RMAN TIP: Avoiding ORA-27211

I'm using RMAN to backup only to disk. Usualy when I have to delete obsolete backup I run command:

delete obsolete device type disk;

It is anoying to type device type disk every time, but

delete obsolete;

causes:

RMAN-03002: failure of delete command at 09/12/2005 08:44:27
ORA-19554: error allocating device, device type: SBT_TAPE, device name:
ORA-27211: Failed to load Media Management Library

The reason is that some time ago I was testing backups to tape. There is simple solution:

Configure CHANNEL device type 'SBT_TAPE' clear;

It will remove information about tape device configuration, so all commands will use default device: disk.

Cheers, Paweł

CPUApr2007 and Interim patch 3 for 10.2.0.3 on Windows

On Monday I've downloaded Interim patch 3 (5916257) for 10.2.0.3 on Windows released on 13th April. Today I've downloaded CPUApr2007 (5948242) alias Interim patch 4. I've compared content of these patch and majority of files are identical. Most changes are in patch description files. The only important file that has some changes is oracle.exe while all other *.dll files are identical. Also scripts to apply do database catcpu.sql differs only by 2 lines.
Interim patch 3:

DEFINE CPU_NUMBER  = 5916257
DEFINE CPU_DESC    = 'Patch3'

CPUApr2007:

DEFINE CPU_NUMBER  = 5948242
DEFINE CPU_DESC    = 'CPUApr2007'

I wonder why Oracle published 2 patches just in 4 days? On Windows all interim patches contain also previous interim patch. For me the only explanation is that they didn't what to include other bug description into CPU. What do you think?

Cheers, Paweł

Oracle: Cursors, Bind Variables and Performance

I've found today very good document on Efficient use of bind variables, cursor_sharing and related cursor parameters dated 2002. Document is related to Oracle 9i, but also applies to Oracle 10g.

Paweł