1 Overview of Oracle Database Installation

This chapter describes the different installation types of Oracle Database and issues to consider before you install Oracle Database:

1.1 Planning Your Installation

The Oracle Database installation process consists of six steps:

  1. Read the release notes: Read the Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) release notes before you begin the installation. The release notes are available with the platform-specific documentation. The latest version of the release notes is available on Oracle Technology Network at:

    http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/indexes/documentation/index.html

  2. Review the licensing information: Although the installation media in your media pack contain many Oracle components, you are permitted to use only those components for which you have purchased licenses.

    Oracle Support Services does not provide support for components for which licenses have not been purchased.

  3. Plan the installation: This overview chapter describes the Oracle products that you can install and issues that you must consider before starting the installation.

    You also may want to see Appendix G, which covers frequently asked questions about installing Oracle Database components, such as how to install Oracle Database if your site uses Oracle applications or if you need multiple Oracle Database client connections.

    If you plan to perform multiple installations, see Appendix C for information about silent or noninteractive installations using response files, and cloning the Oracle home.

    Oracle Database Client is installed separately. You cannot install Oracle Database Client during an Oracle Database installation.

    Note:

    If you perform a Custom installation, then ensure that you install only the components covered by your license. You can not install Standard Edition using Custom installation.
  4. Complete preinstallation tasks: Chapter 2 describes tasks that you must complete before installing Oracle Database.

  5. Install the software: Use the following sections to install Oracle Database:

    • Chapter 3 describes how to use Oracle Universal Installer to install Oracle Database and Automatic Storage Management, as well as how to clone an Oracle home.

    • Appendix C describes how to perform silent or noninteractive installations using response files, which you may want to use if you need to perform multiple installations of Oracle Database.

    • Appendix D describes how to install and use Oracle components in different languages.

    • Appendix F provides troubleshooting advice in case you encounter problems with the installation.

    • Chapter 6 describes how to remove Oracle Database software.

  6. Complete postinstallation tasks: Chapter 4 describes postinstallation tasks.

  7. Get started using Oracle Database: Use the following sections to get started using Oracle Database:

    • Chapter 5 describes how to check the contents of the installed Oracle Database, how to start the database and various other Oracle tools, and how to locate various files.

    • "Cloning an Oracle Home" describes how you can clone an existing Oracle Database home.

    • Appendix B on the Optimal Flexible Architecture, which is a set of guidelines that ensure reliable Oracle installations that require little maintenance.

    • Appendix D describes globalization support information.

    • Appendix E explains how to manage Oracle Database port numbers.

1.2 New Oracle Products Installed with This Release

The following products are new for Oracle Database 11g Release 1 and installed by default during a database installation:

1.2.1 Oracle Application Express

Oracle Application Express is a tool for rapid development and deployment of Web applications on an Oracle Database installation. It provides the productivity benefits of a desktop database, the security, reliability, and performance of Oracle Database. With little programming or scripting and only a Web browser, you can build reporting and data entry applications on existing tables, views, or data imported from spreadsheets.

1.2.2 Oracle Warehouse Builder

Oracle Warehouse Builder is the only enterprise business intelligence integration design tool that manages the full life-cycle of data and metadata for the Oracle Database. It provides an easy to use graphical environment to rapidly design, deploy, and manage business intelligence systems.

With the Standard and Enterprise Editions of Oracle Database, you can use Oracle Warehouse Builder which enables you to integrate and transform data into high quality information. When you install the Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition of Oracle Database 11g, that installation provides you with components necessary for Oracle Warehouse Builder, including an unpopulated schema, OWB_SYS. Unlock the OWB_SYS schema and install the Oracle Warehouse Builder software on a client computer, as described in Oracle Warehouse Builder Installation and Configuration Guide.

1.2.3 Oracle Configuration Manager

Oracle Configuration Manager is a utility that can be optionally configured when installing the Oracle Database. Oracle Configuration Manager is used to collect client configuration information and upload it to the Oracle repository. This information is uploaded to My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink) Web site, where Global Customer Support can retrieve the information to examine the customer Oracle Home and system setup. When the client configuration data is uploaded on a regular basis, customer support representatives can analyze this data and provide better service to the customers. For example, when a customer logs a service request, they can associate the configuration data directly with that service request. The customer support representative can then view the list of systems associated with the customer and solve problems accordingly.

