Initialization Parameters

Autonomous Database configures database initialization parameters automatically when you provision a database. You do not need to set any initialization parameters to start using your service. But, you can modify some parameters if you need to.

List of Initialization Parameters that can be Modified

APPROX_FOR_AGGREGATION
APPROX_FOR_COUNT_DISTINCT
APPROX_FOR_PERCENTILE
BLANK_TRIMMING (Allowed only with ALTER SYSTEM)
CLIENT_PREFETCH_ROWS (see CLIENT_PREFETCH_ROWS
CONSTRAINTS (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)
CONTAINER (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)
CONTAINER_DATA
CURRENT_SCHEMA (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)
CURSOR_INVALIDATION (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)
CURSOR_SHARING
DDL_LOCK_TIMEOUT
DEFAULT_COLLATION (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)
DEFAULT_CREDENTIAL (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)
EDITION (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)
FIXED_DATE (Allowed only with ALTER SYSTEM)
IGNORE_SESSION_SET_PARAM_ERRORS
ISOLATION_LEVEL (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)
JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES (Allowed only with ALTER SYSTEM)
LDAP_DIRECTORY_ACCESS
LOAD_WITHOUT_COMPILE 
MAX_IDLE_TIME (Allowed only with ALTER SYSTEM)
MAX_STRING_SIZE (See Data Types for details)
NLS_CALENDAR
NLS_COMP
NLS_CURRENCY
NLS_DATE_FORMAT
NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE
NLS_DUAL_CURRENCY
NLS_ISO_CURRENCY
NLS_LANGUAGE
NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS
NLS_NCHAR_CONV_EXCP
NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS
NLS_SORT
NLS_TERRITORY
NLS_TIME_FORMAT
NLS_TIME_TZ_FORMAT
NLS_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT
NLS_TIMESTAMP_TZ_FORMAT
OPTIMIZER_CAPTURE_SQL_QUARANTINE
OPTIMIZER_IGNORE_HINTS
OPTIMIZER_IGNORE_PARALLEL_HINTS
OPTIMIZER_MODE
OPTIMIZER_REAL_TIME_STATISTICS
OPTIMIZER_USE_SQL_QUARANTINE
PLSCOPE_SETTINGS
PLSQL_CCFLAGS
PLSQL_DEBUG
PLSQL_OPTIMIZE_LEVEL
PLSQL_WARNINGS
QUERY_REWRITE_INTEGRITY
READ_ONLY (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)
RECYCLE_BIN 
REMOTE_DEPENDENCIES_MODE
RESULT_CACHE_INTEGRITY (See RESULT_CACHE_INTEGRITY)
RESULT_CACHE_MODE (See RESULT_CACHE_MODE)
SESSION_EXIT_ON_PACKAGE_STATE_ERROR (Allowed only with ALTER SYSTEM) See SESSION_EXIT_ON_PACKAGE_STATE_ERROR
SKIP_UNUSABLE_INEDEXES
SQL_TRACE (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION) See Perform SQL Tracing on Autonomous Database for details
SQL_TRANSLATION_PROFILE (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)
STATISTICS_LEVEL (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)
SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE (See SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE Select a Time Zone for SYSDATE on Autonomous Database)
TIMEZONE (Allowed only with ALTER SESSION)

For more information on initialization parameters see Oracle Database Reference. For more information on TIME_ZONE, see Oracle Database SQL Language Reference.

For more information on OPTIMIZER_IGNORE_HINTS and OPTIMIZER_IGNORE_PARALLEL_HINTS, see Manage Optimizer Statistics on Autonomous Database.

SESSION_EXIT_ON_PACKAGE_STATE_ERROR
SESSION_EXIT_ON_PACKAGE_STATE_ERROR enables or disables special handling for stateful PL/SQL packages running in a session.
SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE Select a Time Zone for SYSDATE on Autonomous Database
SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE enables special handling in a session for the date and time value returned in calls to SYSDATE and SYSTIMESTAMP.

Parent topic: Notes for Users Migrating from Other Oracle Databases

SESSION_EXIT_ON_PACKAGE_STATE_ERROR

SESSION_EXIT_ON_PACKAGE_STATE_ERROR enables or disables special handling for stateful PL/SQL packages running in a session.

