DROP PLUGGABLE DATABASE
Purpose
Use the DROP PLUGGABLE DATABASE statement to drop a pluggable database (PDB). The PDB can be a traditional PDB, an application container, an application seed, or an application PDB.
When you drop a PDB, the control file of the multitenant container database (CDB) is modified to remove all references to the dropped PDB and its data files. Archived logs and backups associated with the dropped PDB are not deleted. You can delete them using Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN), or you can retain them in case you subsequently want to perform point-in-time recovery of the PDB.
Caution:
You cannot roll back a DROP PLUGGABLE DATABASE statement.
Prerequisites
You must be connected to a CDB.
To drop a traditional PDB or an application container, the current container must be the root, you must be authenticated AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER, and the SYSDBA or SYSOPER privilege must be either granted to you commonly, or granted to you locally in the root and locally in traditional PDB or application container you want to drop. The application container must be empty, that is, it must not contain an application seed or any application PDBs.
To drop an application seed, the current container must be the root or the application root, you must be authenticated AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER, and the SYSDBA or SYSOPER privilege must be either granted to you commonly, or granted to you locally in the root or application root.
To drop an application PDB, the current container must be the root or the application root, you must be authenticated AS SYSDBA or AS SYSOPER, and the SYSDBA or SYSOPER privilege must be either granted to you commonly, or granted to you locally in the root or application root, and locally in the application PDB you want to drop.
To specify KEEP DATAFILES (the default), the PDB you want to drop must be unplugged.
To specify INCLUDING DATAFILES, the PDB you want to drop must be in mounted mode or it must be unplugged.
Syntax
drop_pluggable_database::=
Semantics
pdb_name
Specify the name of the PDB you want to drop. You cannot drop the seed (PDB$SEED). However, you can drop an application seed.
KEEP DATAFILES
Specify KEEP DATAFILES to retain the data files associated with the PDB after the PDB is dropped. The temp file for the PDB is deleted because it is no longer needed. This is the default.
Keeping data files may be useful in scenarios where a PDB that is unplugged from one CDB is plugged into another CDB, with both CDBs sharing storage devices.
INCLUDING DATAFILES
Specify INCLUDING DATAFILES to delete the data files associated with the PDB being dropped. The temp file for the PDB is also deleted.
Restriction on Dropping SNAPSHOT COPY PDBs
If a PDB was created with the SNAPSHOT COPY clause, then you must specify INCLUDING DATAFILES when you drop the PDB.
Examples
Dropping a PDB: Example
The following statement drops the PDB pdb1 and its associated data files:
DROP PLUGGABLE DATABASE pdb1 INCLUDING DATAFILES;