solaris UX: useradd: ERROR: Inconsistent password files. See pwconv(1M).

When trying to add oracle user on unix or linux there might be the case that you get the following error:
solaris UX: useradd: ERROR: Inconsistent password files. See pwconv(1M).

Here are steps to fix this problem, and what causes this error.
The reason behind this error is that the /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow files are out of synchronization on your machine.
To fix this, run the following command

• pwconv to check if there is any error, if there is/are fix that/those error(s).
• wc -l /etc/passwd /etc/shadow to check if both password and shadow file are synchronized, the out put will be
  
  x /etc/passwd
  
  y /etc/shadow
  
  x+y total
  
  where x, y is the number of lines in passwd and shadow file, and the total line would be the sum of lines in passwd and shadow file.

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ORACLE RAC 10g

Oracle Real Application Cluster
The video talk about Oracle RAC architecture there are 2 parts of it.

Video I



Video II

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Oracle RMAN Demonstration

Oracle RMAN Setup Tutorial

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"Oracle RAC - Why VIPs" by Alex Gorbachev

This videocast explains Vitrual IP (VIP) usage in Oracle Clusterware 10g and 11g - why they are needed and how they are used. A must know for any Oracle RAC DBA.

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Oracle Security Alerts: Oracle Critical Patch Update July 2009

The Critical Patch Update for July 2009 was released on July 14, 2009. Oracle strongly recommends applying the patches as soon as possible.

The Critical Patch Update Advisory is the starting point for relevant information. It includes the list of products affected, pointers to obtain the patches, a summary of the security vulnerabilities for each product suite, and links to other important documents. Supported products that are not listed in the "Supported Products and Components Affected" section of the advisory do not require new patches to be applied.

Also, it is essential to review the Critical Patch Update supporting documentation referenced in the Advisory before applying patches, as this is where you can find important pertinent information.

The Critical Patch Update Advisory is available at any of the following locations:

Oracle Technology Network: http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/security/alerts.htm

Oracle, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards products: https://metalink3.oracle.com/od/faces/secure/km/BrowseResults.jspx?fid=15948.1

Oracle BEA products: http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/security/alerts.htm

The next four Critical Patch Update release dates are:

October 13, 2009
January 12, 2010
April 13, 2010
July 13, 2010

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What are Data Recovery Services?

You may notice a lot of online data businesses are now
offering several different services to customers who
like to play it safe and prepare for the worst.

Some of the services they offer include online and
offline secured data storage and data recovery
services.

The purpose is to protect what we spend several hours
typing up and it is like they are saying "We’ve got
your back" so you don’t need to worry about losing a
document or project that may be very important.

With online and offline secured data storage you get a
backup program that will back up your desktop, laptop,
and server to store all the information. You can
access it anytime of the day or night.

This will prevent you from going through the process
of storing all your important information on disks or
tapes in order to back up your work. You set a
schedule that will allow your computer data to be
transmitted to a secured data center where it will be
stored until you need it.

When you are ready to access your data you simply
visit the site and log in to download your information
at a fast pace and at anytime. It doesn’t matter what
size business you run they assist you with your data
needs.

The backup service is worked the same way. If you lose
an important document you can access your account and
upload the information back to your system and
continue where you left off. It is a safe bet for
those who use their computers for business of any
size.

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Ways to prevent Data loss

When your computer becomes the most used piece of
equipment you have, you spend countless hours sitting
down typing important information down so you don’t
lose anything.

It may also be the way you earn your living so the
last thing you need is some serious time off because
your computer has failed.

There are several ways that you can prevent the loss
of data and it doesn’t cost a fortune.

The most common way to protect the data in your
computer is to use an online data service. This type
of service can provide you with data coverage twenty
four hours a day seven days a week.

You can have your data stored for a certain amount
every month to ensure the safety of your data. Losing
data will no longer be a problem for you because they
can recover any data you lose.

These services are available to service desk tops,
laptops, ipods, digital camera memory, SIM cards,
Zune, and other important digital storing data
equipment.

In order to get started with these services you can do
an online search to determine which company may be the
best one for your data.

You can also choose to use a data loss program that
can help to recover any important data that may be
lost or deleted on purpose or accidentally.

This type of software can be purchased online or at a
computer retail store. Restoring your data is easier
than ever today with new technology. Save your
important documents today to avoid any down time in
the future.

