CSSCAN

(Character Set Scanner)

Introduced in Oracle 8iR2

Metalink Doc Id 123670.1

Before altering the character set of a database, check the convertibility of the data before converting. Character set conversions can cause data loss or data corruption. The Character Set Scanner utility provides this 2 features: 1) convertibility check of existing data and potential issues. The Scanner checks all character data in the database including the data dictionary and tests for the effects and problems of changing the character set encoding (characterset). At the end of the scan, it generates a summary and exception report of the database scan. 2) from csscan V1.1 onwards it allows you also to do a check if there is no data in the database that is incorrectly stored.

This is used in [NOTE: 225938.1] Database Character Set Health check This note gives an example on how the output of the csscan tool looks like and some live examples of how to convert the characterset.

Please use the following note: [NOTE: 225912.1]

Changing the Database Character Set

- an Overview as a complete guide to plan the change of the database character set.

Installation and setup

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Before you install

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IMPORTANT: Check for the latest version on TechNet of the csscan tool for your platform and version and install/use this. Csscan downloads are available from: http://technet.oracle.com/software/tech/globalization/content.html

You cannot mix csscan versions with between database versions; there is a separate csscan version for each database/platform combination.

Please see the following note csscan compatibility to find out which version is best for you:

[NOTE:179843.1]

Versioning of the Character Set Scanner

If you receive errors about the version of the migrate utility schema then also please see the mentioned note.

There is one know problem with the characterset scanner for 817: see [BUG: 3043474]

To install the Character Set Scanner, you must have DBA privileges on the Oracle database.

If you encounter "CSS-0xxxx" type errors, first look in the "Character Set Scanner Error Messages " section of these documentation sets:

Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide Release 2 (9.2), Part Number A96529-01

http://otn.oracle.com/pls/db92/db92.docindex? remark=homepage

Oracle8i Documentation Addendum,

Release 3 (8.1.7), Part Number A85455-01

Chapter 3 contains the Character Set Scanner documentation.

http://otn.oracle.com/documentation/oracle8i.html

click on " View Library" for "Oracle8i On-Line Generic Documentation Release 3 (8.1.7)"

Installing Csscan

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Run csminst.sql to create the needed user and tables, You can modify the default tablespace for CSMIG by editing the csminst.sql script.

Modify the following statement in csminst.sql to assign your preferred tablespace to CSMIG as follows:

ALTER USER csmig DEFAULT TABLESPACE tablespace_name;

Then run csminst.sql using these commands and SQL statements:

cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin

set oracle_sid=

sqlplus "sys as sysdba"

SQL>set TERMOUT ON

SQL>set ECHO ON

SQL>spool csminst.log

SQL> START csminst.sql

check the csminst.log for errors.

[NOTE: 232242.1]

Character set migration utility schema not installed in 9i

ORA-942 during csminst.sql

Now you can run the scanner against this database, for example C:>csscan help=y gives the help screen.

The usage and results of a csscan run are different depending on the version of csscan you use, therefore please see the relevant note for your version:

[NOTE:279068.1]

Usage of Character Set Scanner Utility (csscan) version 1.1 Further Reading ===============

[NOTE:179843.1] Versioning of the Character Set Scanner

[NOTE:279068.1] Usage of Character Set Scanner Utility (csscan) version 1.1 [NOTE:225912.1] Changing the Database Character Set - a Short Overview

[NOTE:66320.1] Changing the Database Character Set or the Database National Character Set

[NOTE:15095.1] Export/Import and NLS Considerations

[NOTE:119119.1] UTF8 Database Character Set Implications

[NOTE:232242.1] Character set migration utility schema not installed in 9i ORA-942 during csminst.sql

[NOTE:289844.1] csscan receives error "kgrdec2r not located in orageneric8.dll" [BUG:1611255] CHARACTER SET SCANNER GETS SEGMENTATION FAULT WHEN ARRAY AND PROCESS ARE LARGE

DBV (DBVERIFY)

NID (DBNEWID) Introduced in Oracle 9i

Oracle Enterprise Manager

RMAN (Recovery Manager)