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Question and Answer

Tom Kyte

Thanks for the question, Vinod.

Asked: May 21, 2012 - 9:46 am UTC

Last updated: May 21, 2012 - 12:34 pm UTC

Version: 10.2.0

Viewed 1000+ times

You Asked

hello sir,
curiously i alter dual table (added a column), after that i'm not able to drop that column, i'm not able to drop any user despite of the fact that i logged on as sys as sysdba; oracle gives insufficient privileges error.
plz help
thank you

and Tom said...

you have just hosed your database.

You never, never never never, as in never ever - touch any of the SYS tables - not to insert into them, not to delete from them, not to update them and especially not to alter them.

Please do not use the SYS (sysdba) account to play around. That is like logging in as root on Unix and typing in random commands just to see what is going to happen.

You'll want to rebuild your testing database you were playing with.

If this is a "real" database - you'll want to open a service request with support.

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