anyways we cannot specify dumpfile
parameter if
are using network_link parameter during import.

17)How to clone from server A to server B?

18)How will you check standby is in sync or not,if not what will you do?
19)What is ASM,its use?
A- Automatic Storage Management (ASM) is an integrated, high-performance database
file system and disk manager.
.ASM is based on the principle that the database should manage storage
instead of requiring an administrator to do it.
.ASM eliminates the need for you to directly manage potentially thousands of
Oracle database files.
USE::
.ASM groups the disks in your storage system into one or more disk groups.You
manage a small set of disk groups and
ASM automates the placement of the database files within those disk groups.
benefits::
.StripingASM spreads data evenly across all disks in a disk group.
.MirroringASM can increase availability by optionally mirroring any file.
 Key Value Propositions::
MANAGEABILITY- Simple provisioning, Storage Array migration, Self-tuning
PERFORMANCE- Distribute load across all available storage, No ASM code in
data path
AVAILABILITY- Automatic mirror rebuild, Automatic bad block
correction,Rolling upgrades,online patches, RAC and clusterware support.
COST SAVINGS- Shared storage pool, No license fees,No support fees.

20)Basic Unix command?

A- cp,mv,grep,find,ls,unzip,tar,mkdir,cd,www.google.com(best command ever)
21)Software cloning?

22)What is role?
A- A role is a set of privileges that you can grant and revoke with a single GRANT
or REVOKE command.
A role can contain both a set of privileges and other roles as well. Roles
make it easy for
you to assign multiple privileges to a user.

23)How to apply to Opatch?

A- To apply Opatch, db, listener and all services runing from O_H both must be down
as opatch will
update your current ORACLE_HOME with patches.
.check database status(select
name,open_mode,database_name,created,log_mode,platform_name
from v$database;)
.take a backup of invalid objects if der are any(select owner,count(*) from
dba_objects
where status='INVALID' group by owner;)
.Check Opatch version (opatch -v)
.Check whether or not opatch utility is pointing to you current
ORACLE_HOME(cat /etc/oraInst.loc)
if your server has more than 1 ORACLE HOMES then comment all other ORACLE
HOMES
.check free space on $ORACLE_HOME(df -h $ORACLE_HOME)
.unzip the patch
.Go the patch directory
.now apply the patch (opatch napply -skip_subset -skip_duplicate)
.to apply opatch in RAC instance(opatch napply -skip_subset -skip_duplicate
-local -oh)
when using -local parameter and -oh $ORACLE_HOME this means this patch
session will only apply
patch to current ORACLE_HOME only.
WHAT happens in background during patching::
1.Opatch takes backup of those files from O_H which it is going to update
2.It takes this backup in O_H/.patch_storage directory
3. It then copies files from /etc and /files to O_H
4.After that it takes backup of Inventory in /files
5.Relinks all O_H binaries and update invenrtory with patch ID
6.Finally it displays- patch applied

24)How will check disk space?

Ans : by using df -h command at OS prompt.

25)What is grep?
Ans : The grep program searches a file or files for lines that have a certain
pattern. The syntax is:
$ grep "pattern" file(s)
The name "grep" derives from the ed (a Unix line editor) command g/re/p,
which means "globally search for a regular
expression and print all lines containing it."

26)What is explain plan?

27)Types of backup?
Ans : physical backup - , logical backup

28)Difference between cold and hot backup?

Ans : When we take cold backup, db must be down gracefully, while taking backup in
hot mode there is no need to shut down
db. We can take hot backup in open state also.

29)How to take hot backup,which files you take in hot backup?

Ans : To take hot backup, we must fire :
alter database begin backup;
After taking db in begin backup mode, i copy all datafiles and controlfile to
backup location. when copy is done we
must fire
alter database end backup;
by doing this, db is out of begin backup mode. At last we must switch
logfile, by doing this it indicates that hot
backup is done. this information is stored in control file.

30)What happen to the db when we put db is in begin backup mode?

Ans : when we put db in begin backup mode, the header portion of datafile is
freezed and DBWn process starts writing dirty
blocks into datafiles as well as log buffer. Because of this excessive redo
generation happens.

31)How to check tablespace usage?

Ans : we can check this from dba_tablespace_usage_metrics

32)Database shutdown command?

Ans : this command brought down the database instance. it have three type of modes
to shut down the database instance.
shutdown normal, shutdown transactional, shutdown abort

33)What is normal shutdown?

