7
Starter and Custom Databases

This chapter describes how to install either a starter or custom Oracle database, including the contents of the starter database.

Specific topics discussed:

• Starter and Custom Database Overview
• Starter Database Contents

Starter and Custom Database Overview

Two types of Oracle databases are available for installation from your Oracle8i Enterprise Edition for Windows NT CD-ROM:

Type	Description
Starter	Preconfigured, ready-to-use database that requires minimal user input to create
Custom	Database that you create to match your environment, with guidance from Oracle Database Configuration Assistant

Note: You also have the option of not installing a database.

When you run Oracle Universal Installer and select Oracle8i Enterprise Edition as the installation option, the Installation Types dialog box presents you with the following three selections.
 

The types of databases available with each selection are shown below:
 

This table describes some of the starter and custom database features available with each Oracle Universal Installer and Oracle Database Configuration Assistant installation type:

Database Feature	Oracle Universal Installer Typical or Minimal Type	Oracle Database Configuration Assistant Typical Type	Oracle Database Configuration Assistant Custom Type
Type of database installed from the CD-ROM or created	The Typical type automatically installs a fully preconfigured and ready-to-use starter database with default INIT.ORA file parameter settings.  The Minimal type asks if you want to install a database. If you select Yes, then the same database that you receive with the Typical type is installed.	Consists of two suboptions:  The Copy existing database files from CD suboption installs the same database as that of the Typical or Minimal type of Oracle Universal Installer.    The Create new database files suboption creates a database based on the amount of available RAM and answers you provide to several database environment questions.	Enables you to create a database appropriate to your environment with customized INIT.ORA parameter settings. The Custom type is only for Oracle database administrators (DBAs) experienced with advanced database creation procedures.
Global Database name (in the form of name.domain)	Generated from the global database name.1	Generated from the global database name.	Generated from the global database name.
System identifier (SID) name	Defaults to the name part of the global database name.1	Defaults to the name part of the global database name.	Defaults to the name part of the global database name.
Database configuration mode2	For the Typical type, multi-threaded server mode for IIOP clients and dedicated server mode for two-task Net8 clients.  For the Minimal type, dedicated server mode for both types of clients.	If you selected Java VM Option, the mode is multi-threaded server mode for IIOP clients.  Dedicated server mode for two-task Net8 clients, unless you:  Run Oracle Database Configuration Assistant.   Select Create a database.    Select Typical.    Select the Create new database files suboption.    Select Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) as your database environment.   Enter 20 or more for the number of concurrent database connections.  This creates a database in multi-threaded server mode for two-task Net8 clients.	Your choice of dedicated server mode or multi-threaded server mode (also called shared server mode).
Initial archiving mode	Set to NOARCHIVELOG.	Set to NOARCHIVELOG.	Your choice of NOARCHIVELOG or ARCHIVELOG.
interMedia and options	The Typical type installs these Oracle products:  interMedia Audio  interMediaText  interMedia Video  interMedia Image  interMedia Locator  Oracle Spatial  Oracle Time Series  Oracle Visual Information Retrieval  COM Automation  No options are installed through the Minimal type.	No options are configurable through the "Copy existing database files from CD" suboption.  The Create New Database Files suboption enables you to configure these Oracle options (if installed):3 interMedia Audio  interMediaText  interMedia Video  interMedia Image  interMedia Locator  Oracle Spatial  Oracle Time Series  Oracle Visual Information Retrieval	Enables you to configure these Oracle products (if installed):3 interMedia Audio  interMediaText  interMedia Video  interMedia Image  interMedia Locator  Oracle Spatial  Oracle Time Series  Oracle Visual Information Retrieval
Options4	The Typical type installs and automatically configures these Oracle options:  Partitioning  Objects  Parallel Server  No options are installed through the Minimal type.	The Partitioning and Objects options are automatically configured when installed with Oracle Universal Installer.  Depending on how Oracle Parallel Server option was installed, it may also be automatically configured. See Oracle Parallel Server Getting Started for Windows NT for information.	The Partitioning and Objects options are automatically configured when installed with Oracle Universal Installer.  Depending on how Oracle Parallel Server option was installed, it may also be automatically configured. See Oracle Parallel Server Getting Started for Windows NT for information.
Advanced replication	Automatically configured through the Typical type.  Automatically configured through the Minimal type if you select the starter database for installation when prompted.	Automatically configured with the Copy existing database files from CD suboption.  The Create new database files suboption offers you the choice.	Your choice.
Automatic operating system authentication5	Both types enable the Windows NT user who performed the installation to log in as INTERNAL to the database without entering a password.	Both suboptions enable the Windows NT user who performed the installation to log in as INTERNAL to the database without entering a password.	Enables the Windows NT user who performed the installation to log in as INTERNAL to the database without entering a password.
User names, tablespaces, database files, rollback segments, and data dictionary	Automatically installs the user names, tablespaces, database files, rollback segments, and data dictionary described in "Starter Database Contents".	Both suboptions automatically create the user names, tablespaces, database files, rollback segments, and data dictionary described in "Starter Database Contents".	Creates the SYS, SYSTEM, and DBSNMP user names and INTERNAL alias described in "User Names and Passwords".  Enables you to customize many features, including the following:  Tablespace and database file settings  System global area (SGA) memory parameter settings  Archive settings  Trace file locations
Database environment	Both types install a single starter database appropriate for both Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) and Decision Support System (DSS) environments.	The Copy existing database files from CD suboption installs the same database environment as that of the Typical or Minimal type of Oracle Universal Installer.  The Create new database files suboption enables you to choose your database environment:6 OLTP  DSS  Hybrid	Your choice of OLTP, DSS, or Hybrid.6