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Data Recovery Techniques due to Physical Damage

You may have lost some data recently and you need to
be able to recover it. This is easier than ever to do
and the cost is minimal.

You can always have your data stored professionally to
avoid losing your data and without being invaded and
interrupted.

These programs are available online and can
periodically save your data while you relax and keep
working.

Data recovery techniques are complicated if you do not
know much about computer systems and how they work.
There are three highlighted recovery techniques that
you may choose to use if you lose your data.

1) Replace the parts in the hard drive. When you
replace the parts it does not always work but it is
usually the best place to start.

Your hard drive may be malfunctioning for some odd
reason and it may need to have a part replaced on it.
Although this technique may make your disk readable
you may still be left with damage that is irreversible
to your hard drive.

2) Repair the hardware that is in your system. There
are several different pieces of hardware that can be
replaced in order to make your hardware work again.
You may be able to spot the problem immediately and
get it fixed in no time.

3) Use the deleted image to reconstruct another image.
This may not always allow you to have complete
restoration of the lost data but it may be enough for
you to recover the data that you lost.

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What Physical Damage can do to your Data?

Physical damage is not like picking up your computer
and slamming it down on the floor or carrying it up a
flight of stairs only to drop it at the top.

Physical damage can occur in several ways.

You use your computer’s hard drive everyday not
realizing that every time you use it you are putting
your computer at risk of a malfunction that can lose
your data and be hard to recover it all completely.

Physical damage done to a CD-ROM is usually visible by
scratches or marks that can be seen. When you insert
these scratched up or marked disks into the hard drive
they can cause mechanical failure to your system.

You may or may not be able to reverse the damage once
it is done and your computer will never operate the
same. Dust can become trapped in the hard disk drive
causing problems in your computer that may be
irreversible.

This type of damage can be prevented if you take the
time to clean the area frequently and protect it with
protective covers.

In order to fix any of the problems done to your hard
drive you may need to take it to a professional in
order to get if fixed. Professionals discourage users
from fixing their own hard drives when physical damage
has been done.

Complications may occur and may make the problem hard
to fix with minimal expense. If you want to fix your
own physical damage, consult a professional to make
sure that you are using the right tools to keep damage
and cost to a minimum.

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The importance of Data Recovery

With technology today records and other important
documents are now kept on computers instead of the
traditional pen and paper style of bookkeeping.

People put a lot of faith into computers and trust
that they will always provide the documentation that
they store forever. Most of the time people do not see
the need for a back up system to recover any data that
may get lost or they may think that it is important
but they put off using the backup and eventually
forget about it.

Today, social security information, military records,
birth records, death records and prison sign in and
discharge records can be viewed from the comfort of
your home computer.

This information that we all have access to is
priceless. It takes less time for someone to type out
these documents than it does to mail in a request,
have someone write it up make a copy and then send it
by mail to the person that requested the information.

This is okay as long as there is a backup plan to
saving or recovering data. If there was a fire in a
courthouse or file room that housed all the important
information then we would only have our computers to
gather the information and would have to question the
accuracy of that document.

Data recovery is very important and in some cases
vital in order to maintain records that may otherwise
get lost in the shuffle. Protecting our important
documents is the number one goal to a great data
recovery.

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Data Recovery Tools

When you lose your data for what ever reason you want
to be able to recover it with minimal complication and
time.

In order to do that you may need to purchase a data
recovery tool kit that is designed to help you recover
your data on your own without any help on or off line.

Data can be lost quickly and may have been important
to you for personal reasons or for work.

Sometimes accidents happen and you or someone else
deletes an important project that you are working on.
You need to be able to recover it without losing time.

Software is the most common tool used to recover data
that has been erased or lost. This software can find
accidentally deleted data and restore it easily from
the trash bin or other storage areas of the computer.

With software tools you can undelete accidents or
recover data from damaged hard drives, SIM cards,
memory cards, ipod’s, pen drives, removable media,
zune, and more.

What ever you use you can always recover most anything
that is lost. Other tools to use include actual tool
kits that are suited to work on computers, laptops or
other information sources that store important data
and documents.

These tools are normally used by professionals that
need important data due to forensic evidence or for
other reasons.

The main point to remember is if you lose your data
you can usually recover it quickly and easily. If you
have data that you thought would be hopeless to
recover, give it a try and see.

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Data Recovery Offline Solutions

Losing your data is an unexpected time consuming
problem that may stop you from working depending on
why your system crashed to begin with; mechanical or
physical.