Some of the benefits of using Oracle Configuration Manager are as follows:

  • Reduces time for resolution of support issues

  • Provides pro-active problem avoidance

  • Improves access to best practices and the Oracle knowledge base

  • Improves understanding of customer's business needs and provides consistent responses and services

1.2.4 Oracle SQL Developer

Oracle SQL Developer is a graphical version of SQL*Plus that gives database developers a convenient way to perform basic tasks. Following are the functions you can perform with Oracle SQL Developer:

  • Browse, create, edit, and delete (drop) database objects

  • Run SQL statements and scripts

  • Create, edit, compile, and debug PL/SQL code

  • Create, edit, and update data

  • Import data, export data, and Data Definition Language (DDL)

  • View and create reports

  • View metadata and data of Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, and MySQL databases

1.2.5 Oracle Database Vault

Oracle Database Vault enables you to secure business data in ways that were not possible before. Database Vault uses a multifactored and multilayered approach to implementing database security. Before you plan the upgrade process, become familiar with the features of Oracle Database Vault. The Oracle Database Vault Administrator's Guide discusses the basic features of Oracle Database Vault. This product is installed with Enterprise Edition only. You need to do an Advanced install with Enterprise Edition.

Note:

You cannot remove or uninstall the Database Vault option. However, you can disable Oracle Database Vault. See Oracle Database Vault Administrator's Guide for more details.

See Also:

1.3 Installation Considerations

This section contains information that you should consider before deciding how to install this product. It contains the following sections:

1.3.1 Installation Differences Between Windows and UNIX Systems

If you are experienced with installing Oracle components in UNIX environments, note that many manual setup tasks required on UNIX are not required on Windows. The key differences between UNIX and Windows installations are:

  • Startup and shutdown services

    With Windows, Oracle Universal Installer creates and sets startup and shutdown services at installation time. With UNIX systems, administrators are responsible for creating these services.

  • Environment variables

    With Windows, Oracle Universal Installer sets environment variables such as PATH, ORACLE_BASE, ORACLE_HOME, and ORACLE_SID in the registry. In UNIX systems, you must manually set these environment variables.

    If you have more than one Oracle home installed, then only the SID of the last Oracle home is set in the registry. See Oracle Universal Installer and OPatch User's Guide for more information about managing Oracle homes.

  • DBA account for database administrators

    With Windows, Oracle Universal Installer creates the ORA_DBA group. In UNIX systems, you must create the DBA account manually.

  • Account for running Oracle Universal Installer

    With Windows, you log in with Administrator privileges. You do not need a separate account. With UNIX systems, you must create this account manually.

See Also:

"Oracle Database Windows/UNIX Differences" appendix in Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows

1.3.2 Recommended File System

Oracle strongly recommends that you install the database software on NTFS because the NTFS file system provides improved security of the database files, trace files, incident data, and so on, stored in the Oracle home.

See Also:

"File Permissions" in Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows for information about the default permissions when using Oracle Universal Installer and Database Configuration Assistant to install the Oracle Database software

1.3.3 Managing User Accounts with User Account Control on Windows Vista

To ensure that only trusted applications run on your computer, Windows Vista provides User Account Control. If you have enabled this security feature, then, depending on how you have configured it, Oracle Universal Installer prompts you for either your consent or your credentials when installing Oracle Database. Provide either the consent or your Windows Administrator credentials as appropriate.

You must have Administrator privileges to run some Oracle tools, such as Database Configuration Assistant, Net Configuration Assistant, and OPatch, or to run any tool or application that writes to any directory within the Oracle home. If User Account Control is enabled, and you are logged in as the local Administrator, then you can successfully run each of these commands in the usual way. However, if you are logged in as "a member of the Administrator group," then you must explicitly invoke these tasks with Windows Administrator privileges. All the Oracle shortcuts which require Administrator privileges will be invoked as "Administrator" automatically when we click the shortcuts. However, if you run the above tools from a Windows command prompt, you need to run them from an admin command prompt. OPatch does not have a shortcut and has to be run from an admin command prompt. See "Starting Database Tools on Windows Vista" in Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows for more information.

To start a command prompt window with Windows Administrator privileges:

  1. On your Windows Vista Desktop, create a shortcut for the command prompt window. An icon for that shortcut appears on the Desktop.

  2. Right click the icon for the newly created shortcut, and specify "Run as administrator."

When you open this window, the title bar reads Administrator: Command Prompt. Commands run from within this window are run with Administrator privileges.

1.3.4 Hardware and Software Certification

The platform-specific hardware and software requirements included in this installation guide were current at the time this guide was published. However, because new platforms and operating system software versions might be certified after this guide is published, review the certification matrix on the My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink) Web site for the most up-to-date list of certified hardware platforms and operating system versions. This Web site also provides compatible client and database versions, patches, and workaround information for bugs. The My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink) Web site is available at:

https://support.oracle.com

You must register online before using My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink). After logging in, click Certify from the top right-hand side of the screen. The Certifications page appears. Other options include Product Availability, Desupport Notices, and Alerts.

