Oracle9i Database: Product

Overview
Student Guide

D12862GC10
Production 1.0
October 2001
D33985
Authors Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Introduction
Lesson Overview - Unit 1 Fundamentals I-2
Lesson Overview - Unit 2 Optional Lessons I-3
Lesson Overview - Unit 3 Appendixes I-4
DBMS Application Types I-5

1 Introduction to the Relational Theory

Objectives 1-3
Domains and Relations 1-4
Tables 1-5
Missing Information 1-6
Integrity Constraints 1-7

2 Data Access Languages

Objectives 2-2
SQL Language 2-3
SQL:1999 Overview 2-4
Oracle XML Developer’s Kit 2-5
PL/SQL Language 2-6
Embedding SQL Statements 2-7
Calls to OCI 2-8
ODBC: Open Database Connectivity 2-9
Oracle Objects for OLE 2-10
External Procedures 2-11

Java Programming Models 2-13

Oracle JDBC Drivers 2-15
Using the SQLJ Translator 2-16

iii
3 Oracle9i Database Objects
Objectives 3-2

Oracle9i Type System 3-4

Large Objects (LOBs) 3-5
Collections 3-6
B*-Tree Indexes 3-7
Data Integrity Constraints and Triggers 3-8
Constraint Features 3-9
Database Triggers 3-10
Clusters 3-11
Bitmap Indexes 3-12
What Is a Bitmap Join Index? 3-13
Other Index Types 3-14
Views 3-15
Materialized Views 3-16
Index-Organized Tables 3-17
External Tables 3-18
Transformations with Pipelined Table Functions 3-19
Sequence Number Generation 3-20
Packages 3-21
Queues 3-22

4 Basic Oracle9i Architecture

Objectives 4-2
Instance and Database 4-3
Instance Components 4-4

iv
 Database Components 4-6

Shared Server 4-7

Database Structure 4-9

Data Dictionary 4-11

5 Oracle9i Real Application Clusters

Objectives 5-2

Modern Business Requirements 5-3

Real Application Clusters Overview 5-4

Real Application Clusters Characteristics 5-5

Background Processes 5-6

Benefits of Real Application Clusters 5-7

Global Cache Service 5-8

Dynamic Resource Remastering 5-9

Block Transfers 5-10

Benefits of Cache Fusion 5-11

High Availability Features 5-12

Real Application Clusters Guard 5-13

Real Application Clusters Guard Architecture 5-14

Monitors and Failover 5-15

Shared Initialization Parameter File 5-16

Shared Server-Side Parameter File 5-17

Real Application Clusters and OEM 5-18

OEM Instance Management Provisions 5-19

v
6 User and Data Security Management

Objectives 6-2

Privileges and Role-Based Security 6-4

Secure Application Role 6-5

Database Password Management 6-6

Virtual Private Database 6-8

Resource Management 6-9

Database Resource Manager 6-10

N-Tier Authentication 6-11

Oracle9i Enterprise User Management 6-12

Authentication Architecture 6-13

Database Auditing 6-15

Fine-Grained Auditing 6-16

Obfuscation Toolkit 6-17

Oracle Label Security 6-18

7 Oracle9i Optimizer

Objectives 7-2

Access Paths 7-3

EXPLAIN PLAN 7-5

Cached Execution Plans 7-6

SQL Trace and Tkprof 7-7

Rule-Based Optimizer 7-8

Cost-Based Optimizer 7-9

vi
 Statistics Management 7-10

Monitoring Table and Index Usage 7-11

Optimizer Plan Stability 7-12

Cursor Sharing 7-13

8 Transactions

Objectives 8-2

Data Concurrency Model 8-3

Potential Concurrency Problems 8-4

Undo Information 8-5

Resumable Space Allocation 8-6

Read Consistency 8-7

Oracle Flashback 8-8

Serializable Transactions 8-9

Transaction Management 8-10

Workspace Management for Long Transactions 8-11

Special Transaction Types 8-12

Distributed Databases 8-13

XA Architecture 8-14

Unit 1 Summary 8-16

9 Oracle9i Object-Relational Features

Objectives 9-3

What Is an Object? 9-4

Object Terminology 9-5

vii
 Relational and Object Tables 9-7

Object Views: An Evolutionary Approach 9-8

Extensible Type System 9-9

Extensible Cartridge Development Enabling Multimedia Applications 9-10

Object Type Translator 9-12

Oracle9i Client Side Object Cache 9-13

Type Inheritance 9-15

SQLJ Object Type 9-16

10 Globalization Support

Objectives 10-2

Globalization Support Features 10-3

Encoding Scheme Types 10-5

Database Character Sets and National Character Sets 10-6

Specifying Language-Dependent Behavior 10-7

Character Set Scanner 10-8

Oracle Locale Builder 10-9

11 Oracle9i Business Intelligence

Objectives 11-2

Partitioning 11-3

Range Partitioning 11-4

Hash Partitioning 11-5

Composite Partitioning 11-7

viii
 Partitioned Tables and Indexes 11-8

Parallel Execution 11-9

Materialized Views Management 11-10

Making Full Use of Materialized Views 11-11

Management of Materialized Views 11-12

Explain Materialized View 11-13

Explain Query Rewrite 11-14

Monitor Long-Running Operations 11-15

Transportable Tablespaces 11-16

Fast and Direct Data Loading 11-17

Common Extraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL) Process 11-18

Pipelined Data Transformation in Oracle9i 11-19

Oracle9i OLAP Services 11-20

OLAP Application Platform 11-21

12 Backup and Recovery

Objectives 12-2

Data Export 12-3

Data Import 12-4

NOARCHIVELOG Mode: Offline Backups Only 12-5

Loss of a Data File 12-6

Restore 12-7

ARCHIVELOG Mode: Offline and Online Backups 12-8

Loss of a Data File 12-9

Partial Restore 12-10

ix
 Datafile Recovery 12-11

Trial Recovery 12-12

Recovery Manager (RMAN) 12-13

Block Media Recovery (BMR) 12-14

Oracle9i Data Guard Architecture 12-15

Analyzing Redo Log Files 12-16

13 Tools to Administer Oracle9i

Objectives 13-2

iSQL*Plus Architecture 13-3

Enterprise Manager Architecture 13-4

Job and Event System Features 13-6

SQL*Loader 13-8

Exporting Data 13-10

Importing Into a Database 13-11

Online Table Redefinition 13-12

Oracle SNMP Support 13-13

SNMP Support and Oracle Products 13-14

Unit 2 Summary 13-15

A Oracle 9i Network Services

B Oracle 9i Replication

C Content Management and Oracle 9i

x
Oracle9i Database: Product Overview
 Lesson Overview - Unit 1 Fundamentals

• Introduction to relational theory

• Data access languages
• Oracle9i database objects
• Basic Oracle9i architecture
• Real Application Clusters architecture
• User and data security management
• Oracle9i optimizer
• Transactions

I-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview I - 2

 Lesson Overview - Unit 2 Optional
Lessons

• Oracle9i object-relational features

• Globalization support
• Oracle9i business intelligence
• Backup and recovery
• Tools to administer Oracle9i

I-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview I - 3

 Lesson Overview - Unit 3 Appendixes

• Networking
• Replication
• Content management for the Internet

I-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview I - 4

 DBMS Application Types

Simple data Complex data

with query with query

Simple data Complex data

without query without query

I-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

DBMS Application Types

This slide shows an overview of database management systems (DBMSs) from both
technical and marketplace perspectives. Each quadrant represents one of the four general
types of DBMSs; there is no single DBMS that solves the requirements of all applications.
Simple Data without Query: Text processing systems such as Word, NotePad. The perfect
DBMS for these applications are File Systems.
Simple Data with Queries: Any SQL92 database supports this kind of application. Simple
data because only built-in data types are supported. This market represents $8 billion per
year growing at a rate of 25% per year.
Complex Data without Queries: Object Oriented DBMSs are one example of such
applications; they focus on providing tight integration with a programming language. This
type of DBMSs is growing at nearly 50% per year but remains a market niche with about $8
million per year.
Complex Data with Queries: Typically, a client requests a picture by content. DBMSs that
support a dialect of SQL:1999, include non-traditional tools, and optimize for complex
SQL:1999 queries are called object-relational DBMSs. They are relational because they
support SQL; they are object-oriented because they support complex data. The object-
relational market is expected to be 50% more than the relational market by year 2005
because of two market forces: new multimedia applications and business complex data
applications.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview I - 5

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview I - 6
 Unit 1
Fundamentals
Introduction to the Relational Theory

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

explain:
• Domains
• Relations
• Tables
• Missing information
• Integrity

1-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Objectives
This first lesson introduces the basic concepts you need to know to understand the
foundation of the relational theory.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 1-4

 Domains and Relations
RENAULT, BLUE , CLIO
RENAULT, BLUE , FIESTA
Brand RENAULT, BLUE , 205
RENAULT, BLUE , AX
RENAULT, RED , CLIO
RENAULT RENAULT, RED , FIESTA
RENAULT, RED , 205
PEUGEOT RENAULT, RED , AX
FORD RENAULT, GREEN, CLIO
RENAULT, GREEN, FIESTA
Color
CITROEN RENAULT, GREEN, 205
RENAULT, GREEN, AX
FORD , BLUE , CLIO
BLUE FORD , BLUE , FIESTA
RED FORD , BLUE , 205
FORD , BLUE , AX
Model GREEN FORD , RED , CLIO
FORD , RED , FIESTA
FORD , RED , 205
CLIO FORD , RED , AX
FORD , GREEN, CLIO
205 FORD , GREEN, FIESTA
FIESTA FORD , GREEN, 205
FORD , GREEN, AX
AX ...

1-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Domains and Relations

Initially, Oracle was primarily a database management system, with the main goal of storing
and retrieving information.
The model used to store data is based on a mathematical theory called the relational model.
Therefore, Oracle was a relational database management system (RDBMS).
This theory relies on the Set theory. Every set on the slide above is called a domain. Car
brands can form a domain (for example, Renault, Peugeot, Ford). In the same way, you can
have a domain of colors and a domain of models.
If you know that the different sets represent the real world of a company, you can relate
them to each other. You start with the Cartesian product of the domains, as shown on the
slide above, and you isolate the combinations that make sense. For example, there is no
Peugeot Fiesta, because the Fiesta is a Ford model. Also, this model may not be available in
all colors. This means you are defining a subset of the Cartesian product, called a relation.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 1-5

 Tables

CARS
RegNr Brand Color Model

5234FX13 RENAULT BLUE CLIO ...

6144RJ45 FORD RED FIESTA ...

...

1-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Tables
A relation is a mathematical representation of a set of rows. This is called a table in an
RDBMS. A table is the logical implementation of a relation. In a later lesson, you learn that
inside Oracle, the physical implementation of a table is called a data segment.
A table has two dimensions, rows and columns. Each column in a table contains values that
are a subset of a corresponding domain and each row in a table represents an element of the
Cartesian product of all domains. The intersection of a column with a row is called a field or
column value.
In reality, things are done in the opposite order in an Oracle9i database. You start by
creating a table and then populate it with rows. Oracle does not implement the domain
concept. When creating a table, you associate each column with one of the Oracle built-in
data types, for example, NUMBER, VARCHAR, DATE, or with a user-defined data type.
Tables are the basis and central object of any RDBMS.
Using the ANSI/ISO standard SQL language, you are able to perform basic tasks, such as
creating a table, selecting a subset of the rows, a subset of the columns, intersection, union,
and join. The next lesson discusses SQL and other data access languages and interfaces.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 1-6

 Missing Information

• The relational model uses NULL values to represent

missing information.
• NULL values imply a three-valued logic:
conditions can be true, false, or unknown.
• You cannot represent the reason why information is
missing.

1-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Missing Information
Each database management system needs a consistent way to represent missing information.
The relational model uses NULL values for that purpose. A database language needs a
consistent way to treat those NULL values, which implies a three-valued logic. For example,
if a certain EMPLOYEE row does not have a SALARY value associated, you do not know
whether it is higher or lower than a certain amount: logical statements or conditions can be
true, false, or unknown.
Because the relational model only supports one way to represent missing information, you
cannot distinguish between possible reasons why a certain value is missing. For example, a
fax number can be missing because somebody does not have a fax at all, or just because you
do not know the number, or even because you do not know whether somebody has a fax. In
fact, some years ago Ted Codd, the father of the relational model, proposed a four-valued
logic with two different NULL values: applicable and inapplicable. Because this would add
complexity without resolving the problem, it will probably never be implemented.
The best approach is to try to avoid as much missing information as possible, in particular
missing information of the inapplicable type, by modeling your database correctly.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 1-7

 Integrity Constraints

• Application or database side implementation

• Column, row, table, database level
• Static and dynamic constraints
• Declarative versus procedural

1-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Integrity Constraints
Because databases are supposed to model the real world, you need the ability to define rules.
These rules are called integrity constraints. Of course, you can implement such rules in your
application code, but you also need to be able to define them as an integral part of the
logical database model.
There are three constraint levels:
• Attribute or column level: for example, salaries must be positive numbers, the hire-date
is a mandatory attribute (you do not allow missing information)
• Table level: for example, each row needs a unique column or column combination that
uniquely identifies that row (also called the primary key)
• Database level: for example, employees must be related with an existing department
(also called referential integrity), or orders should have at least one associated order item
You also can distinguish between static and dynamic integrity constraints. Static integrity
constraints describe valid database states, as in all of the examples above, and dynamic
integrity constraints describe valid database state transitions. For example, only salary raises
are allowed, or a new status of divorced is only allowed when the current status is married.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 1-8

Integrity Constraints (continued)
You can implement constraints at the database level in two ways:
• Declarative, using features of the SQL language
• Procedural, writing database triggers using PL/SQL
Both ways of implementing constraints are discussed in the following lessons.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 1-9

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 1-10
Data Access Languages

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

explain how to access Oracle9i using:
• SQL • JDBC
• PL/SQL • SQLJ
• Embedded SQL • Java stored procedures
• OCI • Enterprise JavaBeans
• ODBC • CORBA
• External procedures

2-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-2

 SQL Language

DML DCL DDL

INSERT CREATE
UPDATE DROP
GRANT
DELETE REVOKE RENAME
ALTER
SELECT

2-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

SQL Language
Structured Query Language (SQL) is the language with which all programs and users access
data in an Oracle database. Application programs and Oracle tools often allow users to access
the database without using SQL directly, but these applications in turn must use SQL when
executing user requests.
SQL lets you work with data at the logical level. You need to be concerned with the
implementation details only when you want to manipulate the data. For example, to retrieve a
set of rows from a table, you define a condition used to filter the rows. All rows satisfying the
condition are retrieved in a single step and can be passed as a unit to the user, to another SQL
statement, or to an application. You need not deal with the rows one by one, nor do you have to
worry about how they are physically stored or retrieved. All SQL statements use the optimizer,
a part that determines the most efficient means of accessing the specified data. Oracle9i also
provides techniques you can use to enhance optimizer performance. SQL provides statements
for a variety of tasks, including: querying data, inserting, updating, deleting rows in a table,
creating, replacing, altering, and dropping objects, and controlling access to the database and
its objects.
With Oracle9i, you can also perform multitable inserts and merge rows from one table into
another. This means that you can either update an existing row or insert and merge rows.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-3

 SQL:1999 Overview

Oracle9i supports the new ISO/ANSI standards in

SQL:1999, such as:
• Full SQL:1999 join compliance
• Introduction of CASE expressions
• Introduction of scalar subqueries
• Support for explicit DEFAULT values
• The MERGE statement
• Multitable inserts
• Additional analytical functions and grouping sets
• Naming query blocks with the WITH clause

2-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

SQL:1999 Enhancements Overview

Oracle SQL complies with the latest industry-accepted standards such as the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Standards Organization (ISO). The
latest SQL standard published is called SQL:1999. In this lesson the phrase “SQL:1999” refers
to the SQL:1999 notations of both ANSI and ISO/IEC standards, officially known as “ISO/IEC
9075-1:1999.”
SQL:1999 syntax compliance is important for the following reasons:
• Provides easier migration of third party applications without the need to modify existing
SQL code
• Provides ANSI/ISO standard functionality within the Oracle9i database
• Provides an easier learning curve when moving from other database products to Oracle9i
Note: For more details about Oracle and the ANSI/ISO SQL standard, please refer to one of
the appendixes of the Oracle9i SQL Reference.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-4

 Oracle XML Developer’s Kit

• Standards-based libraries and utilities to generate,

manipulate, render, and store XML-formatted data
• Includes:
– XML Parser
– XSL Processor
– XML Class Generator
– XML Transviewer JavaBeans
– XSQL Servlet
• Available for Java, JavaBeans, C, C++, and PL/SQL

2-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle and XML

To work with XML data types, you will use the XML Developers Kit. This kit contains several
different components:
• XML Parser enables programmatic access to XML documents.
• XSL Processor transforms one XML document to another XML or text document, such
as HTML.
• XML Class Generator generates class files so you can add XML document creation to
your application.
• XML Transviewer JavaBeans can help with viewing the content of a XML document.
• XSQL Servlet produces dynamic XML documents based upon one or more SQL queries.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-5

 PL/SQL Language
DECLARE
Declare Variables qty NUMBER(5);

Block Structure, BEGIN

begin/end SELECT quantity_on_hand INTO qty
FROM inventories WHERE product_id = 553
FOR UPDATE OF quantity_on_hand;

Conditional Check IF qty > 0 THEN -- check quantity

UPDATE inventories SET quantity_on_hand =
quantity_on_hand - 1 WHERE product_id = 553;
INSERT INTO purchase_record
VALUES ('Tennis racket purchased', SYSDATE);
Information ELSE
Storage INSERT INTO purchase_record
with LMD VALUES ('Out of tennis rackets', SYSDATE);
END IF;

Problems EXECPTION
Handling WHEN OTHERS THEN -- PL/SQL Handler

COMMIT;
END;

2-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

PL/SQL Language
A good way to get acquainted with PL/SQL is to look at a sample program. This example
program processes an order for tennis rackets. First, it declares a variable of type NUMBER to
store the quantity of tennis rackets on hand. Then, it retrieves the quantity on hand from a
database table named inventory. If the quantity is greater than zero, the program updates
the table and inserts a purchase record into another table named purchase_record.
Otherwise, the program inserts an out-of-stock record into the purchase_record table.
With PL/SQL, you can use SQL statements to manipulate Oracle data and flow-of-control
statements to process the data. Moreover, you can declare constants and variables, define
procedures and functions, and trap runtime errors. Thus, PL/SQL combines the data
manipulating power of SQL with the data processing power of procedural languages.
PL/SQL is a block-structured language. That is, the basic units (procedures, functions, and
anonymous blocks) that make up a PL/SQL program are logical blocks, which can contain any
number of nested sub-blocks. Typically, each logical block corresponds to a problem or
subproblem to be solved. Thus, PL/SQL supports the divide-and-conquer approach to problem
solving called stepwise refinement.
A block (or sub-block) lets you group logically-related declarations and statements. That way,
you can place declarations close to where they are used. The declarations are local to the block
and cease to exist when the block completes.
In Oracle9i, PL/SQL can be native compiled, giving better performance for large applications.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-6

 Embedding SQL Statements

Embedded SQL application

3GL statement;
Procedural
EXEC SQL... calls
3GL statement; produced
3GL statement; by the
EXEC SQL... precompiler
3GL statement;

SQLLIB
Runtime
Library

Data

Status codes SQL statements

2-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Embedding SQL Statements

Using the Oracle precompiler you can embed SQL statements in a high-level host program.
The precompiler accepts the host program, translates the embedded SQL statements into
various host language statements and into standard Oracle runtime library (SQLLIB) calls. It
generates a source program that you can compile, link, and execute in the usual way. Oracle
Corporation provides precompilers for C/C++ and COBOL.
Developing an embedded SQL application requires the following steps:
1. Editor creates the host program. The host program contains the embedded SQL
statements. Write and save the host program using a system editor or word processor.
2. Oracle precompiler creates the source program. The source program contains the library
calls which replace the SQL statements. Send the host program through the precompiler
to produce source code. Debug any precompile-time errors. Error messages have the
prefix PCC-.
3. Compiler creates the object program. Send the source program through the compiler to
produce object code. Debug any compile-time errors.
4. Linker creates the executable program. The Linker calls the Oracle SQL Runtime Library
to resolve the library calls. Link the object code with SQLLIB, the Oracle library of
routines that process SQL statements, to produce an executable program. Run the
program. Debug any runtime errors.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-7

 Calls to OCI

Host language
application

3GL statement;
CALL OCI;
Direct OCI
3GL statement; procedural Runtime
3GL statement; calls Library
CALL OCI;
3GL statement;

Data

Status codes SQL statements

2-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Calls to OCI
The Oracle Call Interface (OCI) is an application programming interface (API) that allows you
to create applications that use the native procedures or function calls of a third-generation
language to access an Oracle database server and control all phases of SQL statement
execution. OCI supports the data types, calling conventions, syntax, and semantics of a number
of third-generation languages, including C, C++, COBOL and FORTRAN.
Using Oracle Call Interface (OCI), you can make procedural calls to OCI library functions
directly from the host language source code. You compile and link the program in the same
way that you compile and link a nondatabase application. There is no need for a separate
precompilation step.
OCI provides significant advantages over other methods of accessing an Oracle database:
• More fine-grained control over all aspects of the application design
• Use of familiar 3GL programming techniques and application development tools such as
browsers and debuggers
• Ability to associate a commit request with an execute to reduce roundtrips
• Optimization for queries using transparent pre-fetch buffers to reduce roundtrips
• Thread safety so you do not have to use mutually exclusive locks (mutex) on OCI
handles
• Scrollable cursors so you can go anywhere in an open cursor

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-8

 ODBC: Open Database Connectivity

• Common neutral database API Application

• Write to one API set and access
almost any SQL database ODBC Driver
manager

Oracle ODBC
driver

Oracle9i OCI
layer

Oracle9i Net
layer

2-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

ODBC: Open Database Connectivity

ODBC defines a vendor-independent application programming interface as defined by
Microsoft, for accessing data stored in relational and non-relational databases using SQL as a
standard for accessing data. The ODBC interface permits maximum interoperability where a
single application can access different database management systems. This allows an
application developer to develop, compile, and ship an application without targeting a specific
DBMS. Users can then add modules called database drivers that link the application to their
choice of database management systems.
The application layer is the ODBC enabled application. Some of the common applications are:
Access, Excel, Visual Basic, Crystal Reports, Microsoft Foundation Classes.
The ODBC Driver Manager Layer consists of the ODBC Driver Manager and ODBC
Administrator that is provided by Microsoft. The ODBC Driver Manager is an application that
loads and unloads the driver, and translates all the ODBC driver information and calls. The
ODBC Administrator program is used to configure the data source name (DSN) and the
connection string or Net alias into the ODBC Administrator for the ODBC connection. The
ODBC driver is a set of DLLs that is used to translate from an ODBC enabled application to
OCI.
The Oracle Call Interface (OCI) layer provides another set of DLLs that translate the calls from
the ODBC driver into calls the database will understand.
The Oracle9i Net application layers provide the transportation of the data from the client
machine to the Oracle database.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-9

 Oracle Objects for OLE

• Collection of ActiveX objects

and controls MS Office Visual Basic
– Data control Applications Applications
– C++ classes COM/DCOM
– OLE automation objects
• Full support for COM/DCOM Oracle Objects for OLE
• Objects model similar to DAO.
Examples: database, OCI
recordset, tabledef C Library

2-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle Objects for OLE

Oracle Objects for OLE (OO4O) is an easy-to-use, Microsoft OLE/COM-based application
programming interface (API) which integrates the Oracle server’s data and functionality with
Microsoft Windows clients and applications. Oracle Objects for OLE provides a simple and
powerful way for Visual Basic, C++, and OLE 2.0 scripting-enabled applications to access
Oracle9i data. For Visual Basic or other 4GL development, Oracle Objects for OLE provides a
single custom control (VBX) combined with an OLE in-process server to allow users to plug
native Oracle9i functionality into Windows applications. At the same time, C++ developers
can use Class Libraries to access Oracle9i. Users wanting to access Oracle9i directly from
Excel spreadsheets can do so using Objects for OLE’s support for the Visual Basic for
Applications Macro language. Oracle Objects for OLE is the best programmatic interface for
desktop application developers familiar with the OLE/COM object model and who are seeking
an easy-to-use API to integrate an Oracle database with their Windows applications. Oracle
Objects for OLE offers these developers such benefits as ease of use through drag-and-drop
access to an Oracle database from Visual Basic applications; excellent performance on low-end
hardware; tight integration with the Oracle server, including access to PL/SQL stored
procedures; and the ability to simultaneously access multiple databases from a single client
session.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-10

 External Procedures

2 Listener
process

3
extproc
1 process
5
4

PL/SQL Alias
subprogram library
External
procedure Shared library

2-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

External Procedures
An external procedure is a 3GL routine that can perform special purpose processing. You call
the external procedure from within PL/SQL or SQL. This is accomplished through a library
schema object, which is called from PL/SQL, that contains the compiled library filename that
is stored on the operating system.
Callouts and callbacks can also be referred to as an external procedure.
The interactions between the operating system and the database are designed to provide safe
callouts. Although it is possible to create callouts that could damage the instance or database,
the external procedure feature is not intended to be used in that manner.
The external procedure call enables you to invoke an external procedure using a PL/SQL
program unit. Additionally, you can integrate the powerful programming features of 3GLs with
the ease of data access of SQL and PL/SQL commands.
The external procedure can be set up to use a specific extproc process. This extproc
process can be on a different machine from the database.
Extensibility allows you to extend the database and to provide backward compatibility. For
example, you can invoke different index or sorting mechanisms as an external procedure, or
call data cartridges.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-11

Executing External Procedures
1. The server process executes a PL/SQL subprogram, which looks up an alias library.
2. The PL/SQL subprogram passes the request to the listener.
3. The listener process spawns the extproc process.
The extproc process remains active throughout your Oracle session until you log off.
4. The extproc process loads the shared library.
5. The extproc process executes the external procedure and returns results to the PL/SQL
subprogram.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-12

 Java Programming Models

Oracle9i
• 2 ways to access SQL:
– JDBC
EJB CORBA
services services – SQLJ
IIOP
• 3 protocols:
EJB TS

Java VM
HTTP – Oracle Net, HTTP, IIOP
ORB
• 4 programming models:
HTTP
– Java stored procedures
JDBC SQLJ
Thin – Enterprise JavaBeans
JDBC – CORBA
SQL
PL/SQL – Java Server Pages
Oracle Net

2-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Java Programming Models

Oracle offers a comprehensive Java application with both products that you can use to build
database applications in Java, as well as a server platform on which to run these applications.
Oracle offers three products to build database applications in Java:
• Standards compliant JDBC Drivers to access Oracle from Java applications
• SQLJ: a precompiler for embedded SQL in Java applications. Oracle’s JDeveloper
integrates both the JDBC Drivers and the SQLJ translator and provides a complete
development environment with a number of features supporting the server
• Oracle has also built a scaleable Java Virtual Machine in the Oracle database which
provides a very efficient platform on which these applications can be run.
This will allow a user to write Java stored procedures, functions, and triggers in Java. It will
also serve as an Enterprise JavaBean Transaction Server and support a variety of CORBA
clients.
To increase performance, all Java created in the database can be native compiled, meaning that
java is compiled for that specific platform.
Oracle also provides an Application Server platform which also executes Java application
programs.
The applications written in Java with any of these products can be deployed either in a two-tier
client server environment or in multitier configurations.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-13

In addition to supporting the EJB programming model, Oracle9i also serves as a CORBA client
and server. It integrates a CORBA 2.0 compliant Object Request Broker or ORB. This allows
application programs to call into the server and access Java stored programs and Enterprise
JavaBeans using the IIOP protocol. In addition, Java applications executing on the Java VM
can call out from the database using IIOP. In the first instance, the database behaves as a
CORBA server; in the second, as a CORBA client. The ORB implementation in Oracl9i is
highly scaleable, leveraging the Oracle Shared Server architecture for scalability, that is, in the
way sessions are created and serviced in the database.
Further, all the advances that Oracle9i provided to handle 10,000+ Net connections, that is,
internal connection pooling and Oracle9i Net Connection Manager, now work with IIOP.
Enterprise JavaBeans and Java stored procedures in the database are accessed through
CORBA/IIOP in addition to Net. A user writes a Java stored program and can publish it to two
different mechanisms. Firstly, to be accessed as a stored procedure through Net, it needs to be
published or hooked up to SQL. Secondly, to be accessed as a CORBA server, it can be
published to the ORB and accessed through the CORBA IIOP.
In addition to supporting CORBA clients, the database supports D/COM clients, such as
Internet Explorer or Microsoft’s Transaction Server through a D/COM to CORBA half-bridge.
With Oracle9i, you will have a number of different choices for using Web servers with the
database:
• The Oracle9i Net listener, dispatcher framework has been extended with Oracle9i to
provide native support in the server for the HTTP protocol. In this case, there is no
separate Web server process running or separate HTTP listener. The database server
simply listens on a port to HTTP requests.
• Alternatively, you can also run a Web server and the database server as separate
processes on the same machine. This is required if you are using the thin JDBC driver
with a JDK 1.0.2 Java VM. It is not recommended however, since the Web server will
typically make your database server I/O bound if it is run on the same box.
• Third, you can run the Web server and database server on different machines. This will
provide you the best scalability and is suited when you use thin JDBC with JDK 1.2
signed applets.
A Java Server Page is simply a mechanism to generate dynamic Web pages by embedding Java
tags within an HTML page.
Oracle supports Stored Java objects in the following cases:
• Java classes as database library units. These could be optionally exposed as EJB or
CORBA objects.
• Java Stored Procedures callable from SQL and JDBC/SQLJ
• Methods of user defined Oracle9i objects