1 When you install an Oracle database for the first time on a computer, you are prompted for the global database name. 2 See "Multi-Threaded Server Support" for descriptions of dedicated server mode and multi-threaded server mode (also known as shared server mode). 3 Options are not installable through Oracle Database Configuration Assistant. Oracle Database Configuration Assistant only configures options that were installed with Oracle Universal Installer.  4 Oracle Advanced Networking option is also available for installation. This option can be installed through the Oracle8i Enterprise Edition and Oracle8i Client Custom installation types of Oracle Universal Installer. 5 See "Automatically Enabling Operating System Authentication During Installation" for more information. 6 See "Using Oracle Database Configuration Assistant" for definitions of these database environments.

Starter Database Contents

The starter database installed through the Oracle Universal Installer Oracle8i Enterprise Edition Typical or Minimal installation type, or through the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant Typical option, contains the following features:

• User Names and Passwords
• System Identifier and Database Name
• Tablespaces
• Data Files
• Initialization Parameter File
• Redo Log Files
• Control File
• Rollback Segments
• Data Dictionary

User Names and Passwords

Your starter database contains the following user names and passwords:

Note: Change the password for each user name immediately after installation:  C:\> SQLPLUS Enter user-name: INTERNAL/PASSWORD SQL> ALTER USER USERNAME IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD; See Chapter 9, "Administering a Database" for instructions on how to change the password for INTERNAL.

User Name	Password	Description
INTERNAL	ORACLE  Note: This password is required only for users who did not install the Oracle database. The user who installed the Oracle database is not prompted to enter a password when connecting as INTERNAL.  See "Connecting Without a Password" for more information.	Performs database administration tasks, including starting up and shutting down a database.  Note 1: INTERNAL is not a true user name; it is an alias for the SYS user name and SYSDBA privilege.  Note 2: INTERNAL uses the SYS schema, listed below, with additional SYSDBA privileges. See the Oracle8i Administrator's Guide for more information.
SYS	CHANGE_ON_INSTALL	DBA user name with the following database roles:  AQ_ADMINISTRATOR_ROLE  AQ_USER_ROLE  CONNECT  DBA  DELETE_CATALOG_ROLE  EXECUTE_CATALOG_ROLE  EXP_FULL_DATABASE  HS_ADMIN_ROLE  IMP_FULL_DATABASE  RECOVERY_CATALOG_OWNER  RESOURCE  SELECT_CATALOG_ROLE  SNMPAGENT
SYSTEM	MANAGER	DBA user name with DBA database role.
OUTLN	OUTLN	User name with DBA database role.
DBSNMP	DBSNMP	User name with CONNECT, RESOURCE, and SNMPAGENT database roles. Run CATNSNMP.SQL if you want to drop this role and user.
MTSSYS	MTSSYS	Oracle Services for Microsoft Transaction Server user name.
SCOTT	TIGER	User name with CONNECT and RESOURCE database roles.
DEMO	DEMO	User name with CONNECT and RESOURCE database roles. Oracle Corporation recommends that you drop this account if it is not needed.
CTXSYS	CTXSYS	Oracle interMedia Text user name with CONNECT and RESOURCE database roles.
MDSYS	MDSYS  Note: Users should change password after installation.	Oracle Spatial and interMedia Audio, Video, Locator, and Image administrator user name.Created by user at installation.
ORDSYS	ORDSYS  Note: Users should change password after installation.	Oracle interMedia Audio, Video, Locator, and Image; Oracle Time Series and Oracle Visual Information Retrieval administrator user name with CONNECT and RESOURCE database roles.
ORDPLUGIN	ORDPLUGIN  Note: Users should change password after installation.	Oracle interMedia Audio and Video user name allowing non-native plug-in formats for one session.  Grants the following permissions:  create session  connect resource  create library  create procedure  create any operator  create any index type  create any type  create any table  drop any index type  drop any operator  drop any type  create public synonym  drop public synonym
COMDEMO	COMDEMO	Oracle COM Automation option user name with DBA and RESOURCE database roles.

