Preface

This document describes how to create and administer an Oracle Database.

This preface contains these topics:

Audience
Documentation Accessibility
Structure
Related Documents
Conventions

Audience

This document is intended for database administrators who perform the following tasks:

Create an Oracle Database
Ensure the smooth operation of an Oracle Database
Monitor the operation of an Oracle Database

To use this document, you need to be familiar with relational database concepts. You should also be familiar with the operating system environment under which you are running the Oracle Database.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Accessibility standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For more information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

Screen readers may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, some screen readers may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

TTY Access to Oracle Support Services

Oracle provides dedicated Text Telephone (TTY) access to Oracle Support Services within the United States of America 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For TTY support, call 800.446.2398.

Structure

This document contains:

Part I, "Basic Database Administration"

This part contains information about creating a database, starting and shutting down a database, and managing Oracle processes.

Chapter 1, "Overview of Administering an Oracle Database"

This chapter serves as an introduction to typical tasks performed by database administrators, such as installing software and planning a database.

Chapter 2, "Creating an Oracle Database"

This chapter describes how to create a database. Consult this chapter when you are planning a database.

Chapter 3, "Starting Up and Shutting Down"

This chapter describes how to start a database, alter its availability, and shut it down. It also describes the parameter files related to starting up and shutting down.

Chapter 4, "Managing Oracle Database Processes"

This chapter describes how to identify different Oracle Database processes, such as dedicated server processes and shared server processes. Consult this chapter when configuring, modifying, tracking and managing processes.

Part II, "Oracle Database Structure and Storage"

This part describes the structure and management of the Oracle Database and its storage.

Chapter 5, "Managing Control Files"

This chapter describes how to manage control files, including the following tasks: naming, creating, troubleshooting, and dropping control files.

Chapter 6, "Managing the Redo Log"

This chapter describes how to manage the online redo log, including the following tasks: planning, creating, renaming, dropping, or clearing redo log files.

Chapter 7, "Managing Archived Redo Logs"

This chapter describes archiving.

Chapter 8, "Managing Tablespaces"

This chapter provides guidelines for managing tablespaces. It describes how to create, manage, alter, and drop tablespaces and how to move data between tablespaces.

Chapter 9, "Managing Datafiles and Tempfiles"

This chapter provides guidelines for managing datafiles. It describes how to create, change, alter, and rename datafiles and how to view information about datafiles.

Chapter 10, "Managing the Undo Tablespace"

This chapter describes how to manage undo space using an undo tablespace.

Part III, "Automated File and Storage Management"

This part describes how to use Oracle-Managed Files and Automatic Storage Management.

Chapter 11, "Using Oracle-Managed Files"

This chapter describes how to use the Oracle Database server to create and manage database files.

Chapter 12, "Using Automatic Storage Management"

This chapter describes how to use Automatic Storage Management.

Part IV, "Schema Objects"

This section describes how to manage schema objects, including the following: tables, indexes, clusters, hash clusters, views, sequences, and synonyms.

Chapter 13, "Managing Schema Objects"

This chapter describes management of schema objects. It contains information about analyzing objects, truncation of tables and clusters, database triggers, integrity constraints, and object dependencies.

Chapter 14, "Managing Space for Schema Objects"

This chapter describes common tasks such as setting storage parameters, deallocating space, and managing space.

Chapter 15, "Managing Tables"

This chapter contains table management guidelines, as well as information about creating, altering, maintaining and dropping tables.

Chapter 16, "Managing Indexes"

This chapter contains guidelines about indexes, including creating, altering, monitoring and dropping indexes.

Chapter 17, "Managing Partitioned Tables and Indexes"

This chapter describes partitioned tables and indexes and how to create and manage them.

Chapter 18, "Managing Clusters"

This chapter contains guidelines for creating, altering, or dropping clusters.

Chapter 19, "Managing Hash Clusters"

This chapter contains guidelines for creating, altering, or dropping hash clusters.

Chapter 20, "Managing Views, Sequences, and Synonyms"

This chapter describes how to manage views, sequences and synonyms.

Chapter 21, "Using DBMS_REPAIR to Repair Data Block Corruption"

This chapter describes methods for detecting and repairing data block corruption.

Part V, "Database Security"

This part discusses the importance of establishing a security policy for your database and users.

Chapter 22, "Managing Users and Securing the Database"

This chapter discusses the importance of establishing a security policy for your database and users.

