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<TITLE>Oracle 8i for Linux Installation HOWTO: Creating a database</TITLE>
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<H2><A NAME="s4">4. Creating a database</A></H2>
<H2><A NAME="ss4.1">4.1 Overview</A>
</H2>
<P>Hopefully you followed the advice from the previous section and didn't
create a database.
<P>For most people, I can probably outline the process in a couple of
words: "Run 'dbassist'." Unless this is the first time you've ever run
Oracle, none of the questions should really phase you.
<P>For completeness, I'll document what I did but I'd best say what I was
aiming for first. Bottom line: this is neither a production system nor
a 'serious' (i.e., several people, full time) development box. I
installed 8i to play around and see what was new or different from 8
and older versions.
<P>This means that when 'dbassist' offered an easy option I took it. And
when it suggested using a different disk, or at least a different
partition, I declined. My <CODE>$ORACLE_HOME</CODE> is
<CODE>/home/oracle</CODE>. All the data files and software are in there,
all on one partition.
<P>
<H2><A NAME="ss4.2">4.2 Step-by-step guide</A>
</H2>
<P>
<OL>
<LI>Bring up a command prompt and type:
<PRE>
dbassist
</PRE>
</LI>
<LI>My machine tells me that "JNLS Exception:
oracle.ntpg.jnls.JNLSException. Unable to find any National Character
Sets." According to Oracles 8i Patch FAQ, this is a known problem
(884001) and can safely be ignored.
</LI>
<LI>Select the "Create a database" radio button and press "Next"
</LI>
<LI>There are two options: Typical and Custom. If you knew exactly
what you were doing you probably wouldn't be reading this and could
comfortably select Custom. I'm not going to cover that. Instead I'll
assume you select "Typical" and press "Next"
</LI>
<LI>Next it asks whether you want to copy the database from your CD
or to create the data files. Whenever I tried the first option, Oracle
couldn't find my CD player (you just installed from it!). So I
recommend choosing the second option. It's not difficult, it probably
just takes longer
</LI>
<LI>It's probably safe to select 'Hybrid' when it asks you what
environment the database will operate in
</LI>
<LI>Now it asks you how many users will be using your database at
any given time. I put five.
</LI>
<LI>Next it asks you what products you want to install in your new
database. Again, you know what you want better than me!
</LI>
<LI>Oracle needs a "Global Database Name" and a "SID" now. The
database name is like a fully qualified domain name (but
different). If you're the Oracle guru you'll know what to put, if not
your organisation might have some conventions. I called mine 'dev1'
(both the SID and database name).
</LI>
<LI>Now, do you want to create the database 'now' or should you let
it save the information to a shell script? With 128Mb of RAM I found
the former option painful.
I created the shell script, quit out of X and anything else using a
lot of memory and then ran the script. Much more snappy.
</LI>
<LI>I didn't notice this in any of the documentation, but your
database won't work properly without it! The database that 'dbassist'
creates is fine, but by default the user rollback segments are left
off-line. (Read: non-system users can't perform any operation that
requires transactions.)
Type:
<PRE>
cd $ORACLE_HOME/dbs
</PRE>
You now need to edit a file called "init<SID>.ora"
("initdev1.ora" in my case).
About half-way down the file is a commented out line looking something
like this:
<PRE>
# rollback_segments = (r01, r02, r03, r04)
</PRE>
Uncomment this line (remove the hash), save the file and you're done.
</LI>
<LI>This is a kind of meta-step. You have a database and you should
be able to start it up, but you probably don't know what any of the
system passwords are!
There are two that you need to know. The first is the SYSTEM
password. This defaults to '<CODE>MANAGER</CODE>'. (It seems to be
conventional to put Oracle passwords in uppercase. In fact passwords
are not case sensitive.) I recommend you change it straight away by
typing <CODE>password</CODE> at the SQL*Plus prompt. (For people expecting an
<CODE>ALTER USER</CODE> command, this is new to the version of SQL*Plus
supplied with 8i.)
The other password that you need to know is the one for SYS. It
defaults to '<CODE>CHANGE_ON_INSTALL</CODE>' and you should do exactly what it
says!
</LI>
<LI>Final step. This one gets rid of the annoying 'no profile'
warnings you get when you log into SQL*Plus.
Log into SQL*Plus as user 'system' (<CODE>sqlplus
system/<password></CODE>). Then type:
<PRE>
@?/sqlplus/admin/pupbld.sql
</PRE>
The question-mark is an alias for the <CODE>$ORACLE_HOME</CODE> directory.
</LI>
<LI>This is an optional step used to define the default editor for
SQL*Plus (it defaults to <CODE>ed</CODE> so you do!). Open
<CODE>$ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin/glogin.sql</CODE> in your favourite
editor and add <CODE>define_editor=<editor name></CODE> to the end.
</LI>
</OL>
<P>And that's it. You should now have an operational database that you
can log into using SQL*Plus.
<P>
<H2><A NAME="ss4.3">4.3 Questions and answers</A>
</H2>
<H3>Is it really that easy?</H3>
<P>Yes and no. If you're just playing around, building a database for
yourself to learn the new features of 8i, then 'yes.' The database the
above instructions will build is complete and will work fine.
<P>However, if you know anything about Oracle, you will quickly realise
that the default configuration is appallingly bad. If you're making a
serious, production system I recommend you use the "Custom" option.
<P>Even for my toy system I did some tweaking. I increased the sizes of
most of the table-spaces and changed them so that they didn't grow
automatically (I hate software when it tries to be too clever).
<P>
<H3>Is it really necessary to put all the files on different disks?</H3>
<P>No and it will work fine if you don't, but I don't recommend putting
all your files on the same disk nevertheless.
<P>Spreading the files over a number of disks, even it's just the data
files on one and the rollback segments on another, will have a
significant performance advantage. Read an Oracle DBA book if you need
further information.
<P>
<H3>I can't start dbassist</H3>
<P>Caused by several zero-length files in the initial
installation. Following the patch procedure will fix this problem.
<P>
<H3>I get "ORA-01034: ORACLE not available"</H3>
<P>To cut a long story short, your <CODE>$ORACLE_SID</CODE> is probably set
incorrectly or not at all. Make sure it's set to the same value you
gave 'dbassist' and that it's value is exported (i.e., <CODE>export
ORACLE_SID</CODE> in any Bourne compatible shell).
<P>
<H3>I get "ORA-01012: Not logged in"</H3>
<P>This is a very common error, and there are a number of different
things that cause it.
<P>Firstly you'll want to make sure that you're not creating a Shared
Server configuration (sometimes known as MTS). Create a database using
Dedicated Server and convert it later.
<P>If that's not it, check your <CODE>NLS_LANG</CODE> environment variable. The
easiest option is to unset it. If you really want to use it, make sure
that you have it exactly right. Make sure you don't transpose any '1's
(one's) for 'l's (the twelfth letter of the alphabet)!
<P>
<H3>Can data-files only be 1Gb in size?</H3>
<P>'dbassist' won't let you create a datafile bigger than 1Gb. I believe
this to be a bug as Linux has no problem with files up to 2Gb.
<P>Note that does not limit the size of your database to 1Gb or less. A
database is made up of many table-spaces which can be made up of many
data-files. Talk to your friendly DBA for more information.
<P>
<H3>Can I use raw files?</H3>
<P>Recent versions of the Linux kernel allow applications to directly
access the disks. Oracle is able to use this facility and can
(sometimes) increase its performance.
<P>Technically the answer is 'yes,' you can use raw files. But
realistically the answer is 'no.' The performance improvement you'll
get probably isn't worth the administrative overhead.
<P>
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