Either way you are stuck until you fix your system or
purchase a new one.

If you purchase a new one you still need to access
your data from your damaged computer system in order
to transfer files, documents and other important
information that you need.

How do you do that when your system is down? You can
use an offline recovery solution to prevent data loss.

Offline recovery solutions allow you to pick up and
recover data that has been lost somehow on your
system. It takes minimal effort and you will be up and
running in no time.

What you need is a software program that you can use
to recover your data. There are several different
software programs to choose from depending on your
needs and your computers capabilities.

You may need to do a little research to find the
program that is right for you. You may also choose to
go with an online program that handles your data while
you are offline.

You can also try to recover the data that is lost by
what most computer companies call tricks.

These tricks are not advisable and should be left to
the professionals in order to retrieve your lost data
and prevent further damage to your system.

Offline data solutions are a great way to recover your
lost data safely and effectively without costing you
an unbelievable price.

You can schedule your data to be saved on a regular
program updated daily, weekly or monthly to save all
data and prevent files from getting lost.

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How you can lose Important Data

When you lose your data you may lose very important
information; birthdays, appointments, contact
addresses, homework assignments, work documents and
other important information that you stored on your
computer not realizing that you could lose it.

Maybe it was a page you had pulled up and working on
when someone came in to talk. During the conversation
a button may have been pushed and all of your hard
work that day was deleted. Any other time you would
worry but this problem can be fixed easily.

When you lose your data sometimes you can fully
recover it simply by going into the recycle bin and
restoring it while other times it may be deleted from
the recycling bin as well.

You need to restore the document soon in order to
finish your work. There are other ways that you can
lose your data; Hardware problems, system problems,
computer virus, disaster such as a fire or other act
of nature that may cause damage to your computer.

With the technology that is available today you can
sometimes recover data from your hard drive even after
a fire, depending on the damage that was done.

There is hardly anything that prevents recovery of
data now. Just because your data seems lost or deleted
don’t underestimate what data recovery sources can do
to bring your data back and restore it to its original
form. Using software or an online service can prevent
loss of data at any time.

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Online Data Recovery Solutions

Losing your data usually occurs when you don’t have
the extra time to fix the problem. You may rely on
your computer for work or you may use your home
computer to keep track of important personal files.

Whatever your reason you are going to be lost without
your data so you need to find a quick easy solution to
restore your data quickly and easily so you don’t have
to go long without those important files and
documents.

There are several online options to saving data to
prevent data loss. These online solutions are
available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

The first choice you may have is to hire an online
company that can store your data incase of a system
lock up, crash or failure. Using these types of
services may be your answer, especially if you
frequently depend on your computer to house vital
information and records.

You can also purchase an online backup and restore
software which will allow you to recover lost data
anytime you need to.

These online solutions can recover data from a hard
drive, laptop, desktop, server, RAID, OS, tape, email,
file, digital photo, mobile device and more.

These online companies make recovery simple and easy
to use and can protect you from losing data
permanently.

The main reason someone loses their data is due to a
hardware or system problem but there are other reasons
such as human error, disaster, virus, or software
corruption. Either way you don’t realize how nice an
online data recover solution is until you need it.

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Oracle Compatibility Developer's Guide for DBAs & Application Developers

Get white paper on Oracle Compatibility Developer's Guide for DBAs & Application Developers by EnterpriseDB at http://research.bizreport.com/detail/RES/1240871902_713.html?li=201125&src=KA_RES_20090504&asrc=EM_KAR_6782029&uid=4401398

Below is the abstract.

In today's challenging economic climate, organizations running Oracle are struggling to meet rising information demands with constricted budgets. Oracle shops have historically been reluctant to explore alternative databases, due to perceived risks of performance degradation, application recoding, and the time and costs associated with re-training personnel.
EnterpiseDB's Postgres Plus provides over 300 organizations with a proven open source alternative to expensive proprietary database products like Oracle. Postgres Plus significantly reduces total cost of database ownership, without sacrificing performance and scalability by:

Eliminating up-front perpetual license fees
Dramatically reducing the time cost and risk of migrating Oracle applications to Postgres Plus
Leveraging an organization's existing Oracle skills and infrastructure investments
Providing 24/7 "follow the sun" support, training and professional services
This white paper examines how EnterpriseDB's Oracle compatibility makes it easy for enterprises with existing Oracle investments to enjoy the benefits and cost saving of an open source database

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