Sunday, October 21, 2012

ODA /Linux What to do if your screw up /etc/passwd file.

While this is more of a Linux Post . I'm adding this to the ODA Category Since this happened to me on a Database Appliance.
Since in my organization the Database team own complete control of the Database Appliance. We have to learn Unix/Linux administration. Oracle Database Appliance while a pretty hands off experience still need some work if you need to manage and maintain password synchronization etc.
In that category I wrote a script that ssh'ed in the box moved the /etc/passwd and then scp'ed a new set of files.
As you can see the statement above is the problem itself. if you move the /etc/passwd you cannot authenticate which means you have in essence created a box that no one can login to via any means.
This is really bad situation since you now have a node with no access since no one can authenticate.
Fortunately for me i had a very good Sysadmin who rescued me from this pickle.
He download OEL ( Oracle Enterprise Linux) and was able to rescue the system.

I'm putting below the steps we took
----- Procedure to rescue  start ---


Log into ILOM.
Select Remote  Control - Redirection Tab.
Click on Launch Remote Console
 Once connected the remote console:
Select Devices Menu Item and start redirection to a CDROM or CDROM image.
Select Keyboard Menu Item and cleck Control Alt Delete … to reboot the system.
Go back to the ILOM console.
Select Remote  Control – Host Control Tab.
Change Next Boot Device to CDROM..
Click save.
 Go back to the Remote console and watch for the system to boot.
Do NOT hit any keys once its boots off of the CDROM or you may start the interactive install.
At the booted CDROM prompt type.
linux rescue
The will step through the rescue boot mode.
Select the appropriate regional responses when prompted.
Select ok to find and mount root filesystems as read/write.
These will be mounted under /mnt.
Once you get a shell prompt run df –h to confirm.
From here you will be able restore/replace corrupt or missing files.
--- Procedure to rescue  Stop---- 

The Moral of the story is Be very careful with what you are trying to do .  The intention might be right but the wrong execution can cause you a lot of grief.

Post Oracle #Openworld 2012 view & Bloggers meetup 2012 #OOW

I've been trying to get  a blogpost in for a while now but have not had enough time to actually get that in.
This is my Summary of Oracle Openworld 2012 or #oow to some. Oracle Openworld is tremendous event . There is just a lot of activities , be it Knowledge Sharing , Peer to Peer interaction or just socializing in general.
I've been very Fortunate this year to present at 2 conferences IOUG Collaborate  as well as Oracle Openworld 2012.
The presentations are embedded within this post at the end. I would like to thx IOUG for providing the outlet to people for peer to perr interaction and providing such a wonderful outlet for growth and opportunity.
There were a lot of announcements and Being a DB person my focus was the DB. Oracle Database 12c is going to be awesome  . Some of the features like GDS and Farsync are going to make Disaster Recovery and Datacenter recovery very easy on the Database Tier. Flex ASM also has a lot of potiential. Oracle Enterprise manager 12c has grown to be a very good product and i urge everyone to look at all the fantastic content around em at Oracle Open world 2012 .
I cant even describe the amount of Good Content out there and  i would recommend everyone download the content Slides which are available to everyone Here.
The Blogger Meetup was the highlight of Oracle openworld for me and i have posted a lot of Pics which Kellyn has graciously tagged all the People . The Folks at Pythian and Enkitec do an Awesome job with promoting talent and events like the Blogger meetup show that very clearly. To New Friends and all the meeting all the ones we know again.  I've Posted the Pic on Facebook here & G+ here
I'd Also like to Thank the Oracle Database Appliance Team for all their Hospitality and as someone who is really enjoying the Oracle Database Appliance experience. There is a lot of Hard Work put by a lot of Talented Indivduals . Thank you Sohan DeMel and all his team for all the work around the ODA. Thx Ravi Sharma for taking the Pics Below.






Below are The 2 presentations that i was part of this Oracle openworld 2012.








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