Changes in this Release for Oracle Database Installation Guide

This guide explains how to install and configure single-instance Oracle Database.

This guide also provides information about Optimal Flexible Architecture, cloning an Oracle home, and how to remove the database software.

Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2)

The following are changes in Oracle Database Installation Guide for Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2):

New Features

  • Simplified Image based Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation

    Starting with Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12c Release 2 (12.2), the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software is available as an image file for download and installation. You must extract the image software into the directory where you want your Grid home to be located, and then run the gridSetup.bat script to start the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

  • Parallel NFS Support for Direct NFS Client

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), Oracle Direct NFS Client supports parallel NFS. Parallel NFS is an NFSv4.1 option that enables direct client access to file servers, enabling scalable distributed storage.

  • Direct NFS dispatcher support

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), Oracle Direct NFS Client supports adding a dispatcher or I/O slave infrastructure. For very large database deployments running Direct NFS client, this feature facilitates scaling of sockets and TCP connections to multi-path and clustered NFS storage.

  • Support for Windows Group Managed Service Accounts and Virtual Accounts

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), support of Group Managed Services Account (gMSA) and Virtual Accounts for installing an Oracle Database provides additional options to create and manage database services without passwords. The gMSA is a domain level account that can be used by multiple servers in a domain to run the services using this account. Virtual Accounts are auto-managed.

  • Kerberos Authentication for Direct NFS

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), Oracle Database supports Kerberos implementation with Direct NFS communication. This feature solves the problem of authentication, message integrity, and optional encryption over unsecured networks for data exchange between Oracle Database and NFS servers using Direct NFS protocols.

  • Support for Microsoft Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machines

    Hyper-V enables you to create and manage a virtualized computing environment by running multiple operating systems simultaneously on a single computer. Hyper-V enables built-in integration services for supported guest operating systems to improve integration between a computer and a virtual machine. Microsoft Hyper-V generation 2 virtual machines are now supported.

    See Also:

    Microsoft Hyper-V

  • AL32UTF8 as the Default Database Character Set

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), the default database character set of a database created from the General Purpose/Transaction Processing or the Data Warehousing template is Unicode AL32UTF8. Oracle recommends that you use Unicode AL32UTF8 as the database character set.

  • Windows Direct NFS Client Supports All the Accepted NFS Path Formats

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), the Windows Direct NFS Client supports all widely accepted NFS path formats including both Windows style and UNIX style NFS paths.

  • Windows Resilient File System

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), Oracle Database is supported on Resilient File System (ReFS). ReFS uses checksums for file metadata, and an allocate-on-write method to update data which minimizes the risk of corruption.

  • Postinstallation Configuration of Oracle Software using the -executeConfigTools option

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), you can perform postinstallation configuration of Oracle products by running the Oracle Database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure installer with the -executeConfigTools option. You can use the same response file created during installation to complete postinstallation configuration.

  • Separation of Duty for Administering Oracle Real Application Clusters

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), Oracle Database provides support for separation of duty for administering Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) by introducing the SYSRAC administrative privilege that does not require the SYSDBA administrative privilege. SYSRAC, like SYSDG, SYSBACKUP and SYSKM, helps enforce separation of duties and reduce reliance on the use of SYSDBA on production systems. This administrative privilege is the default mode for connecting to the database by the clusterware agent on behalf of the Oracle RAC utilities such as srvctl.

New Features for Oracle Automatic Storage Management 12c Release 2 (12.2)

  • Automatic Configuration of Oracle ASM Filter Driver

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), you can enable and automate the configuration of Oracle ASM Filter Driver (Oracle ASMFD) with a check box during the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation.

  • Oracle ACFS Snapshot-Based Replication

    The Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS) snapshot-based replication feature uses Oracle ACFS snapshot technology to transfer the differences between successive snapshots to the standby file system using standard ssh transport protocol. Oracle ACFS Snapshot-based replication is more efficient with higher performance, lower overhead, and ease of management.

  • Oracle ACFS Compression

    Oracle ACFS provides file system compression functionality, reducing storage requirement, and resulting in lower costs. Oracle ACFS compression is managed using the new acfsutil compress commands and updates to the acfsutil info command.

  • Oracle ACFS Defragger

    Databases that share storage with snapshots or with the base of the file system can become fragmented under active online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads. This fragmentation can cause the location of the data in the volume to be discontiguous for sequential scans. Oracle ACFS automatically defragments these files in the background.