1.3.4.1 Third-Party Database Certification for SQL Developer

SQL Developer can be used to view metadata and data of several non-Oracle databases. The following table lists the third-party database certifications.

Database Releases Notes
Microsoft Access Access 97

Access 2000

Access 2003

For any Access release: no JDBC driver needed, but you must ensure read access to the system tables in the.mdb file.
Microsoft SQL Server SQL Server 7

SQL Server 2000

SQL Server 2005

For any Microsoft SQL Server release: JDBC driver jtds-1.2.2.jar required. This is included in the jtds-1.2-dist.zip available from sourceforge.net.
MySQL MySQL 3.x

MySQL 4.x

MySQL 5.x

For any MySQL release: JDBC driver required.

For MySQL 5.x: mysql-connector-java-5.0.4-bin.jar is required, which is included in mysql-connector-java-5.0.4.zip.


1.3.5 Multiple Oracle Home Support

Oracle Database supports multiple Oracle homes. This means that you can install this release or previous releases of the software more than once on the same system, in different Oracle home directories. This allows flexibility in deployment and maintenance of the database software. For example, it allows you to run different versions of the database simultaneously on the same system, or it allows you to upgrade specific database or Automatic Storage Management instances on a system without affecting other running databases. However, when you have installed multiple Oracle Homes on a single system, there is also some added complexity introduced that you may need to take into account to allow these Oracle Homes to coexist.

You must install this product into a new Oracle home directory. You cannot install products from one release of Oracle Database into an Oracle home directory of a different release. For example, you cannot install Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) software into an existing Oracle9i Oracle home directory. If you attempt to install this release into an Oracle home directory that contains software from an earlier Oracle release, the installation fails.

You can install this release more than once on the same system as long as each installation is installed in a separate Oracle home directory.

See Also:

My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink) Note 460054.1 for more details about multiple Oracle home environment issues

1.3.6 Oracle Cluster Synchronization Services

The Oracle Cluster Synchronization Services (CSS) service synchronizes an Automatic Storage Management instance and the database instances that rely on it for database file storage. By default, Oracle Universal Installer does not configure Oracle Cluster Synchronization Services; it only configures it if you select Automatic Storage Management as a storage or recovery option. Because Oracle Cluster Synchronization Services must be running before any Automatic Storage Management instance starts, Oracle Universal Installer configures it to start automatically when the system starts.

For Oracle RAC installations, Oracle Universal Installer installs the CSS service with Oracle Clusterware in a separate Oracle home directory (also called the Oracle Clusterware home directory). For single-instance installations (not Oracle RAC), you can install and run the CSS service from whichever home Automatic Storage Management runs from. Automatic Storage Management can run from either a separate Oracle home or from the same Oracle home as Oracle Database.

If you have installed Oracle Cluster Synchronization Services from the same Oracle home as Oracle Database, use caution when removing Oracle Database software from the system. Before you remove an Oracle home directory that contains Oracle Database, you must either delete the CSS service configuration, or if necessary, reconfigure the CSS service to run from another Oracle home directory.

Note:

If you plan to have more than one Oracle Database installation on a single system and you want to use Automatic Storage Management for database file storage, Oracle recommends that you run the CSS service and the Automatic Storage Management instance from the same Oracle home directory and use different Oracle home directories for the database instances.

1.3.7 Using Network Attached Storage or NFS File Systems

Oracle Database 11g must be able to verify that writes to a disk are completed successfully. NFS file systems, including file systems on NAS devices, may not be able to guarantee that writes to a disk are completed successfully, and this may lead to possible data file corruption.

If a storage device is supported, then you can use it to store Oracle software files, Oracle database files, or both.

See Also:

"Direct NFS Client" for more information

1.3.8 Oracle Universal Installer Overview

Oracle Universal Installer is a Java-based graphical user interface (GUI) tool that enables you to install and remove Oracle software. Oracle Universal Installer provides the following capabilities:

  • Component and suite installations

  • Globalization support

  • Distributed installation support

  • Unattended silent installations using response files

  • Removal of installed components

  • Multiple Oracle homes support

Oracle Universal Installer can run a silent or noninteractive installation of Oracle software using response files. See Appendix C, "Installing and Configuring Oracle Database Using Response Files" for more information.

