Preface

This Oracle Clinical Administrator's Guide describes activities that may be required of a system or database administrator to maintain an Oracle Clinical site. For installation and one-time tasks, see the Oracle Clinical Installation Guide. For information on configuring Remote Data Capture Onsite (RDC Onsite), see the Oracle Clinical Remote Data Capture Onsite Administrator's Guide.

This preface contains the following topics:

• Audience

• Documentation Accessibility

• Finding Information and Patches on My Oracle Support

• Finding Oracle Documentation

• Related Documents

• Conventions

Audience

To administer an Oracle Clinical installation you need to be able to carry out the tasks listed below. If you lack the necessary skills, one alternative is to engage Oracle Consulting.

Oracle Database Administrators

To perform Oracle Clinical database tasks, you should have a level of knowledge equivalent to what is taught in Oracle's DBA Architecture and Administration course. You must be able to read, edit, and run SQL scripts and review log files. For ongoing administration, additional DBA training is essential.

System Administrators

A general understanding of the operating system and networking is required, including:

• For UNIX:

  • Creating and managing user accounts and groups

  • Installing Oracle RDBMS software and patches

  • Identifying space on a file system for Oracle database tablespaces

  • Setting and using environment variables

• For Microsoft Windows:

  • Creating and managing user accounts and groups

  • Creating and managing services

  • Installing Oracle software

  • Managing settings through the Control Panel applets

  • Adding network printers

Documentation Accessibility

For information about Oracle's commitment to accessibility, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program website at http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=docacc.

Access to Oracle Support

Oracle customers have access to electronic support through My Oracle Support. For information, visit http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=info or visit http://www.oracle.com/pls/topic/lookup?ctx=acc&id=trs if you are hearing impaired.

Finding Information and Patches on My Oracle Support

Your source for the latest information about Oracle Clinical is Oracle Support's self-service Web site My Oracle Support (formerly MetaLink).

Before you install and use Oracle Clinical, always visit the My Oracle Support Web site for the latest information, including alerts, White Papers, installation verification (smoke) tests, bulletins, and patches.

Creating a My Oracle Support Account

You must register at My Oracle Support to obtain a user name and password account before you can enter the Web site.

To register for My Oracle Support:

1. Open a Web browser to https://support.oracle.com.

2. Click the Register link to create a My Oracle Support account.

3. Follow the instructions on the registration page.

Signing In to My Oracle Support

To sign in to My Oracle Support:

1. Open a Web browser to https://support.oracle.com.

2. Click Sign In.

3. Enter your user name and password.

4. Click Go to open the My Oracle Support home page.

Finding Information on My Oracle Support

There are many ways to find information on My Oracle Support.

Searching by Article ID

The fastest way to search for information, including alerts, White Papers, installation verification (smoke) tests, and bulletins is by the article ID number, if you know it.

To search by article ID:

1. Sign in to My Oracle Support at https://support.oracle.com.

2. Locate the Search box in the upper right corner of the My Oracle Support page.

3. Click the sources icon to the left of the search box, and then select Article ID from the list.

4. Enter the article ID number in the text box.

5. Click the magnifying glass icon to the right of the search box (or press the Enter key) to execute your search.

   The Knowledge page displays the results of your search. If the article is found, click the link to view the abstract, text, attachments, and related products.

Searching by Product and Topic

You can use the following My Oracle Support tools to browse and search the knowledge base:

• Product Focus — On the Knowledge page under Select Product, type part of the product name and the system immediately filters the product list by the letters you have typed. (You do not need to type "Oracle.") Select the product you want from the filtered list and then use other search or browse tools to find the information you need.

• Advanced Search — You can specify one or more search criteria, such as source, exact phrase, and related product, to find information. This option is available from the Advanced link on almost all pages.

Finding Patches on My Oracle Support

Be sure to check My Oracle Support for the latest patches, if any, for your product. You can search for patches by patch ID or number, or by product or family.

To locate and download a patch:

1. Sign in to My Oracle Support at https://support.oracle.com.

2. Click the Patches & Updates tab. The Patches & Updates page opens and displays the Patch Search region. You have the following options:

   • In the Patch Name or Number field, enter the number of the patch you want. (This number is the same as the primary bug number fixed by the patch.) This option is useful if you already know the patch number.

   • To find a patch by product name, release, and platform, click the Product or Family link to enter one or more search criteria.

3. Click Search to execute your query. The Patch Search Results page opens.

4. Click the patch ID number. The system displays details about the patch. In addition, you can view the Read Me file before downloading the patch.

5. Click Download. Follow the instructions on the screen to download, save, and install the patch files.

Finding Oracle Documentation

The Oracle Web site contains links to all Oracle user and reference documentation. You can view or download a single document or an entire product library.

Finding Oracle Health Sciences Documentation

To get user documentation for Oracle Health Sciences applications, go to the Oracle Health Sciences documentation page at:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/documentation/hsgbu-clinical-407519.html

Note:

Always check the Oracle Health Sciences Documentation page to ensure you have the latest updates to the documentation.

Finding Other Oracle Documentation

To get user documentation for other Oracle products:

1. Go to the following Web page:

   http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/index.html

   Alternatively, you can go to http://www.oracle.com, point to the Support tab, and then click Documentation.

2. Scroll to the product you need and click the link.

3. Click the link for the documentation you need.

Related Documents

This section lists the documents in the Oracle Clinical documentation set, followed by their part number. The most recent version of each guide is posted on the Oracle Web site; see "Finding Oracle Health Sciences Documentation".

• Oracle Clinical Installation Guide (Part E18817)

• Oracle Clinical Administrator's Guide (Part E18818)

• Oracle Clinical Getting Started (Part E18819)

• Oracle Clinical Creating a Study (Part E18820)

• Oracle Clinical Conducting a Study (Part E18821)

• Oracle Clinical Application Programming Interface Guide (Part E18866)

• Oracle Clinical Remote Data Capture Onsite Administrator's Guide (Part E18823)

• Oracle Clinical Remote Data Capture Onsite User's Guide (Part E18822)

• Oracle Clinical Remote Data Capture Classic Data Entry User's Guide (Part E18824)

The release notes and the release content document are also posted in the Oracle Health Sciences documentation library.

In addition, Oracle Clinical customers can request a copy of the Oracle Clinical Stable Interface Technical Reference Manual from Oracle Support.

Conventions

The following text conventions are used in this document:

Convention	Meaning
boldface	Boldface type indicates graphical user interface elements associated with an action, or terms defined in text or the glossary.
italic	Italic type indicates book titles, emphasis, or placeholder variables for which you supply particular values.
monospace	Monospace type indicates commands within a paragraph, URLs, code in examples, text that appears on the screen, or text that you enter.