Part VI, "Database Resource Management and Task Scheduling"

This part describes database resource management and task scheduling.

Chapter 23, "Managing Automatic System Tasks Using the Maintenance Window"

This chapter describes how to use automatic system tasks.

Chapter 24, "Using the Database Resource Manager"

This chapter describes how to use the Database Resource Manager to allocate resources.

Chapter 25, "Moving from DBMS_JOB to DBMS_SCHEDULER"

This chapter describes how to take statements created with DBMS_JOB and rewrite them using DBMS_SCHEDULER.

Chapter 26, "Scheduler Concepts"

Oracle Database provides advanced scheduling capabilities through the database Scheduler. This chapter introduces you to its concepts.

Chapter 27, "Using the Scheduler"

This chapter describes how to use the Scheduler.

Chapter 28, "Administering the Scheduler"

This chapter describes the tasks a database administrator needs to perform so end users can schedule jobs using the Scheduler.

Part VII, "Distributed Database Management"

This part describes distributed database management.

Chapter 29, "Distributed Database Concepts"

This chapter describes the basic concepts and terminology of Oracle's distributed database architecture.

Chapter 30, "Managing a Distributed Database"

This chapter describes how to manage and maintain a distributed database system.

Chapter 31, "Developing Applications for a Distributed Database System"

This chapter describes the considerations for developing an application to run in a distributed database system.

Chapter 32, "Distributed Transactions Concepts"

This chapter describes what distributed transactions are and how the Oracle Databases maintains their integrity.

Chapter 33, "Managing Distributed Transactions"

This chapter describes how to manage and troubleshoot distributed transactions.

Conventions

This section describes the conventions used in the text and code examples of this documentation set. It describes:

Conventions in Text
Conventions in Code Examples
Conventions for Windows Operating Systems

Conventions in Text

We use various conventions in text to help you more quickly identify special terms. The following table describes those conventions and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
Bold	Bold typeface indicates terms that are defined in the text or terms that appear in a glossary, or both.	When you specify this clause, you create an index-organized table.
Italics	Italic typeface indicates book titles or emphasis.	Oracle Database Concepts Ensure that the recovery catalog and target database do not reside on the same disk.
`UPPERCASE monospace (fixed-width) font`	Uppercase monospace typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. Such elements include parameters, privileges, datatypes, Recovery Manager keywords, SQL keywords, SQL*Plus or utility commands, packages and methods, as well as system-supplied column names, database objects and structures, usernames, and roles.	You can specify this clause only for a `NUMBER` column. You can back up the database by using the `BACKUP` command. Query the `TABLE_NAME` column in the `USER_TABLES` data dictionary view. Use the `DBMS_STATS`.`GENERATE_STATS` procedure.
`lowercase monospace (fixed-width) font`	Lowercase monospace typeface indicates executable programs, filenames, directory names, and sample user-supplied elements. Such elements include computer and database names, net service names and connect identifiers, user-supplied database objects and structures, column names, packages and classes, usernames and roles, program units, and parameter values. Note: Some programmatic elements use a mixture of UPPERCASE and lowercase. Enter these elements as shown.	Enter `sqlplus` to start SQL*Plus. The password is specified in the `orapwd` file. Back up the datafiles and control files in the `/disk1/oracle/dbs` directory. The `department_id`, `department_name`, and `location_id` columns are in the `hr.departments` table. Set the `QUERY_REWRITE_ENABLED` initialization parameter to `true.` Connect as `oe` user. The `JRepUtil` class implements these methods.
`lowercase italic monospace (fixed-width) font`	Lowercase italic monospace font represents placeholders or variables.	You can specify the `parallel_clause`. Run `old_release.SQL` where `old_release` refers to the release you installed prior to upgrading.