You must use the Oracle Universal Installer 11g to install components into an Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) Oracle home directory.

Oracle Universal Installer automatically installs the Oracle version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). This version is required to run Oracle Universal Installer and several Oracle assistants. Do not modify the JRE, unless doing so with a patch provided by My Oracle Support (formerly OracleMetaLink). Visit the following site to find Oracle patches to download:

https://support.oracle.com

When Oracle Universal Installer runs, it creates an db_n directory, which keeps track of the components you are installing. Do not modify the contents of this directory. By default, this directory is located at the same directory level as ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME.

See Also:

Oracle Universal Installer and OPatch User's Guide is included in your Oracle Documentation Library and is automatically installed on your hard drive during installation. To access this guide, from the Start menu, select Programs, then Oracle - ORACLE_HOME, then Oracle Installation Products, then Universal Installer Concepts Guide.

1.3.9 Oracle Base Directory

If you install Oracle Database 11g release 1 (11.1) on a computer with no other Oracle software installed, Oracle Universal Installer creates an Oracle base directory for you. If Oracle software is already installed, then one or more Oracle base directories already exist. In the latter case, Oracle Universal Installer offers you a choice of Oracle base directories to install Oracle Database. You should install this release of Oracle Database into the same release used to create the existing Oracle base directory.

In a default Windows installation, the Oracle base directory appears as follows:

DRIVE_LETTER:\app\username

Note:

You can choose to create a new Oracle base directory, even if other Oracle base directories exist on the system.

1.3.10 Oracle Home Directory

This section covers the following topics:

1.3.10.1 Contents of the Oracle Home Environment

The Oracle home directory is located under the Oracle base directory. For example, in a default Windows installation, if you name the Oracle home directory db_1, it appears in the Oracle base directory as follows:

DRIVE_LETTER:\app\username\product\11.1.0\db_1

An Oracle home corresponds to the environment in which Oracle components run. This environment includes the following:

  • Location of installed component files

  • PATH variable pointing to binary files of installed components

  • Registry entries

  • Service names

  • Program groups

Oracle homes also have a name associated with them, which you specify along with their location during installation.

1.3.10.2 Multiple Oracle Home Components

You can install all Oracle components in multiple Oracle homes on the same computer. However, some components can only support one active instance at a time. This means that the current (latest) installation renders the previous one inactive. These components are:

  • Oracle Administration Assistant for Windows

  • Oracle Counters for Windows Performance Monitor

  • Oracle Objects for OLE

  • Oracle Provider for OLE DB

Note:

Oracle Objects for OLE is not supported on Windows x64.

1.3.11 Oracle Database Vault Default Audit Policy and Initialization Parameters

Oracle Database Vault installs a baseline database auditing policy. This policy covers the access control configuration information stored in Database Vault database tables, information stored in Oracle Catalog (rollback segments, tablespaces, and so on), the use of system privileges, and Oracle Label Security configuration. When you install Oracle Database Vault, the security specific database initialization parameters are initialized with default values.

See Also:

Oracle Database Vault Administrator's Guide for more information on the database audit policy

1.4 Migration Considerations

Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) database for 32-bit Windows can be migrated to an Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) database for 64-bit Windows. See the "Migrating an Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) Database" section in the Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows for migration information.

1.5 Oracle Database Installation Methods

You can choose different installation methods to install Oracle Database, which are as follows:

1.5.1 Interactive Installation Methods

When you use the interactive method to install Oracle Database, Oracle Universal Installer displays a series of screens that enable you to specify all of the required information to install the Oracle Database software and optionally create a database.

There are two methods that you can use to install Oracle Database:

  • Basic: Select this installation method if you want to quickly install Oracle Database. This installation method requires minimal user input. It installs the software and optionally creates a general-purpose database using the information that you specify on this window. It is the default installation method.

  • Advanced: Select this installation method if you want to complete any of the following tasks:

    • Perform a custom software installation, in which you choose components individually, or choose a different database configuration.

      The Available Product Components installation window automatically selects the components most customers need in their Oracle Database installation. It also lists several components that are not selected by default, but which you may want to include. To find the listing of available components, select Advanced, and then in the Installation Type window, select Custom.

    • Install Oracle RAC.

    • Upgrade an existing database.

    • Select a database character set or different product languages.

    • Create the EXAMPLE tablespace during the installation.

    • Create a database on a different file system from the software.

    • Configure Automatic Storage Management for database storage.

    • Specify different passwords for administrative schemas.

    • Configure automated backups or Oracle Enterprise Manager notifications.

    • Configure Oracle Configuration Manager.