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-14

 Oracle JDBC Drivers

Browser: Applets
Oracle9i
Java stored procedures
JDBC Thin Enterprise Java Beans
CORBA Servers
Java Sockets Server Java VM
SQL Thin JDBC
PL/SQL
Internal JDBC
JDBC OCI
Database
libraries
OCI C Lib

Client-Server or Middle Tier

Oracle9i

2-15 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle JDBC Drivers

The above diagram shows the four JDBC drivers developed at Oracle, each for a different
deployment architecture.
• The JDBC Thin driver (Type 4) can be used in applets that execute inside a Web
browser, such as Netscape Communicator or MS Internet Explorer; that is, in a thin
client. This driver is built on Java sockets that directly communicate to the RDBMS
engine, and it requires no client installation.
• The JDBC OCI, also called the Type 2 Driver, is built on top of Oracle’s call interface,
namely, OCI. This driver communicates through Oracle Net to the RDBMS engine, and
requires that the OCI library be installed on the client.
• The server-side Internal JDBC (KPRB) driver is the version used in Java Stored
procedures. It is built on top of Oracle’s KPRB library, the equivalent of OCI on the
server side. This driver is also significant, because this is the first time that the KPRB
library has been exposed. It was not exposed earlier, because C was an unsafe language,
which could cause the server to crash. But that danger is eliminated with Java, which is a
safe language, just like PL/SQL.
• The Oracle JDBC server-side Thin driver offers the same functionality as the client-side
Thin driver, but runs inside an Oracle database and accesses a remote database.
These three drivers together allow the Java application programmer true portability for the first
time ever.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-15

 Using the SQLJ Translator

SQLJ Java Code Regular

SQLJ Java
Pre- with Java
code Compiler
processor JDBC calls class file

Oracle

• Pre-compiler generates standard Java source code

with JDBC calls
• Checks SQL statements against the database
• Generated code compiles and runs like other Java
programs

2-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Using the SQLJ Translator

SQLJ allows applications programmers to embed static SQL operations in Java code in a way
that is compatible with the Java design philosophy. A SQLJ program is a Java program
containing embedded static SQL statements that comply with the ANSI-standard SQLJ
Language Reference syntax; static SQL operations are predefined. The operations themselves
do not change in real-time as a user runs the application, although the data values transmitted
can change dynamically. Typical applications contain much more static SQL than dynamic
SQL; dynamic SQL operations are not predefined. The operations themselves can change in
real time and require direct use of JDBC statements. Note, however, that you can use SQLJ
statements and JDBC statements in the same program.
SQLJ consists of both a translator and a run-time component and is smoothly integrated into
your development environment. The translator is run by the developer, with translation,
compilation, and customization taking place transparently. Translation replaces embedded
SQL with calls to the SQLJ runtime, which implements the SQL operations. In standard SQLJ,
this is typically, but not necessarily, done through calls to a JDBC driver. In the case of an
Oracle database, you would typically use an Oracle JDBC driver. When the end user runs the
SQLJ application, the run time is invoked to handle the SQL operations in real time. The
Oracle SQLJ translator is conceptually similar to other Oracle precompilers and allows the
developer to check SQL syntax, compare SQL operations to what is available in the schema,
and check the compatibility of Java types with corresponding database types. In this way,
errors can be caught by the developer instead of by a user at run time.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 2-16

Oracle9i Database Objects

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

describe the following Oracle9i database concepts:
• Data types
• B*-tree indexes
• Data integrity and constraints
• Database triggers
• Clusters
• Additional index types
• Views and Materialized Views
• Index-organized tables

3-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-2

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

describe the following Oracle9i database objects:
• External Tables
• Table functions
• Sequences
• Packages
• Queues

3-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-3

 Oracle9i Type System
Oracle9i types

Built-in data types Object types

Scalar Collection Relationship User-defined

types
VARRAY REF
Nested table Supplied
data types
CHAR(n), NCHAR(n)
VARCHAR2(n), NVARCHAR2(n)
RAW(n), LONG RAW XML type
ROWID, UROWID Media types
NUMBER Spatial types
DATE, TIMESTAMP, INTERVAL Any types
BLOB, CLOB, NCLOB, BFILE

3-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Type System

The slide shows the complete list of all data types provided by Oracle9i.
These data types are SQL-based interfaces, called Oracle-supplied data types, for defining
new types when the built-in or ANSI-supported types are not sufficient.
The Oracle server automatically provides the low-level infrastructure services needed for
input-output, heterogeneous client-side access for new data types, and optimizations for data
transfers between the application and the database.
For example the Any types provide highly flexible modeling of procedure parameters and
table columns where the actual type is not known. These data types enable you to
dynamically encapsulate and access type descriptions, data instances, and sets of data
instances of any other SQL type. These types have OCI and PL/SQL interfaces for
construction and access.
Another Oracle-supplied type is XML type, which provides a single CLOB storage option.
This type can be used to store and query XML data in the database. It has member functions
you can use to access, extract, and query the XML data using XPath expressions.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-4

 Large Objects (LOBs)

• LOB storage:
– Unstructured data
– Binary or character
– Size to 4 GB Directory
– Special concurrency
• Storage method: LOB
Photo path
– Internal: database Recipe (BLOB)
(CLOB)
– External: OS files

Movie
(BFILE)

3-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Large Objects (LOBs)

There are four LOB data types in Oracle9i.
• BLOB represents a binary large object.
• CLOB represents a character large object.
• NCLOB represents unicode characters. Both fixed-width and variable-width character
sets are supported, both using the NCHAR database character set.
• BFILE represents a binary file stored outside the database.
LOBs are characterized in two ways: their interpretation by the Oracle9i Server (binary or
character), and their storage aspects. LOBs can be stored inside the database (Internal LOBs)
or in host files (External LOBs). There are two categories of LOB:
• Internal LOBs (CLOB, NCLOB, BLOB)—Stored in the database
• External files (BFILE)—Stored outside the database
A DIRECTORY item specifies an alias for a directory on the server’s file system. By
granting suitable privileges on these items to users, secured access can be provided to files
in the corresponding directories on a user-by-user basis (certain directories can be made
read-only, inaccessible, and so on).
Further, these directory aliases can be used while referring to database files (open, close,
read, and so on) in PL/SQL and OCI. This provides applications abstraction from hard-
coded pathnames, providing flexibility in portably managing file locations.
The DIRECTORY item is owned by the system and created by the DBA.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-5

 Collections

• Objects that contain objects

• VARRAYs are ordered sets of elements containing
a count and a limit
• Nested tables are tables with a column or variable
of the TABLE data type

VARRAY Nested table

3-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Collections
A collection is an object that contains other objects, where each contained object is of the
same type. Collection types are parameterized data types.
Collection types are arrays (VARRAY data type) and nested tables.
VARRAYs can be used to hold lists of objects, REFs, or scalar data types. They are
primarily useful in dealing with small sets, where individual elements need not be
manipulated through SQL.
Nested tables are used where large sets of data need to be placed within a parent table and
are typically useful there is a master-detail relationship, where for a given master row, there
could be many detailed rows.
With Oracle9i Database, it is possible to use multilevel collections. Multilevel collection
types are collection types where the collection element itself is directly or indirectly another
collection type. This means that one collection can be contained in another and this can
occur in several levels. This is usesful when working with the object-oriented approach in
application development.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-6

 B*-Tree Indexes

Index entry
Root

Branch

Index entry header

Leaf Key column length
Key column value
ROWID

3-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

B*-Tree Indexes
Indexes are optional structures associated with tables and clusters. You can create indexes
on one or more columns of a table to speed SQL statement execution on that table. Just as an
index in any manual helps you locate information faster than if there were no index, an
Oracle index provides a faster access path to table data. Indexes are the primary means of
reducing disk I/O when properly used.
Oracle provides several indexing schemes, which provide complementary performance
functionality: B*-tree indexes (currently the most common), B*-tree cluster indexes, hash
cluster indexes, reverse key indexes, and bitmap indexes. Oracle also provides support for
function-based indexes and domain indexes specific to an application or cartridge.
The absence or presence of an index does not require a change in the wording of any SQL
statement. Given a data value that has been indexed, the index points directly to the location
of the rows containing that value.
Oracle automatically maintains and uses indexes after they are created. Oracle automatically
reflects changes to data, such as adding new rows, updating rows, or deleting rows, in all
relevant indexes with no additional action by users.
Oracle uses B*-tree indexes that are balanced to equalize access times to any row. The upper
blocks (branch blocks) of a B*-tree index contain index data that points to lower level index
blocks. The lowest level index blocks (leaf blocks) contain every indexed data value and a
corresponding ROWID used to locate the actual row. The leaf blocks are doubly linked.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-7

 Data Integrity
Constraints and Triggers

Inte RDBMS
Vio grity DEPARTMENTS
SQL lati
on s
DEPTNO DNAME
SQL 35 Accounting
EMPLOYEES
EMPNO MGR DEPTNO PROJECT
5540 Smith 35 108392
7935 PROJ
5892
PROJNO BUDGET DEPTNO
8100
462340 225000.00 54
942384 10000.00 35
402933 35000.00 28
108392 20509.00 50

3-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Data Integrity
It is important that data adhere to a predefined set of rules, as determined by the database
administrator or application developer. This section describes the rules that can be applied to
table columns to enforce different types of data integrity.
• Nulls: A null is a rule defined on a single column that allows or disallows inserts or
updates of rows containing a null (the absence of a value) in that column.
• Unique Column Values: A unique value defined on a column (or set of columns) allows
the insert or update of a row only if it contains a unique value in that column (or set of
columns).
• Primary Key Values: A primary key value defined on a key (a column or set of columns)
specifies that each row in the table can be uniquely identified by the values in the key.
• Referential Integrity: A rule defined on a key (a column or set of columns) in one table
that guarantees that the values in that key match the values in a key in a related table (the
referenced value). Referential integrity also includes the rules that dictate what types of
data manipulation are allowed on referenced values and how these actions affect
dependent values.
• Check: Constraints enable you to enforce very specific or sophisticated integrity rules by
specifying a check condition. The condition of a CHECK constraint needs to be static.
• Trigger: Oracle also allows you to enforce integrity rules with a nondeclarative approach
using database triggers.
You can disable integrity constraints temporarily so that large amounts of data can be loaded
without the overhead of constraint checking.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-8

 Constraint Features

• Deferred constraint checking (until COMMIT)

• Enable constraints without checking table data:
ENABLE NOVALIDATE
• Validate table data without enabling a constraint:
DISABLE VALIDATE
• Unique and primary key constraint checking with
nonunique indexes (or no indexes at all)
• Indicate validity of data without enabling/validating
a constraint: DISABLE NOVALIDATE RELY

3-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Constraint Features
By default, constraints are checked immediately. If a constraint is violated, the statement is
rolled back. In Oracle9i, you can also defer constraint checking until the end of your
transaction.
By default, the table data is checked when you enable a constraint. You can choose to enable
a constraint (checking new DML against the table) without validating the current data. This
avoids locking, and allows concurrent DML while enabling the constraint.
When you disable a constraint, the data is not checked by default. However, you can
DISABLE VALIDATE a constraint, which means that the constraint is disabled and
associated indexes can be dropped while the constraint is kept valid. So you can have index-
less constraints; further DML is not allowed. This is a very useful feature in large (read-
only) data warehouses.
For unique or primary key indexes, Oracle9i needs to create or make use of an existing
index in order to check for uniqueness. If violations occur during the building or reuse of an
index, the constraint cannot be validated.
The RELY flag provides a mechanism to indicate that you believe that a given constraint is
true, without actually having to require that the database verifies this. This feature is used
internally by the summary management facility and query rewrites.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-9

 Database Triggers

CREATE TRIGGER salary_check

BEFORE INSERT
UPDATE employees OR UPDATE OF salary, job_id
SET salary = ON employees
salary*1.1 FOR EACH ROW
WHEN( NEW.job_id != ‘PRESIDENT’ )
DECLARE
max_sal number(8,2);
BEGIN
select maxsal into max_sal
from salguide where job =
:NEW.job_id;
IF (:NEW.salary > max_sal ) then
raise_application_error
( -20500, ‘Salary out of range’ );
END IF;
EMPLOYEES table END;

3-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Database Triggers
Oracle allows you to define procedures called triggers that execute implicitly when an
INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement is issued against the associated table (or, in some
cases, against a view) or when database system actions occur. These procedures can be
written in PL/SQL or Java and stored in the database, or they can be written as C callouts.
A trigger stored in the database can include PL/SQL or Java statements to execute as a unit
and can invoke stored procedures. However, procedures and triggers differ in the way that
they are invoked. A procedure is explicitly executed by a user, application, or trigger.
Triggers (one or more) are implicitly fired (executed) by Oracle when a triggering event
occurs, no matter which user is connected or which application is being used. The example
above shows a database application with a SQL statement that implicitly fires a trigger
stored in the database.
A triggering event or statement is the SQL statement, database event, or user event that
causes a trigger to be fired. A triggering event can be one or more of the following:
• An INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement on a specific table (or view, in some
cases)
• A CREATE, ALTER, or DROP statement on any schema object
• A database startup or instance shutdown
• A specific error message or any error message
• A user logon or logoff

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-10

 Clusters
ORD_NO PROD QTY ... Cluster Key
------ ------ ------ (ORD_NO)
101 A4102 20 101 ORD_DT CUST_CD
102 A2091 11 05-JAN-97 R01
102 G7830 20 PROD QTY
102 N9587 26 A4102 20
101 A5675 19 A5675 19
101 W0824 10 W0824 10
102 ORD_DT CUST_CD
07-JAN-97 N45
PROD QTY
ORD_NO ORD_DT CUST_CD A2091 11
------ ------ ------ G7830 20
101 05-JAN-97 R01 N9587 26
102 07-JAN-97 N45

Unclustered ORDERS and Clustered ORDERS and

ORDER_ITEMS tables ORDER_ITEMS tables

3-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Clusters
Clusters are an optional method of storing table data. A cluster is a group of tables that share
the same data blocks because they share common columns and are often used together. For
example, the ORDERS and ORDER_ITEMS table share the ORDER_ID column. When you
cluster the ORDERS and ORDER_ITEMS tables, Oracle physically stores all rows for each
order from both the ORDERS and ORDER_ITEMS tables in the same data blocks.
The Cluster Index
A cluster index is an index defined specifically for a cluster. Such an index contains an entry
for each cluster key value. To locate a row in a cluster, the cluster index is used to find the
cluster key value, which points to the data block associated with that cluster key value.
Therefore, Oracle accesses a given row with a minimum of two I/Os.
Hash Clusters
Hashing is an optional way of storing table data to improve the performance of data
retrieval. To use hashing, you create a hash cluster and load tables into the cluster. Oracle
physically stores the rows of a table in a hash cluster and retrieves them according to the
results of a hash function. The key of a hash cluster (like the key of an index cluster) can be
a single column or composite key. To find or store a row in a hash cluster, Oracle applies the
hash function to the row's cluster key value; the resulting hash value corresponds to a data
block in the cluster, which Oracle then reads or writes on behalf of the issued statement.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-11

 Bitmap Indexes

Table File 3
Index Block 10

Block 11

Block 12

Start End
Key ROWID ROWID Bitmap
<Blue, 10.0.3, 12.8.3, 100010000 010000000 010010100>
<Green, 10.0.3, 12.8.3, 000101000 000000000 100100000>
<Red, 10.0.3, 12.8.3, 010000000 001100000 000001001>
<Yellow, 10.0.3, 12.8.3,001000000 100000000 001000010>

3-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Bitmap Indexes
The purpose of an index is to provide pointers to the rows in a table that contain a given key
value. In a regular index, this is achieved by storing a list of ROWIDs for each key
corresponding to the rows with that key value. In a bitmap index, a bitmap for each key
value is used instead of a list of ROWIDs. Each bit in the bitmap corresponds to a possible
ROWID, and if the bit is set, it means that the row with the corresponding ROWID contains
the key value. A mapping function converts the bit position to an actual ROWID, so the
bitmap index provides the same functionality as a regular index even though it uses a
different representation internally. If the number of different key values is small, bitmap
indexes are very space efficient. Bitmap indexing efficiently merges indexes that correspond
to several conditions in a WHERE clause. Rows that satisfy some, but not all conditions are
filtered out before the table itself is accessed. This improves response time, often
dramatically.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-12

 What Is a Bitmap Join Index?
CREATE BITMAP INDEX cust_sales_bji
ON sales(c.cust_city)
FROM sales s, customers c
1.2.3
WHERE c.cust_id = s.cust_id;
Sales
Customers

10.8000.3
<Rognes, 1.2.3, 10.8000.3, 100010010010100…>
<Aix-en-Provence, 1.2.3, 10.8000.3, 000101000100000…>
<Marseille, 1.2.3, 10.8000.3, 010000001000001…>
< ..., ..., ... , ... …>

3-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

What Is a Bitmap Join Index?

In addition to a bitmap index on a single table, you can create a bitmap join index in
Oracle9i. A bitmap join index is a bitmap index for the join of two or more tables. A bitmap
join index is a space-efficient way of reducing the volume of data that must be joined by
performing restrictions in advance.
Here, we create a new bitmap join index named cust_sales_bji on the SALES table.
The key of this index is the column CUST_CITY of the CUSTOMERS table. This example
assumes that there is an enforced primary key constraint on CUSTOMERS in order to ensure
that what is stored in the bitmap reflect the reality of the data in the tables. The column
CUST_ID is the primary key of CUSTOMERS but is also a foreign key inside SALES,
although not required.
The FROM and WHERE clause in the CREATE statement allow Oracle9i to make the link
between the two tables. They represent the natural join condition between the two tables.
The middle part of the above graphic shows you a theoretical implementation of this bitmap
join index. Each entry or key in the index represents a possible city found in the
CUSTOMERS table. A bitmap is then associated to one particular key. Each bit in a bitmap
corresponds to one row in the SALES table. In the first key above (Rognes), you can see that
the first row in the SALES table corresponds to a product sold to a Rognes customer, while
the second bit is not a product sold to a Rognes customer.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-13

 Other Index Types

• Function-based indexes:
Based on expressions or functions

SQL> create index sales_profit_idx

2 on sales(revenue-cost);

Index can SQL> select ordid from sales

be used 2 where (revenue-cost)>=1000;

• Descending indexes:
Avoid sorting

3-14 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Function-Based Indexes
Function-based indexes can be useful in several cases:
• When the SELECT list uses expressions that can be materialized as a function-based
index value
• When the WHERE clause contains expressions, as shown in the example, to avoid full
table scans
• While using different NLS collating sequences
Function-based indexes can use any function or object method that is declared as repeatable.
That is, the returned value cannot change for a given set of input values.
Descending Indexes
In Oracle9i, indexes can also be stored in descending order of key values. This is, for
example, useful for concatenated indexes where you frequently sort ascending on the first
column and descending on the second column.
Note that the DESCENDING keyword has always been supported by Oracle for
compatibility reasons; however, it was ignored until Oracle8i.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-14

 Views
Base EMPLOYEES
Table Empno Ename Job Mgr Hiredate Sal Comm Deptno
----- ----- ----- ---- -------- --- ---- ------
7329 SMITH CLERK 7902 17/12/88 300 20
7499 ALLEN SALES 7698 20/02/88 300 150 30
7521 WARD SALES 7698 22/02/88 300 160 30
7566 JONES CLERK 7839 02/04/88 150 40

View STAFF
Empno Ename Job Hiredate Deptno
----- ----- ----- -------- ------
7329 SMITH CLERK 17/12/88 20
7499 ALLEN SALES 20/02/88 30
7521 WARD SALES 22/02/88 30
7566 JONES CLERK 02/04/88 40

3-15 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Views
A view is a tailored presentation of the data contained in one or more tables. A view takes
the output of a query and treats it as a table. Therefore, a view can be thought of as a stored
query or a virtual table. You can use views in most places where a table can be used.
For example, the EMP table has several columns and numerous rows of information. If you
only want users to see five of these columns, or only specific rows, you can create a view of
that table for other users to access.
Since views are derived from tables, they have many similarities. You can query views, and
with some restrictions you can update, insert into, and delete from views. All operations
performed on a view actually affect data in some base table of the view and are subject to
the integrity constraints and triggers of the base tables.
Unlike a table, a view is not allocated any storage space, nor does a view actually contain
data; rather, a view is defined by a query that extracts or derives data from the tables the
view references. These tables are called base tables. Base tables can in turn be actual tables
or can be views themselves. Because a view is based on other objects, a view requires no
storage other than storage for the definition of the view (the stored query) in the data
dictionary.
Views can be used as restricted windows on your data and so it can secure access to them
and also simplify their access.
An inline view is not a schema object, but rather it is a subquery with an alias (correlation
name) that you can use like a view within a SQL statement.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-15

 Materialized Views

A materialized view:
• Is an instantiation of a SQL statement
• Has its data stored in tables, offering:
– Space management options
– Use of indexes and partitions
• Can be compared to an index in many ways
• Used for:
– Data warehouses
– Distributed computing
–…

3-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Materialized Views
One technique commonly used to improve performance is the creation of materialized
views. Materialized views are objects that improve query execution times by precalculating
expensive joins and aggregation operations prior to execution, and storing the results in a
database table. For example, a table T could be created to contain the sum of sales by region
and by product. If a database application needs to retrieve the sum of sales by region and by
product, it is more efficient to directly query T than to access the SALES table. However,
this manual technique has at least two disadvantages:
• The database application needs to be aware of table T.
• It is possible that table T does not reflect reality. (What if one modifies SALES?)
Oracle9i automates these processes by using materialized views. When the end-user
application executes queries, the Oracle optimizer may transparently rewrite the SQL query
to use the materialized view (analog to indexes). This mechanism significantly improves the
response time and eliminates the need for database applications to be aware of precreated
materialized views. Materialized views can be refreshed automatically, ensuring that both
materialized views and database tables are synchronized.
For more information on materialized views, see Oracle9i Business Intelligence and
Oracle9i Replication lessons.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-16

 Index-Organized Tables

ROWID + data of
indexed columns
Data by
Primary Key

Data

Index-only table

Heap table/index

3-17 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Index-Organized Tables
An index-organized table differs from an ordinary table (called a heap table) in that the data
for the table is held in its associated index. Changes to the table data, such as adding new
rows, updating rows, or deleting rows, result only in updating the index.
The index-organized table is like an ordinary table with an index on one or more of its
columns, but instead of maintaining two separate storages for the table and the B*-tree
index, the database system only maintains a single B*-tree index which contains both the
encoded key value and the associated column values for the corresponding row. Rather than
having a row’s ROWID as the second element of the index entry, the actual data row is
stored in the B*-tree index. The data rows are built on the primary key for the table, and
each B*-tree index entry contains
<primary_key_value, non_primary_key_column_values>
Index-organized tables are suitable for accessing data by the primary key or any key that is a
valid prefix of the primary key. There is no duplication of key values because only non-key
column values are stored with the key. You can build secondary indexes to provide efficient
access by other columns. Applications manipulate the index-organized table just like an
ordinary table, using SQL statements. However, the database system performs all operations
by manipulating the corresponding B*-tree index.
In order to keep the B*-tree structures small and efficient, index-organized tables normally
have an overflow segment, especially if the rows are quite long. You can define which part
of the row should be stored into the B*-tree, and which part should go to the overflow
segment.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-17

 External Tables

• Read data from text files in the operating system

• Presents data as a normal table inside the database
• Reduce time and complexity when loading data

Flat files External table

3-18 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

External Tables
Oracle9i’s external table feature allows you to use external data as a virtual table that can be
queried and joined directly and in parallel without requiring the external data to be first
loaded in the database
External tables are like regular SQL tables with the exception that the data is read-only and
does not reside in the database, thus the organization is external. As a result, the external
table acts as a view. The metadata for the external table is created using the CREATE
TABLE … ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL statement.
No DML operations are possible and no indexes can be created on them.
The CREATE TABLE … ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL operation involves only the
creation of metadata in the Oracle Dictionary since the external data already exists outside
the database in text files. Once the metadata is created, the external table feature enables the
user to easily perform parallel extraction of data from the specified external sources.
External Tables utilizes SQL*Loader functionality. The arguments given when creating an
external table are similar to those found in SQL*Loader control files.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-18

 Transformations with Pipelined
Table Functions

• Oracle9i supports pipelined and parallelizable table

functions:
– Output is a set of rows.
– Input can be a set of rows.
– Output can be pipelined.
– Evaluation of the table function can be parallelized.
• Table functions are used in the FROM clause of a
SELECT statement.
• Table functions can be defined in PL/SQL using a
native PL/SQL interface, or in Java or C using the
Oracle Data Cartridge Interface (ODCI).

3-19 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Table Functions
In the ETL process, the data extracted from a source system passes through a sequence of
transformations before it is loaded into a data warehouse. A large class of user-defined
transformations are implemented in a procedural manner, either outside the database or
inside the database in PL/SQL. The table functions in Oracle9i provide support for pipelined
and parallel execution of such transformations implemented in PL/SQL, C, or Java.
Using Table Functions avoids intermediate staging tables, which interrupt the data flow
through the various transformation steps.
External tables enable the pipelining of the loading phase with the transformation phase. The
transformation process can be merged with the loading process without any interruption of
the data streaming. It is no longer necessary to stage the data inside the database for
comparison or transformation.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-19

 Sequence Number Generation

Traditional method

User Single serialization point

process

Oracle method
with sequences

User
process Time

3-20 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Sequence Number Generation

A system often needs to generate a unique number, for example, a number for a sales order.
One way to achieve this is to have a row within a control table that contains the last used
number. A transaction creating an order locks the row, reads the number, and then writes the
number +1 back to the control table. When the transaction commits, the lock on the control
table is released and another transaction can access the next number. In an OLTP system, the
control table becomes a bottleneck, as all transactions are serialized on the control table.
1. select LASTVALUE+1 into X from SEQ_TAB for update of LASTVALUE
2. insert into ORDERS values(:X, ... )
3. update SEQ_TAB set LASTVALUE = :X
4. commit
Oracle provides a sequence number generator to solve this problem. It can be thought of as a
set of unique numbers, cached in memory. Transactions do not require locks on the sequence
number and Oracle guarantees they are unique.
1. insert into ORDERS values (ORD_SEQ.NEXTVAL, ... )
2. commit
The Oracle method also requires fewer SQL statements, which is extremely beneficial in
client-server environments.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-20

 Packages

Package Procedure A
specification declaration

Procedure B
definition
Package
body
Procedure A
definition
Local
variable

3-21 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Packages
Packages bundle related PL/SQL types, items, and subprograms structures into one
container. For example, a r package might contain hiring and firing procedures, commission
and bonus functions, and tax exemption variables.
Usually a package has a specification and a body, stored separately in the database.
The specification is the interface to your applications. It declares the types, variables,
constants, exceptions, cursors, and subprograms available for use.
The body fully defines cursors and subprograms, and so implements the specification.
The package itself cannot be called, parameterized, or nested. Still, the format of a package
is similar to that of a subprogram. Once written and compiled, the contents can be shared by
many applications.
When calling a packaged PL/SQL construct for the first time, the whole package is loaded
into memory. Therefore, later calls to related constructs require no disk I/O.
Because all packages in Oracle9i can be native-compiled, performance is increased as
compared to the traditional method. This is done by translating the package to C code, and
then compiling that C code and mapping it into the database again. All of this is done from
within the database.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-21

 Queues

DEQUEUE

ENQUEUE

3-22 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Queues
In client/server environments, requests are executed immediately. This is often called online
or connected execution of work. However, there are many environments in which a deferred
or disconnected execution is preferred or even required.
Queuing implements deferred execution of work. When a request for work is entered,
queuing defers processing of that request until the requester has completed the task, process,
or transaction that created the request.
It is often important that each request is processed exactly once, even in the presence of
application and system failures. By integrating transaction processing with queuing
technology, persistent queuing supports this requirement. The importance of queuing has
been proven by transaction processing (TP) monitors which typically include such a facility.
Business process management and workflow are more and more recognized as fundamental
technologies for emerging applications. Queuing is one of the key technologies for this class
of applications.
Oracle provides an efficient queuing infrastructure that does not depend on the use of TP
monitors or other evolving message-oriented middleware (MOM) infrastructure.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-22

Queues (continued)
Oracle Advanced Queuing (AQ) offers the following functionality:
• Structured payload for messages
• Priority and ordering of messages in queues
• Ability to specify a window of execution for each message
• Ability to query queues using standard SQL
• Integrated transactions to simplify application development and management
• Ability to dequeue multiple messages as a bundle
• Ability to specify multiple recipients
• Ability to propagate messages to queues in local or remote Oracle databases
• Rule-based publish/subscribe with content based filtering
• Ability to wait for messages on multiple queues
• Persistent and non-persistent queuing
• Statistics on messages stored in queues and propagated to other queues
• Retention of messages and message history for analysis purposes
• Queue level access control
• Exception handling support
• Support for Oracle Parallel Server environment to achieve higher performance
asynchronous notification using callback functions
Since Oracle AQ queues are implemented in database tables, all the operational benefits of
high availability, scalability, and reliability are applicable to queue data. In addition, you can
use database development and management tools with queues.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-23

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 3-24
Basic Oracle9i Architecture

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

describe the basic Oracle9i architecture:
• Logical and physical data structures
• The data dictionary
• Instances, memory structures, and processes
• Server architecture, including Shared Servers

4-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 4-2

 Instance and Database
Instance
User
process Shared SGA
Library
Library
cache Data Buffer Redo Log
Server Data Dict. cache buffer
process cache
PGA
PMON SMON DBW0 LGWR CKPT others

Redo
Parameter Data Control Log
files files files Archived
file
log files
Password
file

4-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Instance and Database

Every running Oracle database is associated with an Oracle instance. When a database is
started on a database server, Oracle allocates a shared memory area called the System
Global Area (SGA) and starts several Oracle processes. This combination of the SGA and
the Oracle processes is called an Oracle instance.
After starting an instance, Oracle associates the instance with a specified database. This is
called mounting the database. The database is then ready to be opened, which makes it
accessible to authorized users. Multiple instances can execute concurrently on the same
computer, each accessing its own physical database.
Server Processes
Oracle creates server processes to handle requests from connected user processes. A server
process is in charge of communicating with the user process and interacting with Oracle to
carry out requests of the associated user process. Oracle can be configured to vary the
number of user processes per server process. On some systems, the user and server processes
are separate, while on others they are combined into a single process. Client/server systems
separate the user and server processes and execute them on different machines.
Program Global Area (PGA)
The PGA is a private (non-shared) memory buffer that contains data and control information
for a server process. A PGA is created by Oracle when a server process is started.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 4-3

 Instance Components

Instance
SGA Java Pool
Large Pool

Shared Pool
Parameter Buffer Cache Redo Log Library cache
file Buffer
Dictionary cache
ALERT
file
DBWn CKPT LGWR PMON SMON ...