Conventions in Code Examples

Code examples illustrate SQL, PL/SQL, SQL*Plus, or other command-line statements. They are displayed in a monospace (fixed-width) font and separated from normal text as shown in this example:

SELECT username FROM dba_users WHERE username = 'MIGRATE';

The following table describes typographic conventions used in code examples and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
[ ]	Brackets enclose one or more optional items. Do not enter the brackets.	DECIMAL (digits [ , precision ])
{ }	Braces enclose two or more items, one of which is required. Do not enter the braces.	{ENABLE \| DISABLE}
\|	A vertical bar represents a choice of two or more options within brackets or braces. Enter one of the options. Do not enter the vertical bar.	{ENABLE \| DISABLE} [COMPRESS \| NOCOMPRESS]
...	Horizontal ellipsis points indicate either: That we have omitted parts of the code that are not directly related to the example That you can repeat a portion of the code	CREATE TABLE ... AS subquery; SELECT col1, col2, ... , coln FROM employees;
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points indicate that we have omitted several lines of code not directly related to the example.	SQL> SELECT NAME FROM V$DATAFILE; NAME ------------------------------------ /fsl/dbs/tbs_01.dbf /fs1/dbs/tbs_02.dbf . . . /fsl/dbs/tbs_09.dbf 9 rows selected.
Other notation	You must enter symbols other than brackets, braces, vertical bars, and ellipsis points as shown.	acctbal NUMBER(11,2); acct CONSTANT NUMBER(4) := 3;
Italics	Italicized text indicates placeholders or variables for which you must supply particular values.	CONNECT SYSTEM/system_password DB_NAME = database_name
UPPERCASE	Uppercase typeface indicates elements supplied by the system. We show these terms in uppercase in order to distinguish them from terms you define. Unless terms appear in brackets, enter them in the order and with the spelling shown. However, because these terms are not case sensitive, you can enter them in lowercase.	SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees; SELECT * FROM USER_TABLES; DROP TABLE hr.employees;
lowercase	Lowercase typeface indicates programmatic elements that you supply. For example, lowercase indicates names of tables, columns, or files. Note: Some programmatic elements use a mixture of UPPERCASE and lowercase. Enter these elements as shown.	SELECT last_name, employee_id FROM employees; sqlplus hr/hr CREATE USER mjones IDENTIFIED BY ty3MU9;

Conventions for Windows Operating Systems

The following table describes conventions for Windows operating systems and provides examples of their use.

Convention	Meaning	Example
Choose Start > menu item	How to start a program. The '>' character indicates a hierarchical menu (submenu).	To start the Database Configuration Assistant, choose Start > Programs > Oracle - HOME_NAME > Configuration and Migration Tools > Database Configuration Assistant.
File and directory names	File and directory names are not case sensitive. The following special characters are not allowed: left angle bracket (<), right angle bracket (>), colon (:), double quotation marks ("), slash (/), pipe (\|), and dash (-). The special character backslash (\) is treated as an element separator, even when it appears in quotes. If the filename begins with \\, then Windows assumes it uses the Universal Naming Convention.	c:\winnt"\"system32 is the same as C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32
`C:\>`	Represents the Windows command prompt of the current hard disk drive. The escape character in a command prompt is the caret (^). Your prompt reflects the subdirectory in which you are working. Referred to as the command prompt in this manual.	C:\oracle\oradata>
Special characters	The backslash (\) special character is sometimes required as an escape character for the double quotation mark (") special character at the Windows command prompt. Parentheses and the single quotation mark (') do not require an escape character. Refer to your Windows operating system documentation for more information on escape and special characters.	C:\> exp HR/HR TABLES=emp QUERY=\"WHERE job='REP'\"
HOME_NAME	Represents the Oracle home name. The home name can be up to 16 alphanumeric characters. The only special character allowed in the home name is the underscore.	C:\> net start OracleHOME_NAMETNSListener
`ORACLE_HOME` and `ORACLE_BASE`	In releases prior to Oracle8i release 8.1.3, when you installed Oracle components, all subdirectories were located under a top level `ORACLE_HOME` directory. The default for Windows NT was `C:\orant`. This release complies with Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) guidelines. All subdirectories are not under a top level `ORACLE_HOME` directory. There is a top level directory called `ORACLE_BASE` that by default is `C:\oracle\product\10.1.0`. If you install the latest Oracle release on a computer with no other Oracle software installed, then the default setting for the first Oracle home directory is `C:\oracle\product\10.1.0\db_n`, where `n` is the latest Oracle home number. The Oracle home directory is located directly under `ORACLE_BASE`. All directory path examples in this guide follow OFA conventions. Refer to Oracle Database Installation Guide for Microsoft Windows (32-Bit) for additional information about OFA compliances and for information about installing Oracle products in non-OFA compliant directories.	Go to the `ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\rdbms\admin` directory.

Preface

Audience

Documentation Accessibility

Structure

Related Documents

Conventions