1.5.2 Automated Installation Methods Using Response Files

By creating a response file and specifying this file when you start Oracle Universal Installer, you can automate some or all of the Oracle Database installation. These automated installation methods are useful if you need to perform multiple installations on similarly configured systems.

When you use a response file, you can run Oracle Universal Installer in the following modes, depending on whether you specify all of the required information or not:

  • Silent Mode: Oracle Universal Installer runs in silent mode if you use a response file that specifies all required information. None of the Oracle Universal Installer screens are displayed.

  • Suppressed Mode: Oracle Universal Installer runs in suppressed mode if you do not specify all required information in the response file. Oracle Universal Installer displays only the screens that prompt for the information that you did not specify.

For more information about these modes and about how to complete an installation using response files, see Appendix C.

1.6 Oracle Database Installation Types

You can choose one of the following installation types when installing Oracle Database 11g:

  • Enterprise Edition: Installs licensable Oracle Database options, and database configuration and management tools in addition to all of the products that are installed during a Standard Edition installation. It also installs products most commonly used for data warehousing and transaction processing.

  • Standard Edition: Installs an integrated set of management tools, full distribution, replication, Web features, and facilities for building business-critical applications.

  • Personal Edition: Installs the same software as the Enterprise Edition installation type, but supports only a single user development and deployment environment that requires full compatibility with Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition. Oracle RAC is not installed with Personal Edition.

  • Custom: Enables you to select the individual components that you want to install from the list of all available components.

    Note:

    • If you perform a Custom installation, then ensure that you install only the components covered by your license. You can not install Standard Edition using Custom installation.

    • The installation process is the same for all the installation types. Ensure that you install the products for which you have a valid license.

    See Also:

1.7 Database Configuration Options

You can create an Oracle database during the installation process. If you choose to create an Oracle database, Oracle Universal Installer uses Oracle Database Configuration Assistant to create it. You can create one of the preconfigured database types, which are designed for a variety of different applications, modify one of the preconfigured database types, or create a customized database to suit your own requirements.

This section describes the following database configuration options:

1.7.1 Preconfigured Database Types

Oracle provides the following preconfigured database types that you can create or customize during the installation:

  • General Purpose/Transaction Processing

  • Data Warehouse

  • Advanced

See the online help provided by either Oracle Universal Installer or Oracle Database Configuration Assistant for a description of these preconfigured database types.

1.7.2 Installation Choices that Affect Database Creation

Oracle Universal Installer runs Oracle Database Configuration Assistant in one of two modes, depending on the choices that you make during the installation:

  • Noninteractive mode

    If you choose the Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, or Personal Edition installation type, and then choose a preconfigured database type, Oracle Universal Installer prompts you for the minimum amount of information required to create a database of the type you choose. It then runs Oracle Database Configuration Assistant as a background process, using the default settings for information not covered during the initial prompting session, to create the database after it installs the software.

    Note:

    Oracle recommends that you use this method to create a database if you have not previously created one.
  • Interactive mode

    If you choose the custom installation type or the advanced database configuration option, Oracle Universal Installer does not prompt you for database information. Instead, it installs the software and then runs Oracle Database Configuration Assistant in interactive mode. Using the screens in Oracle Database Configuration Assistant, you can either modify one of the preconfigured database types or create a custom database and specify precisely how you want to configure it.

    Note:

    If you choose this method to create a database, click the Help button on any of the Oracle Database Configuration Assistant windows for a description of the information that you must specify on that window.

1.7.3 Creating a Database After Installation

If you decide not to create a database during the installation, you can use Oracle Database Configuration Assistant to create one after you have installed the software.

See Also:

Oracle Database 2 Day DBA for more information about using Oracle Database Configuration Assistant to create a database after installation

1.8 Database Storage Options

If you choose to create a database during the installation, you can specify the following storage options for database files:

1.8.1 File System

If you choose the file system option, Oracle Database Configuration Assistant creates the database files in a directory on a file system on your computer. Oracle recommends that the file system you choose be separate from the file systems used by the operating system or the Oracle software. The file system that you choose can be any of the following:

  • A file system on a disk that is physically attached to the system

    If you are creating a database on basic disks that are not logical volumes or RAID devices, Oracle recommends that you follow the Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA) recommendations described in Appendix B and distribute the database files over more than one disk.

  • A file system on a logical volume manager (LVM) volume or a RAID device

    If you are using multiple disks in an LVM or RAID configuration, Oracle recommends that you use the stripe-and-mirror-everything (SAME) methodology to increase performance and reliability. Using this methodology, you do not need to specify more than one file system mounting point for database storage.