Property	Description
Parameter type	Boolean
Default Value	`FALSE`
Modifiable	`ALTER SYSTEM`
Range of values	`TRUE` \| `FALSE`

SESSION_EXIT_ON_PACKAGE_STATE_ERROR specifies the handling for a stateful PL/SQL package running in a session. When such a package undergoes modification, such as during planned maintenance for Oracle-supplied objects, the sessions that have an active instantiation of the package receive the following error when they attempt to run the package:

ORA-4068 existing state of package has been discarded

However, the application code that receives the ORA-4068 error may not be equipped to handle this error with its retry logic.

Setting SESSION_EXIT_ON_PACKAGE_STATE_ERROR to TRUE provides different handling for this case. When SESSION_EXIT_ON_PACKAGE_STATE_ERROR is TRUE, instead of just raising the ORA-4068 error when the package state is discarded, the session immediately exits. This can be advantageous because many applications are able to handle session termination by automatically and transparently re-establishing the connection.

Parent topic: Initialization Parameters

SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE Select a Time Zone for SYSDATE on Autonomous Database

SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE enables special handling in a session for the date and time value returned in calls to SYSDATE and SYSTIMESTAMP.

Depending on the value of SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE, you see either the date and time based on the default Autonomous Database time zone, Coordinated Universal Time ‎(UTC)‎, or based on the time zone that you set in your database.

Property	Description
Parameter type	Boolean
Default Value	`FALSE`
Modifiable	`ALTER SESSION`, `ALTER SYSTEM`
Range of values	`TRUE` \| `FALSE`

Default Autonomous Database Time Zone

The default Autonomous Database time zone is Coordinated Universal Time ‎(UTC)‎ and by default calls to SYSDATE and SYSTIMESTAMP return the date and time in UTC.

In order to change database time zone, you can run the following statement. This example sets the database time zone to UTC-5.

ALTER DATABASE SET TIME_ZONE='-05:00';

Note:

You must restart the Autonomous Database instance for the change to take effect.

After you set the database time zone, by default SYSDATE and SYSTIMESTAMP continue to return date and time in UTC (SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE is FALSE by default). If you set SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE to TRUE in a session, SYSDATE and SYSTIMESTAMP return the database time zone.

See Setting the Database Time Zone for more information on using the SET TIME_ZONE clause with ALTER DATABASE.

Using SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE in a Session

When SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE is FALSE in a session, calls to SYSDATE and SYSTIMESTAMP return values based on the default Autonomous Database time zone, Coordinated Universal Time ‎(UTC)‎.

When SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE is TRUE in a session, calls to SYSDATE or SYSTIMESTAMP return the date and time based on the database time zone.

Note:

Setting SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE to TRUE only affects the use of SYSDATE and SYSTIMESTAMP as operators in application SQL (for example, in queries, DML, and CTAS operations). When using this parameter, it is recommended that your client/session timezone matches your database timezone.

Example

The following example returns dates and times for two different time zones, based on the SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE parameter value:

SQL> SELECT DBTIMEZONE FROM DUAL;

DBTIMEZONE
_____________
-05:00

SQL> ALTER SESSION SET SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE=FALSE;

Session altered.

SQL> SELECT SYSTIMESTAMP FROM DUAL;

SYSTIMESTAMP
______________________________________
27-JAN-22 06.59.45.708082000 PM GMT

SQL> ALTER SESSION SET SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE=TRUE;

Session altered.

SQL> SELECT SYSTIMESTAMP FROM DUAL;

SYSTIMESTAMP
_________________________________________
27-JAN-22 02.14.47.578946000 PM -05:00

Note:

When a SYSDATE or SYSTIMESTAMP query is executed in SQL Worksheet of Database Actions, the time and date value that is returned is in UTC (when SYSDATE_AT_DBTIMEZONE parameter is set to TRUE or FALSE). To obtain the database time zone when working in Database Actions, use TO_CHAR() as follows:

SQL> SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSTIMESTAMP,'YYYY-MM-DD"T"HH24:MI:SS TZH":"TZM') FROM DUAL;

TO_CHAR(SYSTIMESTAMP,'YYYY-MM-DD"T"HH24:MI:SSTZH":"TZM')
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2022-01-27T14:15:00 -05:00

Parent topic: Initialization Parameters