Before You Begin

This guide is your primary source of introductory, post-installation, configuration, and administration information for using the products Oracle8i Enterprise Edition and Oracle8i for Windows NT. This guide incorporates information on both Oracle8i Enterprise Edition and Oracle8i for Windows NT. Differences between the two versions are noted where appropriate.

Specific topics discussed are:

• Prerequisites

• Intended Audience

• How This Guide Is Organized

• Documentation and Code Conventions

Prerequisites

This guide assumes that you are familiar with the following:

• Windows NT, and have installed and tested it on your computer system

• Object-relational database management concepts

  Additional Information: If you are not familiar with object-relational database management concepts, see Oracle8i Concepts.

Intended Audience

This guide is necessary for anyone installing, configuring, or administering Oracle8i Enterprise Edition and Oracle8i for Windows NT.

Note: This guide describes only the features of Oracle8i Enterprise Edition and Oracle8i software that apply to the Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows 2000 operating systems. For information about Oracle8i Enterprise Edition and Oracle8i that is applicable to all operating systems, see the other documentation included in your package, listed in Appendix C of Oracle8i Installation Guide for Windows NT.

How This Guide Is Organized

This guide is organized as follows:

Chapter 1, "Oracle8i Differences between Windows NT and UNIX"

Provides a list of differences between Oracle8i on Windows NT and on UNIX.

Chapter 2, "Database Tools Overview"

Provides a list of preferred and optional tools you can use to perform common database administration tasks.

Chapter 3, "Multiple Oracle Homes and Optimal Flexible Architecture"

Describes how to use multiple Oracle homes and an Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) configuration for placement of database files. Read this chapter before installing Oracle8i Enterprise Edition or Oracle8i for Windows NT.

Chapter 4, "Using Oracle8i Directory Server Features with Active Directory"

Describes Oracle integration with the Active Directory.

Chapter 5, "Post-Installation Configuration Tasks"

Describes or references the configuration tasks you may need to perform before using such products as Oracle interMedia.

Chapter 6, "Post-Installation Database Creation"

Describes how to create a database after installation with either the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant or the BUILD_DB.SQL script.

Chapter 7, "Administering a Database"

Describes how to administer a database.

Chapter 8, "Authenticating Database Users with Windows"

Describes how to authenticate Oracle8i database users with Windows NT.

Chapter 9, "Monitoring a Database"

Describes how to monitor the Oracle8i database.

Chapter 10, "Tuning Windows NT to Optimize Oracle8i"

Describes how to tune the Windows NT Server operating system to ensure that your Oracle8i database is running in the best possible environment.

Chapter 11, "Backing Up and Recovering Database Files"

Provides recommendations and procedures for backing up and recovering database files.

Chapter 12, "Developing Applications"

Describes Windows NT-specific issues for application developers.

Appendix A, "Directory Structures"

Describes the default directory structures created when you install Oracle components.

Appendix B, "Oracle8i Database Specifications for Windows NT"

Describes Oracle8i database initialization parameters, how to edit them, and parameters without Windows NT-specific values. This appendix also explains how to calculate database limits.

Appendix C, "Oracle8i Configuration Parameters and the Registry"

Describes the use of the registry for various Oracle components. In addition, this chapter lists the recommended values and ranges for configuration parameters.

Appendix D, "Storing Tablespaces on Raw Partitions"

Describes how to create raw partitions for database tablespaces.

Appendix E, "Net8 Configuration"

Describes configuration for the Windows NT, Windows 95 or 98 platforms.

Appendix F, "SNMP Support"

Describes Oracle SNMP Agent and SNMP support.

Appendix G, "Error Messages"

Lists the error messages, causes, and corrective actions that are specific to the operation of Oracle8i for Windows NT.

Glossary

Provides brief descriptions of terms used throughout this guide.

Documentation and Code Conventions

The following conventions are used in this guide:

Convention	Example	Meaning
All uppercase plain	C:\ORACLE\ORA81	Indicates command names, SQL reserved words, and keywords, as in ALTER DATABASE. All uppercase plain is also used for directory names and file names.
Italic	Used to indicate a variable: file name Used to indicate the title of a guide.	Indicates a value that you must provide. For example, if a command asks you to type file name, you must type the actual name of the file.
Square brackets [ ]	X:\[PATHNAME]\ORACLE\ HOME_NAME	Encloses optional items. For example, when you create an OFA-compliant Oracle home directory, you can place an optional pathname before the \ORACLE pathname. Square brackets also indicate a function key, for example [Enter].
Choose Start >	Choose Start > Programs > Oracle - HOME_NAME > Network Administration > Net8 Assistant	How to start a program. For example, to start Net8 Assistant, you must click the Start button on the taskbar and then choose Programs, Oracle - HOME_NAME > Network Administration > Net8 Assistant.
C:\>	C:\ORACLE\ORADATA>	Represents the Windows NT command prompt of the current hard disk drive. Your prompt reflects the subdirectory in which you are working. Referred to as the MS-DOS command prompt in this guide.
Backslash (\) before a directory name	\ORADATA	Indicates that the directory is a subdirectory of the root directory.
ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_BASE	Go to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\RDBMS\ADMIN directory	In releases prior to 8.1, when you installed Oracle8i Enterprise Edition or Oracle8i for Windows NT, all subdirectories were located under a top level Oracle home directory, that by default was: C:\ORANT for Windows NT C:\ORAWIN95 for Windows 95/98 or whatever you may have called your Oracle home. In this Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA)-compliant release, all subdirectories are no longer under a top level ORACLE_HOME directory. There is now a new top-level directory called ORACLE_BASE that by default is C:\ORACLE. If you install Oracle8i Enterprise Edition or Oracle8i for Windows NT release 8.1.6 on a clean computer (that is, there is no other Oracle software on the computer), the default settings for the first Oracle home directory is C:\ORACLE\ORA81. If you run Oracle Universal Installer again and install release 8.2.x, the second Oracle home directory is called \ORA82. These Oracle home directories are located directly under ORACLE_BASE. All directory path examples in this guide follow OFA conventions.
%ORACLE_HOME%	SQL> @%ORACLE_HOME%\ADMIN\DB_NAME\ADHOC\CATALOG.SQL	In SQL*Plus commands, you may see %ORACLE_HOME%. SQL*Plus is able to locate your Oracle Home directory using the %ORACLE_HOME% variable. This convention can be used in Server Manager, SQL*Plus, Export Utility, and Import Utility.
HOME_NAME	OracleHOME_NAMETNSListener	Represents the Oracle home name. The home name can be up to sixteen alphanumeric characters. The only special character allowed in the home name is the underscore.
HOMEID	HOME0, HOME1, HOME2	Represents a unique registry subkey for each Oracle home directory in which you install products. A new HOMEID is created and incremented each time you install products to a different Oracle home directory on one computer. Each HOMEID contains its own configuration parameter settings for installed Oracle products.
Symbols	period . comma , hyphen - semicolon ; colon : equal sign = backslash \ single quote ' double quote " parentheses ()	Symbols other than brackets and vertical bars must be entered in commands exactly as shown.