Preface

This guide is for people who administer the operation of an Oracle database system. These people, referred to as "database administrators" (DBAs), are assumed to be responsible for ensuring the smooth operation of an Oracle database system and for monitoring its use. The responsibilities of database administrators are described in Chapter 1.

Audience

Readers of this guide are assumed to be familiar with relational database concepts. They are also assumed to be familiar with the operating system environment under which they are running Oracle.

As a prerequisite, all readers should read the first chapter of Oracle8 Concepts, "A Technical Introduction to the Oracle Server." This chapter is a comprehensive introduction to the concepts and terminology used throughout this guide.

Readers Interested in Installation and Migration Information

Administrators frequently participate in installing the Oracle Server software and migrating existing Oracle databases to newer formats (for example, Version 7 databases to Oracle8 format). This guide is not an installation or migration manual.

If your primary interest is installation, see your operating system-specific Oracle documentation.

If your primary interest is database or application migration, see the Oracle8 Migration manual.

Readers Interested in Application Design Information

In addition to administrators, experienced users of Oracle and advanced database application designers might also find information in this guide useful.

However, database application developers should also see the Oracle8 Application Developer's Guide and the documentation for the tool or language product they are using to develop Oracle database applications.

How to Use This Guide

Every reader of this guide should read Chapter 1 of the Oracle8 Concepts manual, "Introduction to the Oracle Server." This overview of the concepts and terminology related to Oracle provides a foundation for the more detailed information in this guide. The rest of the Oracle8 Concepts manual explains the Oracle architecture and features, and how they operate in more detail.

Structure

This guide contains the following parts and chapters.

Part I: Basic Database Administration

Chapter 1, "The Oracle Database Administrator"	This chapter serves as a general 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 the most important considerations when creating a database. Consult this chapter when in the database planning stage.
Chapter 3, "Starting Up and Shutting Down"	Consult this chapter when you wish to start up a database, alter its availability, or shut it down. Parameter files related to starting up and shutting down are also described here.

Part II: Oracle Server Configuration

Chapter 4, "Managing Oracle Processes"	This chapter helps you identify different Oracle processes, such as dedicated server processes and multi-threaded server processes. Consult this chapter when configuring, modifying, tracking and managing processes.
Chapter 5, "Managing the Online Redo Log"	This chapter describes all aspects of managing the online redo log (such as planning, creating, renaming, dropping or clearing online redo log files).
Chapter 6, "Managing Control Files"	This chapter describes all aspects of managing control files (such as naming, creating, troubleshooting and dropping control files).
Chapter 7, "Managing Job Queues"	Consult this chapter before working with job queues. All aspects of submitting, removing, altering and fixing job queues are described.

Part III: Database Storage

Chapter 8, "Managing Tablespaces"	This chapter provides guidelines to follow as you manage tablespaces, and describes how to create, manage, alter and drop tablespaces.
Chapter 9, "Managing Datafiles"	This chapter provides guidelines to follow as you manage datafiles, and describes how to create, change, alter, rename and view information about datafiles.
Chapter 10, "Guidelines for Managing Schema Objects"	Consult this chapter for descriptions of common tasks, such as setting storage parameters, deallocating space and managing space.
Chapter 11, "Managing Partitioned Tables and Indexes"	This chapter describes what a partitioned table (and index) is and how to create and manage it.
Chapter 12, "Managing Tables"	Consult this chapter for general table management guidelines, as well as information about creating, altering, maintaining and dropping tables.
Chapter 13, "Managing Views, Sequences and Synonyms"	This chapter describes all aspects of managing views, sequences and synonyms.
Chapter 14, "Managing Indexes"	Consult this chapter for general guidelines about indexes, including creating, altering, monitoring and dropping indexes.
Chapter 15, "Managing Clusters"	Consult this chapter for general guidelines to follow when creating, altering and dropping clusters.
Chapter 16, "Managing Hash Clusters"	Consult this chapter for general guidelines to follow when altering or dropping hash clusters.
Chapter 17, "General Management of Schema Objects"	This chapter covers more specific aspects of schema management than those identified in Chapter 10. Consult this chapter for information about table analysis, truncation of tables and clusters, database triggers, integrity constraints, object dependencies. You will also find a number of specific examples.