Ans : when sys fires shutdown normal command, it will wait till other users logged
out of their session. No new user will
connect to the database instance. All transaction will commit.

34)Difference between 10g and 11g?

35)11g features?
Ans : Automatic Storage Management (ASM)
Automatic Memory Management
Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM)
Automatic Workload Repository (AWR)
Scheduler AutoTask automated maintenance tasks
Parameter file management changes and new features
Resource Manager
Finer-grained dependencies
DDL WAIT
Add column with defaults

36)How to create recovery catalog?

Ans : creating recovery catalog means you have to create a new database (probably
on other machine). Just do DBCA or
you can create manual database.

37)How will you configure RMAN backup with recovery catalog?

Ans : there are two machines with A and B.... we have database on A... so we create
one database on B and create a new
blank tablespace. Now create a new user and assign that tablespace with
unlimited quota to the user. Now assign
REMOTE_CATALOG_OWNER role. The listener of machine B must be on and the
database must be registered with the
Listener.
Later, go to machine A and create one tns entry that will connect machine A
to B. Now, connect to rman using
rman target=/ catalog=rmanuser/rmanuser@tns. create catalog from machine A,
will create catalog tables in the
user schema on machine B's database. Now register the database using register
database command...

38)Difference between user managed and RMAN?

Ans : we can take incremental backup using RMAN, not with user managed
backup.
automatically take backup of controlfile and spfile, user managed backup
doesnt take.
by allocating channels we can increase the speed of backup from RMAN, it is
copy tool of OS depends upon IO.
we can do block level recovery using RMAN, user managed backup only recover
datafiles and controlfiles.

39)If tablespace is getting full what will you do,resize or add a datafile and why?

40)What is the pre-req for export,import?

Ans : first we need to have physical directory on OS. second sys will create
logical directory inside the physical directory. next,
if needed sys will grant read and write privilege on the logical directory to
other users.

41)If you want to take export of 3 schemas out of which 5 tables need to be
exported .What would be the command of export?
Ans : expdp sys/sys directory=dir dumpfile =dmp logfile=log schemas=sc1,sc2,sc3
include=tables:"schema.tbnm1,shema.tbnm2,
schema.tbnm3,schema.tbnm4,schema.tbnm5"

42)Contains of export log file in detail?(expdat.log)

Ans : specifies the file where to receive informational and error messages.

43)What is difference between exp and expdp?

Ans : exp is client base utility while expdp is server based.

44)How will you check db is in archivelog mode?

Ans : by checking log_mode from v$database view.

45)Output of archive log list command?

Ans : The archive log list command output is as follows :
Database log mode Archive Mode
Automatic archival Enabled
Archive destination USE_DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST
Oldest online log sequence 34
Next log sequence to archive 36
Current log sequence 36
46)How to check the no of transaction running on ur database?
Ans : Database Level :
to check how many transaction in database, we can fire following
command...
--> select count(*) from v$transaction v, v$session s where
v.ses_addr = s.saddr;
Session Level :
to check how many transaction in users own session, we can fire
following command...
--> select count(*) from v$transaction v, v$session s, v$mystat
m
where v.ses_addr = s.saddr
and s.sid=m.sid
and rownum=1;

47)How to create tablespace?(cmd)

Ans : Create [smallfile/bigfile] tablespace tbsname
datafile 'path of datafile'
size ___ [autoextent ON/OFF] [next___][maxsize___]
[extent management local/dictionary]
[segment space management Auto/Manual]
[Parmanent/Temporary]
[logging/nologging]
[blocksize ____]
[online/offline];

48)How to create temporary tablespace?(cmd)

Ans : Create temporary tablespace tbsname
tempfile 'path of tempfile';

49)How to create user,unlock,lock?

Ans : Creating user : create user username account unlock;
unlock user :

50)Difference between pfile and spfile?

Ans : its in notebook

51)What in controlfile and its contain,what is the need of multiplexing of

controlfile?
Ans : its in notebook

52)What is db/network link and pre-req and tns-entry?

Ans : a link between two servers to get connected to the database for copying
tables data.
to create a dblink user must have CREATE DATABASE LINK system privilege.
tns-entry file can be located on server as well as on client side. if we
configure tnsnames.ora on client side, so
you can connect your client workstation to the database through the listener
running on the server.