  • Oracle ACFS Support for 4K Sectors

    Oracle ACFS supports I/O requests in multiples of 4K logical sector sizes as well as continued support for 512-byte logical sector size I/O requests. The i4096 option is provided with the acfsformat command on Microsoft Windows and the mkfs command in Linux and Oracle Solaris environments.

  • Oracle ACFS Automatic Resize

    Oracle ACFS provides an automatic resize option with the acfsutil size command. This command enables you to specify an increment by which an Oracle ACFS file system grows automatically if the amount of available free space in the file system falls below a specified amount. There is also an option to specify the maxiOracle ACFS plugins support file content data collection. Both polling and interval based capture are supported with the file content collection.mum size allowed when using the automatic resize option. The output of the acfsutil info fs command displays the automatic resize increment and maximum amounts.

  • Oracle ACFS Metadata Acceleration

    Oracle ACFS supports accelerator metadata storage. This support enables many critical Oracle ACFS metadata structures, including extent metadata, storage bitmaps, volume logs, and some snapshot metadata to be placed on accelerator storage.

  • Oracle ACFS Plugins for File Content Data Collection

    Oracle ACFS plugins support file content data collection. Both, polling and interval based capture are supported with the file content collection.

  • Oracle ACFS Sparse Files

    Oracle ACFS provides support for sparse files. Oracle ACFS sparse files greatly benefit NFS client write operations, which are commonly received out of order by the NFS server and the associated Oracle ACFS file system.

  • Oracle ACFS Scrubbing Functionality

    Oracle ACFS provides scrubbing functionality with the acfsutil scrub command to check for and report any inconsistencies in the metadata or file data.

  • High Availability Common Internet File System

    Release 12.2 enhances Oracle ACFS Common Internet File System (CIFS) features to provide high availability for exported file systems with the Oracle ACFS NAS Maximum Availability eXtensions (NAS MAX) technology. High Availability Common Internet File System (HACIFS) and High Availability Network File System (HANFS), both provide comprehensive Network Attach Storage solutions for Oracle ACFS.

Deprecated Features

The following feature is deprecated in this release, and may be desupported in a future release:

  • Deprecation of the configToolAllCommands script

    Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), the configToolAllCommands script is deprecated and is subject to desupport in a future release. The configToolAllCommands script runs in response file mode to configure Oracle products after installation and uses a separate password response file.To perform postinstallation configuration of Oracle products, you can now run the Oracle Database or Oracle Grid Infrastructure installer with the -executeConfigTools option. You can use the same response file created during installation to complete postinstallation configuration.

    For a complete list of deprecated features, see:

    Oracle Database Upgrade Guide

Desupported Features

The following features are no longer supported by Oracle:

  • Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control

  • CLEANUP_ORACLE_BASE Property Removed

For a complete list of desupported features, see:

Oracle Database Upgrade Guide

Changes in Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1)

The following are changes in Oracle Database Installation Guide for Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1):

New Features

Deprecated Features

The following features are deprecated in this release, and may be desupported in a future release:

  • Deinstallation Tool Integrated with Installation Media

  • Deprecation of -cleanupOBase

    The -cleanupOBase flag of the deinstallation tool is deprecated in this release. There is no replacement for this flag.

  • Windows NTS Authentication Using the NTLM Protocol

    The NTS authentication adapter no longer supports the use of the NT LAN Manager (NTLM) protocol to authenticate Windows domain users. Thus, the NTS adapter cannot be used to authenticate users in old Windows NT domains or domains with old Windows NT domain controllers. However, local connections and Oracle Database services running as a Windows Local User continues to be authenticated using NTLM. A new client-side sqlnet.ora boolean parameter, no_ntlm (default value is FALSE) enables you to control if NTLM can be used in NTS authentication. When the parameter is set to TRUE, NTLM cannot be used in NTS authentication.

    For a complete list of deprecated features, see:

    Oracle Database Upgrade Guide

Desupported Features

The following features are no longer supported by Oracle:

  • Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control

  • CLEANUP_ORACLE_BASE Property Removed

  • Oracle COM Automation

  • Oracle Objects for OLE

  • Oracle Counters for Windows Performance Monitor

  • Raw Devices

    For a complete list of desupported features, see:

    Oracle Database Upgrade Guide