Working with PowerShell & Multiple Azure Contexts

When working with multiple Azure subscriptions, the PowerShell Az.* modules allow for easy context switching. This means that you can run commands agains multiple subscriptions, or you can run commands against subscriptions without changing your default context. An Azure Context object contains information about the Account that was used to sign into Azure, the active (for that context) Azure Subscription, and an auth token cache is not actually empty, it just can't read from here for security reasons, though you can read it with the Get-AzAccessToken command. Here's what is in an Azure Context object: PS> Get-AzContext | fl * Name : TK-PRD (yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyyyyy) - tim@timkennedy.net Account : tim@timkennedy.net Environment : AzureCloud Subscription : yyyyyyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyyyyyy Tenant : zzzzzzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzz TokenCache : VersionProfile : ExtendedProperties : {} If y...
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Don't overlook the simple answers!

Today, I spent a good part of the day troubleshooting an Oracle 10g database who's db_recovery_file_dest kept filling up. Now, I'm not a DBA, by trade, just a technical generalist with a penchant for Googling. I increased the size of the db_recovery_file_dest, and 4 hours later, it was full again. I could not for the life of me figure out why the archiving and log rotation RMAN scripts weren't working. I ran them manually, and voila! problem fixed again, for a limited time.

That's when it occured to me to look in /var/cron/log. Sure enough, I found the answer to all my problems. Well, not ALL of my problems, but enough of the ones I was dealing with today that I rated today a success.

The oracle user's password had expired.

That was it. The root cause of two database outages due to the recovery log destination filling up, and the database refusing connections, and hours of troubleshooting.

An expired password.

This brings me to a lesson I know well, but often forget.

Never overlook the simple answers!

Sadly, I often forget that, and try to solve a complex problem that's not complex.

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