Connecting to the Database From a Remote Machine

When connecting to the starter database from a remote machine as SYS or INTERNAL, you must use a different password from the one described above when logging on as SYSDBA. This is because the Password file enables database access in this situation and it requires the password ORACLE for this purpose.

Connecting Without a Password

If you installed Oracle8i Enterprise Edition, your Windows NT user name was added to a special Windows NT local group called ORA_DBA. Membership in this group enables you to log in as INTERNAL to your Oracle database without entering a password. See "Automatically Enabling Operating System Authentication During Installation" for more information.

System Identifier and Database Name

Starting with release 8.1.5, users must enter a database name of their choosing during installation. The SID name defaults from the name chosen for the database, but can be changed later. In previous releases, the SID and database name were set automatically during installation of each Oracle database.

A SID is a unique name for an Oracle database instance. The SID can be up to 64 alphanumeric characters long. A database name (identified by the DB_NAME parameter in your INIT.ORA initialization parameter file) is a unique name for the Oracle database.

For example, if the SID and database name for an Oracle database are ORCLx, each database file is located in the ORACLE_BASE\ORADATA\ORCLx directory and the initialization parameter file is located in the ORACLE_BASE\ADMIN\ORCLx \PFILE directory. The directory ORCLx is named after the DB_NAME parameter in your initialization parameter file.

Multiple Oracle homes enable you to have multiple, active Oracle databases installed on a single computer. Each database requires a unique SID and database name. 

Global Database Name

The global database name--a name comprised of the database name and database domain--is used to identify the database, whereas the SID identifies the Oracle8i instance that references the database.

A database's global database name and location within a network structure is created by setting both the DB_NAME and DB_DOMAIN parameters before database creation. See the Oracle8i Administrator's Guide for more information.

Tablespaces

An Oracle database is divided into smaller logical areas of space known as tablespaces. Each tablespace corresponds to one or more physical data files.

The tablespaces in the Oracle database contain the following types of data:

Tablespace	Contains...
SYSTEM	The data dictionary, including definitions of tables, views, and stored procedures needed by the Oracle database. Information in this area is maintained automatically. The SYSTEM tablespace is present in all Oracle databases.
USERS	Your application data. As you create and enter data into tables, you fill this space with your data.
TEMP	Temporary tables and/or indexes created during the processing of your SQL statement. You may need to expand this tablespace if you are executing a SQL statement that involves a lot of sorting, such as ANALYZE COMPUTE STATISTICS on a very large table, or the constructs GROUP BY, ORDER BY, or DISTINCT.
RBS	Rolling back transactions that fail to complete normally. You may need to expand this tablespace if you have long-running or high-data-volume transactions.
INDX	Indexes associated with the data in the USERS tablespace.
OEM_REPOSITORY	Repository for Oracle Enterprise Manager.

Additional Information: See the chapter "Tablespaces and Datafiles" of Oracle8i Concepts and the chapter "Managing Tablespaces" of the Oracle8i Administrator's Guide.

Data Files

Data files contain the contents of logical database structures such as tables and indexes. One or more data files form a logical unit of storage called a tablespace. A data file can be associated with only one tablespace, and only one database.

The starter database contains the following data files located in the ORACLE_BASE\ORADATA\DB_NAME directory:

Data file	Tablespace location
SYSTEM01.DBF	SYSTEM
USERS01.DBF	USERS
TEMP01.DBF	TEMP
RBS01.DBF	RBS
INDX01.DBF	INDX
OEMREP01.DBF	OEM_REPOSITORY

Additional Information: See the chapter "Tablespaces and Datafiles" of Oracle8i Concepts and the chapter "Managing Datafiles" of the Oracle8i Administrator's Guide.

