Um eine bestehende Oracle Datenbank zu dokumentieren oder sich rasch einen Überblick über die vorhandene Filestruktur der Datenbank zu verschaffen, ist das Kommando ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE TO TRACE sehr hilfreich. In einem Recoveryfall mit Verlust der Controlfiles, können auf diese Weise die Controlfiles wieder erstellt werden. Dies muss natürlich als User mit DBA Rechten durchgeführt werden. Das Tracefile wird im Directory, das im INIT.ORA Parameter "user_dump_dest" definiert ist gespeichert.

SQL> ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE TO TRACE;

Generiertes Statement:

Dump file /oracle/v804/oradata/adm/bdmp/sol1_ora_7256.trc
Oracle8 Enterprise Edition Release 8.0.4.0.0 - Production
With the Partitioning and Objects options
PL/SQL Release 8.0.4.0.0 - Production
ORACLE_HOME = /oracle/v804
System name:    SunOS
Node name:      quorum
Release:        5.6
Version:        Generic
Machine:        sun4u
Instance name: SOL1
Redo thread mounted by this instance: 1
Oracle process number: 22
Unix process pid: 7256, image: oracleSOL1
Fri Jun  5 09:24:26 1998
Fri Jun  5 09:24:26 1998
*** SESSION ID:(17.320) 1998.06.05.09.24.26.000
# The following commands will create a new control file and use it
# to open the database.
# Data used by the recovery manager will be lost. Additional logs may
# be required for media recovery of offline data files. Use this
# only if the current version of all online logs are available.
STARTUP NOMOUNT
CREATE CONTROLFILE REUSE DATABASE "SOL1" NORESETLOGS NOARCHIVELOG
    MAXLOGFILES 62
    MAXLOGMEMBERS 5
    MAXDATAFILES 256
    MAXINSTANCES 4
    MAXLOGHISTORY 1696
LOGFILE
  GROUP 1 (
    '/oracle/v804/oradata/rdo/SOL1_log1A.rdo',
    '/oracle/v804/oradata/rdo/SOL1_log1B.rdo'
  ) SIZE 5M,
  GROUP 2 (
    '/oracle/v804/oradata/rdo/SOL1_log2A.rdo',
    '/oracle/v804/oradata/rdo/SOL1_log2B.rdo'
  ) SIZE 5M
DATAFILE
  '/oracle/v804/oradata/sys/SOL1_sys1.dbf',
  '/oracle/v804/oradata/rbs/SOL1_rbs1.dbf',
  '/oracle/v804/oradata/tmp/SOL1_temp1.dbf',
  '/oracle/v804/oradata/usr/SOL1_users1.dbf',
  '/oracle/v804/oradata/tab/SOL1_tab1.dbf',
  '/oracle/v804/oradata/cdr/SOL1_cdr1.dbf',
  '/oracle/v804/oradata/cre/SOL1_cre1.dbf',
  '/oracle/v804/oradata/idx/SOL1_idx1.dbf'
;
# Recovery is required if any of the datafiles are restored backups,
# or if the last shutdown was not normal or immediate.
RECOVER DATABASE
# Database can now be opened normally.
ALTER DATABASE OPEN;