ArcSDE 10 failed, unable to delete or re-install

[BonnieGardner]

I am new to this, so please bear with me...

I'm trying to install -->
ArcSDE 10
OS - RHEL 5.7
DB - Oracle 11.2.0.2

Ran sdesetup - o install ....
As it turns out, we were missing a lib
We installed the lib

Tred to re-run sdesetup -o install and received the following msg:
ERROR: The geodatabase already exists. If you want to upgrade the geodatabase,
see the ArcSDE installation guide for instructions.
ERROR: Geodatabase install not completed.


Tried to ./sdesetup -o delete ... and received the following msg:
There are user connections open
on the schema geodatabase instance or master instance.
Deleting a Schema geodatabase is allowed only when
no users are connected. Disconnect all users and try again.

Tried to kill the connections--> ./sdemon -o kill -t  all ... and received the followig msg:
Set service name to use default 'esri_sde'
SDE not running on server, Unable to get instance configuration

Set the service name to 'esri_sde' and received the following msg:
SDE not running on server, Unable to get instance configuration

I've checked all DB connections and rebooted my server to no avail...

How do I go about re-starting my ArcSDE installation?

Any assitance would be appreciated:)

[VinceAngelo]

If it's an initial install that I hosed, I generally DROP USER SDE CASCADE and start over.

NOTE: IF YOU DO THIS ON AN INSTANCE WITH ST_GEOMETRY DATA IN ANY USER, IT WILL
IRREPARABLY HARM YOUR ORACLE INSTANCE.

- V

[BonnieGardner]

At this point there was no ST_GEOMETERY in use. 

Thank you, dropping the sde user worked.

[VinceAngelo]

I'm glad it worked.  I didn't think it applied in your situation, but I needed the caveat in place,
just in case some later viewer of the thread came to my boss with "Vince said I should drop
the SDE user and now my database is corrupted." 😕

- V

[SuleymanArslan1]

Is there any way to recover from situation, which Vince Angelo mention it. (SDE user dropped while ST_GEOMETRY data available in a user.)

[VinceAngelo]

No.  That's why I wrote "IRREPARABLY HARM YOUR ORACLE INSTANCE". Deletion of tables
with ST_GEOMETRY columns requires SDE user triggers and tables, populated with the
correct information, and my understanding is that adding a new SDE user isn't possible
with existing references to the user.

The only "solution" I know of is to drop the database instance, recreate an empty instance
with the same SID, and restore from backup.  If you don't have a viable backup, you'll be
down to trying to export what you can for later re-import.

You should certainly contact Tech Support before you finish panicking.

- V

[SuleymanArslan1]

Thanks for your reply.
We drop everything in sde schema except two types (ST_DOMAIN_STATS, ST_GEOMETRY) which become invalid. Still we are not able to drop sde user.
I don't know what else we can do.

[VinceAngelo]

That's what irreparable means, impossible to rectify or repair.

There isn't anything you can do, except trash the instance and start over.  You should
contact Tech Support first, however.

- V