4-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Parameter File
To start an instance, Oracle must read a parameter file, which is a text file containing a list
of initialization parameter settings for that instance and database, or a binary file called an
SPFILE maintained by Oracle. You will see more information on SPFILE in the next lesson.
Background Processes
Oracle creates a set of background processes for each instance. The background processes
asynchronously perform I/O and monitor other Oracle processes to provide increased
parallelism for better performance and reliability. Each Oracle instance may use several
background processes. The names of these processes are DBWn, LGWR, CKPT, SMON,
PMON, ARCn, RECO, and so on.
Database Buffer Cache
The database buffer cache is the portion of the SGA that holds copies of data blocks read
from the data files. All user processes share access to the database buffer cache.
Redo Log Buffer
The redo log buffer is a circular buffer that holds information about changes made to the
database. This information is stored in redo entries. Redo entries contain the information
necessary to reconstruct, or redo, changes made to the database. Redo entries are used for
database recovery, if necessary. The background process LGWR writes the redo log buffer
to the active online redo log file, or group of files, on disk.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 4-4

Shared Pool
The shared pool contains three major areas: library cache, dictionary cache, and some
internal control structures.
The library cache includes the shared SQL areas, private SQL areas, PL/SQL procedures
and packages, and control structures such as locks and library cache handles.
The data dictionary is a collection of database tables and views containing reference
information about the database, its structures, and its users. Oracle accesses the data
dictionary frequently during the parsing of SQL statements, and has a dictionary cache to
keep data dictionary information in memory to avoid time-consuming data dictionary
lookups.
Large Pool
The database administrator can configure an optional memory area called the large pool to
provide large memory allocations for session memory for the Shared Server and the Oracle
XA interface and I/O server processes during Recovery Manager’s backup and restore
operations. The large pool is also used for parallel execution, to pass messages between the
processes involved.
Java Pool
The primary initialization parameters that affect Java usage and performance are
shared_pool_size and java_pool_size. The database initialization process
requires shared_pool_size to be set to 50MB as it loads the Java binaries for more
than 8,000 classes and resolves them. The shared_pool_size resource is also
consumed when you create call specifications and while the system tracks dynamically
loaded Java classes at runtime. The server side Java VM memory manager allocates all other
Java states during runtime execution from the amount of memory allocated using
java_pool_size. This memory includes the shared in-memory representation of Java
method and class definitions, as well as the Java objects that are migrated to session space at
end-of-call.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 4-5

 Database Components

Control
files

Multiplexing
Password
file
Data Redo log
files files

4-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Data Files
Every Oracle database has one or more physical data files. A database's data files contain all
the database data. The data of logical database structures such as tables and indexes is
physically stored in the data files allocated for a database.
Redo Log Files
Every Oracle database has a set of two or more redo log files. The set of redo log files for a
database is collectively known as the database’s redo log. A redo log is made up of redo
entries, each of which is a group of change vectors describing a single atomic change to the
database. The primary function of the redo log is to record all changes made to the database.
Should a failure prevent modified data from being permanently written to the data files, the
changes can be obtained from the redo log and work is never lost. Redo log files should be
multiplexed to protect them against failures.
In case of instance failures, Oracle will automatically recover the database using information
from the current online redo log files.
Control Files
Every Oracle database has at least one control file. A control file contains entries that
specify the physical structure of the database. Control files should be multiplexed to protect
them against failures.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 4-6

 Shared Server
Shared server Instance
processes
SGA
Snnn Response queue
Request for (D001)
Snnn queue for all Response queue
dispatchers for (D002)
Snnn Response queue
for (D003)
SMON DBWn PMON CKPT LGWR ARCn

Dispatcher Dispatcher Dispatcher

D001 D002 D003

Listener Database server

User User client

process process

4-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Shared Server
The shared server configuration allows many user processes to share very few server
processes. The user processes connect to a dispatcher background process, which routes
client requests to the next available shared server process. The advantage of the shared
server configuration is that system overhead is reduced, increasing the number of users that
can be supported. A small number of shared server processes can perform the same amount
of processing as many dedicated server processes, and the amount of memory required for
each user is relatively small. The shared server requires Net. When an instance starts, the
network listener process opens and establishes a communication pathway through which
users connect to Oracle. Then, each dispatcher process gives the listener process an address
at which the dispatcher listens for connection requests. At least one dispatcher process must
be configured and started for each network protocol that the database clients will use. When
a user process makes a connection request, the listener examines the request and determines
whether the user process can use a shared server process. If so, the listener returns the
address of the dispatcher process that has the lightest load and the user process connects to
the dispatcher directly.
Note: More shared server features, such as connection pooling and multiplexing, are
discussed in a later lesson.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 4-7

Dispatcher Request and Response Queues
A request from a user is a single program interface call that is part of the user’s SQL
statement. When a user makes a call, its dispatcher places the request on the request queue,
where it is picked up by the next available shared server process. The request queue is in the
SGA and is common to all dispatcher processes of an instance. The shared server processes
check the common request queue for new requests, picking up new requests on a first-in-
first-out basis. One shared server process picks up one request in the queue and makes all
necessary calls to the database to complete that request. When the server completes the
request, it places the response on the calling dispatcher’s response queue. Each dispatcher
has its own response queue in the SGA. The dispatcher then returns the completed request to
the appropriate user process.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 4-8

 Database Structure

Database Physical

Schema Tablespace Data file

Segment

Extent

Oracle
Logical O/S block
block

4-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Database Structure
An Oracle database is a collection of data that is treated as a unit. The general purpose of a
database is to store and retrieve related information. The database has logical structures and
physical structures.
Tablespaces
A database is divided into logical storage units called tablespaces, that group related logical
structures together. For example, tablespaces commonly group all of an application's objects
to simplify some administrative operations. In Oracle9i, you also have different tablespace
types such as UNDO tablespace for undo information generation, that will be used if
someone writes rollback instead of commit.
Databases, Tablespaces, and Data files
The relationship among databases, tablespaces, and data files is illustrated in the above slide.
Each database is logically divided into one or more tablespaces. One or more data files are
explicitly created for each tablespace to physically store the data of all logical structures in a
tablespace. If it is a TEMPORARY tablespace, instead of a data file, the tablespace has a
temporary file.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 4-9

Schemas
A schema is a collection of database objects, owned by a database user. Schema objects are
the logical structures that directly refer to the database’s data. Schema objects include such
structures as tables, views, sequences, stored procedures, synonyms, indexes, clusters, and
database links. In general, everything your application creates in the database.
Data Blocks
At the finest level of granularity, an Oracle database’s data is stored in data blocks. One data
block corresponds to a specific number of bytes of physical database space on disk. A data
block size is specified for each tablespace when it is created. A database uses and allocates
free database space in Oracle data blocks.
Extents
The next level of logical database space is called an extent. An extent is a specific number of
contiguous data blocks, obtained in a single allocation, used to store a specific type of
information.
Segments
The level of logical database storage above an extent is called a segment. A segment is a set
of extents allocated for a certain logical structure. For example, the different types of
segments include:
• Data segments: Each non-clustered table has a data segment. All of the table’s data is
stored in the extents of its data segment. For a partitioned table, each partition has a data
segment. Each cluster has a data segment. The data of every table in the cluster is stored
in the cluster's data segment.
• Index segments: Each index has an index segment that stores all of its data. For a
partitioned index, each partition has an index segment.
• Undo segments: One UNDO tablespace is created by the database administrator to
temporarily store undo information. The information in an undo segment is used to
generate read-consistent database information during database recovery to roll back
uncommitted transactions for users.
• Temporary segments: Temporary segments are created by Oracle when a SQL statement
needs a temporary work area to complete execution. When the statement finishes
execution, the temporary segment’s extents are returned to the system for future use. If
you specify a default temporary tablespace for every user, or global in the database as a
default temporary tablespace, you can make sure that everything that spills to disk is in
the proper location.
Oracle dynamically allocates space when the existing extents of a segment become full.
Therefore, when the existing extents of a segment are full, Oracle allocates another extent
for that segment as needed. Because extents are allocated as needed, the extents of a
segment may or may not be contiguous on disk.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 4-10

 Data Dictionary

Used extents Free extents

DBA_EXTENTS DBA_FREE_SPACE

Segments Data files

DBA_SEGMENTS DBA_DATA_FILES

Tablespaces
DBA_TABLESPACES

• DBA_ .. Database level information

• V$ .. Memory and process information

4-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Data Dictionary
One of the most important parts of an Oracle database is the data dictionary, which is a read-
only set of tables that provides information about its associated database. A data dictionary
contains the definitions of all schema objects in the database, such as tables, views, indexes,
synonyms, sequences, procedures, packages, triggers, and so on. It also shows how much
space has been allocated for, and is currently being used, by the database objects, default
values for columns, integrity constraint information, and so on.
All the data dictionary tables and views for a given database are stored in the database’s
SYSTEM tablespace.
Not only is the data dictionary central to every Oracle database, it is an important tool for all
users, from end users to application designers and database administrators. To access the
data dictionary, you use SQL statements. Because the data dictionary is read-only, you can
only issue queries against the tables and views of the data dictionary.
Metadata Unload
In Oracle9i, you can also use metadata unload. Metadata unload gives you the possibility to
extract information from the data dictionary regarding one specific table. The result from
metadata unload will be an XML document that you can use in another database to create a
copy of the table.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 4-11

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 4-12
Oracle9i Real Application Clusters

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to do

the following:
• Describe Real Application Clusters architecture
• Explain the functions of the Global Cache Service,
the Global Enqueue Service, and the Global
Resource Directory
• Define Cache Fusion block transfer methods
• Describe the shared server-side initialization
parameter file
• Describe management tool enhancements

5-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 2

 Modern Business Requirements

Higher
reliability and
availability
Greater Non-user
complexity tasks

Larger data Greater user

volumes population

Lower Higher
response throughput
times rate
Less
management
overhead

5-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Modern Business Requirements

Modern business requirements have a great impact on the information technology solutions
that companies need. Reliability refers to the likelihood that a component will either work or
fail. In computers, it is typically measured as mean time to failure (MTTF). Availability is
the measure of the amount of time a resource is available. Availability is typically measured
as a percentage of time, with availability of between 90% and 99% being typical goals.
The above slide shows some of the modern businesses characteristics.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 3

 Real Application Clusters Overview

Vendor CMS Vendor CMS

Cluster
CGS interconnect CGS
Background processes Background processes
LMS LMON LMD LMS LMON LMD

SGA SGA
Global Global
Resource Resource
Directory Directory
Instance A Instance B
Database files
on shared disks
Executables and archive Executables and archive
logs on local disks logs on local disks

5-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Real Application Clusters Overview

Oracle9i Real Application Clusters allow multiple instances to execute against the same
database. The typical installation involves a cluster of nodes with access to a set of shared
disks. A node is defined as the collection of processors, shared memory, and disks that run an
instance. A node may have more than one CPU, either in an SMP or a NUMA configuration.
The cluster nodes are connected by an interconnect that allows them to share disks and to
communicate with each other through cluster management software (CMS).
The shared disks store the database files: data, online redo, and control files. The Oracle9i
executables can also be saved on the shared disks although it is advisable to store these on
each node’s local disks to help ensure availability. Archived redo log files generated by each
instance are stored, ideally, on each node’s local disks and on a shared device used by each
instance. To ensure the highest level of transfer rates for messages and data, the cluster
interconnect should be based on fast interconnect technologies with low latency. This
includes high-speed Ethernet and technologies based on the Virtual Interface Architecture
(VIA) messaging API, and hardware, such as GigaNet and ServerNet.
Vendor-provided CMS monitors the health of processes running in the cluster, and is used by
Real Application Clusters for internode messaging and to control the membership of the
instances. A layer of Oracle9i software, the Cluster Group Services (CGS), provides an
interface to the vendor’s CMS and also performs its own instance validation checks.
Note: Other components shown in the graphic are discussed on the next few pages.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 4

 Real Application Clusters Characteristics

• Each instance is a separate System Global Area

(SGA)
• Each instance writes to its own set of redo log files
• An Oracle instance can be started on each node
• All instances can read the redo log files of other
instances
• All instances share the same data files and control
files
• Row-level locking is preserved
• All instances can concurrently execute transactions
against the same database

5-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Real Application Clusters Characteristics

• Each instance is a separate System Global Area (SGA) and a set of background
processes.
• Each instance writes to its own set of redo log files.
• An Oracle instance can be started on each node.
• All instances can read the redo log files of other instances.
• All instances share the same data files and control files.
• Row-level locking is preserved.
• All instances can concurrently execute transactions against the same database and each
instance can have multiple users executing transactions.
• Applications that access the same database can run on the same nodes as Real
Application Clusters instances, or on separate nodes using a three-tier or client-server
architecture.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 5

 Background Processes

Real Application Clusters background processes

replace those used by Oracle Parallel Server
• The Parallel Server background process BSP is no
longer used.
• The following background processes have different
functions:
– LMS: Global Cache Service process
– LMON: Global Enqueue Service monitor
– LMD: Global Enqueue Service process

5-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Background Processes
Although some of the background processes used by Real Application Clusters have the
same names as those in Oracle Parallel Server in Oracle8i, their functions and activities are
different from those in previous Oracle cluster-enabled software releases. These differences
are discussed below:
• BSP: The Block Server Process was introduced in Oracle8i Parallel Server to support
Read Consistent Cache Fusion. It does not exist in a Real Application Clusters database
where these activities are performed by the LMS process.
• LMS: This process was known as the Lock Manager Server Process in Parallel Server.
The new LMS process in Real Application Clusters executes as the Global Cache Service
Process.
• LMON: This process was known as the Lock Manager Monitor in Parallel Server. While
Real Application Clusters databases use the same process name, the process is defined as
the Global Enqueue Service Monitor.
• LMD: There was a Lock Manager process, called LMD0, in Oracle Parallel Server, with
a zero at the end of the name implying that multiple copies of the process may be
allowed. This process is not used by Real Application Cluster, but a new process called
LMD executes as the Global Enqueue Service.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 6

 Benefits of Real Application Clusters

• Increased number of users

• Scalability
• Application speedup
• Availability

5-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Benefits of Real Application Clusters

By using multiple instances, each on its own node, to process against the same database, Real
Application Clusters provide the following advantages over single instance databases:
• Increasing user populations can be supported by adding additional nodes when the
available nodes reach their session capacity.
• Work can scale (more work can be completed in the same amount of time) when each
instance can be optimized to support a maximum workload.
• Some processing, particularly operations that can be executed with parallel components,
can complete faster when the work is spread across multiple nodes.
• Applications have higher availability because they can be accessed from any instance.
An instance failure on one node does not prevent work from continuing on one or more
surviving instances, and transparent application failover enables fast reconnections and
resumption of work following an instance failure.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 7

 Global Cache Service

Instance A Instance B Instance C

Global Cache Global Cache Global Cache
Service Service Service

Re- Granted Re- Granted Re- Granted

to
source Instance to
source Instance to
source Instance

... ... ... ... ... ...

20 A,B,C 21 B 22 A,C
23 A,B 24 A,C 25 C
26 C 27 A,B,C 28 A,B,C
29 B,C 30 B,C 31 B
... ... ... ... ... ...

Note: For simplicity, resource status values are not shown.

5-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Global Cache Service

A key function of Real Application Clusters is the coordination of resources shared across
instances, including block images in their buffer caches. In previous Oracle cluster-enabled
software releases, this function was provided through a Distributed Lock Manager which
managed block locks, called Parallel Cache Management locks, and other shared resources
such as global enqueues. In Oracle9i, database block resources are managed by the Global
Cache Service, using the LMS background process, and non-database block resources by the
Global Enqueue Service and its LMD process.
The information tracked by the Global Cache and the Global Enqueue Services is stored in
the Global Resource Directory using memory from each of the active instances. Each
resource is mastered by just one instance at a time, as shown in the graphic for resources 20
through 31. When an instance needs a shared resource, it sends a message to mastering
instance across the cluster interconnect using the CGS and the vendor’s CMS. The Global
Cache and the Global Enqueue Services also send messages to instances, for example, to
request them to release resources required by other instances.
For database blocks, the Global Cache Service maintains a list of resource statuses. These
resources are acquired and released based on demands of all the instances, independently of
transaction and row resources. The resources tracked by the Global Cache Service can be
acquired, dropped, or have their statuses converted regardless of the state of any transactions
on the related block.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 8

 Dynamic Resource Remastering

• Dynamic remastering allows resource masters to be

changed without complete reconfiguration.
• During processing, lazy dynamic remastering
moves resources to the most active instance.
• Should an instance leave the group, the background
processes only remaster the resources from the
departing instance.
• Similarly, when a new instance joins the group, the
resources are gradually remastered, adapting to
cluster workload.

5-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Dynamic Resource Remastering

In previous releases of Oracle cluster-enabled software, the Distributed Lock Manager lock
database was distributed among the available instances. Once assigned to an instance, a lock
would not move from its assigned instance until another instance started up or shut down,
known as a node transition. A node transition required the lock database to be entirely rebuilt
across the new set of active instances. While this rebuilding was in progress, access to the
Distributed Lock Manager was frozen, disabling new request processing and reducing
database availability. Further, when an instance shut down, all information from its portion
of the lock database was lost.
In Real Application Clusters, the resources in the Global Resource Directory are remastered
(moved to different instances) dynamically. During processing, when particular instances use
blocks almost exclusively, the block resources are remastered to those instances. This
remastering is done lazily, that is, when the resource information can be included with other
messages or when the background processes have no pending requests to process, causing no
obvious performance overhead.
Dynamic resource remastering also increases database availability during node transitions in
Real Application Clusters. Only the resources associated with new or departing instances
have to be processed. Both LMS and LMD will continue to process requests for unaffected
resources as they perform this work, minimizing the performance impact of node transitions.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 9

 Block Transfers

Instance Instance
A B
Block transfer with
Node A forced disk write Node B

Instance Instance
A B
Cache Fusion block transfer
Node A Node B

5-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Block Transfers
If a block is only being queried (read) by all the instances, the same image is valid for all the
instances and this image is consistent with the on-disk copy. Thus the block image can be
read from disk or from another instance.
However, when a block has been changed (written) by an instance, another instance must
obtain the current block image before it can make its own changes. Similarly, an instance
performing a read may need to see changes committed by the writing instance. In these cases,
the Global Cache Service instructs the instance holding the current block image to transfer
the image to the requesting instance using one of three basic mechanisms:
Block Transfer with Forced Disk Write: This method, often referred to as a block ping, was
the only block transfer method in Oracle cluster-enabled software releases prior to Oracle8,
release 8.1, and was also used in Oracle8i to transfer blocks between writing instances. The
block is written to disk by the holding instance, and the requesting instance reads the freshly
written copy.
Consistent Read Cache Fusion: This algorithm enables the writing instance to prepare a read-
consistent image in its own buffer cache and to send this image across the interconnect to the
buffer cache of the instance performing the query. A similar algorithm was used in Oracle8i
Parallel Server databases.
Cache Fusion Block Transfer: Exclusive to Real Application Clusters, this algorithm passes
either clean or dirty block images between instances across the cluster interconnect.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 10

 Benefits of Cache Fusion

Without Cache Fusion

100

Block
access
time With
(milli- Cache
seconds) Fusion

20
1
0.01
Block in Block in Block
local cache remote cache on disk

5-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Benefits of Cache Fusion

By allowing any block being held by an instance to be copied to another instance across the
cluster interconnect, Cache Fusion allows data to be shared between instances without the
overhead of forced disk write block transfers. It even allows an instance to obtain a block
already cached in another instance faster than it could read that same block from disk.
Studies on typical clusters with high-speed interconnects regularly demonstrate the levels of
speedup shown in the graph. This, in turn, allows applications to run on Real Application
Clusters that might not have scaled successfully in previous Oracle cluster-enabled software
releases.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 11

 High Availability Features

• Dynamic resource remastering by the Global Cache

Service
• Concurrent Global Cache Service remastering and
instance recovery
• CGS contains its own instance validity checking
• Use of past images and two-pass redo log recovery
• Enhancements to Real Application Clusters Guard
(the replacement for Oracle Parallel Fail Safe)

5-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

High Availability Features

Real Application Clusters is Oracle Corporation’s premier high availability solution. You can
use it to configure alternate instances on a database to be used if the active instances fail due
to software or hardware errors. High availability features are incorporated into many of
components of the architecture.
• Global Cache Service reconfiguration, discussed earlier, minimizes down time because
only resources for one instance need to be remastered after a node transition.
• Due to the relatively small number of resources to be remastered following instance
failure, instance recovery by a surviving instance on behalf of the failed instance
progresses concurrently with Global Cache Service remastering. In Oracle Parallel
Server, instance recovery was deferred during lock database reconfiguration.
• The CGS software contains its own instance status detection algorithms. This enables
active instances to monitor each other without relying on the vendor’s CMS. Therefore
problems are detected quickly, allowing Global Resource Directory reconfiguration and
instance recovery to proceed with minimal interruption to service.
• The use of Cache Fusion past images to refresh data files prior to recovery and Oracle9i
two-pass redo log processing enable faster recovery.
• Real Application Clusters Guard, the Oracle9i replacement for Oracle Parallel Fail Safe,
works with more vendor clusters than its predecessor and has improved functionality.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 12

 Real Application Clusters Guard

• High availability database solution for mission

critical systems
• An integrated feature of Oracle9i Real Application
Clusters
• Incorporates technology from Oracle9i and the
vendor’s CMS:
– Primary and secondary instance configuration
– Self-contained software packs
– Configuration and management tools

ACTIVE_INSTANCE_COUNT = 1

5-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Real Application Clusters Guard

Real Application Clusters Guard provides a high-availability option that minimizes down
time in the event of instance or node failure for critical applications. Real Application
Clusters Guard combines features of Real Application Clusters and the vendor’s CMS. A
similar product, Oracle Parallel Fail Safe, was available in earlier releases but only ran on a
limited set of clusters (depending on the specific release level) and required a separate
installation. In Oracle9i, Real Application Clusters Guard supports a larger variety of clusters
and is automatically installed with the Real Application Clusters option.
The typical configuration for Real Application Clusters Guard is a two instance Real
Application Clusters database with ACTIVE_INSTANCE_COUNT = 1 defined in their
parameter files. This enables one instance as the primary instance and one as the secondary
instance. The primary instance masters the entire Global Resource Directory and is the only
instance to allow user connections through Oracle Net Services. The secondary instance
takes over the primary role when the primary instance fails.
In addition, the pieces of software necessary to manage an instance are configured into
packs. Each pack is a self-contained set of software that can enable and monitor all the
components of a Real Application Clusters Guard instance on a node.
The packs and other components of Real Application Clusters Guard are set up and
configured with a platform-specific tool. The tool also simplifies deployment of changes in
your Real Application Clusters Guard environment.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 13

 Real Application Clusters Guard
Architecture

Vendor Node Node Vendor

CMS A B CMS
(Primary) (Secondary)

Pack Pack

Application or
Oracle instance middleware Oracle instance
Listeners Listeners
IP (A) IP (B)
IP addresses IP addresses
Monitors Monitors
DGM Disk group manager, DGM
only needed on
some platforms

5-14 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Real Application Clusters Guard Architecture

The graphic shows a two-node Real Application Clusters Guard configuration. Each node
executes the vendor’s CMS, which in addition to its normal functions (covered earlier in the
lesson), is responsible for running and halting scripts automatically upon failover or when
you issue the appropriate command.
Each node also contains a pack of software. A pack supports a single instance, with access
provided through listeners. A pack controls startups, shutdowns, and restarts of the processes
under its control. Packs contain the following components:
• A Real Application Clusters instance: In the example shown, Node A is running with the
primary instance role and Node B with the secondary instance role.
• One or more listeners to accept Oracle Net connection requests: Public listeners support
clients and private listeners support tools such as Oracle Enterprise Manager and
Recovery Manager and also provide access for database administration tasks. In the
example, the public listener points to the IP address of Node A, the primary node.
• One or more IP addresses: Public IP addresses are relocatable and can be moved between
nodes to maintain availability to an active instance. Private IP addresses are static and
support connections to private listeners.
• Three monitors: Discussed on the next slide.
• A disk group manager (DGM): Required only on some platforms, it enables public
access to the database disks by the current primary node.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 14

 Monitors and Failover

Vendor Node Node Vendor

CMS A B CMS
(New primary)

Pack Failover Pack

Application or
Oracle instance middleware Oracle instance
Listeners Listeners
IP (A) IP (B)
IP addresses IP addresses
Monitors Monitors
DGM Instance monitor DGM
Listener monitor
Heartbeat monitor

5-15 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Instance Monitor
The instance monitor detects termination of the local instance and initiates failover to the
secondary node or restarts the instance.
Listener Monitor
The listener monitor checks and restarts the listeners on its own node. When the public
listener fails to restart, the listener monitor exits, initiating a halt script. Oracle Real
Application Clusters Guard either begins failover or restarts the primary instance, depending
on the state of the secondary node.
Heartbeat Monitor
The heartbeat monitor checks the availability of the Oracle instance. During normal
operation, the heartbeat monitor on each instance updates its own local heartbeat and checks
the heartbeat of the other instance The heartbeat monitor on the primary instance also
executes a customer-defined query to test whether the primary instance is capable of work.
The local Oracle instance is considered unavailable if the heartbeat monitor fails to complete
three consecutive attempts and there are no unusual circumstances, such as instance recovery
or unusually large numbers of sessions logging on.
The heartbeat monitor also initiates one kind of failover action: If the primary instance is
unavailable and the primary instance role has not resumed normal function on its new node,
then the heartbeat monitor initiates takeover. A takeover occurs when the secondary node
executes failover of the primary instance role to itself.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 15

 Shared Initialization Parameter File

• Parameters for different instances can be mixed in a

single initialization parameter file.
– Only one file must be maintained and propagated.
– Having all parameter values available in a single
location helps reduce errors.
• Use a dot notation with the instance name for
instance-specific parameter values.