Part IV: Database Security

Chapter 18, "Managing Rollback Segments"	Consult this chapter for guidelines to follow when working with rollback segments.
Chapter 19, "Establishing Security Policies"	This chapter describes all aspects of database security, including system, data and user security policies, as well as specific tasks associated with password management.
Chapter 20, "Managing Users and Resources"	This chapter describes session and user licensing, user authentication, and provides specific examples of tasks associated with managing users and resources.
Chapter 21, "Managing User Privileges and Roles"	This chapter contains information about all aspects of managing user privileges and roles. Consult this chapter to find out how to grant and revoke privileges and roles.
Chapter 22, "Auditing Database Use"	This chapter describes how to create, manage and view audit information.
Chapter 23, "Archiving Redo Information"	Consult this chapter for information about archive modes, tuning archiving, and viewing

Appendix

Appendix A, "Space Estimations for Schema Objects"

This appendix contains several specific formulas for estimating space required by schema objects.

Conventions

This section explains the conventions used in this manual including the following:

• text
• syntax diagrams and notation
• code examples

Text

This section explains the conventions used within the text.

UPPERCASE Characters

Uppercase text is used to call attention to command keywords, object names, parameters, filenames, and so on.

For example, "If you create a private rollback segment, the name must be included in the ROLLBACK_SEGMENTS parameter of the parameter file."

Italicized Characters

Italicized words within text are book titles or emphasized words.

Syntax Diagrams and Notation

The syntax diagrams and notation in this manual show the syntax for SQL commands, functions, hints, and other elements. This section tells you how to read syntax diagrams and examples and write SQL statements based on them.

Keywords

Keywords are words that have special meanings in the SQL language. In the syntax diagrams in this manual, keywords appear in uppercase. You must use keywords in your SQL statements exactly as they appear in the syntax diagram, except that they can be either uppercase or lowercase. For example, you must use the CREATE keyword to begin your CREATE TABLE statements just as it appears in the CREATE TABLE syntax diagram.

Parameters

Parameters act as place holders in syntax diagrams. They appear in lowercase. Parameters are usually names of database objects, Oracle datatype names, or expressions. When you see a parameter in a syntax diagram, substitute an object or expression of the appropriate type in your SQL statement. For example, to write a CREATE TABLE statement, use the name of the table you want to create, such as EMP, in place of the table parameter in the syntax diagram. (Note that parameter names appear in italics in the text.)

This list shows parameters that appear in the syntax diagrams in this manual and examples of the values you might substitute for them in your statements:

Parameter	Description	Examples
table	The substitution value must be the name of an object of the type specified by the parameter.	emp
'text'	The substitution value must be a character literal in single quotes.	'Employee Records'
condition	The substitution value must be a condition that evaluates to TRUE or FALSE.	ename > 'A'
date d	The substitution value must be a date constant or an expression of DATE datatype.	TO_DATE ( '01-Jan-1996', DD-MON-YYYY')
expr	The substitution value can be an expression of any datatype.	sal + 1000
integer	The substitution value must be an integer.	72
rowid	The substitution value must be an expression of datatype ROWID.	00000462.0001.0001
subquery	The substitution value must be a SELECT statement contained in another SQL statement.	SELECT ename FROM emp
statement_name block_name	The substitution value must be an identifier for a SQL statement or PL/SQL block.	s1 b1

Code Examples

SQL and SQL*Plus commands and statements are separated from the text of paragraphs in a monospaced font as follows:

INSERT INTO emp (empno, ename) VALUES (1000, 'JFEE); 
ALTER TABLESPACE users ADD DATAFILE 'users2.ora' SIZE 50K; 

Example statements can include punctuation, such as commas or quotation marks. All punctuation in example statements is required. All example statements terminate with a semicolon (;). Depending on the application, a semicolon or other terminator may or may not be required to end a statement.

Uppercase words in example statements indicate the keywords within Oracle SQL. When you issue statements, however, keywords are not case sensitive.

Lowercase words in example statements indicate words supplied only for the context of the example. For example, lowercase words may indicate the name of a table, column, or file.

Examples of the Enterprise Manager Interface

This guide provides examples of the dialog boxes and menus of Enterprise Manager, your primary utility for managing an Oracle database. Illustrations show the character mode Server Manager screen. However, the actual appearance of your screen may differ, depending on your system's user interface.

For more information, see the Oracle Enterprise Manager Administrator's Guide.

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