If you choose the custom installation type or the advanced database creation option, you can also choose to use the Oracle Managed Files feature with the new database. If you use this feature, you need to only specify the database object name instead of file names when creating or deleting database files.

See Also:

Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for more information about Oracle Managed Files

1.8.2 Automatic Storage Management

Automatic Storage Management is a high-performance storage management solution for Oracle database files that makes most manual I/O performance tuning tasks unnecessary. It simplifies the management of a dynamic database environment, such as creating and laying out databases and managing disk space.

Automatic Storage Management works well with single database installations, multiple database installations, and in Oracle RAC environments. It can be used with databases created in Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1 and later); conversely, Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) databases can use Automatic Storage Management from Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1.0.3 and later). If your site has multiple single-instance databases, you can use Oracle Clusterware to consolidate multiple databases into a single clustered storage pool. Automatic Storage Management manages the storage of all database files, such as redo logs, control files, data pump export files, and so on. However, it does not manage the Oracle Database executable binary files.

In a nutshell, to use Automatic Storage Management, you allocate partitioned disks to Oracle with preferences for striping and mirroring. Automatic Storage Management manages the disk space for you, thus eliminating the need for traditional disk management tools such as logical volume managers (LVM), file systems, and the numerous commands necessary to manage both. The synchronization between Automatic Storage Management and the database instance is handled by Oracle Cluster Synchronization Services (CSS).

1.8.2.1 Automatic Storage Management Components

Automatic Storage Management uses the following components:

Automatic Storage Management Disk Groups

A disk group is a set of disk devices that Automatic Storage Management manages as a single unit. Each disk device can be an individual physical disk, a multiple disk device such as a RAID storage array or a logical volume, or a partition on a physical disk. However, in most cases, disk groups consist of one or more individual physical disks. To enable Automatic Storage Management to balance I/O and storage appropriately within the disk group, make sure that all devices in the disk group have similar, if not identical, storage capacity and performance.

You can set the redundancy and striping attributes of individual file types within a disk group by using Automatic Storage Management disk group templates. When you create a disk group, Automatic Storage Management creates a set of default templates for that disk group. Default template settings depend on the disk group type. For example, the default template for control files for a normal redundancy disk group sets three-way mirroring. All other file templates are two-way mirrored. For a high redundancy disk group, the default mirroring cannot be changed; that is, all files are always three-way mirrored in a high redundancy disk group. You can modify the default templates to suit the unique needs of your site. See Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for more information.

Automatic Storage Management spreads data evenly across all of the devices in the disk group to optimize performance and utilization. You can add or remove disk devices from a disk group without shutting down the database. When you add or remove disks, Automatic Storage Management rebalances the data files across the disk group. You can create multiple disk groups to handle specific tasks, such as backup and recovery operations, in addition to routine file storage activities.

When you add a device to a disk group, you can specify a failure group for that device. Failure groups identify disk devices that have common failure characteristics, for example, devices that are attached to the same controller. If the controller fails, then all devices attached to it become unavailable. By default, each device also belongs to its own failure group. By using the failure groups you specify, Automatic Storage Management can distribute data among the devices in the disk group to help minimize the risk of data loss caused by component failures.

Automatic Storage Management Instance

The Automatic Storage Management instance is a special Oracle instance that manages Automatic Storage Management disk groups. It is recommended to have the Automatic Storage Management instance in the own Oracle home. It is also recommended that you run this instance before you start a database instance, which uses Automatic Storage Management. When you choose Automatic Storage Management as your database storage mechanism, this instance is created and started, if necessary. For a single-instance Oracle Database installation, you only need one Automatic Storage Management instance, regardless of the number of database instances on the computer. The Automatic Storage Management instance on any given node in a single cluster can handle any combination of disk group types.

1.8.2.2 General Steps for Installing Automatic Storage Management

To install Automatic Storage Management, you use Oracle Universal Installer. The following are the general steps for installing Automatic Storage Management:

  1. Determine disk requirements for your site and if necessary, create one or more disk partitions for Automatic Storage Management.

    "Preparing Disk Groups for an Automatic Storage Management Installation" provides guidelines on how to determine disk requirements for your site.

  2. Run Oracle Universal Installer to install and create an Automatic Storage Management instance and to create one or more Automatic Storage Management disk groups that the Automatic Storage Management instance will manage.

    "Step 1: Reviewing Automatic Storage Management Installation Considerations" provides advice on where to install Automatic Storage Management and other installation considerations. "Step 2: Creating the Automatic Storage Management Instance and Configuring Disk Groups" describes how to create an Automatic Storage Management instance and disk groups.