5-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Shared Initialization Parameter File

In previous Oracle cluster-enabled software releases, you needed a separate initialization file
to assign different parameter values to each instance of your database. At the same time, you
had to provide identical values for some parameters across all instances. This required you to
maintain multiple parameter files, typically using the IFILE parameter to link your common
file to the instance-specific files.
In Oracle9i, you can store the parameters for all the instances of a Real Application Clusters
database in a single file. This simplifies the management of the instances because you only
have to maintain one file. It is also easier to avoid making mistakes, such as changing a value
in one file but not another, with all the parameters stored in one place.
To allow different instances to share the same initialization file, parameter entries specific to
a particular instance are prefixed with the instance name using a dot notation. For example,
to assign different sort area sizes to two instances, PROD1 and PROD2, you could include
the following entries in your common parameter file:
• prod1.sort_area_size = 1048576
• prod2.sort_area_size = 524288

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 16

 Shared Server-Side Parameter File

Node ORACLE_HOME=/hdisk1 Node ORACLE_HOME=/hdisk2

A ORACLE_SID=orac1 B ORACLE_SID=orac2

/hdisk1 /hdisk2

/dbs/initorac1.ora /dbs/initorac2.ora

SPFILE=/dev/rdisk1/spfile SPFILE=/dev/rdisk1/spfile

/dev/rdisk1
orac1.instance_name = orac1
/spfile orac2.instance_name = orac2

5-17 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Shared Server-Side Parameter File

When you put the parameters for all your instances in a single initialization file, this file must
be available to the process that starts up each instance. If your instances are started
automatically as part of the system startup routines, you would need a copy of the file on
each node in the cluster. However, you can take advantage of a server side parameter files
(SPFILE) in your Real Application Clusters database. To do this, create your shared
parameter file containing parameter values for all of your instances, convert it to an SPFILE,
and then store it on shared disk, typically in a raw partition.
In the example, Node A uses /hdisk1 for its ORACLE_HOME directory and supports an
instance with a SID value of ORAC1 while Node B uses /hdisk2 for its ORACLE_HOME
and runs an instance with a SID of ORAC2. A partition on the raw device, called
/dev/rdisk1/spfile, holds the SPFILE.
Each node has an instance-specific initialization file configured containing just one entry,
spfile = /dev/rdisk1/spfile
That points to the raw partition holding the shared SPFILE. Two entries from the SPFILE are
shown in the example, the INSTANCE_NAME parameter for each of the two instances. The
values in these parameters follow the recommended naming convention for instances, that is,
they are the same as the SID:
• orac1.instance_name = orac1
• orac2.instance_name = orac2

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 17

 Real Application Clusters and OEM

Oracle Enterprise Manager enhancements include:

• Redo log assignments
• Targeted reporting for databases and instances
• Extended wizards and tools for cluster databases
• Monitoring and event enhancements
• Managing Export, Import, load, backup, and
analyzing tasks

5-18 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Real Application Clusters and Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM)

The following enhancements are included in OEM to support Real Application Clusters:
• Redo Log Assignment: Assigns redo log groups to specific threads
• Report Generation: Provides targeted reporting for cluster databases and instances
• Wizards and Tools: Extends tools, such as Database wizards, Application Management,
Change Management, Database Applications, Diagnostic Pack, and Tuning Pack, for
cluster databases
• Events: Enhances monitoring and events available with OEM and performance packs
• Jobs: Provides data management (Export, Import, Load) backup management, and
analyzes tasks for cluster database and instance targets

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 18

 OEM Instance Management Provisions

OEM in Oracle9i provides new instance level

management:
• SPFILE handling
• Stored configuration
• Session handling
• Lock details
• Resource monitoring

5-19 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

OEM Instance Management Provisions

These single instance management capabilities were not supported by OEM in clustered
databases until Oracle9i:
• SPFILE Handling: View and update a server side initialization parameter file (SPFILE)
• Stored Configuration: Create, edit, and store multiple startup configurations for each
cluster database instance. This eliminates the need to track initialization parameter files
for each instance.
• Session Handling: For each cluster database instance, list the status of connected users,
view the latest SQL executed by a session, and kill an unwanted session.
• Lock Details: For each cluster database instance, list details for currently held user locks
(SQL DML enqueues, transaction enqueues, and row level locks) and system locks
• Resource Monitoring: For the cluster database, create and modify resource consumer
groups and define, modify, and activate resource plans. For each cluster database
instance, provide performance statistics of active resource plans

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 19

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 5 - 20
User and Data Security Management

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

explain how to control access to an Oracle9i database
using:
• Database users and security domains
• User authentication
• Tablespace quotas and user resource limits
• Password management and profiles
• Privileges and role-based security

6-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 2

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

explain how to control access to an Oracle9i database
using:
• LDAP integration
• Virtual Private Database
• Database resource management
• Advanced Security Option (ASO)
• Auditing

6-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 3

 Privileges and Role-Based Security

Users Privileges

CREDIT

CLERK Roles

INVOICE

6-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Privileges and Role-Based Security

Each Oracle database has a list of usernames. To access a database, a user must use a
database application and attempt a connection with a valid username of the database. Each
username has an associated password to prevent unauthorized use.
Each user has a security domain, which is a set of properties that determine the actions (such
as privileges and roles) available to the user, tablespace quotas (available disk space) for the
user, and system resource limits (for example, CPU processing time) for the user.
A privilege is a right to execute a particular type of SQL statement. Some examples of
privileges include the right to connect to the database (create a session), the right to create a
table in your schema, the right to select rows from someone else’s table, and the right to
execute someone else’s stored procedure.
A role is a database object that can be granted to a user and to which you can grant privileges
and other roles. For increased security, you can make sure that only authorized programs can
switch on a role, by using a password or what is called an application role.
Privileges are granted to users or PUBLIC (all users) so that users can access and modify data
in the database. You can grant privileges to users explicitly or to roles (a named group of
privileges), and then the role can be granted to one or more users. Because roles allow for
easier and better management of privileges, privileges are normally granted to roles and not
to specific users.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 4

 Secure Application Role

• Solves the problem of preventing unauthorized

access to data through other client programs
• Enabling a role is checked through a package,
not a password
• Uses the notion of application context

6-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Secure Application Role

With the secure application role, you can control a user’s ability to enable a role. A procedure
is run every time someone tries to enable the role. Developers can add logic in this procedure
to ensure that the role can be enabled by only one specific program.
The method used prior to Oracle9i consisted of using password authentication of the role, and
embedding and hiding the password in the application. The weakness in that method was that
if the password was known, any application could access the data.
With the secure application role, your application accesses a context containing specific
attributes. These attributes are checked by the procedure, which ultimately decides to accept
or reject your request to enable the role.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 5

 Database Password Management

Password Account
history locking

Setting up
User privileges

Password Password
expiration verification
and aging

6-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Authentication by the Oracle Database

The Oracle Database can authenticate users attempting to connect to a database by using
information stored in that database. When the Oracle Database uses database authentication,
you create each user with an associated password. A user provides the correct password when
establishing a connection to prevent unauthorized use of the database. The Oracle Database
stores a user’s password in the data dictionary in an encrypted format. A user can change his
or her password at any time.
To protect password confidentiality, Oracle allows you to encrypt passwords during network
(client/server and server/server) connections. If you enable this functionality on the client and
server machines, Oracle Net encrypts passwords using a modified data encryption standard
(DES) algorithm before sending them across the network.
The Oracle Database can lock a user’s account if the user fails to log in to the system within
a specified number of attempts. Depending on how the account is configured, it can be
unlocked automatically after a specified time interval or it must be unlocked by the database
administrator.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 6

Authentication by the Oracle Database (Continued)
Password lifetime and expiration options allow the database administrator to specify a
lifetime for passwords, after which time they expire and must be changed before a login to
the account can be completed. On first attempt to log in to the database account after the
password expires, the user’s account enters the grace period, and a warning message is issued
to the user every time the user tries to log in, until the grace period is over.
The password history option checks each newly specified password to ensure that a password
is not reused for the specified amount of time or for the specified number of password
changes.
Complexity verification checks that each password is complex enough to provide reasonable
protection against intruders who try to break into the system by guessing passwords. The
Oracle server default password complexity verification routine requires that each password:
• be a minimum of four characters in length
• not equal the userid
• include at least one alphabet character, one numeric character, and one punctuation mark
• not match any word on an internal list of simple words, such as welcome, account,
database, user, and so on
• differ from the previous password by at least three characters

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 7

 Virtual Private Database

select * from ORDERS

BUY SELL
policy group policy group

Customer Default policy Sales Rep.

ORDERS

6-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Virtual Private Database

The Virtual Private Database is a combination of two features: fine-grained access control
and application context. Within a single database, it enables per-user or per-customer data
access with the assurance of physical data separation. In the above example, both the sales
representative and the customer are executing the same query against the same ORDERS
table, and yet the results returned to each of them is completely different. The result set for
each is limited to only his own data. For the sales representative, the result set includes only
his customers’ orders, but no other representatives’customers. The customer, of course, only
sees his own orders. This is all done by the data server itself, and is transparent to the user.
The implementation of fine-grained access control is through dynamic query modification.
When a user accesses an object (directly, or through a subquery) that has a security policy
attached to it, the Oracle Database automatically consults the package that implements the
policy for that view or table. The policy returns a predicate (access condition) that is
appended to the query. The statement is then parsed, optimized, and executed. Here, query
can mean query for update, insert, or delete, as well as SELECT statements.
If there are multiple policies attached to a table, the data server the predicates returned by
each policy. This is not desirable if the table is to be used by users from separate groups with
different FGACs. Policy groups are used to distinguish policies among different applications.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 8

 Resource Management

• Allocate system resources to (groups of) users

• Manage mixed workloads and control system
performance

OLTP users Resource Scheduler

Em
High priority 75% CPU
plo
ye
e

Em
plo
EX y

DSS user
s dfe

EX
s

A bc
d

Medium priority 20% CPU

Batch jobs Low priority 5% CPU

6-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Resource Management
Database resource management provides a DBA with the ability to control and limit the total
amount of processing resources available to a given user or set of users.
Resources are allocated to users based on a plan that is specified by the DBA. Users, and
groups of users, are assigned to resource consumer groups. A resource plan specifies how
resources are distributed among the different resource consumer groups. Plans can be
dynamically altered on a production database without quiescing the system. This allows
alternate plans for day time, night time, weekends, quarter end, or other times that require a
different set of priorities.
The resource manager is fully integrated into the database security system. User sessions can
switch resource consumer groups to increase execution priority, if the user has been granted
the privilege to switch consumer groups. Users can also be moved from group to group by
the administrator on a production system, thereby dynamically changing how CPU resources
are used. The DBA can also set up the resource management system to switch the group for a
user automatically, depending on the type of query the user is doing. These capabilities allow
very simple, yet powerful allocation policies to be implemented for database resources.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 9

 Database Resource Manager

The following resources can be handled:

• CPU time
• Parallel degree
• Undo quota
• Maximum execution time for a query
• Maximum number of active sessions

6-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Database Resource Manager

The following resources can be handled:
• CPU time
• Parallel degree
• Undo quota
• Maximum execution time for a query
• Maximum number of active sessions
Resource manager can also be used to quiesce the database. This halts all activity in the
database without disconnecting the users, while the DBA performs maintenance operations.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 10

 N-Tier Authentication

• Maintain the identity of the client through all tiers of

the connection
• Limit privilege of a middle tier
Joe

Joe
Harry
Harry Oracle
Mary server
Mary
Application server or TP
monitor

6-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

N-Tier Authentication
To provide scalability, an application server or TP monitor can be used to perform
transactions on behalf of clients that are accessing the application server through the network.
The application server will perform the transactions, but there must be a mechanism that
ensures that the real connected client is still the identity used in the database.
The client may authenticate itself to the middle tier using any authentication method the
middle tier accepts. The middle tier may authenticate itself to the database using any method
the database accepts.
In the Oracle9i server, the middle-tier does not have to reauthenticate the client to the back-
end server. This requires less overhead, and is also useful for cases in which you cannot
reauthenticate the client. For example, a client using an X.509 certificate cannot be
authenticated through a middle tier to the server, because that would require the client to give
up his private key to the middle tier, which is completely insecure.
The database can trust the middle tier because the following is verified:
• that the middle tier IS the middle tier (through authentication)
• that the client for whom a connection is established exists in the database
• that the middle tier is privileged to connect on behalf of that user, with the appropriate
roles for that user

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 11

 Oracle9i Enterprise User Management
Stores users, roles, databases, wallets,
certificates, configuration information, ACLs
Security
Manager
Wallet
Wallet
Oracle9i
Manages enterprise users
Oracle Server
and enterprise roles
Internet Servers register
Certificate Directory Wallet
themselves
Authority
Creates keys and manage
Wallet Wallet credential preferences
Manager
Wallet
Creates certificates and wallets for
users, databases, DBAs, LDAP

6-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Enterprise User Management

An Oracle wallet contains the user’s certificate, private key, and a set of trust points
(certificate authorities). A wallet can be stored on disk, or downloaded from an LDAP
(Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) directory. Wallets are stored encrypted with a user
password.
Initial integration will support Oracle Internet Directory, an LDAPv3-compliant directory
serve; however, its intent is to be interoperable with other LDAP-compliant directories.
LDAP integration in the Oracle9i server is required so that the database can get
authentication information for the user attempting to connect, as well as authorizations, and
potentially to set up the proper security context for that user. This integration gives a full
solution regarding enterprise management and security/directory integration.
Single sign-on is a very useful feature, which allows a user to log on to a client machine and
then access all the databases in the enterprise without further explicit authentication. The
Oracle server supports single sign-on in multiple ways:
• Through network authentication services supported by the Advanced Security Option
through Oracle Net
• Through X.509 certificates loaded into an Oracle Wallet and stored in an LDAP
directory, over SSL-enabled Oracle Net
• Through native naming authentication adapters (for example, Windows NT)

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 12

 Authentication Architecture

Advanced Security Option Oracle Net

Crypto Authentication
N N
T T

CyberSafe
Kerberos
Z
RC4_128

RADIUS
SecurID

Indentix
RC4_40
RC4_56

DES40

MD5
DES

TCP SSL
adapter adapter

Kerb

Tokens
Smart cards
Other
SecurID

Cyber

Idx

6-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Authentication Architecture
Oracle supports several methods of authentication by the network:
• Third Party-Based Authentication Technologies: If network authentication services, such
as DCE, Kerberos, or SESAME are available to you, the Oracle9i server can accept
authentication from the network service. To use a network authentication service with the
Oracle server, you need Oracle9i Enterprise Edition with the advanced security option
(ASO).
• Public Key Infrastructure-Based Authentication: Authentication systems based on public
key cryptography systems issue digital certificates to user clients, which use them to
authenticate directly to servers in the enterprise without direct involvement of an
authentication server. Oracle provides a public key infrastructure (PKI) for using public
keys and certificates. It consists of the following components:
– Authentication and secure session key management using Secure Sockets Layer
(SSL)
– Oracle Call Interface (OCI) and PL/SQL functions to sign user-specified data
using a private key and certificate, and to verify the signature on data using a
certificate and trust point
– Oracle wallets, which are data structures that contain a user private key, a user
certificate, and a set of trust points (the list of root certificates the user trusts)

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 13

Authentication Architecture (continued)
– Oracle Wallet Manager, which protects user keys and manages X.509v3
certificates on Oracle clients and servers
– X.509v3 certificates, which you obtain from a certificate authority (outside of
Oracle). The certificates are loaded into Oracle wallets to enable authentication.
– Directory-enabled Oracle Security Manager, which provides centralized privilege
management to make administration easier and increase your level of security.
Directory-enabled Oracle Security Manager allows you to store and retrieve roles
from Oracle Internet Directory or any directory compliant with the Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).
– Oracle Internet Directory, which is an LDAP v3-compliant directory. It allows you
to manage the user and system configuration environment, including security
attributes and privileges, for users authenticated using X.509 certificates. Oracle
Internet Directory enforces attribute-level access control, allowing the directory to
restrict read, write, or update privileges on specific attributes to specific named
users (for example, an enterprise security administrator).
• Remote Authentication: Oracle supports remote authentication of users through Remote
Dial-In User Service (RADIUS), a standard lightweight protocol used for user
authentication, authorization, and accounting. To use remote authentication of users
through RADIUS with Oracle, you need Oracle9i Enterprise Edition with the Advanced
Security option.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 14

 Database Auditing

Enable DB auditing Execute command

DBA Parameter file User

Server
Specify
process
audit options
Review audit Generate
information audit trail

Audit options

Audit trail Other tables

Database

6-15 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Database Auditing
Auditing is the monitoring and recording of selected user database actions. You can use it to:
• Investigate suspicious activity
• Monitor and gather data about specific database activities
Oracle supports several general types of auditing:
• Statement auditing: The selective auditing of SQL statements with respect to only the
type of statement, not the specific schema objects on which it operates. Statement
auditing options are typically broad, auditing the use of several types of related actions
per option. For example, AUDIT TABLE tracks several DDL statements regardless of the
table on which they are issued.
You can set privilege auditing to audit a selected user or every user in the database.
• Privilege auditing: The selective auditing of the use of powerful system privileges to
perform corresponding actions, such as AUDIT CREATE TABLE. Privilege auditing is
more focused than statement auditing because it audits only the use of the target
privilege. You can set privilege auditing to audit a selected user or every user in the
database.
• Schema object auditing: The selective auditing of specific statements on a particular
schema object, such as AUDIT SELECT ON EMP. Schema object auditing is very
focused; it audits only a specific statement on a specific schema object. Schema object
auditing always applies to all users of the database.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 15

 Fine-Grained Auditing

Audit policy
AUDIT_CONDITION
=
SELECT 'salary > 10000'
last_name,salary FROM
employees WHERE
last_name = 'Russell'
Audit records
'SELECT last_name,
salary FROM
employees
SELECT WHERE last_name
last_name,salary FROM = 'Russell'
employees WHERE '
salary < 9000 , <timestamp>
, <SCN>
, <username>
, ...

6-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Fine-Grained Auditing
The Fine-Grained Audit (FGA) mechanism addresses a more granular level of auditing. The
new auditing policy is based on simple user-defined SQL predicates on table objects as
conditions for selective auditing. The predicate can specify auditing when a specified value is
retrieved.
In addition to value based, there are also cases where the administrators are only interested in
whether a certain column is being referenced or accessed. Because auditing is supported
whenever a column is selected in any part of a DML statement, Oracle will audit the query.
Fine-grained auditing is available only on SELECT statements with a WHERE clause, and for
one audit column only.
The triggering event above was not that the user accessed employee records for which
salaries are greater than 10,000, but that the salary was actually returned to the user. A record
is written to the audit trail that includes the complete SQL statement the user submitted, a
timestamp, username, and other information.
Fine-grained auditing does not automatically capture the values returned to the user.
However, you may be able to use fine-grained auditing in conjunction with Flashback Query
to re-create the records returned to the user.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 16

 Obfuscation Toolkit

• Package to encrypt and decrypt data

• Supports DES, 3DES, MD5

ACME Corporation

DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT.DESEncrypt

Dwcw8739lad9a03ka+d

6-17 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Obfuscation Toolkit
Among other security technologies, Oracle protects data in eBusiness systems through
strong, standards-based encryption. Oracle has supported encryption of network data through
Oracle Advanced Security (formerly known as "Secure Network Services", and then
"Advanced Networking Option") since Oracle7.
The Oracle9i server also supports protection of selected data by means of encryption within
the database.
To address the need for selective data encryption, the Oracle9i server provides a PL/SQL
package to encrypt and decrypt stored data. The package,
DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT, supports bulk data encryption using the Data
Encryption Standard (DES) algorithm, and includes procedures to encrypt and decrypt using
DES. In addition to single DES, the DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT supports triple DES
(3DES) encryption, in both two and three key modes, for those who demand the strongest
commercial available level of encryption. The toolkit also supports the MD5 secure
cryptographic hash to ensure data integrity, and a random number generator for generating
secure encryption keys.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 17

 Oracle Label Security

• Out-of-the-box VPD, fine grain access control:

– Label-based access control
– Based on government and defense labeling
– Designed for commercial usage
• No coding required
• Quickly implement sophisticated fine grained
access control

6-18 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle Label Security

The Virtual Private Database technology in Oracle9i is the foundation for a new product
from Oracle called Oracle Label Security. Oracle Label Security is based on labeling
concepts used by government and defense organizations to protect sensitive information and
provide data separation. In these environments, labels are typically composed of a
hierarchical level and one or more categories or compartments. Oracle Label Security can be
used to retrofit existing applications for the ASP model. It can also be used to provide
security in healthcare and CRM applications.
Oracle Label Security offers the following benefits:
• Oracle Policy Manager, a GUI for administering labels and authorizations. Oracle Policy
Manager will also serve as the administration tool for user-defined Virtual Private
Database policies.
• Oracle Label Security automatically provides out-of-the-box VPD enforcement.
Customers no longer need to code a VPD application.
• Provides data labeling required by government and defense organizations on standard
operating system platforms
• Label-based access control for application service providers. Data labels provide a degree
of granularity which cannot be easily achieved with raw application data.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 6 - 18

 Oracle9i Optimizer

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

discuss the following aspects of the Oracle9i
optimizer:
• Access paths
• Execution plans
• SQL Trace and TKPROF
• Cost-based and rule-based optimization
• Statistics management
• Optimizer plan stability
• Cursor sharing

7-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-2

 Access Paths

Slow Quick

Cluster Key

Full table/ B*-tree, IOT

partition or bitmap Index Hash Access
scan index scan cluster cluster by ROWID

7-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Access Paths
Optimization is the process of choosing the most efficient way to execute a SQL statement.
This is an important step in the processing of any data manipulation language (DML)
statement: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE. Many different ways to execute a SQL
statement often exist, for example, by varying the order in which tables or indexes are
accessed. The procedure Oracle uses to execute a statement can greatly affect how quickly the
statement executes. A part of Oracle called the optimizer calculates the most efficient way to
execute a SQL statement. The optimizer evaluates many factors to select among alternative
access paths. It can use a cost-based or rule-based approach.
You can influence the optimizer’s choices by setting the optimizer approach and goal and by
gathering statistics for cost-based optimization. Sometimes the application designer, who has
more information about a particular application’s data than is available to the optimizer, can
choose a more effective way to execute a SQL statement. The application designer can use
hints in SQL statements to specify how the statement should be executed.
One of the most important choices the optimizer makes when formulating an execution plan is
how to retrieve data from the database. For any row in any table accessed by a SQL statement,
there may be many access paths by which that row can be located and retrieved. The optimizer
chooses one of them.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-3

Full Table Scans
A full table scan retrieves rows from a table. To perform a full table scan, Oracle reads all rows
in the table, examining each row to determine whether it satisfies the statement’s WHERE
clause. The Oracle scan can be performed very efficiently using multiblock reads.
Sample Table Scans
A sample table scan retrieves a random sample of data from a table. This access method is used
when the statement’s FROM clause includes the SAMPLE option or the SAMPLE BLOCK
option. To perform a sample table scan when sampling by rows (the SAMPLE option), Oracle
reads a specified percentage of rows in the table and examines each of these rows to determine
whether it satisfies the statement’s WHERE clause. To perform a sample table scan when
sampling by blocks (the SAMPLE BLOCK option), Oracle reads a specified percentage of the
table’s blocks and examines each row in the sampled blocks to determine whether it satisfies
the statement’s WHERE clause.
Table Access by Row ID
A table access by row ID also retrieves rows from a table. The row ID of a row specifies the
datafile and data block containing the row and the location of the row in that block. Locating a
row by its row ID is the fastest way for Oracle to find a single row. To access a table by row
ID, Oracle first obtains the row ID of the selected rows, either from the statement’s WHERE
clause or through an index scan of one or more of the table’s indexes. Oracle then locates each
selected row in the table based on its row ID .
Index Scans
An index scan retrieves data from an index based on the value of one or more columns of the
index. To perform an index scan, Oracle searches the index for the indexed column values
accessed by the statement. If the statement accesses only columns of the index, Oracle reads
the indexed column values directly from the index, rather than from the table.
Skip Scan on Indexes
This new index scan in Oracle9i makes it possible to use a composite index even if the leading
column of that index is not in the WHERE clause of the SELECT statement. This reduces the
number of indexes on a table, saving both space in the database and time when performing
DML on the table, and still has the performance benefit of the index for SELECT statements.
Cluster Scans
From a table stored in an indexed cluster, a cluster scan retrieves rows that have the same
cluster key value. In an indexed cluster, all rows with the same cluster key value are stored in
the same data blocks. To perform a cluster scan, Oracle first obtains the row ID of one of the
selected rows by scanning the cluster index. Oracle then locates the rows based on this row ID.
Hash Scans
Oracle can use a hash scan to locate rows in a hash cluster based on a hash value. In a hash
cluster, all rows with the same hash value are stored in the same data blocks. To perform a
hash scan, Oracle first obtains the hash value by applying a hash function to a cluster key value
specified by the statement. Oracle then scans the data blocks containing rows with that hash
value.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-4

 EXPLAIN PLAN

SQL> EXPLAIN PLAN

2 SET STATEMENT_ID = 'example' FOR
3 SELECT * from employees
4 WHERE job_id='ST_CLERK'
5 AND department_id=20;

ID Operation
-- -----------------------------------
0 SELECT STATEMENT Cost =
1 TABLE ACCESS BY ROWID (EMP)
2 AND-EQUAL
3 INDEX RANGE SCAN (JOB_INDEX)
4 INDEX RANGE SCAN (DEPTNO_INDEX)

7-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

The EXPLAIN PLAN Command

To execute a DML statement, Oracle may have to perform many steps. Each of these steps
either physically retrieves rows of data from the database or prepares them in some way for the
user issuing the statement. The combination of the steps Oracle uses to execute a statement is
called an execution plan. An execution plan includes an access method for each table that the
statement accesses and an ordering of the tables (the join order). “Access Methods” describes
the various access methods, which include indexes, hash clusters, and table scans.
The EXPLAIN PLAN SQL command is available to display execution plans, as shown in the
slide above. You can also use the AUTOTRACE setting in SQL*Plus.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-5

 Cached Execution Plans

• Cached execution plans preserve the actual

execution plan of a cached SQL statement in
memory in a view called v$sql_plan.
• Benefits include:
– Use of actual execution plans
– Better diagnosis of query performance
– An easy-to-use interface for monitoring bottlenecks
• Cached execution plans are removed when the SQL
statement is aged out.
• The view contains all of the plan_table columns,
except the level column, in addition to four new
columns.

7-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Cached Execution Plans

Prior to Oracle9i, the V$SQLTEXT performance view could be used to gather useful
information about cached cursors and execution statistics, such as the number of executions
and the number of buffer gets from V$SQL. In order to determine the execution plan for a
specific query, the developer had to run EXPLAIN PLAN for that query. With this approach,
the execution plan obtained by the EXPLAIN PLAN command can differ from the execution
plan used to execute the cursor, because the cursor may have been compiled with different
session parameter values. With the Cached Execution Plan feature, the execution plan
information for the cached cursors is made available through a new dynamic performance
table reducing the need for one extra step, and giving accurate and exact information for
every query still in the library cache of the database.
The performance of a database application depends on the performance of the database, so
tuning SQL statements is important in tuning the application performance. Cached Execution
Plan information helps greatly during the SQL statement tuning process.
You can also track changes in the performance of SQL statements and correlate those
changes with changes in execution plans. Such changes can happen after migrating the
application or the database to a new release, switching from the rule-based optimizer to the
cost-based optimizer, running the ANALYZE command on the database objects, dropping or
creating indexes, or changing parameter values.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-6

 SQL Trace and Tkprof
select customer_id from orderss where order_id = 49999
call count cpu elapsed disk query current rows
------ ----- -------- ------- ---- ------ ------- -----
Parse 1 0.43 0.54 3 0 0 0
Execute 1 0.00 0.00 0 0 0 0
Fetch 1 61.76 79.36 5883 5883 0 1
------ ----- -------- ------- ---- ------ ------- -----
total 3 62.19 79.90 5886 5883 0 1
Misses in library cache during parse: 1
Optimizer hint: CHOOSE Parsing user id: 9

select customer_id from orderss where order_id = 49999

call count cpu elapsed disk query current rows
------ ----- -------- ------- ---- ------ ------- -----
Parse 1 0.44 0.66 3 17 0 0
Execute 1 0.00 0.00 0 0 0 0
Fetch 1 0.02 0.22 4 4 0 1
------ ----- -------- ------- ---- ------ ------- -----
total 3 0.46 .88 7 21 0 1
Misses in library cache during parse: 1
Optimizer hint: CHOOSE Parsing user id: 9

7-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

SQL Trace and TKPROF

The SQL trace facility and TKPROF enable you to accurately assess the efficiency of the SQL
statements your application runs. For best results, use these tools with EXPLAIN PLAN, rather
than using EXPLAIN PLAN alone. The SQL trace facility provides performance information
on individual SQL statements. It generates the following statistics for each statement:
• Parse, execute, and fetch counts
• CPU and elapsed times
• Physical reads and logical reads
• Number of rows processed
• Misses on the library cache
• Username under which each parse occurred
• Each commit and rollback
You can enable the SQL trace facility for a session or for an instance. When the SQL trace
facility is enabled, performance statistics for all SQL statements executed in a user session or
in an instance are placed into a trace file. The additional overhead of running the SQL trace
facility against an application with performance problems is normally insignificant, compared
with the inherent overhead caused by the application’s inefficiency.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-7

 Rule-Based Optimizer
1 Single row by rowid
2 Single row by Cluster Join
3 Single row by hash cluster key with unique key
4 Single row by unique or primary key
5 Cluster Join
6 Hash Cluster Key
7 Index Cluster Key
8 Composite Key
9 Single-column indexes
10 Bounded range search on indexed columns
11 Unbounded range search on indexed columns
12 Sort-merge join
13 MAX or MIN of indexed column
14 ORDER BY on indexed columns
15 Full Table Scan

7-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Rule-Based Optimizer
Using the rule-based approach, the optimizer chooses an execution plan based on the access
paths available and the ranks of these access paths (shown on the slide). You can use rule-
based optimization to access both relational data and object types. Oracle’s ranking of the
access paths is heuristic. If there is more than one way to execute a SQL statement, the rule-
based approach always uses the operation with the lower rank. The assumption is that
operations of lower rank execute faster than those associated with constructs of higher rank.
Rule-based optimization is supported for backward compatibility with earlier releases, and
should not be used for new systems. The rule-based optimizer does not recognize many
advanced features of Oracle9i such as partitions, index-organized tables, bitmapped indexes,
function based indexes, histograms, hash joins, and star queries.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-8

 Cost-Based Optimizer

SQL> SELECT * from employees

2 WHERE job_id='ST_CLERK';

SELECT
Co
3 st
1 02 =
= 15
st 00
Co
FULL INDEX
TABLE RANGE
SCAN SCAN

7-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Cost-Based Optimizer
You should design new applications to use cost-based optimization. You should also use cost
based optimization for data warehousing applications because the cost-based optimizer
supports new and enhanced features for DSS. Much of the more recent performance
enhancements, such as hash joins, improved star query processing, and histograms, are only
available through cost-based optimization.
Using the cost-based approach, the optimizer determines which execution plan is most efficient
by considering available access paths and statistics for the schema objects (tables or indexes)
accessed by the SQL statement as well as system statistics regarding CPU time and I/O
performance in the system. The cost-based approach also considers hints, which are
optimization suggestions placed in a comment in the statement. You must gather statistics on a
regular basis to provide the optimizer with information about schema objects. This task is done
by the database administrator most of the time by using the ANALYZE command or procedures
and functions in the package DBMS_STATS.
Conceptually, the cost-based approach consists of these steps:
1. The optimizer generates a set of potential execution plans for the SQL statement based
on its available access paths and hints.
2. The optimizer estimates the cost of each execution plan based on statistics in the data
dictionary for the data distribution and storage characteristics of the tables, indexes, and
partitions accessed by the statement as well as system statistics on CPU and disk I/O.
3. The optimizer compares the costs of the execution plans and chooses the one with the
smallest cost.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-9

 Statistics Management

• Optimizer statistics can be extracted and moved to

another database.
• The test database better models the production
database: tune execution plans on test database
• System statistics can be gathered to help the
database use the system more efficiently when
system workload changes.