Initialization Parameter File

The starter database contains one initialization parameter file located in the ORACLE_BASE\ADMIN\DB_NAME\PFILE directory:

Initialization parameter file	Description
INIT.ORA	The parameter file INIT.ORA must exist for an instance to start. A parameter file is a text file that contains a list of instance configuration parameters. The starter database INIT.ORA file has preconfigured parameters. No edits are required to this file in order to use the starter database.

Additional Information: See Appendix B, "Oracle8i Database Specifications for Windows NT" of this guide. This appendix lists the Oracle database-specific initialization parameters for Windows NT and their default values. See Oracle8i Reference for more information on initialization parameters.

Redo Log Files

The starter database contains four redo log files located in the ORACLE_BASE\ORADATA\DB_NAME directory:

Database Files	Disk Size	Description
REDO01.LOG  REDO02.LOG  REDO03.LOG  REDO04.LOG	1 MB  1 MB  1 MB  1 MB	Redo log files hold a record of all changes made to data in the database buffer cache. If an instance failure occurs, the redo log files are used to recover the modified data that was in memory.  Redo log files are used in a cyclical fashion. For example, if four files constitute the online redo log, the first file is filled, then the second file, then the third file, and then the forth file. The first file is then re-used and filled, the second file is re-used and filled, and so on.

Additional Information: See the chapters "Preparing for Media Recovery" and "Performing Media Recovery" of the Oracle8i Backup and Recovery Guide.

Control File

The starter database contains two control files located in the ORACLE_BASE\ ORADATA\DB_NAME directory:

Control Files	Description
CONTROL01.CTL  CONTROL02.CTL	A control file is an administrative file required to start and run the database. The control file records the physical structure of the database. For example, a control file contains the database name, and the names and locations of the database's data files and redo log files.

Note: Oracle Corporation recommends that you keep at least two control files (on separate physical drives) for each database and set the CONTROL_FILES initialization parameter to list each control file. See the chapter "Managing Control Files" of the Oracle8i Administrator's Guide for information on setting this initialization parameter value.

Rollback Segments

Rollback segments record the old values of data changed by each transaction (whether or not committed). Every database contains one or more rollback segments, which are portions of the database that record the actions of transactions in the event that a transaction is rolled back. Rollback segments are used to provide read consistency, to roll back transactions, and to recover the database.

The starter database contains the following rollback segments:

Rollback Segment	Contained in this Tablespace...	Used by
SYSTEM	SYSTEM	SYS
RB_TEMP	SYSTEM (private)	SYS
RB1 through RB16	RBS	PUBLIC (a pool of rollback segments that any instance requiring a rollback segment can use)

Data Dictionary

The data dictionary is a protected collection of tables and views containing reference information about the database, its structures, and its users. The data stored in the dictionary includes the following:

• Names of the Oracle database users

 
• Privileges and roles granted to each user

 
• Names and definitions of schema objects (including tables, views, snapshots, indexes, clusters, synonyms, sequences, procedures, functions, and package

 
• Integrity constraints

 
• Space allocation for database objects

 
• Auditing information, such as who accessed or updated various objects

Additional Information: See the chapter "The Data Dictionary" of Oracle8i Concepts and the chapter "Static Data Dictionary Views" of Oracle8i Reference.

Creating Control, Data, and Log Files on Remote Computers

Although it is possible for Oracle to access database files on remote computers using Universal Naming Convention (UNC), it is not recommended because of performance and network reliability concerns.

UNC is a PC format for specifying the location of resources on a local area network. UNC uses the following format:

\\server-name\shared-resource-pathname

For example, to access the file SYSTEM01.DBF in the directory C:\ORACLE\ORA81\ORADATA\ORCL on the shared server ARGON, you reference the file as:

\\ARGON\ORACLE\ORA81\ORADATA\ORCL\SYSTEM01.DBF

Note that the location of archive log files cannot be specified using UNC. If you set the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST initialization parameter to a UNC specification, the database does not start and you receive the following errors:

ORA-00256: error occurred in translating archive text string '\meldell\rmdrive'
ORA-09291: sksachk: invalid device specified for archive destination 
OSD-04018: Unable to access the specified directory or device
O/S-Error: (OS 2) The system cannot find the file specified

Ensure that you set the LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST initialization parameter to a mapped drive.

Note: An ORA-00256 error also occurs if you enter:  \\\meldell\rmdrive or  \\\meldell\\rmdrive Control files required the additional backslashes for release 8.0.4, but redo files and data files did not.

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