    After you have created an Automatic Storage Management instance and its associated disk groups, subsequent databases that you create will be able to use Automatic Storage Management for file storage management. If you have databases that were created before you installed Automatic Storage Management, you can migrate them to Automatic Storage Management by using the Enterprise Manager Migrate Database wizard. This wizard is available in Enterprise Manager Grid Control or Database Control. Alternatively, you can use Oracle Database Recovery Manager (RMAN) to perform the migration.

  3. Create the databases that will use Automatic Storage Management.

    "Step 3: Installing Oracle Database to Use Automatic Storage Management" describes how to create and a database for Automatic Storage Management.

  4. Test the Automatic Storage Management installation.

    "Step 4: Testing the Automatic Storage Management Installation" provides a simple test to check that the Automatic Storage Management installation was successful.

    "Managing Automatic Storage Management" explains how to start and access Automatic Storage Management and which Oracle database tools you can use to manage it.

See Also:

1.9 Database Management Options

To simplify database administration, Oracle provides a Web-based management tool called Oracle Enterprise Manager.

There are two ways that you can deploy Oracle Enterprise Manager:

  • Deploy Oracle Enterprise Manager centrally in your environment.

    To deploy Oracle Enterprise Manager centrally, you must install at least one Oracle Management Repository and one Oracle Management Service within your environment, then install an Oracle Enterprise Management Agent on every computer that you want to manage. You then can use a single HTML interface to manage and monitor software and hardware targets on all of those systems. Targets can include Oracle databases, application servers, Net listeners, and third-party software. This single interface is called Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Grid Control (or simply Grid Control).

    Note:

    Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g is available separately on the Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control installation media.
  • Deploy Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control locally on the database system.

    Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control software is installed by default with every Oracle Database installation except Custom. During a Custom installation, you can choose not to install Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control. However, Oracle recommends that you install it. This local installation provides a Web-based interface called Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control. Database Control is similar in function to Grid Control, but it can manage only a single database. If you want to administer more than one database on this system, you must either configure a separate Database Control for each database, or install Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g Grid Control.

See Also:

Oracle Enterprise Manager Concepts and Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Installation and Basic Configuration for more information about Oracle Enterprise Manager 11g

This section contains the following topics:

1.9.1 Management Options for Preconfigured Databases

When you create a preconfigured database during the installation, you must select the Oracle Enterprise Manager interface that you want to use to manage the database. The following options are available:

  • Use Grid Control for central database management.

    This option is available only if an Oracle Management Agent is installed on the system. When Oracle Universal Installer detects Oracle Management Agent on the system, you can choose this option and specify the Oracle Management Service that you want to use to manage the database.

    If an Oracle Management Agent is not installed, you must use Database Control to manage the database. However, if you install Oracle Management Agent after you install Oracle Database, you can use Grid Control to manage this database.

  • Use Database Control for local database management.

    This option is selected by default if an Oracle Management Agent is not installed on the system. However, even if a Management Agent is installed, you can still configure Database Control to manage the database.

1.9.2 Management Options for Custom Databases

If you choose the Advanced database configuration option or choose to create a database during a Custom installation, Oracle Universal Installer runs Oracle Database Configuration Assistant in interactive mode. Use Oracle Database Configuration Assistant to specify the Oracle Enterprise Manager interface that you want to use to manage the database. Alternatively, you can choose not to configure the database with Enterprise Manager.

Oracle recommends that you configure the database to use Enterprise Manager during installation. However, if you choose not to configure the database to use Enterprise Manager during the installation, you can use Oracle Database Configuration Assistant after the installation to configure the database to use it.

1.9.3 Features Provided by Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control

Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control, which is installed by default with Oracle Database, provides a Web-based user interface that you can use to monitor, administer, and maintain an Oracle database. You can use it to perform all of your database administration tasks. You can also use it to determine information about the database, such as:

  • Instance name, database version, Oracle home location, media recovery options, and other instance data

  • Current instance availability

  • Database alert information

  • Automatic notification of security alerts

  • Ability to apply patches

  • Session and SQL-related performance information

  • Space usage metrics

1.10 Database Backup and Recovery Options

If you use Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control during the installation, you can optionally enable automated database backups that use the Oracle-suggested default backup strategy.

You do not have to enable automated backups during the installation. If you prefer, you can use Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control or Grid Control to configure automated backups after you install the software and create a database.