Statistics
Copy Statistics
Statistics

Production Test

7-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Copying Statistics Between Databases

Statistics used by the cost-based optimizer can be copied from one database to another
database. In the example above, the statistics from the production database can be copied to a
test database, so the cost-based optimizer will select query execution plans based on the
volume of the production database.
This is also very useful when you want to make a backup of the statistics, so that they can be
easily restored at a later time.
System Statistics
You can also gather system statistics during different work hours and use these statistics to
make sure that the best optimization path is chosen. If you gather statistics on the system
during daytime operations on the first day and save them, it is possible to set these statistics for
subsequent days. And during the first night, you can gather information about the system to set
during subsequent nights. This makes it possible for the optimizer to know more about the
system performance when the machine operates with different types of workloads.
DBMS_STATS Package
System statistics and the procedures for moving statistics between databases are all managed in
the package DBMS_STATS.
With this package, you can use several new options when gathering statistics that are not
available with the ANALYZE command.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-10

 Monitoring Table and Index Usage

• Administrators need to know when tables are

modified:
– Accurate statistics
– Table reorganization
• Similarly, administrators need to know when
indexes are not used:
– Bad performance
– Space wastage

7-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Monitoring Table and Index Usage

In order to generate accurate execution plans, the cost-based optimizer needs up-to-date
statistics on referenced objects in the statement. With Oracle9i, you can ask the system to
monitor changes in tables.
When enabled on a table, the system maintains information in the data dictionary for every
modification (insert, update, delete, and direct load) on that table or one of its partitions.
These changes are visible through the DBA_TAB_MODIFICATIONS view.
Similarly, one of the challenges in a database is to have the proper amount of indexes.
Usually, when one index is being used improperly, it is easy to find because it causes bad
performance. It is more difficult to find indexes that are not being used at all. To help in this
process, Oracle9i monitors index usage with special data dictionary views and various
commands for tables.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-11

 Optimizer Plan Stability

• Save and distribute execution

plans in stored outlines
• Consistency through ANALYZE
and other DDL commands, and
Oracle releases
• Protect tuning investments
• Support multisite application
installations Stored execution
plans
• Possible to change a plan with
private outline editing
Plan A Plan C
Plan B

7-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Optimizer Plan Stability

After carefully tuning an application, you might want to make sure that the optimizer generates
the same execution plan whenever the same SQL statements are executed. Plan stability allows
you to maintain the same execution plans for the same SQL statements, regardless of changes
to the database such as re-analyzing tables, adding or deleting data, modifying a table’s
columns, constraints, or indexes, changing the system configuration, or even upgrading to a
new version of the optimizer.
This reduces much of the risk of introducing schema changes (new indexes), new applications
upgrades, new Oracle releases, and statistics updates. By saving the existing execution plans,
the administrator can perform the update and yet still utilize the old execution plans. It is
possible to keep multiple named stored plan sets for experimentation and phased roll out.
Private Outline Editing
In Oracle9i, you can edit the created stored outlines. This is done by copying one or more
public outlines to a private outline. You can then edit the private outline to get the desired
execution path. After that, you copy the private outline back to the public outlines.
This changes the execution path for third party applications so that there is no possibility of
changing the source code of the application.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-12

 Cursor Sharing

• Cursor sharing can help the optimizer to reuse

execution plans.
• Two execution modes:
– Safe
– Unsafe

7-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Cursor Sharing
The term cursor sharing refers to an operation performed by the optimizer to reduce the
overhead of parsing SQL statements. Rather than developing an execution plan each time a
similar statement is executed, the optimizer parses the statement only the first time it is
executed. As a DBA, you can switch from one mode to the other.
Safe Mode
Consider a query such as this one, where EMPLOYEE_ID is the primary key:
SQL> SELECT * FROM employees WHERE employee_id = 153;
The substitution of any value would produce exactly the same execution plan. It is therefore
safe for the optimizer to use only one execution plan for a similar SQL statement.
Unsafe Mode
Assume the same employees table has a wide range of values in its DEPARTMENT_ID
column. For example, department 50 contains over one-third of all employees, and
department 70 contains just one or two. Given the following two queries:
SQL> SELECT * FROM employees WHERE department_id = 50;
SQL> SELECT * FROM employees WHERE department_id = 70;
Using this feature is not safe because it might be better to use a full table scan in the first case
and an index scan in the second.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-13

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 7-14
 Transactions

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

understand the implementation of transactions within
Oracle9i:
• Integrity, concurrency, and consistency
• Undo segments
• Resumable statements
• Read consistency
• Transaction management
• Workspace Manager for long transactions
• Transaction types
• Distributed databases
• XA architecture

8-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-2

 Data Concurrency Model

• ACID properties
• Row level locking
– Maximizes concurrency,
minimizes interference
– Nonblocking
– No escalation
– No restrictions

Read Write

8-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Data Concurrency Model

In a single-user database, the user can modify data in the database without concern for other
users modifying the same data at the same time. However, in a multiuser database, the
statements within multiple simultaneous transactions can update the same data. Transactions
executed at the same time need to produce meaningful and consistent results. Therefore,
control of data concurrency and data consistency is vital in a multiuser database. Data
concurrency means that many users can access data at the same time. Data consistency
means that each user sees a consistent view of the data, including visible changes made by
the user’s own transactions and transactions of other users.
ACID Transaction Characteristics
• Atomic: Changes made by a transaction to the database are atomic (all or nothing).
• Coherent: The transaction changes the state of the database from one coherent state to a
new coherent state (conforming to integrity constraints).
• Isolated: The transaction is isolated from other transactions and appears to be the only
user on the system, even though it is executing with other concurrent transactions.
• Durable: The committed changes by a transaction are persistent, capable of surviving
machine crashes.
Non-Blocking
Readers do not block readers, readers do not block writers, writers do not block readers; two
writers cannot change the same row simultaneously.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-3

 Potential Concurrency Problems

Uncommitted
change

Committed
update/delete
Committed
insert

Dirty Repeatable Phantom

read read read

8-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Potential Concurrency Problems

The ANSI/ISO SQL standard (SQL:1999) defines four levels of transaction isolation with
differing degrees of impact on transaction processing throughput. These isolation levels are
defined in terms of three phenomena that must be prevented between concurrently executing
transactions.
The three preventable phenomena are:
• Dirty reads: A transaction reads data that has been written by another transaction that
has not yet been committed.
• Nonrepeatable (fuzzy) reads: A transaction rereads data it has previously read and
finds that another committed transaction has modified or deleted the data.
• Phantom read: A transaction re-executes a query returning a set of rows that satisfies a
search condition and finds that another committed transaction has inserted additional
rows that satisfy the condition.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-4

 Undo Information

Old image

Table New
image

Undo segment

Update transaction

8-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Undo Information
Each database contains one or more Undo tablespaces. An Undo tablespace records the old
values of data that were changed by each transaction (whether or not committed). Undo
tablespaces are used to provide read consistency, to roll back transactions, and to recover the
database.
In one Undo tablespace, there are several undo segments maintained by Oracle. For each
undo segment, Oracle maintains a transaction table, that is a list of all transactions that use
the associated undo segment and the undo entries for each change performed by these
transactions. Oracle uses the undo entries in a undo segment to perform a transaction
rollback and to create read-consistent results for queries.
Undo tablespaces record the data prior to change on a per-transaction basis. For every
transaction, Oracle links each new change to the previous change. If you must roll back the
transaction, Oracle applies the changes in a chain to the data blocks in an order that restores
the data to its previous state.
Similarly, when Oracle needs to provide a read-consistent set of results for a query, it can
use information in an Undo tablespace to create a set of data consistent with respect to a
single point in time.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-5

 Resumable Space Allocation

Resumable Space Allocation provides:

• The ability to suspend and resume execution of
large database operations
• A statement suspends if the following occurs:
– Out of space condition
– Maximum number of extents reached condition
– Space quota exceeded condition
• An opportunity for the DBA to correct the error
condition
• When the error is resolved, the suspended
statement automatically resumes.

8-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Resumable Space Allocation

Resumable Space Allocation provides the ability to suspend and resume execution of large
database operations in the event of repairable failure. Resumable Space Allocation feature
supports a class of errors related to space limits and out-of-space conditions.
Large operations routinely run out of space or reach space limits after executing for a long
time. When this condition occurs, the operation is rolled back and the error is returned to the
user. The rollback takes time comparable to the amount of time the operation ran until it
failed.
This feature suspends large operations that run into these problems. Suspending the
operation gives the DBA an opportunity to take the corrective steps to resolve the error
condition. Once the error condition disappears, the suspended statement automatically
resumes the statement’s execution.
Prior to this feature, customers used their home-grown mechanisms to deal with failure.
They divided the operation into smaller chunks and wrote records that tracked the progress
of the operation. This feature enables customers to write applications without worrying
about running into common space-related errors. These errors can be handled and fixed
while the large operation is in progress.
It is desirable for the user to register a procedure to be automatically executed when the
statement gets suspended. This gives the user the opportunity to detect the problem and take
appropriate actions.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-6

 Read Consistency

Multiversion read-
consistency:
Query starts
• Queries see a
consistent view of the
Update 2 rows table
• No matter how many
Consistent updates
read
• Reconstructed from
Query undo segments
continues
• Performance due to
undo caching

8-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Multiversion Concurrency Control

Oracle automatically provides read consistency to a query so that all the data that the query
sees comes from a single point in time (statement level read consistency). Oracle can also
provide read consistency to all queries in a transaction (transaction level read consistency).
Oracle uses the information maintained in its undo tablespace to provide these consistent
views. The undo tablespace contains the old values of data that have been changed by
uncommitted or recently committed transactions. The above slide shows how Oracle
provides statement level read consistency using data in an undo tablespace.
As a query enters the execution stage, the current system change number (SCN or database
time) is determined. As data blocks are read on behalf of the query, only blocks written with
the observed SCN are used. Blocks with changed data (more recent SCNs) are reconstructed
from data in the undo tablespace, and the reconstructed data is returned for the query.
Therefore, each query returns all committed data with respect to the SCN recorded at the
time that query execution began. Changes of other transactions that occur during a query’s
execution are not observed, guaranteeing that consistent data is returned for each query.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-7

 Oracle Flashback

• Users can see a consistent view of the database at a

point in the past.
• Point in past is based on a system time or a system
change number (SCN).
• Only transactions committed up until that time are
visible.
• Possible applications are:
– Self-service repair
– Packaged applications like e-mail
– Decision support systems for trend analysis
• UNDO_RETENTION is set for undo availability.

8-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle Flashback
Applications can be executed on the version of the database as of a certain time. For
example, a Windows application for customer information may have a button that allows the
user to move back to an earlier point in time to show the account balance as of a certain
time. Previously, much of this information had to be saved away by the application. This
feature allows accessing information in the past, even when it was not explicitly saved away.
There may be several reasons why users would like to query past data. One important
application would be self-service repair, when some important rows were accidentally
deleted from a table and the users wanted to recover them. To perform the repair, they could
possibly move backwards in time, see the missing rows, and reinsert the deleted row into the
current table. Care must be taken not to introduce logical inconsistencies.
Other potential benefits include packaged applications such as e-mail and voice mail. The
users may have accidentally deleted a mail or a voice message by pressing the wrong key.
Using temporal access, they would be able to restore the deleted mail or message by moving
back in time and reinserting the deleted message into the current message box.
Oracle Flashback leverages the Automatic Undo Management functionality which can retain
the undo information for a user specified retention interval. Therefore, all queries addressed
to a system time which is not earlier than a retention interval from the current time have
enough undo information to reconstruct the snapshot. The amount of disk space required
will depend on how far back you intend to go.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-8

 Serializable Transactions

• Extend read consistency at the transaction level

• TPC, ANSI/ISO SQL compliant

Same query returns the SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION

same data even if LEVEL SERIALIZABLE;
previously changed by
other transactions SELECT ...

Allows repeatable reads SELECT ...

and protection from UPDATE orders SET ...
phantoms
IF “CAN’T SERIALIZE ACCESS”
Recent updates failed THEN ROLLBACK; LOOP

COMMIT;

8-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Serializable Transactions
To describe consistent transaction behavior when transactions execute at the same time,
database researchers have defined a transaction isolation model called serializability.
Serializability tries to ensure that transactions execute in such a way that they appear to be
executed one at a time, or serially, rather than concurrently. While this degree of isolation
between transactions is generally desirable, running many applications in this mode can
compromise application throughput. Complete isolation of concurrently running transactions
could mean that one transaction cannot perform an insert into a table being queried by
another transaction. Real-world considerations usually require a compromise between
perfect transaction isolation and performance.
SQL:1999 defines four levels of isolation in terms of the phenomena that a transaction
running at a particular isolation level is permitted to experience:
Isolation level Dirty read Nonrepeatable read Phantom read
Read uncommitted Possible Possible Possible
Read committed Impossible Possible Possible
Repeatable read Impossible Impossible Possible
Serializable Impossible Impossible Impossible
Oracle offers the read committed and serializable isolation levels, as well as a read-only
mode that is not part of SQL:1999. Read committed is the default and was the only
automatic isolation level provided before Oracle Release 7.3.
Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-9
 Transaction Management

DATA

DELETE UPDATE UPDATE + DELETE DELETE

Rollback Savepoint A Rollback to A Commit

8-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Transaction Management
A transaction is a logical unit of work that comprises one or more SQL statements executed
by a single user. According to the ANSI/ISO SQL standard, a transaction begins with the
user’s first executable SQL statement. A transaction ends when it is explicitly committed or
rolled back by that user.
The changes made by the SQL statements that constitute a transaction can be either
committed or rolled back. After a transaction is committed or rolled back, the next
transaction begins with the next SQL statement. Committing a transaction makes permanent
the changes resulting from all SQL statements in the transaction. The changes made by the
SQL statements of a transaction become visible to other user session’s transactions that start
only after the transaction is committed.
Rolling back a transaction retracts any of the changes resulting from the SQL statements in
the transaction. After a transaction is rolled back, the affected data is left unchanged as if the
SQL statements in the transaction were never executed.
For long transactions that contain many SQL statements, intermediate markers or savepoints
can be declared. Savepoints can be used to divide a transaction into smaller parts. By using
savepoints, you can arbitrarily mark your work at any point within a long transaction. This
allows you the option of later rolling back all work performed from the current point in the
transaction to a declared savepoint within the transaction.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-10

 Workspace Management for Long
Transactions

• A long transaction can exist for several days.

• Is used for analysis and to test changes in data.
• A shared, transactionally consistent view of
database tables, that:
– Captures changes to version-enabled tables
as new row versions within the workspace
– Makes versions invisible outside the workspace until
explicitly merged with the parent workspace
– Makes changes directly to tables that are not version-
enabled.

8-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Long Transactions
To help with complex queries and scenarios where you might want to see and test changes to
data before they are finalized, it is now possible to use long transactions. A long transaction
can exist for several days and is managed by creating different versions of a table. To set the
version you want to use, you connect to the proper workspace.
A workspace is a virtual environment that provides a transactionally consistent snapshot of
the entire database. One or more users can share this environment to version data in the
database.
The unit of versioning is the table. When a user in a workspace updates a row in a version-
enabled table, a new version of the row is created. Versions are only accessible within the
workspace until explicitly merged with the parent workspace. This also applies to inserts
and deletes made within a workspace to a version-enabled table.
There can be one or more versions of a row in a workspace from one or more version-
enabled tables. The current or active version of a row in a workspace refers to the version of
a row to which changes are currently being made.
Tables that are not version-enabled will be changed as usual, regardless of which workspace
a user might be in. Access to any table is still controlled by the privileges a user has, not
which workspace a user is in.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-11

 Special Transaction Types

• Discrete transactions
– Short, nondistributed
– Changes deferred until commit
– No undo generated
• Autonomous transactions
– Transactions within a transaction
– Commit/rollback independently

8-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Discrete Transactions
Application developers can improve the performance of short, nondistributed transactions by
using the procedure BEGIN_DISCRETE_TRANSACTION. This procedure streamlines
transaction processing so that short transactions can execute more rapidly. During a discrete
transaction, all changes made to any data are deferred until the transaction commits. Oracle
generates redo information, but stores it in a separate location in memory.
When the transaction issues a commit request, Oracle writes the redo information to the redo
log file, and applies the changes directly to the data block. Oracle returns control to the
application once the commit completes. This eliminates the need to generate undo
information, since the block is actually not modified until the transaction is committed, and
the redo information is stored in the redo log buffers.
Autonomous Transactions
Autonomous transactions are independent transactions that can be called from within
another transaction. An autonomous transaction lets you step out of the context of the calling
transaction, perform some SQL operations, commit or roll back those operations, and then
return to the calling transaction’s context and continue with that transaction. Once invoked,
an autonomous transaction is totally independent of the calling transaction (the main
transaction). It does not see any of the uncommitted changes made by the main transaction
and does not share any locks or resources with the main transaction.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-12

 Distributed Databases

• One logical database

• Autonomous nodes
• Location transparency
• Two-phase commit

8-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Distributed Databases
A distributed database is a network of databases managed by multiple database servers that
appear as a single logical database to a user. The data of all databases in the distributed
database can be simultaneously accessed and modified. The primary benefit of a distributed
database is that the data of physically separate databases can be logically combined and
potentially made accessible to all users on a network. Each computer that manages a
database in the distributed database is called a node. The database to which a user is directly
connected is called the local database. Any additional databases accessed by this user are
called remote databases. When a local database accesses a remote database for information,
the local database is a client of the remote server (client/server architecture). While a
distributed database allows increased access to a large amount of data across a network, it
must also provide the ability to hide the location of the data and the complexity of accessing
it across the network.
Oracle provides the same assurance of data consistency in a distributed environment as in a
nondistributed environment. Oracle provides this assurance using the transaction model and
a two-phase commit mechanism. As in nondistributed systems, transactions should be
carefully planned to include a logical set of SQL statements that should all succeed or fail as
a unit. Oracle’s two-phase commit mechanism guarantees that no matter what type of
system or network failure might occur, a distributed transaction either commits on all
involved nodes or rolls back on all involved nodes to maintain data consistency across the
global distributed database.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-13

 XA Architecture

Application
Client

Application TX Interface Application

Server Server

Native TP Monitor
Interface (2PC Coord.)
Native
(SQL) Interface
XA Interface
Resource Manager Resource Manager
(example: Oracle Server) (example: Informix Server)

8-14 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

XA Architecture
In the traditional Oracle client/server architecture, presentation and business logic is
concentrated into a single executable which is distributed to each client machine.
Occasionally, database packages and procedures are used to move some business logic to the
Oracle Server; however, the architecture is inherently 2-tier. Each application client has a
corresponding shadow process (or thread) running within the database server. This
architecture provides great flexibility. However, it runs into problems when scaling to large
numbers of concurrent users.
One approach for improving scalability is to split the application logic into an application
client and application server. The application client becomes primarily responsible for the
collection and presentation of data. The application server becomes responsible for
providing business services which it implements through accessing various data stores
(resource managers).
The application server will usually be written in a 3GL such as C or COBOL, and interface
to a resource manager using the normal precompiler or API mechanisms. Application client
and server communicate through a messaging interface.
In the Oracle case, application servers can be implemented with precompilers or OCI.
Connection to Oracle can be direct or through Oracle Net.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-14

XA Architecture (continued)
The TP architecture can be extended to provide support for distributed data stores by simply
routing messages to different application servers. This can be homogeneous (Oracle to
Oracle) or heterogeneous (Oracle to any other DBMS). The limitation is that the transaction
is separately committed on each data store. In other words, transactions from two data stores
cannot be combined into a single global transaction with global transaction properties.
To achieve global heterogeneous transactions you need XA. In the XA architecture you can
implement global transactions, protected by 2PC. Oracle9i supports the XA interface.
Each resource manager exports an XA API. The TP monitor becomes the 2PC coordinator
and it uses the XA API to control the prepare, commit, and rollback of transactions within
the resource managers.
Direct commit and rollback statements are removed from application servers and replaced
by calls to the TP monitor through the TX interface.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-15

 Unit 1 Summary

• Relational concepts
– Domains, tables, rows, columns
– Missing information
– Integrity
• Languages and interfaces
– SQL, embedded SQL, PL/SQL, JAVA
– XML
– OCI, ODBC, OLE
– JDBC, SQLJ, EJB, CORBA

8-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-16

 Unit 1 Summary

Database objects
• Tables, clusters, data types
• Indexes, constraints, triggers
• Views, materialized views
• Sequences, queues
• Procedures, functions, packages

8-17 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-17

 Unit 1 Summary

• Basic Oracle9i architecture

– Instances, databases, data files
– Segments, extents, blocks
– Data dictionary
– Shared server
• Real Application Clusters architecture
– Cache fusion
– Shared server-side initialization parameter file
– Sharing resources

8-18 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-18

 Unit 1 Summary

• Security
– Users, schemas, authentication
– Quotas, resource limits, profiles
– Privileges and roles
– Auditing
• The optimizer
– Rule based
– Cost based
• Transactions
– Concurrency
– Read consistency

8-19 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-19

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 8-20
 Unit 2
Optional Lessons
 Oracle9i
Object-Relational Features

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

explain the basic concepts of the object-relational
theory:
• Objects, attributes, and methods
• Inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation
• Classes
• Object tables and object views
• Optimizer extensibility
• Object Type Translator (OTT)
• Client side object cache
• Inheritance
• SQLJ object type

9-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 4

 What Is an Object?

Object
ORDER
Ship Methods
po#
Check custinfo
Status Cancel
lineitems
amount

Hold
Attributes

9-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

What is an Object?
David Taylor (Object Guru) describes objects as:
“Software packets responsible for their information (attributes), and their methods (operations)
for operating on that information.”
In reality, an object is just another step forward in the software engineering life cycle. You
model real things and represent these things as objects. In other words, you can develop
solutions that simulate real-world problems. The model is stated in terms of the interactions
between objects. Object technology has been around for over twenty years. Data-driven
analysis was the first step towards objects. It recognizes that data is constant whereas process is
in constant change. Some of the benefits of object technology are easy maintenance of
applications, faster product development, and higher quality of code at a lower cost.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 5

 Object Terminology

• Object type
• Method
• Class
• Object instance
• Inheritance
• Subclass
• Polymorphism
• Encapsulation

9-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Object Terminology
An object type is a person, place, or thing. An object type knows things about itself and has
behavior.
A class is the factory which creates an object; it is the template from which instances of that
class are created. The Oracle term for class is object type.
For example, the class watch is sent a message new which invokes the class method new which
then creates an instance of the class watch. Repeated sends of the class message new create
additional instances of the class watch. These instances are initially identical and have no
knowledge of each other. An instance is created from the template for its class. As messages
are processed by their methods, their state changes. An instance is an object that belongs to a
particular class. In relational terms, instance is analogous to a row or record.
Inheritance allows objects to use behavior and attributes in classes above them in the hierarchy.
You can specialize any class by creating a subclass. The subclass will inherit all the
previously-defined behaviors and attributes of the superclass.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 6

Object Terminology (continued)
Polymorphism allows the same operation (displayTime) to be performed on objects of different
classes with possibly different effects. This is useful because one can ask objects of different
types to invoke the same method and acquire behavior appropriate for that type of object.
Encapsulation allows an object’s state to be accessed (read or modified) exclusively through its
methods. Encapsulation is a way of protecting an object by controlling how it is accessed.
Encapsulation hides the low-level implementation details from users and developers. Methods
are used to encapsulate objects.
A method is an operation invoked in response to a message. The method generally operates on
the object’s state. Behaviors are verbs. Attributes are nouns.
More precisely, methods are procedures or functions provided to enable applications to perform
useful operations on the attributes of the object type. Methods are an optional element of an
object type. They define the behavior of objects of that type and determine what, if anything,
that type of object can do.
A “Computer World” survey breaks down object language usage as follows:
• C++
• Smalltalk
• ObjectiveC
• Others (for example, Java)
Java is quickly becoming the language of choice.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 7

 Relational and Object Tables
Relational Tables & Object Tables

add1 add2 city state zip

OID CUSTOMERS
relational table
1 row containing
multiple columns
add1 add2 city state zip

CUSTOMERS
object table
1 column of type
ADDRESS_TYPE

9-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Relational and Object Tables

Relational Tables are the basic unit of data storage in an Oracle database. Data is stored in
rows and columns. You define a table with a table name and set of columns. You give each
column a column name, a data type, and a width (the width might be predetermined by the data
type, as in DATE) or precision and scale (for columns of the NUMBER data type only). A row is
a collection of column information corresponding to a single record.
An object table is a special kind of table that holds objects and provides a relational view of the
attributes of those objects. Oracle allows you to view an object table in two ways:
• A single column table in which each entry is an object
• A multicolumn table in which each of the attributes of the object type occupies a column
Each object in an object table has a special identifier called an OID or object identifier that is
unique inside the database. Objects that appear in object tables are called row objects. Objects
that appear only in table columns or as attributes of other objects are called column objects.
In addition to permanent tables, Oracle can create temporary tables to hold session-private data
that exists only for the duration of a transaction or session. For transaction-specific temporary
tables, data exists for the duration of the transaction while for session-specific temporary
tables, data exists for the duration of the session. Data in a temporary table is private to the
session. Each session can only see and modify its own data.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 8

 Object Views: An Evolutionary Approach

Enable programmers to evolve existing schemas to

support objects

Object-oriented Object view Base tables

application

9-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Object Views: An Evolutionary Approach

Migration to object-oriented applications can be done over time, and new object-oriented
applications can access and modify the same data as the old applications, with no changes in
the legacy applications or procedures.
You can choose to maintain the base tables in the style of relational segments that have been
proven in earlier versions of the Oracle server. However, this does not prevent users from
building object views on top of the tables to accommodate a specific schema for an object-
oriented application.
Object views provide several benefits to Oracle users, such as:
• Access to relational data for object-oriented applications
• Flexibility in supporting multiple object-based schemas for relational and object data
• Coexistence of current applications with new applications that leverage the object-oriented
framework
In addition, multiple applications may look at the data in different ways. For example, the sales
force of a car dealership wants information on features, price, and availability, and may require
a picture of a particular car. But management wants to know what types of cars are selling best,
what colors do not sell, what is on the lot, and what sales are being missed because of the lack
of a type of car. These applications can be built upon separate schemas but based on the same
tables (relational or object).

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 9

 Extensible Type System

Oracle9i has an open type system that provides the

basis for object extensions:
• Simple: Easy to understand and use
• Comprehensive: Includes many or all relevant types
(user-defined types)
• Extensible: Manages complex data

OPEN

9-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

The Object-Relational Model

The object-relational model allows users to define object types, specifying both the structure of
the data and the methods of operating on the data, and to use these data types within the
relational model. One of the reasons for having a type system is to ensure that all types are type
checked. Type checking occurs on user-defined object types as well as intrinsic types supplied
with the Oracle9i server.
References
References (REFs) are a natural substitute for a primary key-foreign key relationship found in
traditional SQL systems. In the emp table, the deptno column is a foreign key and records
the name of the department of the corresponding employee. In contrast, deptno_ref is
another field in the emp table that serves exactly the same purpose, that is, to identify the
employee’s department name. The main difference between the two implementations is that
with the primary key-foreign key, you must join the two tables (dept and emp) to obtain the
information, whereas with Ref, you only need to use the DEREF function.
Rules
Another required feature in a object-relational DBMS is a rules system. Rules protect the
integrity of the data in the database. Although relational systems use triggers, object-relational
systems need a more flexible system.
The general form of a rule is: “When an event occurs, perform an action.”

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 10

 Extensible Cartridge Development
Enabling Multimedia Applications

• Extensibility framework
allows partners to add
Utilities Tools support for new data types.
• Oracle provides a set of
extensible APIs to core
Optimizer Extensibility functions; for example,
indexing, optimizer,
Query engine
operators, memory.
Index engine
• Development, packaging, and
Type manager installation tools

9-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Extensible Cartridge Development

Increasingly, databases are being used to store more varied types of data, such as spatial, audio,
or video data. This brings the need for indexing complex data types and for specialized
indexing techniques. The Oracle9i database provides an interface (SQL) that enables
developers to define domain-specific operators and indexing schemes, and to integrate them
into the Oracle database. A set of built-in operators is provided for use in SQL statements,
which include arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /), comparison operators ( =, >, <), logical operators
(NOT, AND, OR), and set operators (UNION). These operators take as input one or more
arguments (operands) and return a result.
The extensibility framework of the Oracle9i database allows developers to define new
operators. Their implementation is provided by the user, but the Oracle9i database allows these
user-defined operators to be used in SQL statements in the same manner as any of the
predefined operators. The framework to develop new index types is based on the concept of
cooperative indexing, where an application and the Oracle9i database cooperates to build and
maintain indexes for complex data types. The application software is responsible for defining
the index structure, maintaining the index content during load and update operations, and
searching the index during query processing. The index structure itself can be stored either in
the Oracle9i database as tables or externally as files. Indexes created using these new index
types are referred to as domain indexes.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 11

Extensible Cartridge Development (continued)
The optimizer functionality has been extended to allow authors of user-defined functions and
domain indexes to create statistics collection, selectivity, and cost functions that will be used
by the optimizer in choosing a query plan.
Statistics Collection Functions: The ANALYZE command can now make a call to a user-
specified statistics collection function whenever a domain index is analyzed. User-defined
statistics collection functions can also be defined for individual columns of a table and for
user-defined data types.
Selectivity Functions: Users can specify user-defined selectivity functions for predicates
containing user-defined operators, stand-alone functions, or type methods.
Cost Functions: Users can define costs for domain indexes and for user-defined stand-alone
functions, package functions, and type methods. The user-defined costs can be in the form of
default costs that the optimizer simply looks up, or they can be computed by functions called
by the optimizer.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 12

 Object Type Translator

• Eases application development by providing client-

side mappings to Oracle9i object schemas
• Generates header files using schema information
from an Oracle9i data dictionary
• Generates C structs and corresponding indicator
variables

9-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Object Type Translator

To simplify application development with objects, Oracle offers the object type translator
(OTT), which automatically maps server-side object schemas to client-side language bindings.
For example, a person object type in the server is mapped to a struct person in the C language
for use with OCI and Pro*C programs.
There are three important benefits that the OTT provides:
• Simplification of application development by mapping complex schemas automatically.
This allows users to iteratively develop applications with Oracle9i database objects.
• The mapping is performed intelligently; particularly, the server understands the concept of
NULLity while programming languages such as C do not have such a concept. The OTT
generates both the structs and appropriate indicator variables that can be used to indicate
NULLity.
• The OTT takes as input a data dictionary and generates the corresponding C header files
that can be included with OCI and Pro*C programs. It also generates an outtype file which
provides information to the Pro*C precompiler. This is used to check the types of the
variables used in the program at compile time, significantly improving developer
productivity.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 13

 Oracle9i Client Side Object Cache
CLIENT SERVER

Client side cache Buffer cache

FLUSH
Pin REFRESH

REF REF

SQL

9-14 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Client Side Object Cache

The object cache is a client-side memory buffer that provides lookup and memory management
support for objects. It stores and tracks object instances that have been fetched by an OCI
application.
When objects are fetched by the application through a SQL SELECT, or through an OCI pin
operation, a copy of the object is stored in the object cache. Objects that are fetched directly
through a SELECT statement are fetched by value, and they are nonreferenceable objects
which cannot be pinned. Only referenceable objects can be pinned.
If an object is being pinned, and an appropriate version already exists in the cache, it does not
need to be fetched from the server. Every client program that uses the Oracle OCI to
dereference REFs to retrieve objects, utilizes the object cache. A client-side object cache is
allocated for every OCI environment handle initialized in object mode. Multiple threads of a
process can share the same client-side cache by sharing the same OCI environment handle.
Exactly one copy of each referenceable object exists in the cache, per connection.
Dereferencing a REF many times or dereferencing several equivalent REFs returns the same
copy of the object. If you modify a copy of an object in the cache, you must flush the changes
to the server before they are visible to other processes.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 14

Oracle9i Client Side Object Cache (continued)
Objects that are no longer needed can be unpinned or freed, and then swapped out of the cache,
freeing the memory space they occupied. The object cache maintains the association between
all object copies in the cache and their corresponding objects in the database. The cache does
not manage the contents of object copies; it does not automatically refresh object copies. The
application must ensure the correctness and consistency of the contents of object copies. For
example, if the application marks an object copy for insert, update, or delete, and then aborts
the transaction, the cache simply unmarks the object copy but does not purge or invalidate the
copy. The application must pin recent or latest, or refresh the object copy in the next
transaction. If it pins any, it may get the same object copy, with its uncommitted changes, from
the previous aborted transaction.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 15

 Type Inheritance

• Inheritance is a mechanism to organize types in a

hierarchy.
• This is in accordance to ANSI SQL:1999.
• Subtypes inherit supertypes.
Person
• A subtype can:
– Add new attributes and methods
– Override supertype methods
Student Employee

Part-time
student

9-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Type Inheritance Methodology

Type inheritance allows sharing similarities between types as well as extending their
characteristics. Object applications typically are organized into types and type hierarchies
consisting of supertypes and subtypes. A supertype is an object and a subtype is another object
which has inherited from (extended) one supertype. A subtype inherits all its supertype’s
attributes and methods. A subtype can also add new attributes and methods of its own. All
attributes and methods of a type are accessible by other methods in the same type and its
subtypes, or to methods that have access to that type.
A subtype can override any method in its supertype chain. The subtype value appears to the
surrounding code just as the value of the supertype would, even if it uses separate mechanisms
within its specialization methods. Instance substitutability refers to the ability to use an object
value of a subtype in a context declared in terms of a supertype. REF substitutability refers to
the ability to use a REF to a subtype in a context declared in terms of a REF to a supertype.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 16

 SQLJ Object Type

• SQLJ Object is a special SQL type.

