B.2 Directory Structures for Oracle RAC

The sample Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA)-compliant database has a hierarchical directory tree of folders.

Table B-1 Directory Structure for a Sample OFA-Compliant Environment

Directory Description
%ORACLE_BASE%
C:\app\oracle

The default ORACLE_BASE directory, where the software was installed by the Oracle Installation user

%ORACLE_BASE%\installation_type
C:\app\oracle\product\12.2.0

The type of installation under the Oracle base directory. For example, when installing Oracle Database 12c release 2 (12.2), the value for installation type is product\12.2.0\db.

%ORACLE_HOME%
(%ORACLE_BASE%\installation_type\Home_name)

The location in which the Oracle Database software is installed. You can also choose to add a counter, if you have multiple installations of the software. For example, if you are creating a second Oracle home for the Oracle Database 12c release 2 (12.2) software, then the path is as follows:

C:\app\oracle\product\12.2.0\dbhome_2

Note that the Oracle database home is under the Oracle base directory path. An Oracle Clusterware directory must not be under the Oracle base directory path where the database executable files are located.

%ORACLE_HOME%\database

The directory in which the local initialization parameter file is stored for the database.

%ORACLE_BASE%\admin
C:\app\oracle\admin

The administrative directory. Note that with Oracle Database 11g and later releases, bdump, cdump, and udump files are relocated to the directory associated with %ADR_BASE%.

%ORACLE_BASE%\admin\db_unique_name

The database unique name; this is the same as dbname when the database name is 8 or fewer characters in length. For example, if your database name is sales, the directory path is as follows:

C:\app\oracle\admin\sales
%ORACLE_BASE%\admin\db_unique_name\hdump
%ORACLE_BASE%\admin\db_unique_name\pfile

The dump destinations for the database server.

%ADR_BASE%

This directory path is set by the initialization parameter DIAGNOSTIC_DEST, and the path for the Automatic Diagnostic Repository must be located on the same location available to all the nodes.

By default, this path is a subset of the Oracle base directory, in the following path:

%ORACLE_BASE%\diag\
%ADR_BASE%\bdump
%ADR_BASE%\cdump
%ADR_BASE%\udump

Automatic Diagnostic Repository dump destination trace files.

Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster home (Grid home)

An OFA-compliant path for the Oracle Clusterware home. The default value isC:\app\12.2.0\grid.

During the Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a cluster installation, Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) software is installed.

Grid_home\bin

The subtree for Oracle Clusterware and Oracle ASM executable files.

Grid_home\network

The subtree for Oracle Net Services configuration files and utilities.