This section covers the following topics:

See Also:

1.10.1 Enabling Automated Backups

If you enable automated backups, Oracle Enterprise Manager schedules a daily backup job that uses Oracle Database Recovery Manager (RMAN) to back up all of the database files to an on-disk storage area called the flash recovery area. The size of the flash recovery area is determined by the size of the database you need to backup. The first time the backup job runs, it creates a full backup of the database. Subsequent backup jobs perform incremental backups, which enable you to recover the database to its state at any point during the preceding 24 hours. If you want to create an online backup, you must run the backup job in ARCHIVELOG mode.

To enable automated backup jobs during installation, you must specify the following information:

  • The location of the flash recovery area

    You can use either a file system directory or an Automatic Storage Management disk group for the flash recovery area. The default disk quota configured for the flash recovery area is 2 GB. For Automatic Storage Management disk groups, the required disk space depends on the redundancy level of the disk group that you choose. Chapter 2 describes how to choose the location of the flash recovery area and identifies its disk space requirements.

  • An operating system user name and password for the backup job

    Oracle Enterprise Manager uses the operating system credentials that you specify when running the backup job. The user name that you specify must belong to the Windows group that identifies database administrators (the ORA_DBA group). This user also needs to have Logon As A Batch Job privilege.

1.10.2 Backup Job Default Settings

If you enable automated backups after choosing one of the preconfigured databases during the installation, automated backup is configured with the following default settings:

  • The backup job is scheduled to run nightly at 2 a.m.

  • The disk quota for the flash recovery area is 2 GB.

If you enable automated backups by using Oracle Database Configuration Assistant, either during or after the installation, you can specify a different start time for the backup job and a different disk quota for the flash recovery area.

1.11 E-mail Notification Options

If you choose to use Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control during the installation, you can configure Enterprise Manager to send e-mail when specific events occur. These events can include occurrences such as disk space reaching a critical limit (a threshold), or a database shutting down unexpectedly.

If you enable e-mail notifications, you must specify the following information:

  • The host name of an simple mail transport protocol (SMTP) server.

  • The e-mail address that should receive the alerts.

    The e-mail address that you specify can belong to an individual, or can be a shared e-mail account, or can be a distribution list.

You can use Enterprise Manager Database Control to setup, change, or customize e-mail notifications after you have created the database.

1.12 Upgrade Considerations

Oracle recommends installing Oracle Database 11g release 1 (11.1) into a new Oracle home directory. If you must install Oracle Database 11g release 1 (11.1) into an Oracle home directory that contains previously installed Oracle8i or Oracle9i components, then use Oracle Universal Installer to remove these components before beginning a new installation.

See Oracle Database Upgrade Guide before deciding to upgrade an existing database. Supported upgrade paths and upgrade procedures are covered in Oracle Database Upgrade Guide. However, this section describes several Windows-specific issues to understand before following the instructions in Oracle Database Upgrade Guide.

This section contains these topics:

1.12.1 AL24UTFFSS Character Set

Note:

The information in this section does not apply to an upgrade of a release 9.0.1 or later release of Oracle Database.

Before you upgrade an existing database that uses the AL24UTFFSS character set, you must upgrade the database character set to UTF8. Oracle recommends that you use the Character Set Scanner (csscan) utility for data analysis before attempting to upgrade your existing database character set. The Character Set Scanner utility checks all character data in the database and tests for the effects of, and problems with, changing the character set encoding.

Caution:

AL32UTF8 is the Oracle Database character set that is appropriate for XMLType data. It is equivalent to the IANA registered standard UTF-8 encoding, which supports all valid XML characters.

Do not confuse Oracle Database database character set UTF8 (no hyphen) with database character set AL32UTF8 or with character encoding UTF-8. Database character set UTF8 has been superseded by AL32UTF8. Do not use UTF8 for XML data. UTF8 supports only Unicode version 3.0 and earlier; it does not support all valid XML characters. AL32UTF8 has no such limitation.

Using database character set UTF8 for XML data could potentially cause a fatal error or affect security negatively. If a character that is not supported by the database character set appears in an input-document element name, a replacement character (usually a question mark) is substituted for it. This terminates parsing and raise an exception.

See Also:

Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for more information about Character Set Support

1.12.2 Policies for Client and Application Software Installations

If you upgrade your Oracle database to 11g release 1 (11.1), then Oracle recommends that you upgrade the client software to Oracle Database 11g release 1 (11.1) as well. Keeping the server and client software at the same release number ensures maximum stability for your applications. In addition, the latest Oracle client software may provide added functionality and performance enhancements that were not available with previous releases.

1.12.3 Downgrading a Database

Steps to downgrade a database, including steps to change the word size, are covered in Oracle Database Upgrade Guide.