• Each SQLJ Object type maps to a Java class inside
the database.
• A Java application can INSERT or SELECT objects
directly into or from the database through the
Oracle9i JDBC drivers.
• The database SQL engine can access the attributes
of the Java class as a regular SQL type.

9-17 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

SQLJ Object Type

SQLJ object is a special SQL type that is fully implemented in Java. The SQLJ Part2 standard
API allows access to object relational features. Each SQLJ object type maps to a Java class
inside the database.
This will make it easier to map Java classes in the application to objects in the database. By
using Java classes as SQL types, the user can define columns or rows of this Java type and
query and manipulate the objects of this type.
Once the mapping is registered through the CREATE TYPE SQL DDL, the Java application
can INSERT or SELECT copies of the Java objects directly into or from the database through
the Oracle9i JDBC drivers.
The database SQL engine can access the attributes of the Java class as a regular SQL type.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 17

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 9 - 18
 Globalization Support

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

discuss the Globalization Support features of Oracle9i
including:
• Oracle Globalization Support architecture
• Standard features
• Customization features
• Unicode

10-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 10 - 2

 Globalization Support Features

• Language support • Message support

• Territory support • Date and time formats
• Character set support • Numeric formats
• Linguistic sorting • Monetary formats
• Time zones

10-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Globalization Support Features

Oracle’s Globalization Support architecture allows you to store, process, and retrieve data in
native languages. It ensures that database utilities and error messages, sort order, date, time,
monetary, numeric, and calendar conventions automatically adapt to the native language and
locale. Parameter settings determine the behavior of individual conventions.
Language Support
Oracle9i allows users to store, process, and retrieve data in 57 native languages.
Message Support
Utilities and error messages can be made to appear in the native language.
Territory Support
Oracle9i supports 88 different cultural conventions which are specific to a given geographical
location. Local time, date, numeric, and monetary conventions are handled.
Date and Time Formats
The world’s various conventions for hour, day, month, and year can be handled in local
formats.
Monetary and Numeric Formats
Currency, credit, and debit symbols can be represented in local formats. Dual currency is
supported as well. Radix symbols and thousands separators can be defined by locales.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 10 - 3

Globalization Support Features (continued)
Calendars
Gregorian, Japanese Imperial, ROC Official, Thai Buddha, Persian, English Hijrah, and Arabic
Hijrah are supported.
Linguistic Sorting
Oracle9i provides linguistic sorts for culturally accurate sorting.
Character Set Support
Oracle supports a large number (more than 150) of single-byte, multibyte, and fixed-width
encoding schemes that are based on national, international, and vendor-specific standards.
Customization Features
Oracle allows you to customize character sets and calendars. User-defined characters are
sometimes needed to support special symbols, vendor-specific characters, or characters that
represent proper names, historical terms, and so on.
Calendar Customization
You can define ruler eras for imperial calendars, and deviation days for lunar calendars.
Time Zones
You can create or alter a database with a specific time zone by specifying a displacement from
UTC (Coordinated Universal Time, formerly Greenwich Mean Time). The database time zone
is relevant only for TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE columns.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 10 - 4

 Encoding Scheme Types

• Single-byte character sets

– 7-bit (US7ASCII)
– 8-bit (WE8ISO8859P1)
• Varying-width multibyte character sets (JA16EUC)
• Fixed-width multibyte character sets must be
Unicode
• Unicode (UTF8, AL16UTF16)

10-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Encoding Scheme Types

A character encoding scheme specifies numeric codes corresponding to characters that a
computer or terminal can display and receive. Character encoding schemes are used to
interpret data into meaningful symbols from a terminal to a host machine.
Oracle provides different classes of encoding schemes:
• Single Byte: In a single byte character set, each character occupies one byte.
• Varying-width: A multibyte character set is represented by one or more bytes per
character. Multibyte character sets are commonly used for Asian language support.
Varying-width character schemes do not have a fixed number of bytes for each character.
Some multibyte encoding schemes use the value of the most significant bit to indicate if a
byte represents a single or is part of a series of bytes representing a character.
• Fixed-width: This provides similar support for multibyte character sets, except that the
format is a fixed number of bytes for each character.
• Unicode: This is a worldwide character encoding standard that can represent all characters
for computer usage. Oracle9i supports Unicode 3.0, the third version of the Unicode
Standard. For more information about the Unicode Standard Version 3.0, see Unicode
Standard Version 3.0, published by Addison-Wesley, or on
http://www.unicode.com.
• Oracle Unicode now supports the fixed-width character encoding. This enables easier
loading of multinational data.
Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 10 - 5
 Database Character Sets and National
Character Sets

Database Character Sets National Character Sets

Defined at creation time Defined at creation time

Can be changed without Can be changed without
re-creation re-creation
Store data columns of type Store data columns of type
CHAR, VARCHAR2, CLOB, NCHAR, NVARCHAR2 and
LONG NCLOB
Can store varying-width Can store fixed-width and
character sets varying-width multibyte
character sets

10-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Database Character Sets and National Character Sets

When you create an Oracle9i database, you can specify a DATABASE CHARACTER SET and
a NATIONAL CHARACTER SET. Because the database character set is used to identify and
hold SQL and PL/SQL source code, it must have either EBCDIC or 7-bit ASCII as a subset,
whichever is native to the platform. Therefore, it is not possible to use a fixed-width multibyte
character set as a database character set.
The data types NCHAR, NVARCHAR2 and NCLOB are provided to declare columns as
variants of the basic types CHAR, VARCHAR2 and CLOB, to note that they are stored using
the national character set and not the database character set.
Note: In Oracle9i, the National Character Set (for NCHAR, NVARCHAR2, and NCLOB
datatypes) will be limited to the Unicode character sets AL16UTF16 and UTF8 only.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 10 - 6

 Specifying Language-Dependent Behavior

Initialization parameters
Environment variables
ALTER SESSION
command
Statement level

10-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Specifying Language-Dependent Behavior

There are three ways to specify NLS parameters:
• Initialization parameters on the server side specify the default server NLS environment.
• Environment variables for the client specify locale-dependent behavior overriding the
defaults set for the server.
• ALTER SESSION parameters override the default set for the session or the server.
These are some of the NLS parameters that can be changed:
• NLS_LANGUAGE
• NLS_TERRITORY
• NLS_DATE_FORMAT
• NLS_SORT
• NLS_CURRENCY
• NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS
• NLS_CALENDAR
• NLS_DUAL_CURRENCY
• NLS_TIMESTAMP_TZ_FORMAT

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 10 - 7

 Character Set Scanner

• Used before converting database character sets

• Scans database character data for problems
• Does not convert data in the database
• Scans for any character conversion, not limited to
Unicode
• Output is a report of potential conversion faults
• Available since Oracle8i Release 3 (8.1.7)

10-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Character Set Scanner

This utility scans all the character data and the related column definitions in the database, to
identify data loss if the data is converted to a new character set. It does not alter any character
data.
When converting the character data in the database to a different character set, or redeclaring
the character set, you should perform the following:
• Run the Character Set Scanner
• Correct the problems it finds, or find another solution than character set conversion
• After fixing the problem, perform the conversion
The version of the Character Set Scanner must match the database version. A version for
Release 8.1.7 is distributed with the Oracle8i Release 8.1.7 database. Versions for earlier
Oracle8i releases can be requested for backport through Oracle Support Services.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 10 - 8

 Oracle Locale Builder

A GUI-based tool to build your own locale:

• Language
• Territory
• Character set
• Collation
• Does not include building own message files

10-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Expanded Locale Coverage and User Definable Locales

Oracle9i provides a large number of locales. If you need another locale, or need to make an
adjustment to an existing locale, you can use the Locale Builder. Viewing the definitions in the
current supplied locales gives you an accurate and easy-to-read description, without having to
understand the formatting of the relating files.
The globalization definitions are stored in files and are read by the server. You can use the
Locale Builder to view and modify these. You can also create your own.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 10 - 9

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 10 - 10
Oracle9i Business Intelligence

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

explain some of the Data Warehousing and VLDB
possibilities of Oracle9i:
• Partitioning, parallel execution
• Summary management
• Extraction, transformation, and loading processes
• Transportable tablespaces, direct path loads
• OLAP services and data mining

11-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 2

 Partitioning

• Makes VLDBs easier to manage

• Increases manageability, availability, and
performance
• Transparent to users and applications
• Supported partition techniques:
– Range
– Hash
– Composite
– List

11-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Partitioning
Partitioning stores large tables and indexes in pieces, instead of as one large monolithic object.
Partitions are a divide and conquer technique that provides scalable performance with a large
amount of data. Each partition can be individually managed, and can operate independently of
the other partitions, increasing availability and making administrative tasks easier.
Oracle9i supports range, hash, composite, and list partitioning, which provides better
manageability, availability, and performance.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 3

 Range Partitioning

ORDERS table

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

01-JAN 01-APR 01-JUL 01-OCT

to to to to
31-MAR 30-JUN 30-SEP 31-DEC

11-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Range Partitioning
Range partitioning provides the ability to subset data into individual partitions, based on a
range that the administrator defines. For example, an order table could be range-partitioned by
sales date, putting each order record into one of four partitions, one for each quarter of the
year. This method of partitioning data is useful when there is a logical range into which to
divide the data, such as by quarter of the year. However, in this case, partition size could vary
dramatically, which could affect performance of maintenance operations, if the data is skewed
into one particular partition.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 4

 Hash Partitioning

• Insert rows into partition, based on hash of partition

key
• Good for data striping and parallel DML

ORDERS table

Partitioned
using hash
algorithm

11-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Hash Partitioning
Oracle9i hash partitioning is an alternative to range partitioning. Hash partitioning:
• Controls the physical placement of data across a fixed number of partitions.
• Uses a hash function on the partition columns to place data into required partitions,
sometimes called hash buckets.
• Allows data that does not lend itself to range partitioning to be easily partitioned for
predominantly performance reasons (PDML, partition elimination, piece-wise joins).

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 5

 List Partitioning

CUSTOMERS table

West Center East

'CA','AZ','NM', 'OH','ND','SD',
'OR','WA','UT‘, 'MO','IL','MI',
'NV','CO' 'IA'
'TX','KY','TN',
'LA','MS','AR',
'AL','GA'

11-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

List Partitioning Overview and Benefits

The Partitioned Objects feature has incrementally added new partition methods to the Oracle
RDBMS over two releases: Oracle8 and Oracle8i. However, there are constantly emerging
requirements generated by customers who cannot take full advantage of Oracle8i partition
methods provided so far, because their data model does not dovetail Oracle partition methods.
Thus, Oracle9i adds a new partitioning model called LIST partitioning to the set of partition
methods already being supported in the Oracle RDBMS. LIST method allows explicit control
over how rows map to partitions. This is done by specifying a list of discrete values for the
partitioning column in the description for each partition. LIST partitioning is different from
RANGE partitioning where a range of values is associated with a partition, and from HASH
partitioning where the user has no control of the row-to-partition mapping. This partition
method has been specifically added to model data-distributions that follow discrete values.
This cannot be easily done with Oracle8i.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 6

 Composite Partitioning

• Best of both range and hash partitioning

• Good for striping, parallel DML
• Manageability and availability of range partitioning

ORDERS table

Partitioned
by range,
then hash

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

11-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Composite Partitioning
There is also a need for partitioning methods that are well-suited for historical data and
simplify management for the support of parallelism. To satisfy this need, Oracle9i introduces
composite partitioning. Composite partitioning partitions data using the range method, and
within each partition, subpartitions it using the hash method. This new type of partitioning
supports historical operations data at the partition level, and parallelism (PDML) and data
placement at the sub-partition level.
In the example, the ORDERS table is first range partitioned on order date into four separate
ranges, representing quarters. Each range partition is then explicitly subpartitioned into two
hash partitions, on the PRODUCTID key.
This results in eight individual subpartitions (4 x 2).

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 7

 Partitioned Tables and Indexes

A nonpartitioned table can A partitioned table can

have partitioned or have partitioned or
nonpartitioned indexes. nonpartitioned indexes.

Index I3
Index I1

Table T2
Table T1

Index I2 Index I4

11-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Partitioned Tables and Indexes

You can mix partitioned and nonpartitioned indexes with partitioned and nonpartitioned tables:
• A partitioned table can have partitioned and nonpartitioned indexes.
• A nonpartitioned table can have partitioned and nonpartitioned B*-tree indexes.
• Bitmap indexes on nonpartitioned tables cannot be partitioned.
Partitioned indexes are more complicated than partitioned tables because there are four types
of partitioned indexes: local prefixed, local nonprefixed, global prefixed, and global
nonprefixed. These types are described below. Oracle supports three of the four types; global
nonprefixed indexes are not useful in real applications.
In a local index, all keys in a particular index partition refer only to rows stored in a single
underlying table partition. A local index is prefixed if it is partitioned on a left prefix of the
index columns.
In a global index, the keys in a particular index partition may refer to rows stored in more than
one underlying table partition or subpartition. A global index can only be range-partitioned, but
it can be defined on any type of partitioned table (range, hash, or composite partitioned).
As a result of partition level maintenance operations indexes normally get invalidated; for
example, all global indexes will have to be rebuilt. However, local indexes belonging to non-
affected partitions will stay valid.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 8

 Parallel Execution

select sum(quantity), product_id

from order_items
where profit (unit_price) > 0.2
group by product_id; Stored
Query Servers function
SQL Data Data on
sort A-K scan disk

Dispatching
sort L-S scan
results

Coordinator sort T-Z scan

Table’s
Sorters Scanners dynamic
partitioning
Sort per product, Scan order_items,
sum(quantity) execute profit
in parallel

11-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Parallel Execution
When Oracle is not parallelizing SQL statements, each statement is executed sequentially by a
single process. With parallel execution, however, multiple processes work together
simultaneously to execute a single SQL statement. By dividing the work among multiple
processes, Oracle can execute the statement more quickly. Parallel execution can dramatically
improve performance for data-intensive operations associated with DSS applications and
VLDB environments.
Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), clustered, and massively parallel systems (MPP) gain the
largest benefits from parallel execution because statement processing can be split up among
many CPUs. Parallel execution helps systems scale in performance by making optimal use of
system resources. If your CPUs and disk controllers are already heavily loaded, you need to
alleviate that load or increase hardware resources before using parallel execution to improve
performance.
The Oracle9i server can use parallel execution for many operations, and each new release
comes with new parallel execution enhancements.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 9

 Materialized Views Management

Automated query
rewrites

PRODUCTS
Sum by
product
SALES
Year City
Sum by
Quarter Materialized views city

Month
Pre-summarized Sum by
Date automatically maintained day

11-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Storing Aggregated Data in Materialized Views

Summaries are typically used in data warehouse or data mart environments. A materialized
view can be used to significantly improve the query performance in these situations.
The optimizer may choose to rewrite a query on the base tables to access a materialized view.
This process is known as a query rewrite and is only possible if the cost-based optimizer is
used. Accessing a materialized view may be significantly faster than accessing the underlying
base tables.
The existence and use of materialized views is transparent to applications. You do not need
explicit privileges on materialized views to use them. Queries on the underlying tables can be
rewritten to access the materialized view, if you have access privileges on the base tables.
A materialized view can be enabled or disabled for query rewrite. A materialized view that is
enabled is available for rewrites. Materialized views are enabled by default.
A full refresh of a materialized view involves truncating existing data and reinserting all the
data that is based on the detail tables. Fast refreshes using materialized view logs are possible.
In this case, all changes to the base tables are captured in a log and then applied to the
materialized view.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 10

 Making Full Use of Materialized Views

Dimensions and
• Dimensions and hierarchies hierarchies
can be defined so that Oracle
can rewrite queries. ALL
• Materialized view tables can Year
be used to satisfy queries that
need rollups.
Season Week Quarter
• Enterprise Manager
provides a dimension advisor.
Month

Sales
date

11-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Making Full Use of Materialized Views

Dimensions describe business entities, such as products, departments, and time, in a
hierarchical, categorized manner. A dimension may consist of one or more hierarchies. In the
example shown, the time dimension consists of three hierarchies.
Consider the TIME table in the star schema. If ten years of Sales are being stored online, then
the TIME table will have 3650 rows—one row for any possible sales date within the ten years.
Columns in the time table represent attributes of the time dimension, such as week number,
month, season, and so on. Relationships between the columns in the tables can be defined as a
hierarchy of dimension attributes.
Each hierarchy consists of multiple levels. Each value at a lower level in the hierarchy is the
child of one and only one parent at the next higher level. A hierarchy consists of 1:n
relationships between levels, with the parent level representing a level of aggregation of the
child level. In the example, the calendar hierarchy consists of sales date, month, quarter, and
year.
Dimensions and Hierarchical relationships can be declared between columns in a dimension
table, or between columns in different tables, in the case of normalized or “snowflake”
schemas. A new schema object type, dimension, is provided for this purpose.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 11

 Management of Materialized Views

Data
• Summary advisor: Workload dictionary
recommendations information information
based on query usage
• Optimize disk costs to
performance gains

Summary Advisor

Materialized views Space

usage requirements
Materialized views
recommendations

11-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Management of Materialized Views

Oracle9i includes a feature set called Summary Advisor, which contains several procedures
and functions to manage Materialized Views (MV) in a data warehouse. The summary
advisory functions within the package use two major sources of information:
• Workload statistics: Workload can be gathered from
– Oracle Trace in the Enterprise Manager tuning pack, or through third party tools,
can be used to collect workload statistics. A new event, MATERIALIZED VIEW
USAGE, is available with Oracle Trace to collect this information.
– SQL statements cached inside the SGA.
– User generated workload stored in particular dictionary tables.
• Data dictionary: The data dictionary information that the advisory functions use include
summary and dimension data.
Information that can be obtained from the summary advisor includes:
• MV usage: Such as the number of times a query rewrite was made to use a MV, the space
used by a MV and a cost-benefit ratio for each MV.
• MV recommendations: Such as creation, retention, and dropping of MVs.
• Space requirements: Based on queries for possible MVs.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 12

 Explain Materialized View

• New procedure DBMS_MVIEW.EXPLAIN_MVIEW

accepts a:
– Materialized view name, or
– SQL statement
• Advises what is and is not possible with this MV or
potential MV before you create it
• Results are stored in MV_CAPABILITIES_TABLE

11-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Explain Materialized View

It is very difficult for a user to understand why fast refresh is not possible for a particular
Materialized View (MV). The purpose of the “explain materialized view” procedure, available
with Oracle9i, is to advise what is and is not possible with a given MV or potential MV. This
package advises the user in the following ways:
• Is this materialized view fast refreshable ?
• What types of query rewrite Oracle can do with this MV ?
The process for using this package is very simple. The procedure
DBMS_MVIEW.EXPLAIN_MVIEW is called, passing in as parameters, the schema and MV
name for an existing MV. Alternatively, you can specify the select string for a potential MV.
The MV or potential MV is then analyzed and the results are written into a table called
MV_CAPABILITIES_TABLE.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 13

 Explain Query Rewrite

• Goal is to explain:
– Why query did not rewrite?
– Or, if rewrite is possible, which materialized view is
used?
• Use procedure DBMS_MVIEW.EXPLAIN_REWRITE
• Parameters
– SQL statement, or
– Materialized view name
• Results are stored in REWRITE_TABLE table

11-14 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Explain Query Rewrite

Users of query rewrite do not have any tools to find out why query rewrite failed to occur or
which materialized view is used in case query can be rewritten. They also don't have any ways
to find out why query rewrite algorithm did not choose a particular materialized view, even
though it may appear to be the right choice. The rules governing query rewrite eligibility are
quite complex, involving various factors such as constraints, dimensions, query rewrite
integrity modes, freshness of the materialized views, and the types of queries themselves. In
addition, you may want to know why query rewrite chose a particular materialized view
instead of another.
To help with this matter, Oracle9i provides a PL/SQL procedure
(DBMS_MVIEW.EXPLAIN_REWRITE) to advise you when a query can be rewritten and, if
not, why not. Using the results from DBMS_MVIEW.EXPLAIN_REWRITE, you can take the
appropriate action needed to make a query rewrite if at all possible.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 14

 Monitor Long-Running Operations

• Track progress of:

– Archiving, backup, and restore
– Parallel query
– Recovery Percent Complete:

– Sorts 0 61% 100%

– Full table scans
– Analyze (DBMS_STATS)
• Applications can populate the v$session_longops
view.

11-15 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Monitor Long-Running Operations

As databases become large, certain operations, such as complex queries, index builds, and
other DDL operations, can take a long time to complete. During a prolonged database
operation, users often have no way of knowing if the database server is doing any work or is
hung.
In such situations, it is nice to have a mechanism for users and DBAs to monitor operations
progress to get an idea of the estimated completion time. To provide such a mechanism,
Oracle9i maintains statistics to track the progress of these operations, and makes them
available to the users via the dynamic performance view V$SESSION_LONGOPS.
The package DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO contains a procedure that allows application
developers to insert statistics about their own custom long running operations.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 15

 Transportable Tablespaces

Headquarters
database • Copy tablespaces between
databases:
– Same OS
Product catalog
– Same DB version
• No metadata export/import
required
• Exact full copies only

Catalog Catalog

Branch databases

11-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Transportable Tablespaces
Moving data from a data warehouse to a data mart, or from an OLTP system to a staging area
for a data warehouse, can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Direct path loading via
SQL*Loader or parallel DML makes the task faster, but the process should be simpler for data
movement between identical databases. Oracle9i provides a mechanism for copying data files
between identical systems and allows both systems to access the same data. Now data
movement can be as fast as a simple transfer of files between machines. This greatly improves
performance and provides operational simplicity for the transfer of data.
Companies can also use this feature to publish data on CD ROMs that can be easily integrated
into Oracle databases at regional or area offices. For example, PRODUCT tables with product
descriptions and price can be populated or updated at the head office and moved to regional or
branch offices, for use in an order processing system.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 16

 Fast and Direct Data Loading

• Complete access to all load functionality through

Oracle9i Call Interface (OCI) API
• Partners and customers can program powerful load
programs that load data through a stream instead of
a file.

Oracle Direct
DB2 Write OCI load
IMS Buffer program Buffer

Input
Stream Table

11-17 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Data Transportation Direct-path Load API

Oracle9i provides an Application Programming Interface (API) in OCI to the direct path load
mechanism. This provides a way for Independent Software Vendors and system management
tool partners to create easy-to-use and high-performance customized data-loading tools. Access
to all load functionality is available through the API, allowing performance of any data loading
tool to be comparable to SQL*Loader.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 17

 Common Extraction, Transformation, and
Loading (ETL) Process
Flat files

Load into
staging tables Staging table 1

Validate data Staging table 2 Transform data

Merge into
Staging table 3 warehouse Warehouse table
tables
INSERT & UPDATE

11-18 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Common Extraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL) Process

Data transformations are often the most complex and, in terms of processing time, the most
costly part of the Extraction Transformation Loading (ETL) process. They can run the gamut
from simple data conversions to extremely complex data scrubbing techniques. Many, if not
all, data transformations can occur within an Oracle9i database, although transformations are
often implemented outside of the database (for example, on flat files) as well.
From an architectural perspective, you can transform your data in two ways:
• Multi-Stage Data Transformation
• Pipelined Data Transformation
With Multi-Stage Data Transformation, the data transformation logic for most data warehouses
consists of multiple steps. For example, in transforming new records to be inserted into a sales
table, there may be separate logical transformation steps to validate each dimension key. A
graphical way of looking at the transformation logic is presented on the above slide. When
using Oracle8i as a transformation engine, a common strategy is to implement each different
transformation as a separate SQL operation and to create a separate, temporary staging table to
store the incremental results for each step. This load-then-transform strategy also provides a
natural checkpointing scheme to the entire transformation process, which enables to the
process to be more easily monitored and restarted. However, a disadvantage is that, due to the
multistaging, the required space and time increases.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 18

 Pipelined Data Transformation in Oracle9i

External tables

External table

Flat files

Table functions
Merge into
Validate data Transform data warehouse
tables

Warehouse table
MERGE

11-19 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Pipelined Data Transformation in Oracle9i

With the introduction of Oracle9i, Oracle’s database capabilities have been significantly
enhanced to address specifically some of the tasks in ETL environments. The ETL process
flow can be changed dramatically, and the database becomes an integral part of the ETL
solution. Taking advantage of the new functionality, some of the former necessary process
steps become obsolete while some others can be remodeled to enhance the data flow and the
data transformation to become more scalable and noninterruptive. We are no longer talking
about serial transform-then-load (with most of the tasks done outside the database) or load-
then-transform; rather we are talking about an enhanced transform-while-loading.
Oracle9i offers a wide variety of new capabilities to address all the issues and tasks relevant in
an ETL scenario. It is important to understand that the database offers toolkit functionality
rather than trying to address a one-size-fits-all solution. The underlying database has to enable
the most appropriate ETL process flow for a specific customer need, and not dictate or
constrain it from a technical perspective. The above slide illustrates the new functionality,
which is discussed throughout later slides in this lesson.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 19

 Oracle9i OLAP Services

• Analysis-ready Oracle database

– Support for complex, multidimensional queries, such
as Express server
– Highly scalable
• Development platform for internet-ready analytical
applications:
– Java OLAP API
– Business Intelligence Beans and JDeveloper

11-20 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i OLAP Services

When people think of OLAP, they typically think of multidimensional databases which are
separate and apart from the relational databases that collect and warehouse data to be analyzed.
Although multidimensional database have been the most effective OLAP solution to date, the
added design and administrative costs have limited their reach into most organizations.
With Oracle9i, the Oracle database is not only the data source and the historical data store, it is
an OLAP ready relational database and the platform for analytical applications.
Oracle9i combines the best of Express Server - support for complex multidimensional queries
and rapid query response - with the highly scaleable, manageable, and secure Oracle database.
Oracle9i is the first OLAP-ready relational database.
Oracle9i OLAP Services provides the query performance and calculation capability of a
multidimensional database. In addition, it provides a Java OLAP API that is appropriate for the
development of internet-ready analytical applications.
Unlike other marriages of OLAP and RDBMS technology, Oracle9i OLAP Services is not a
thinly disguised multidimensional database using bridges to move data from the relational data
store to a multidimensional data store. Instead, it is truly an OLAP enabled relational database.
As a result, Oracle9i provides the performance and calculations of a multidimensional database
along with the scalability, accessibility, security, manageability, and high availability of the
Oracle9i database. In addition, developers can use the Java OLAP API, which specifically
designed for internet based analytical applications.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 20

 OLAP Application Platform

Oracle Business Intelligence

Rapid application
Beans development
Analysis-ready

Oracle9i OLAP Services

Java OLAP API predictive
analysis functions
Scalable data store
Integrated metadata
Oracle9i Summary management
SQL analytic functions

11-21 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

OLAP Application Platform

Oracle9i OLAP Services OLAP fully enables the Oracle database. Oracle9i consists of:
• The Oracle9i RDBMS, which provides:
– Scaleable data storage
– Summary management with materialized views
– Meta data stored in the RDBMS and managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager
– New OLAP SQL functions which provide analytical features and improve
performance
• Oracle9i OLAP Services, which provides the support for analytical applications by
providing:
– An Java OLAP API designed for the internet
– Predictive OLAP functions.
In addition, the Business Intelligence Beans provides the OLAP ready application building
blocks to support rapid application development of internet-based business intelligence
applications.
Together Oracle9i and the Business Intelligence Beans provide a complete platform for
analytical applications without any of the drawbacks of multidimensional databases.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 21

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 11 - 22
 Backup and Recovery

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

discuss the basic principles of backing up and
recovering an Oracle9i database.
• Backup strategies
• Backup types
• Recovery manager (RMAN)
• Data guard
• LogMiner

12-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 2

 Data Export

Data
files

Export
Objects

OS file

Create a “SQL” script (binary file)

12-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Data Export or Logical Backups

The Export utility provides a simple way for you to transfer data objects between Oracle
databases, even if they reside on platforms with different hardware and software
configurations. Export extracts the object definitions and table data from an Oracle database
and stores them in an Oracle binary-format Export dump file located typically on disk or tape.
Such files can then be copied through FTP or physically transported (in the case of tape) to a
different site and used, with the Import utility, to transfer data between databases that are on
machines not connected through a network, or as backups in addition to normal backup
procedures.
When you run Export against an Oracle database, objects such as tables are extracted, followed
by their related objects (such as indexes, comments, and grants) if any, and then written to the
Export file.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 3

 Data Import

Export file

Import

Data
files

12-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Data Import
The Import utility inserts the data objects extracted from one Oracle database by the Export
utility (and stored in an Export dump file) into another Oracle database. Export dump files can
only be read by Import.
Import reads the object definitions and table data that the Export utility extracted from an
Oracle database and stored in an Oracle binary-format Export dump file located typically on
disk or tape.
The Export and Import utilities can also facilitate certain aspects of Oracle Advanced
Replication functionality, such as offline instantiation.
If you are using Export/Import as a backup and recover utility, you must understand that you
will loose data changes between the export time and import time.
For this reason, you should not rely solely on these utilities for your backup strategies.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 4

 NOARCHIVELOG Mode:
Offline Backups Only

Data files

Control 18 Online redo

file
log files
19
19
19
Sunday

Backup
18 files
19
19 19

12-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

NOARCHIVELOG Mode
An Oracle database can operate in two distinct modes: NOARCHIVELOG mode (media
recovery disabled) or ARCHIVELOG mode (media recovery enabled).
If a database is used in NOARCHIVELOG mode, the archiving of the online redo log is
disabled. Information in the database’s control file indicates that filled groups are not required
to be archived. Therefore, as soon as a filled group becomes inactive, the group is available for
reuse by the LGWR process. NOARCHIVELOG mode protects a database only from instance
failure, not from disk (media) failure. Only the most recent changes made to the database,
stored in the groups of the online redo log, are available for crash recovery or instance
recovery. This is sufficient to satisfy the needs of crash recovery and instance recovery,
because Oracle will not overwrite an online redo log that might be needed until its changes
have been safely recorded in the data files. However, it will not be possible to do media
recovery. This slide demonstrates the only possible way to restore and recover your database in
case of a media crash. Here, a complete cold backup is made, which means that the database is
shut down cleanly and that you back up all the files pertaining to the database. This includes
the redo log, and control and data files.
Note: This page and the following two belong together, and illustrate a typical
NOARCHIVELOG scenario.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 5

 Loss of a Data File

35

36 36
36
36

Wednesday 10:00 a.m.

