Access oracle database from control file

oracleoracle-xerecovery

When I asked a client for a copy of his database he sent me a .ctl file, it seems it is a control file of an Oracle database.
I have no experience in Oracle, I'm a SQL Server guy.
I have installed an Oracle XE 18 instance in a test server. What do I have to do to connect to this database an access the tables? Is it possible to do so only having this .ctl file or do I need more files?

Best Answer

A control file is a metadata file and lists some system configuration settings and all the datafiles and their paths. A typical file is quite small and does not contain any user data.

You need a datapump export or, even better, as suggested by Philᵀᴹ, an RMAN backup. The RMAN backup is preferable as you will not have to create users and tablespaces first which you would with an export.

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Use sqlldr control file to automatically create several tables in Oracle

The Utilities manual that describes SQL*Loader syntax (which no sane person can recall anyway!) has a number of case studies (doc link here). Case study 5 covers loading into multiple tables. The actual case studies are installed into $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/demo if you choose to install the companion CD. I seem to recall that in earlier versions they were also described in full in the Utilities manual.

Import a Oracle DMP file into a Fresh install of oracle

You'll need to create a user (or Schema) first

C:\>sqlplus system/password

SQL> create user CLIENT_TEST identified by client_test_password;
SQL> grant connect, unlimited tablespace, resource to CLIENT_TEST;
SQL> exit

Then you can use the fromuser= and touser= IMP switches to import the data into the new user/schema:

C:\>imp system/password FROMUSER=ABCDE TOUSER=client_test file=c:\database.dmp full=yes

Hope that helps!

Best Answer

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Use sqlldr control file to automatically create several tables in Oracle

Import a Oracle DMP file into a Fresh install of oracle

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