53)How many redolog group and member mandatory for database?

Ans : for each group, there must be a single redolog member per group, but for
security purpose each group could have two
redolog members.

54)What happen when redolog group get full?

Ans : database goes into hang state... then only sys user can logged in and add
members in that groupor resize the size of
 member. No other users can logged in the database instance.

55)What is undo segment,undo retention?

Ans : Undo Segment : the undo segment is the space where undo data is stored which
is located in the undo tablespace.
Undo Retention : it is a period that any new transaction will not wrap the
undo extents of the other transaction, who
had already access that undo extent.

56)How to rename tablespace/datafile?

Ans: We can rename tablespace by using following command :
alter tablespace oldtbsname rename to newtbsname;
We can also rename datafile by :
alter tablespace tbsname
rename datafile
'old path of datafile'
to
'new path of datafile';

57)What is undo tablespace?

Ans : it is a tablespace, which is useful for read consistancy, possibility
of doing transaction rollback and having
recoverability of transaction. Using undo tablespace we can also do
flashback. Undo tablespace is required in each
database.

58)What is block corruption and how to recover it,How to find out block corruption?
Ans : Data block corruption can damage internal Oracle control information or
application and user data, leading to crippling loss of critical data and services.
Block corruptions may affect only a single block or a large portion of the
database.
We can find out block corruption from some solutions such as..
Oracle Data Guard, Data Recovery Advisory, Oracle Flashback, Oracle Recovery
Manager, Automatic Diagnostic Recovery,
Oracle Secure Backup, The MAA Advisor component of Oracle Enterprise Manager
Grid Control, Exadata storage....
to prevention and detection block corruption is to use Oracle Data Guard
with physical standby databases and
configure the DB_BLOCK_CHECKING,DB_ULTRA_SAFE, DB_BLOCK_CHECKSUM and
DB_LOST_WRITE_PROTECT parameters on Data Guard
primary and standby databases. ALSO REFER RMAN-Recovering-Block-Corruption
FROM M:\ORACLE\Oracle_Study_Docs\Word Docs

59)How you come to know that user account is lock and what action you take?
Ans : i will get the information of locked users from dba_users where
account_status displays current status of users
account. on the users request i will unlock that account via :
alter user username identified by password account unlock;

60)How/why to analyse table?

Ans : to analyse tables we must have recently collected statistics of the tables.
we can get it by using a package :
DBMS_STATUS.gather_table_stats;
now we can analyse table via....
analyze table tbname validate structure;
we can also validate dependent object likes indexes using cascade options...
analyze table tbname validate structure cascade;
by default cascade option will don complete validation. we can increase the
speed by....
 analyze table tbname validate structure cascade fast;
we can also analyse table while some DML operation are performing on the
table....
analyze table tbname validate structure cascade online;

61)What will you do if your mount point usage goes beyond threshold value?

62)How will you recover datafile which found missing in database?

Ans : it depend upon the file that is critical or non-critical, we check that
datafile is in backup what we took earlier.
then we restore the datafile and recover it.

Thanks and Regards

Ali Khan
Best luck. . .

1. Tell me the biggest challenge you have faced in your dba life??
2. When we open database in restricted mode?? User can connect the db or not ?
3. Why we start database in upgrade mode (Startup upgrade) during upgradation??
4. Can we apply db backup in Linux environment which has been taken on windows??
5. Can we create dictionary managed tablespace in oracle 12c?
6. Why we take logical backup database? Give me three scenario when we take logical
backup???
7. Can we take physical backup by using export /import?
8. What are the activities we do before applying patch?
9. When we apply patch if patch is failed again & again then how will resolve?
10. What type of privilege we give to particular user on the particular table?
11. From where we get db link information?
12. How to create db link in database?
13. If user complaining that he is not able to connect particular db how you will
resolve?
14. If there is 200gb database and for the past 1 hour only 120gb used for
transaction..if we take backup for last 1 hour what will be the size of backup?
15. How to take rman backup if database in no archivelog mode ??
16. What is Load balancing & failover in Oracle?
17. What is difference between crosscheck and validate command in rman?
18. If there is multiplexed control file and one of them is get deleted then what
will happen to running database?
19. How to resolve node eviction in Oracle RAC. During the node eviction what will
happen on the particular nodewhat services will down??
20. What type of alert or error you get in RAC environment ???