18
19
19 19

12-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Loss of a Data File

Assume that a media crash occurs at some point in time after the backup. In the example, one
of the data files was removed from the database configuration.
Note that the log sequence number at the time of the backup was 19 and is 36 at the time of the
crash. This means that you have lost the transaction history since the backup, because redo log
19, 20, and so on, have been overwritten.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 6

 Restore

Restore Sunday’s 18
whole backup
19
19
19

Wednesday 10:30 a.m.

Changes since Sunday lost

12-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Restore
Because you lost the transaction history, you cannot recover from this situation.
The only possibility is to restore the full backup from Sunday. The consequence is that you
have lost every data change since Sunday.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 7

 ARCHIVELOG Mode:
Offline and Online Backups

Data files

Control 18
Online redo
file
19 log files
19
19
Sunday

Backup
files
18
19
19 19

12-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

ARCHIVELOG Mode (Media Recovery Enabled)

If an Oracle database is operated in ARCHIVELOG mode, the archiving of the online redo log
is enabled. Information in a database control file indicates that a group of filled online redo log
files cannot be reused by LGWR until the group has been archived.
ARCHIVELOG mode permits complete recovery from disk failure as well as instance failure,
because all changes made to the database are saved in an archived redo log.
Automatic Archiving and the ARCn (Archiver) Background Processes
You can configure an instance with an additional background process, the archiver (ARC0), to
automatically archive groups of online redo log files once they become inactive. Automatic
archiving frees the database administrator from having to keep track of, and archive, filled
groups manually. For this convenience alone, automatic archiving is the choice of most
database systems that run in ARCHIVELOG mode. For heavy workloads, such as bulk loading
of data, multiple archiver processes (up to 10) can be configured. However, the database
administrator can interactively start or stop automatic archiving at any time.
Note: On the above slide, the same example as before is used, but now the database is in
ARCHIVELOG mode. This page and the following three belong together, and illustrate a
typical ARCHIVELOG scenario.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 8

 Loss of a Data File

21 ... 35
20 35
19 Archived
logs 36 36
36
36

Wednesday 10:00 a.m.

18
19
19 19

12-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Loss of a Data File

Note that now, each time a redo log group is full, the ARC0 background process archives it to
disk so that you have the transaction history.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 9

 Partial Restore

21 ... 35
20 35
19
19 36
36
36

Wednesday 10:05 a.m.

18
19
19 19

12-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Partial Restore
Now, when there is a media failure, you only need to restore the crashed data file to restore the
database.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 10

 Datafile Recovery

21 ... 35
20 35
19
36 36
36
36

Wednesday 10:15 a.m.

No changes lost
18
19
19 19

12-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Recovery Concept
The idea is to recover from the crash by applying the transaction history to the crashed data
file. The RECOVER command will do that automatically. At the end of the recovery process,
the crashed datafile will be usable again. So, in this case, only the noncommitted transactions
relative to this file are lost.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 11

 Trial Recovery

• Several problems may prevent media recovery from

completing successfully.
• In Oracle9i, the following enhancements are
implemented:
– DBAs can invoke a trial recovery.
– DBAs can instruct media recovery to mark a data
block corrupt, if required to proceed.
– Recovery always leaves behind a database that can be
opened.
• These enhancements are based on an optimistic
redo application algorithm.

12-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Trial Recovery
Some problems that may occur during media recovery are not recoverable. For example, if a
redo log is corrupted and recovery information cannot be applied, and the recovery process
stops, then the resulting database is useless. For media recovery, the user must restore the
backup and recover the database to a SCN before where the corruption occurred. For a large
database, restoring a backup and recovering the database can take a long time.
The following enhancements are provided:
• If media recovery of a full database encounters a problem, recovery always leaves behind
a consistent database, which can be opened read-only or with resetlogs.
• The DBA can instruct the media recovery process to mark a data block as being
corrupted. The block’s inconsistency is ignored and the recovery can proceed. The block
will subsequently be inaccessible.
• The DBA can invoke a Trial Recovery in order to investigate if the recovery problem is
an isolated problem.
The optimistic redo application algorithm assumes that no problem will occur during media
recovery. If any problem does occur, the Oracle server will automatically undo the last applied
changes, and not leave an inconsistency in the recovered database.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 12

 Recovery Manager (RMAN)

GUI Recovery catalog

interface
(OEM)
Oracle
Line mode RMAN> database

Backup/recover/restore Operating 3rd-party storage

package and OSD layer system subsystems

Oracle
database

12-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Recovery Manager
Recovery Manager (RMAN) is a utility that manages the processes of creating backups of all
database files (datafiles, control files, and archived redo log files) and restoring or recovering
files from backups.
Recovery Catalog
RMAN maintains a repository called the recovery catalog, which contains information about
backup files and archived log files. RMAN uses the recovery catalog to automate both restore
operations and media recovery. The recovery catalog is maintained solely by RMAN. The
database server of the backed-up database never accesses the recovery catalog directly. RMAN
propagates information about backup datafile sets, archived redo logs, backup control files, and
datafile copies into the recovery catalog for long-term retention. When doing a restore, RMAN
extracts the appropriate information from the recovery catalog and passes it to the database
server. The server performs various integrity checks on the input files specified for a restore.
Incorrect behavior by RMAN cannot corrupt the database. The recovery catalog is stored in an
Oracle database. It is the database administrator’s responsibility to make such a database
available to RMAN. Taking backups of the recovery catalog is also the database
administrator's responsibility. Since the recovery catalog is stored in an Oracle database, you
can use RMAN to back it up. If the recovery catalog is destroyed and no backups are available,
then it can be partially reconstructed from the current control file or control file backups.
Note: Use of a recovery catalog is not required, but is recommended. Since most information
in the recovery catalog is also available from the control file, RMAN supports an operational
mode where it uses only the control file. This operational mode is appropriate for small
databases.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 13

 Block Media Recovery (BMR)

• A block becomes the smallest

Tape unit of media restore and
recovery.
• BMR main benefits:
– Lowers the mean time to
recover
– Increases data availability
during media recovery
• RMAN must be used for BMR:
– Restores individual data
blocks from available backups
– Coordinates with the server to
have them recovered

12-14 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Block Media Recovery (BMR)

BMR reduces the smallest recoverable unit of media recovery from a data file to a block. The
basic premise is that when a small subset of blocks in the database are known to require media
recovery, it is more efficient to selectively restore and recover just those blocks. Only blocks
being recovered need to be unavailable, allowing continuous availability of the rest of the
database during recovery. Block media recovery (BMR) provides two main benefits over file-
level recovery:
• Lowering the mean time to recover (MTTR)
• Allowing increased availability of data during media recovery as the data file being
recovered remains online.
BMR uses existing recovery mechanisms to apply changes from the redo stream to block
versions restored from suitable backups. Recovery Manager (RMAN) must be used to perform
BMR. The existing SQL interface for media recovery does not support BMR. RMAN restores
individual data blocks from available backups and coordinates with the Oracle server process
to have them recovered. If a backupset repository is maintained, RMAN can also assist in
selecting the correct backup of a block to use as the starting point for media recovery.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 14

 Oracle9i Data Guard Architecture
Oracle9i Data Guard Manager
Graphical user interface
or
Command-line interface
Online Standby site
Standby
Redo Redo Standby
logs Logs database
Standby
Oracle Oracle Redo

Primary Data Guard Data Guard Logs

Broker Broker Archived
database Logs
(DMON) (DMON)
Archived
Archived Logs
Archived
Log logs Log
logs
Transport Apply
services Oracle services
Net

12-15 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Data Guard Architecture

The Oracle9i Data Guard architecture consists of the following components:
• Primary database: A primary database is a production database. The primary database is
used to create a standby database.
• Physical standby database: A physical standby database is a database replica created from
a backup of a primary database and is in read-only mode or in recovery mode.
• Log transport services: Log transport services control the automated transfer of archived
redo logs from the primary database to the standby site.
• Network configuration: The primary database is connected to the standby database
through Oracle Net.
• Log apply services: Log apply services apply the archived redo logs to the standby
database if not in read-only mode.
• Data Guard broker: Data Guard broker is the management and monitoring component
that helps you configure, control, and monitor a fault tolerant system consisting of a
primary database protected by one or more physical standby databases. After it has
created the Data Guard configuration, the broker monitors the activity, health, and
availability for all systems in the Data Guard configuration. You can control the Data
Guard Broker by using the Oracle9i Data Guard Manager tool (GUI or CLI versions).

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 15

 Analyzing Redo Log Files

• Track changes to database

• Undo changes to the database
• Perform tuning and capacity planning

Data
dictionary Log files

LogMiner

Fixed view
LogMiner
dictionary file

12-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Analyzing Redo Log Files

Log files contain a wealth of useful information about the activities and history of an Oracle
database. LogMiner is a PL/SQL interface that enables redo log files to be read, analyzed, and
interpreted using standard SQL. Analysis of log files is useful for:
• Tracking changes to the database without the overhead of auditing. Value-based auditing
can be performed offline without directly affecting the online performance of the
database.
• Performing granular logical recovery by undoing specific changes (except DDL
commands) made by one or more transactions. This minimizes the need for performing
point-in-time recovery to recover from a logical application error.
• Tuning and capacity planning. Since the redo log files record changes to the database,
this information can be analyzed to study usage patterns and to estimate data growth
patterns.
LogMiner Features
LogMiner provides a procedure to analyze and present the data in the form of a virtual table.
Since the redo log files only contain object identifiers and not object names, to enable
interpretation of the object identifiers, the data dictionary information must be available at the
time the log files are analyzed.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 12 - 16

Tools to Administer Oracle9i

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

discuss the tools used to administer an Oracle9i
database:
• SQL*Plus
• iSQL*Plus
• Enterprise Manager
• Export, Import
• SQL*Loader
• Online table redefinition
• SNMP support

13-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

SQL*Plus
SQL*Plus has always been one of the most efficient tools to issue ad hoc SQL statements for
any purpose, including database administration tasks such as managing tablespaces, rollback
segments, users and schemas, privileges and roles, and auditing.
Oracle8i, SQL*Plus also supports database administration commands, including STARTUP
and SHUTDOWN, RECOVER, and ARCHIVE LOG. This means that a database administrator can
perform all regular tasks using SQL*Plus.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 2

 iSQL*Plus Architecture

Three tier implementation:

• iSQL*Plus user interface (Web browser)
• iSQL*Plus Server, Oracle HTTP Server, Oracle Net
• Oracle9i

TCP/IP
network
iSQL *Plus iSQL *Plus Oracle RDBMS
user HTTP
interface protocol server Net Oracle
Oracle Net
Net
Client Oracle Database
HTTP server
server

13-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

iSQL*Plus Architecture
iSQL*Plus is a browser-based implementation of SQL*Plus. It uses no client software, just a
Web browser. It is a component of SQL*Plus and is available on Windows NT/2000. In the
near future, it will also be available on other platforms. The three tiers may be on the same
machine, or on separate machines.
iSQL*Plus User Interface (Client Tier)
The iSQL*Plus user interface runs in a Web browser connected to the Internet or your intranet.
You only need to know the URL of the Oracle HTTP Server to access Oracle9i, or any Oracle
database. There is no installation or configuration required for the iSQL*Plus user interface
other than a Web browser.
Oracle HTTP Server (Middle Tier)
The iSQL*Plus Server is installed as part of the Oracle HTTP Server. The iSQL*Plus Server
enables communication and authentication between the iSQL*Plus user interface and the
RDBMS.
Oracle9i (Database Tier)
Oracle Net components provide communication between the iSQL*Plus Server and Oracle9i.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 3

 Enterprise Manager Architecture

(Browser-based)
Console HTTP
daemon
Agent Oracle
OMS Server

Repository Agent Oracle

Server

OMS Agent Oracle

Server

13-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Enterprise Manager Architecture

Enterprise Manager (EM) is a Java-based framework consisting of multiple components that
integrate into a powerful graphical user interface (GUI). EM combines a central console,
agents, common services, and tools to provide an integrated, comprehensive systems
management platform for managing Oracle products. From EM’s console, you can:
• Administer, diagnose, and tune multiple databases
• Schedule jobs on multiple nodes at varying time intervals
• Monitor objects and events throughout the network
• Allow users to share objects with other Enterprise Manager users
• Customize your display using multiple graphic views and groups of network objects, such
as nodes and databases
• Administer Real Application Clusters environments
• Integrate participating Oracle and third-party tools

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 4

Enterprise Manager Architecture (Continued)
EM extends the client-server architecture to a highly scalable three-tier model. The first tier
consists of a Java-based console and integrated applications that can be installed or run from a
Web browser. The second tier component is the Oracle Management Server (OMS). The main
function of the OMS is to provide centralized intelligence and distributed control between
clients and managed nodes, processing and administering all system management tasks. As the
number of managed systems increases, the architecture scales through the addition of OMSs.
Failover and load balancing are also automated within the OMS, providing much greater
reliability in notification processing. The OMS uses the EM repository as its persistent back-
end store. This repository maintains system data, application data, and the state of managed
entities distributed throughout the environment. Multiple users can access and share repository
data for systems where management responsibilities are shared. The third tier is comprised of
targets, such as databases, nodes, or other managed services. The intelligent agent functions as
the executor of jobs and events sent by the OMS. Client/server connections to the database
through the EM console are also supported if you do not want to use a repository database.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 5

 Job and Event System Features
Console
Alert
• Automate standard
and repetitive tasks
• Schedule execution
Job Event Security Discovery time
service service service service
• Execute tasks
Oracle Management server
concurrently on
multiple destinations
• Complex task
Intelligent Intelligent
dependencies
agent agent
• Fixit jobs and user-
defined events
Oracle Oracle Oracle
Server Server Server

13-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Job and Event System Features

The Job system allows you to automate standard and repetitive tasks, such as executing a SQL
script or executing an operating system command. With the Job system, you can create and
manage jobs, share jobs with other users, schedule execution of jobs, and view information
about the jobs. Jobs can be scheduled on a single node or multiple nodes in the network,
provided that the node has an Intelligent Agent running on it.
Events
The Event system allows you to monitor specific event conditions, such as loss of service or
lack of storage, that occur in your network environment. You choose events on databases,
listeners, or nodes, and then select the threshold parameters for which you want to be notified.
You can share the events with other administrators and notify specific administrators when an
event condition occurs. For some events, you can also choose to execute a job that
automatically corrects the problem. The Event system allows you to efficiently monitor a large
system. Using EMS and Intelligent Agents, you can effectively monitor any number of
databases 24 hours a day, and be alerted when a problem is detected. You can also pinpoint
only the services you wish to monitor. The Event system can be extended to include other
third-party applications that detect events independent of the Intelligent Agents. These
applications can be integrated into the Event system and communicate directly with the
Intelligent Agents.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 6

Intelligent Agent
The Oracle Intelligent Agent is an intelligent process running on a remote node in the network.
An agent resides on the same node as the service it supports. However, the agent can support
more than one service on a particular node. For example, if two databases are installed on one
machine, a single agent can support both databases. The agents are responsible for:
• Providing local services or calling operating system dependent services to interact locally
with the managed targets
• Accepting jobs or events from the Console or other third-party applications
• Running jobs, collecting their results and output, and queuing them for the Oracle
Management Server
• Checking for events, and queuing the resulting event reports
• Returning job and event reports to the appropriate Oracle Management Server
• Canceling jobs or events as directed by the Console or other applications
• Handling Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) requests, if supported
Intelligent Agents are autonomous because they function without requiring that the Console or
Oracle Management Server be running. An agent that services a database can run when the
database is down, allowing the agent to start up or shut down the database. The Intelligent
Agents can independently perform administrative job tasks at any time, without active
participation by the administrator. Similarly, the agents can autonomously detect and react to
events, allowing them to monitor the system and execute a job to correct problems without the
intervention of the administrator.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 7

 SQL*Loader

Loader Source
control file data file
Bad data

SQL*Loader Reject
Discard file
file Log
file
Unwanted
data Oracle

9i
13-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

SQL*Loader
SQL*Loader loads data from external files into tables of an Oracle database.
• Powerful data parsing engine puts little limitation on the format of the data in the data file
• Loads data from multiple data files into multiple tables during the same load session
• Character set aware (you can specify the character set of the data)
• Selectively loads data (you can load records based on the records’ values)
• Manipulates the data before loading it, using SQL functions
• Generates unique sequential key values in specified columns
• Uses the OS file system to access data files
• Loads data from disk, tape, or named pipe
• Performs sophisticated error reporting that greatly aids troubleshooting
• Supports two paths: while conventional path loading is very flexible, direct path loading
provides superior loading performance
• Loads arbitrarily complex object-relational data
• Supports secondary data files for loading of LOBs and collections
• Compatible with the DB2 Load Utility from IBM; consequently, with a few changes, DB2
Load Utility control files can be used as a SQL*Loader control file

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 8

SQL*Loader (continued)
SQL*Loader takes as input a control file that controls the behavior of SQL*Loader, and one or
more data files. Output of the SQL*Loader is an Oracle database, where the data is loaded, a
log file, a bad file, and potentially a discard file.
The control file is a text file written in a language that SQL*Loader understands. The control
file describes the task that the SQL*Loader is to carry out.
The other input to SQL*Loader, other than the control file, is the data. SQL*Loader reads data
from one or more files specified in the control file. The data in the data file is organized as
records. A particular data file can be in fixed record format, variable record format, or stream
record format.
The bad file contains records rejected either by SQL*Loader or by Oracle. Records are rejected
by SQL*Loader when the input format is invalid.
After a record is accepted for processing by SQL*Loader, a row is sent to Oracle for insertion.
If Oracle determines that the row is valid, then the row is inserted into the database. If not, the
record is rejected, and SQL*Loader puts it in the bad file.
As SQL*Loader executes, it may create a file called the discard file. It contains records that
were filtered out because they did not match any record-selection criteria specified in the
control file.
When SQL*Loader begins execution, it creates a log file. The log file contains a detailed
summary of the load, including a description of any errors that occurred during the load.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 9

 Exporting Data

Data
files

Export

Operating
system file

Create logical copies of database objects

13-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Export
Export provides a simple way for you to transfer data objects between Oracle databases, even
if they reside on platforms with different hardware and software configurations. Export extracts
the object definitions and table data from an Oracle database and stores them in an Oracle
binary-format Export dump file located typically on disk or tape. You can then use FTP or
physically transport (in the case of tape) to a different site and use, with the Import utility, to
transfer data between databases that are on machines not connected through a network or as
backups in addition to normal backup procedures.
The Export and Import utilities can also facilitate certain aspects of Oracle Advanced
Replication functionality like offline instantiation.
The Export utility can also do the following:
• Specify multiple dump files for an export command
• Specify a query for the select statements that Export uses to unload tables
• Export and import precalculated optimizer statistics instead of recomputing the statistics at
import time

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 10

 Importing Into a Database

Export file

Import

Data
files

13-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Import
The basic concept behind Import is simple. Import inserts the data objects extracted from one
Oracle database by the Export utility (and stored in an Export dump file) into another Oracle
database or the same database. Export dump files can only be read by Import. It is not
mandatory to import every object that has been exported; the Import utility is selective just as
when you export, you are not required to import everything in the database.
Export and Import
Export and Import together provide a powerful toolset for:
• Software migrations and upgrades
• Logical backups
• Database defragmentation
• Copying cost-based optimizer statistics between databases

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 11

 Online Table Redefinition

Transform

Interim
table

Source
table
Track
updates
Transform
Store updates
updates

13-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Online Table Redefinition

In online transaction processing (OLTP) systems, there is an occasional need to reorganize
large, frequently used tables to improve the performance of queries or DML statements
performed on these tables.
Until now, there was no simple mechanism to achieve this reorganization of the tables.
Moreover, while performing the reorganization of the tables, the tables had to be locked in
shared mode, which prevented any DML operations on the tables while they were being
reorganized. For very large and frequently modified tables in OLTP systems, this was not
acceptable. Additionally, if the reorganization was achieved by exporting the tables and
importing them back, they were offline during the entire process.
The solution is to provide a mechanism to reorganize the tables while keeping them online
(this is, accessible to DML) during the reorganization process. In this case, the table is locked
in Exclusive mode only during a very small period of time, which is independent of the size of
the table and the complexity of the reorganization.
The original table is copied and transformed into the new table. While this process takes place,
online DML operations are captured and stored in a temporary table.
When the main transformation is complete, the updates stored in the temporary table are
transformed and merged with the new table.
.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 12

 Oracle SNMP Support

Management Others
framework Oracle
Oracle
Server O subagent
ra (and MIB)
cl e
SNM Ne
P t

Repository
Management Master agent
applications

13-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Management Station
The management station refers to a node from which managed elements are monitored using
the SNMP protocol. Typically, it is a stand-alone workstation that is on the same network or
internetwork as the managed elements.
Management Framework
At the management station, the management framework uses SNMP to request management
information from other nodes. The framework collects, graphs, and possibly acts on that SNMP
data, and saves some or all of it in a repository for historical analysis and reporting.
Management frameworks include many tools and options. In addition to directly requesting
information from managed nodes, frameworks typically use daemons to alert them when a
managed node has sent a trap in response to a specific set of conditions. The traps also can be
used to trigger management applications.
Management Application
The management applications are the tools integrated with the management framework to
accomplish more specialized network or database tasks. These applications contain virtually all
of the sophisticated logic associated with network management.
Managed Node
The managed node is a platform, such as a UNIX server, on which elements to be monitored
reside.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 13

 SNMP Support and Oracle Products

Oracle SNMP support is provided for the following

products:
• Oracle7 Server, release 7.2, and higher
• Two networking services:
– Network Listener
– Oracle Names
• Enterprise Manager

13-14 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Master Agent
The master agent is the process on a managed node that accepts queries, also called polls, from
the management framework and communicates with the elements to be managed in order to
answer the query. It also can send SNMP traps independently in response to specific
conditions. Only one master agent can exist on each managed node.
Subagents
The subagent is a process that receives queries for a particular managed element from the
master agent and sends back the appropriate answers to the master agent. One subagent exists
for each managed element residing on the managed node.
Management Information Base
A management information base (MIB) is a text file, which describes the variables containing
the information that SNMP can access. The variables described in a MIB, which are also called
MIB objects, are the items that can be monitored using SNMP. There is one MIB for each
element being monitored. The actual values of the variables are not part of the MIB, but are
retrieved through a platform-dependent process called instrumentation. The concept of the
MIB is very important because all SNMP communications refer to one or more MIB objects.
What is transmitted to the framework is, essentially, MIB variables and their current values.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 14

 Unit 2 Summary

• Object (relational) theory:

– Type definitions, object references
– methods, inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation
• Globalization support

13-15 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 15

 Unit 2 Summary

Business Intelligence
• Partitioning, paralellization
• Materialized views, summary management
• Transportable tablespaces
• Direct path loads
• OLAP Services

13-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 16

 Unit 2 Summary

• Backup and recovery

– Offline and online backups
– Physical and logical backups
– Recovery manager (RMAN)
– Data Guard
• Oracle9i administration tools
– iSQL*Plus
– EM
– Export, Import, SQL*Loader
– Online table redefinition

13-17 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 17

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview 13 - 18
Oracle9i Network Services

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to

discuss the following Oracle9i networking topics:
• Client-server and server-server architecture
• Shared Server and connection load balancing
• Connection pooling and multiplexing
• Oracle Connection Manager
• Directory Repository
• Heterogeneous Services

A-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 2

 Client-Server Architecture

Client Server
Application communication

Oracle Net
Transport layer protocol

A-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Client-Server Architecture
Oracle Net is the foundation of Oracle's family of networking products that allow services
and their applications to reside on different computers and communicate as peer applications.
The main function of Oracle Net is to establish network sessions and transfer data between a
client machine and a server or between two servers. Oracle Net is located on each machine in
the network. After a network session has been established, Oracle Net acts as a data courier
for the client and the server.
Network sessions are established with the help of a listener. The listener is a separate process
that resides on the server whose responsibility is to listen for incoming client connection
requests and manage the traffic to the server.
Oracle Net uses the Transparent Network Substrate (TNS) and industry-standard networking
protocols to connect a client to a server and establish an Oracle network session.
Oracle protocols are Oracle’s implementation of the transport layer. Oracle protocols
include: LU6.2, Named Pipes, VI, TCP/IP, TCP/IP with SSL.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 3

 Server-Server Architecture:
Distributed Databases
update customers@london
set cust_last_name =
'JFV' London Sydney
where customer_id = 43;
update orders@sydney
set order_total =100
where ord_id = 56;
commit;

One
logical CUSTOMERS ORDERS
database
2 Phase Commit

A-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Distributed Processing
Oracle databases and client applications operate in a distributed processing environment.
Distributed or cooperative processing involves interaction between two or more computers to
complete a single data transaction. Applications such as an Oracle tool act as clients
requesting data to accomplish a specific operation. Database servers store and provide the
data.
In a typical network configuration, clients and servers can exist as separate logical entities on
separate physical machines.
Distributed Databases
With this type of client-server architecture, you can also distribute databases across a
network. A distributed database is a network of databases stored on multiple computers that
appears to the user as a single logical database. Distributed database servers are connected by
a database link, or path from one database to another. One server uses a database link to
query and modify information on a second server as needed, thereby acting as a client to the
second server.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 4

 Naming

Oracle Net provides these naming methods:

• Local naming
• Directory naming
• Oracle names
• Host naming
• External naming
sales=(DESCRIPTION=
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=stc)(PORT=1521))
(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=dbtest)))

CONNECT oe/oe@sales

A-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Naming
Naming is generally used to identify an entity with a simple name. Oracle Net uses this
simple name, called a connect identifier, to identify a connect descriptor. A connect identifier
is specified in several different ways. One way is through use of a net service name (sales in
the above slide) that maps to a connect descriptor. Users initiate a connect request by
providing a connect string. A connect string includes a user name and password, along with a
connect identifier, or the complete connect descriptor for the service to which they want to
connect. When a net service name is used, connection processing takes place by first
mapping the net service name to the connect descriptor. This mapped information is stored in
one or more repositories of information that are accessed with naming methods:
• Local naming stores net service names and connect descriptors in localized files.
• Directory naming stores net service names and database service names in a centralized
LDAP-compliant directory server to access a database service.
• Oracle Names uses Oracle proprietary software to store the names and addresses of all
database services on a network. Oracle Names will no longer be supported in the future.
• Host naming enables users to connect to an Oracle database server by using a host name
alias using existing names resolution service, such as Domain Name System (DNS), or
Network Information Service (NIS).
• External naming stores net service names and descriptors in a supported non-Oracle
naming service like NIS and DCE.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 5

 Shared Server and Dedicated Server
SGA

Virtual Buffer
circuits cache

PMON
Shared Dedicated
server server
process process

Dispatcher
Listener

Data
files

A-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Shared Server and Dedicated Server

Based on the service handler type registered with the listener, the listener forwards requests
to either a shared server process or a dedicated server process.
Shared server processes are utilized in the shared server architecture. With shared server
architectures, client processes ultimately connect to a dispatcher. The PMON process
registers the location and load of the dispatchers with the listener, enabling the listener to
forward requests to the least loaded dispatcher. A dispatcher can support multiple client
connections concurrently. Each client connection is bound to a virtual circuit. A virtual
circuit is a piece of shared memory used by the dispatcher for client database connection
requests and replies. The dispatcher places a virtual circuit on a common queue when a
request arrives. An idle shared server picks up the virtual circuit from the common queue,
services the request, and relinquishes the virtual circuit before attempting to retrieve another
virtual circuit from the common queue. This approach enables a small pool of server
processes to serve a large number of clients.
With a dedicated server architecture, each client process connects to a dedicated server
process. The server process is not shared by any other client. PMON registers information
about dedicated server processes with the listener. The listener then starts up a dedicated
server process when a client request arrives, and forwards the request to it.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 6

 Shared Server and Internet-Based
Protocols
Support for multiple
• Clients can presentations
connect through
Shared Server
internet protocols infrastructure
• Built-in support for Oracle Net SQL
component models PL/SQL
• Dynamic
presentations IIOP

• Extended ORB Java VM JDBC

networking User-defined
presentation User extension for
functionality specific
presentation

A-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Shared Server and Internet-Based Protocols

With Shared Server, Oracle9i understands internet-based protocols.
Oracle Net supports a new presentation layer called General Inter-Orb Protocol (GIOP) that
is used for clients connecting to the Java option. Internet Inter-Orb Protocol (IIOP) is an
implementation of GIOP over TCP/IP or TCP/IP with SSL. Oracle provides the GIOP
service implementation.
Oracle Net also supports a new presentation called HTTP presentation to directly access the
database as a Web Server. Built-in infrastructure supports component models such as
Enterprise JavaBeans.
Oracle9i users can create new presentations dynamically and extend the networking
functionality provided by the Oracle server.
Shared Server provides the ability to configure a dispatcher for each presentation.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 7

 Connection Load Balancing

Dispatcher

Listener Node

Client Dispatcher
Listener Node

1. Client randomly 2. Node with least 3. Dispatcher/

chooses CPU usage Listener with
from available identified least number of
listeners connections is
used

A-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Connection Load Balancing

The goal of connection load balancing is to divide the load evenly across the available
resources in an Real Application Clusters environment.
• A client requesting a connection to a service randomly chooses a listener from the list of
listeners identified for the service. If the chosen listener is not available, the connection
request can failover to the next available listener. This capability is called client load
balancing and failover.
• Each listener has information about the load on all available nodes, because each
instance has registered with all identified listeners, and is providing continuous load
information (CPU usage). For each connection request, the listener identifies which node
has the least amount of usage.
• The listener then also identifies which dispatcher (Shared Server configuration) is
currently handling the least number of connections on that node. The connection is then
routed to that dispatcher on the chosen node. In case of Dedicated Server configuration,
the connection is rerouted to the least loaded listener that will ultimately start a dedicated
server process

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 8

 Scalability: Connection Pooling

• Idle network sessions release transport connection

for use by other network sessions.
• It is ideal for interactive high think/search time
applications.

A-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Connection Pooling
Connection pooling is a resource utilization feature that enables you to reduce the number of
physical network connections to a dispatcher. This is achieved by sharing or pooling a set of
connections among the client processes.
Connection pooling allows inactive physical connections to the machine to be temporarily
disconnected while a logical session remains. This releases OS resources so that additional
users can connect to the same machine. When network activity is resumed on the dropped
connection, the logical session reestablishes a physical connection through the same process
the new connection was established.
Connection pooling frees system resources and allows more users to access the database. It is
ideal for interactive high think/search time applications, such as e-mail and data warehouse
query tools.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 9

 Connection Pooling Benefits

• More client/server connections are possible across

a fixed number of physical server ports.
• Optimized resource utilization

A-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 10

 Scalability: Oracle Connection Manager

Connection
• Leverage multiplexing Managers
– Predictable, consistent
performance
– User identity passed to
the server
• Simultaneous data access
for many users
Server
• Access control and cross
protocol support

Clients

A-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Scalability: Oracle Connection Manager

Benefits of multiplexing are magnified significantly when used in conjunction with a mid-
tier concentrator application. System resources are constrained at the server side by the
number of sockets that can be opened. If the number of network connections is kept below
this threshold point, and sessions are funneled through a concentrator, then large numbers of
clients can connect to a single database.
Oracle Net introduces a new application called Oracle Connection Manager that performs
this functionality. Oracle Connection Manager uses multiplexing to feed numerous client
network sessions across a single network connection to the server. When multiple
Connection Managers are employed, thereby connecting their multiple clients, the total
number of clients connecting to a database can grow exponentially.
Oracle Connection Manager also provides the opportunity to introduce additional network
control and connectivity functionality. Oracle Connection Manager enables Oracle
connectivity across disparate protocols without the necessity to install multiple protocol
stacks on all clients; for example, TCP/IP clients can communicate with VI based servers.
This is the same functionality formerly provided by the MultiProtocol Interchange in Oracle7
environments. This application proxy provides network access control so that an
administrator can control which clients can access Oracle data sources based on where they
are coming from, where they are going, and the service they are connecting to.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 11

 Scalability: Multiplexing

Server
• Multiple network Client
Listening
sessions use a endpoint
single physical link
Session 1 Session 1
• Clients running
multiple applications
• Minimized lock outs Session 2 Session 2
Single
physical
Session 3 link Session 3

A-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Scalability: Multiplexing
Similar to connection pooling, multiplexing also seeks to free system resources by
minimizing those required to establish connectivity. Multiplexing allows multiple network
sessions to share a single physical transport connection by interspersing the network traffic
across the network connection.
An example of multiplexing might be a client running three applications that connect to the
same machine, requiring three network sessions. Rather than requiring three separate
network connections which reduces the number of sockets available on the machine that the
client connects to, multiplexing takes up one socket because the three sessions share the same
network connection. This reduces the overall resources used.
Note: Multiplexing is only available with Shared Server and Connection Manager.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 12

 Oracle Names Server

1 Server search
Names
Repository
2 Address resolution

1 3 Connection
2
HR
Server
Client

Network HR

scott/tiger@HR
3

A-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle Names Server

Oracle Names is a distributed naming service developed for Oracle environments to help
simplify the setup and administration of global, client/server computing networks.
Oracle Names establishes and maintains an integrated system of Oracle Names servers that
work together like a directory service, storing addresses for all services on a network and
making them available to clients who wish to make a connection.
Similar to a caller who uses directory assistance to locate a telephone number, clients
configured to use Oracle Names will refer their connection requests to a Oracle Names
server. The Oracle Names server attempts to resolve the service name provided by the client
to a network address. If the Oracle Names server finds the network address, it returns that
information to the client. The client can then use that address to connect to the service.
Oracle Names provides an alternative to file-based or local name resolution methods, in
which net service names and addresses must be configured and maintained with each
individual client. By maintaining this information in a central administrative location, Oracle
Names reduces the work effort associated with adding or relocating services.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 13

 LDAP-Compliant Directory Servers

1 Server search
Directory
Server
2 Address resolution

1 3 Connection
2
HR
Server
Client

Network HR

A-14 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

LDAP-Compliant Directory Servers

Today, network information is stored in multiple systems and in multiple directory formats.
With new requirements for Internet computing and new e-business technologies, a common
repository infrastructure is needed as a foundation for management and configuration of all
data and resources. This kind of infrastructure reduces the cost of managing and configuring
resources in heterogeneous networks.
Support of LDAP-compliant directory servers provides a centralized vehicle for managing
and configuring a distributed Oracle network. The directory server can act as a central
repository for all data on database network components, user and corporate policies, and user
authentication and security, thus replacing clientside and serverside localized network files.
Oracle Net Services use a centralized directory server as one of the primary methods for
storage of connect identifiers. Clients configured to use the directory server, use the connect
identifiers in their connect string. The directory server resolves the connect identifier to a
connect descriptor that is passed back to the client.
Oracle Net Services support Oracle Internet Directory and Microsoft Active Directory.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 14

 Oracle Net Configuration Assistant

A-15 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle Net Configuration Assistant

Oracle Net Configuration Assistant is provided primarily to configure basic network
components during installation, including:
• Listener names and protocol addresses
• Naming methods the client will use to resolve connect identifiers
• Net service names in a network file
• Directory server access
Oracle Net Configuration Assistant runs automatically during software installation, as
described in your Oracle installation guide. It can also be run after installation in stand-alone
mode to configure naming method usage, the listener, net service names in a network file,
and directory server usage in a way similar to that which is provided during installation.
Oracle Net Manager is a graphical user interface tool that combines configuration abilities
with Oracle Names component control to provide an integrated environment for configuring
and managing Oracle Net. It can be used on either the client or server. Oracle Net Manager is
also integrated with Oracle Enterprise Manager. It is more sofisticated than the Configuration
Assistant and allows you to fine tune most of the parameters.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 15

 Heterogeneous Services

Multithreaded Agent
Agent
Specific Remote
Oracle9i HS generic
driver database
code

• Oracle Transparent Gateway

– Sybase
– Teradata
– SQLServer
• Generic Connectivity
– ODBC
– OLE DB (SQL or FS)

A-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Heterogenous Services
Heterogeneous access is a challenge that affects many organizations. Many run several
different database systems. Each of these systems stores data and has a set of applications
that runs against it. Consolidation of this data into one database system is often difficult.
Heterogeneous Services, an integrated module within the Oracle9i database server, has been
designed to access data in non-Oracle systems by means of either Oracle Transparent
Gateways or generic connectivity. Most of the heterogeneous connectivity related processing
is done in this module.
• An Oracle Transparent gateway is a gateway that is designed and optimized for accessing
a specific non-Oracle system. Oracle Corporation provides gateways to access several
commercially produced non-Oracle systems like DB2, Ingres, IBM DRDA, Rdb,
Informix.
• In addition to transparent gateways to various non-Oracle database systems, there is a set
of agents that comprise the Oracle generic connectivity feature. These agents contain
only generic code and the customer is responsible for providing the necessary drivers.
Oracle has generic connectivity agents for ODBC and OLE DB that enable you to use
ODBC and OLE DB drivers to access non-Oracle systems that have an ODBC or an OLE
DB interface. Generic Connectivity is mainly used for low-end data integration situations
requiring ad hoc querying capabilities like with Foxpro, Access, or dBase.
Agents are used for security reasons avoiding Oracle Server crash if problems occur on the
non-Oracle system. Also, an agent can reside anywhere on the network and can be truly
multithreaded.
Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 16
 Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned about:

• Client-server and server-server architecture
• Shared Server and connection load balancing
• Connection pooling and multiplexing
• Oracle Connection Manager
• Directory Repository
• Heterogeneous Services

A-17 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 17

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview A - 18
 Oracle9i Replication

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to do

the following:
• List the different ways data can be replicated
between Oracle databases
• Describe the difference between asynchronous and
synchronous replication
• List the different types of materialized views
• Describe the tools used to manage Advanced
Replication

B-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 2

 What Is Replication?

• Multiple copies of data at different sites

• Increased availability
• Manual data replication implementations:
– Export/Import
– CREATE TABLE AS SELECT
– COPY

B-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

What is Replication?
The Data Replication feature provides:
• The ability to maintain multiple copies of data at different sites in a distributed
environment
• The ability of the systems to function autonomously even when other systems in the
distributed environment fail
The Oracle server can implement a very basic form of data replication, using asynchronous
data propagation, with the following:
• Export and Import
– Whole table only
– Must manually perform export and import (with TRUNCATE command) repeatedly
for replica to see changes
• CREATE TABLE AS SELECT
– Table cannot exist in order for command to succeed
– One-time data copy procedure
• COPY command in SQL*Plus
– Used for copying data
– Provides a way to copy LONG columns

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 3

 Unidirectional Replication

The following data structures can be configured or

used to automatically propagate changes one-way to a
remote site:
• Triggers
• Read-only materialized views

B-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Unidirectional Replication
You can configure the following forms of data replication to replicate data changes
automatically:
• Database triggers
– Real-time, synchronous data propagation
– Must create trigger for each DML activity: UPDATE, INSERT, DELETE
– Database and network must be available, or commit at local site will fail
• Read-only materialized view
– Local copy of entire remote table, or partial copy of rows and columns for remote
table
– Can use a job to automatically refresh materialized view with new changes created
at master site

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 4

 Bi-Directional Replication

Advanced Replication within the Oracle database has

the following features:
• Table-level replication
– Entire contents of tables are replicated to each site.
– With materialized views, subsets of table data can also
be replicated.
• Data can be modified at each site, which can cause
data conflicts.
• Synchronous or asynchronous data propagation
Asynchronous propagation can be performed
manually or automatically.

B-5 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Bi-directional Replication
In Advanced Replication, the changes applied to a table at one site are captured and stored
locally before being forwarded and applied to the replicated tables at each of the remote
locations in the replicated database. This is known as asynchronous replication, sometimes also
referred to as store and forward replication. Synchronous replication, applying data changes to
all replication sites real-time, is also available.
Replicated databases are different from distributed databases. In a replicated database, the
tables being replicated exist at each site. In a distributed database, the data for a particular table
is available at each system, but the table itself resides in only one database.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 5

 Functionality Overview Synchronous
Propagation

Source table Destination

table
Destination
Change Queue table
Change
Remote
procedure call

B-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Features of Synchronous Propagation

Synchronous data replication occurs when an application updates a local replica of a table, and
within the same transaction, also updates all other replicas of the same table. Consequently,
synchronous replication is also called real-time data replication.
Advantages
• With synchronous data propagation, you can propagate and apply changes between master
tables, with the result that all sites in a replicated environment are identical at all times.
• Changes at other sites are immediately reflected at your local site.
• There are no conflicting updates from master to master if all sites are propagating
synchronously.
Disadvantages
• If you experience network failures on any site to which you are propagating changes, you
will not be able to perform local updates until the failure is resolved.
• If one master site cannot process a transaction for any reason, the transaction is rolled back
at all master sites.
• Requires a stable environment to function smoothly:
– Underlying network
– All master sites well-tuned to avoid rollbacks

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 6

 Functionality Overview Asynchronous
Propagation

Stored
Source table deferred RPC Destination
table
Trigger Destination
Change Queue process
table
Change
Forward

Error log

B-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Features of Asynchronous Propagation

Asynchronous data replication occurs when an application updates a local replica of a table,
stores replication information in a local queue, and then forwards the replication information to
other replication sites at a later time. Consequently, asynchronous replication is also called
store-and-forward data replication.
Advantages
• Failure of any site containing a replicated table does not block the propagation of changes
between other sites.
• Deferred transactions are propagated at intervals specified by the DBA.
Disadvantages
• Changes at other sites are not immediately reflected at your local site, resulting in
temporary inconsistencies among replicas. However, the data propagation interval for
asynchronous replication can be set to a very small interval in order to simulate real-time
replication.
• Conflicting changes can be made at multiple sites. These conflicts are detected
automatically at the receiving site and conflict resolution procedures can be enabled to
automatically handle these conflicts.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 7

 Propagation of Deferred RPCs

• Initiated by standard PL/SQL stored procedure calls

• Replication at time-based intervals using built-in job
queue
• Propagation to each database can be controlled
independently.
• Transactional consistency
• Transaction ordering

B-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Features of Propagation of Deferred RPCs

• The propagation mechanism for deferred RPCs provides applications with the flexibility of
control over the timing of propagation.
• You can use a standard PL/SQL stored procedure call to initiate the propagation of queued
deferred RPC calls.
• The mechanism is designed for efficient time-based propagation at frequent intervals; for
example, every few seconds. You can perform replication at time-based intervals using a
built-in job queue facility.
• You can perform replication on demand.
• The propagation of the deferred RPCs can be controlled from various locations and with
different priorities.
• Propagation to each target database can be controlled independently.
• The target destination link is specified when a deferred RPC is submitted to the queue, or
when a deferred RPC is registered with the replication administration facility (discussed
later).
• Each qualified destination database can have different propagation intervals.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 8

 Error Handling of Deferred RPCs

• Propagation failure due to the unavailability of the

target database results in deferred RPCs remaining
in the queue.
• Other errors such as duplicate key violations result
in rollback and an error message in the error log
table at the destination.
• Procedure calls in the error log at the destination
can be executed later.

B-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Failures
If propagation fails because the target database is not available or accessible through the
network, or the tablespace is full, the deferred RPCs for that target database remain in queue at
the source site for later execution.
Other errors, such as duplicate key violation, that are encountered during execution on the
target system, will cause:
• Any transaction to be rolled back
• The error message and the information of the deferred RPCs to the transaction to be stored
in the error log table on the target database
A PL/SQL-stored procedure enables DBAs to easily re-execute procedure calls in the error log
after fixing the problem that caused the error (discussed later in this course).

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 9

 Recovery of Deferred RPCs

• System or network failure requires only normal

procedures for database recovery.
• A deferred RPC queue comprises normal database
objects, which are recoverable by means of a redo
log.
• Propagation of deferred RPC is protected as a two-
phase commit transaction.

B-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Recovery
The failure of source or target systems or a network requires only normal database and network
procedures to recover the database to the current point in time.
The deferred RPC queue and supporting facilities are implemented using database tables fully
protected by the Oracle Server redo log.
Actual propagation and execution of a deferred RPC is performed as a distributed transaction
protected by the distributed protocol.
In a global distributed database, good distributed database designs with fault-tolerant
mechanisms are important.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 10

 Performance Optimization

• Streams-based execution
• Parallel propagation

T3 T2 T1

T1
T3
T2 Destinations

Source

B-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Streams-based Execution
Multiple deferred RPCs are executed as a transaction with one message exchange.
Parallel Execution
A deferred RPC transaction can be executed on multiple remote systems in parallel.
Parallel Propagation
This method asynchronously propagates replicated transactions, using multiple, parallel transit
streams for higher throughput.
Performance Issue
Execution of transactions on remote nodes can potentially result in performance bottlenecks.
Although multiple transactions are executed in parallel on one site, they may be propagated
serially to another site. If a T1 transaction requires a disk access on the destination site, it could
block subsequent transactions until T1 has completed its I/O. This may be truer in serial
propagation than in parallel propagation.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 11

 Types of Replication Environments

Oracle supports the following types of replication

environments:
• Multimaster replication
• Single-master replication
– Read-only materialized views
– Updatable materialized views
– Oracle Lite materialized views
• Multimaster and materialized view hybrid
configurations

B-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Types of Replication Environments

Oracle Replication supports both full-table replication and replication of defined subsets of
tables.
There are several ways to implement replication:
• Multiple-master replication (peer-to-peer or n-way replication)
• Updatable materialized views
• Hybrid configurations

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 12

 Hybrid Configuration

Materialized
View

Materialized Master Master Materialized

View View

Materialized Materialized
View View

Materialized Materialized
Views Multimaster Views

B-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Hybrid Configuration
• By combining the multimaster configuration with updatable materialized views, you can
create sophisticated configurations (Enterprise Edition only).
• This configuration supports both full-table and table subset replication in a single
replication system.
• Materialized views can be remastered if a master site fails, resulting in greater fault
tolerance.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 13

 Oracle Deployment Templates

Deployment
templates
Support call centers

Sales
Corporate

Sales and Support

B-14 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Deployment Templates
Oracle offers deployment templates to allow the DBA to package a materialized view
environment for easy, custom, and secure deployment. Packaging a deployment template is the
process of defining the materialized view environment that will be created by the deployment
template. Packaging a deployment template prepares it for instantiation at the remote
materialized view site. Instantiation creates the materialized view site objects and populates the
materialized views with data.
In the illustration above, the corporate database might contain the following tables:
• Support
• Customer
• Order
• Product
The support call centers would need access only to the support, customer, and
product tables. The sales force would need access to the order, product, and
customer tables. A single deployment template could be set up using a parameter to
determine which materialized views are created at the materialized view site. Every time new
salespeople need to set up their laptops, they use the deployment template to create the
replication objects and populate them with data on their computers. Then the salespeople
would have access to customer information even when not connected to the network.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 14

 Data Distribution

• Basic techniques
– Primary site ownership
– Table level
Horizontal data subsets
Vertical data subsets
• Advanced techniques
– Dynamic
– Shared
– Procedural

B-15 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Data Distribution
There are many ways to distribute data, depending on your needs for the availability and
ownership of data.
Basic techniques are:
• Primary site ownership: Must be implemented through application code and cannot be
configured within Oracle Replication.
• Table level:
– Horizontal partitioning of table data by using a WHERE clause
– Vertical partitioning of table data by specifying a subset of columns
Note: Ownership of data subsets must be implemented through application code. This
cannot be configured with Oracle replication.

Advanced techniques include:

• Dynamic ownership
• Shared ownership with update conflict detection and resolution
• Procedural-level replication

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 15

 Advanced Techniques Replication Model

• Update-anywhere model
• Automatic data change conflict detection
• Requires a methodology for consistency and
convergence of data
• Dynamic
• Shared

B-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Main Features of the Oracle Replication Model

• Supports an update-anywhere model, and is also known as Advanced Replication.Using
Shared Ownership, you can update the same data on multiple sites.
• Can be implemented with either multimaster or updatable materialized views or a
combination of both
• All sites can be updated and updates are propagated to all sites maintaining replicas
• Supports automatic data change conflict detection with application-level resolution
capabilities for row-level replication
• Requires application developers to employ a methodology or a combination of
methodologies to ensure consistency and convergence of data over time (conflict
resolution)

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 16

 Row-Level Replication

• Default method in advanced replication

• Changes are propagated at the row level
• Can be optimized to minimize network traffic
• Performs conflict detection by default
• Supports conflict resolution procedures
• Easy to implement

B-17 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Features of Row-Level Replication

Typical transaction processing applications modify small numbers of rows per transaction.
Such applications at work in an advanced replication environment usually depend on the row-
level replication mechanism.
With row-level replication:
• Applications update the local replica of a table with standard data manipulation language
(DML) statements.
• Internal triggers at the local site automatically queue the table changes as deferred RPCs,
which are used to replicate the transactions to other sites in the system. These changes are
then applied at the remote site using internal packages.
• At scheduled intervals, the originating site pushes deferred transactions in the queue to
their destinations.
• At scheduled intervals, the originating site purges the transactions that have been
successfully pushed to other destinations.
When application data is being changed by multiple sites at the same time with asynchronous
row-level replication, data conflicts are possible. Oracle automatically detects uniqueness,
update, and delete conflicts. Conflict resolution can be used to automatically resolve errors
when they are detected.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 17

 Procedural Replication

• Replicates only the call to a stored procedure rather

than the individual DML operations
• Provides better performance for large transactions
• Is suitable for purging or archiving old data
• Should include conflict detection and resolution
routines
• Can be used in conjunction with row-level
replication

B-18 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Features of Procedural-Level Replication

Advantages
• In procedural-level replication, procedures that act on data are propagated instead of row-
level changes, reducing network traffic.
• Procedural-level replication can offer better performance and more control.
• You can perform mixed procedural and row-level replication on the same data.
Disadvantages
• Procedures must be executed serially or be written so they can be serialized when run with
other procedures.
• Replicated procedures must detect and resolve conflicts themselves.
• It is more complicated to propagate than row-level changes:
– Data modification procedures must be packaged and replicated to all master sites.
– A wrapper for each package must be generated at each site to guarantee consistency.
– The call to the stored procedure can then be replicated to all sites.
Restrictions
• Only IN parameters are supported for replicated procedures.
• You can perform procedural replication only when all of the master groups on a master site
are replicating data normally.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 18

 Administration Tools for Replication

• Replication Manager
• Replication Management API
• Replication Catalog

B-19 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Administration Tools for Replication

Oracle’s Enterprise Manager Console provides a powerful GUI interface to help manage your
replication environment.
The replication management API is a set of PL/SQL packages that provide you with an
application programming interface (API) to build customized scripts for replication
administration. The Replication Management API is a command-line alternative to Enterprise
Manager. The replication catalog is a distinct set of data dictionary tables and views that
maintain administrative information about replication objects and groups at each site.
In a replication environment, all DDL statements must be issued either with Enterprise
Manager or by using the DBMS_REPCAT package. When you use either of these two
interfaces, the DDL is replicated to all sites within the group. DDL statements issued directly
through SQL*Plus are not replicated to other sites and may cause failures in the replication
system.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 19

 Replication Management GUI Tool

B-20 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Replication Management GUI Tool

The Replication Management tool is part of Oracle Enterprise Manager and provides a
graphical user interface (GUI) for setting up, managing, and monitoring a replication
environment. The Replication Management tool includes wizards that guide you through many
important operations. You can use the Replication Management tool to manage both
multimaster and materialized view replication environments.
A GUI that supports advanced replication has existed for some time in the following
applications:
• Replication Manager with Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) 1.6
– Stand-alone product, multiple databases in the same window
• Replication Manager with Oracle Enterprise Manager 2.0
– Stand-alone product, only one database accessible at a time
– Shipped with Oracle 8.0
• Replication Manager with Oracle Enterprise Manager 2.1
– Integrated with OEM console, needs an Oracle Management Server (OMS) to run
– Shipped with Oracle8i
• DBA*Studio with Oracle Enterprise Manager 2.2
– Stand-alone product or called from OEM console
– Shipped with Oracle8i, release 8.1.7

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 20

 Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned about:

• Various types of configuration for replication
• Asynchronous and synchronous replication
• Basic components of a replication system
• Tools used to manage a replicated environment

B-21 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 21

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview B - 22
 Content Management
and Oracle9i

Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should have a basic

knowledge of the following Oracle components:
• Internet File System
• Portal
• Wireless Edition
• InterMedia
• Text
• Syndication and Dynamic Web Services
• Spatial / E-Location Services
• Workspaces
• Ultra Search
• XML Services
C-2 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 2

 What Is Content Management?

Three Simple Steps

Manage Create

Deliver

C-3 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

What Is Content Management?

Because every other content management presentation begins with the question, “What is content
management?” let’s not ask that question here. Instead, let’s look at content management as a set of
challenges centered around three areas of activity:
• Creating content. In other words, authoring documents, either individually or collaboratively,
and storing them in some kind of repository
• Managing content. Taking the steps necessary to control who can access and edit content and
how it is organized in the repository
• Delivering content. Packing and publishing content is the final step.
For devotees of content management, these processes are familiar and are often described under the
rubric, lifecycle management. However, content management today requires much more than just
automating or streamlining the process of creating, publishing, and retiring content.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 3

 Where Is Content Management Today?

Broadly applicable

Document mgmt.
File system Web site Source control

Access Control

C-4 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Where Is Content Management Today?

In all three phases of create, manage, and deliver, content management has requirements that
should not conflict, but do. These conflicts are purely accidents of technology, not something
inherent in how content providers work.
Between the two poles of access and functionality lie many repositories used for content
management today. The most accessible repositories are file systems, optimized for ease of use and
access and instantly compatible with hundreds of different popular authoring tools. However, file
systems are notoriously unmanageable. They provide little in the way of collaborative features,
forcing users to choose between primitive manual methods and expensive content management
applications.
At the other end of this continuum of tradeoffs, are the most sophisticated content management
applications, such as document management systems and source control systems. While these
provide much control over who can read, edit, or dispose of content, as well as automating many
content management tasks (such as staging content for publication), they sacrifice ease of use and
access for this degree of control. In fact, these systems create a whole category of content managers
whose primary job is to manage the flow of content from creators to consumers. While every
journal may need an editor, not every internal Web site needs a Webmaster.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 4

Where Is Content Management Today? (continued)
Web sites lie somewhere between these two extremes. While they are not as difficult to manage as
many workgroup products or document management systems, they are not as easy as a file system
for creators and consumers to access.
In short, there is no good resolution between the demands of access and control, unless you change
the technology designed to meet these requirements. Platforms that are as easy to use as a file
system, but at the same time capable of enforcing business rules about content in the way a
document management system can, would go a long way toward resolving this dilemma.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 5

 Customer Challenge

Manage content using disparate applications:

Document Web Content

management management
Knowledge Digital Asset
management management
Configuration Media Asset
management management
Catalog Site
management management

Object DB
XML repositories
File systems

C-6 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Customer Challenge
What makes this dilemma even more painful, and the resolution of it even more urgent, is the fact
that many organizations have not implemented just one content management system, but many.
Over time, as people within the organization have recognized new needs or vendors have stopped
by to peddle new content management wares, the number of content management applications has
proliferated. Many of these applications do essentially the same things: manage collaboration; make
it easier to publish content; help to better describe, organize, and search for particular kinds of
content; tailor information for particular audiences.
This proliferation of content management technologies has led many organizations to be justifiably
skeptical about deploying new bits of technology advertised to solve their content management
woes. Increasing IS overhead that forces users to learn and adopt to new systems, and committing
to a relationship with an additional vendor are strong disincentives for organizations to take on new
content management technologies.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 6

 Market Segmentation

End-user
focus
Document Web Content E-Commerce
management management management

Content management
infrastructure:
platform, audio/video, authoring,
Infrastructure search, configuration
focus management

Document/ Internet/
Intranet focus e-commerce focus

C-7 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Market Segmentation
In short, content management is no longer a problem for application vendors to solve. Part of the
problem is that, although some of the basic requirements cross the boundaries of content
management applications, others do not. The companies who have made document management
their focus do not necessarily have multimedia asset management as their core competence. Nor
can they simply keep adding new features to ever more complex applications and proclaim that
they have met the needs of a new market segment.
Even more significantly, some of the core content management requirements, such as, “How can I
scale to terabytes of data?” or, “How can I scale to 1 million people browsing my web site?” cannot
be solved by the application vendors alone. Instead, the platform vendors, the people who design
the file systems and databases that power content management systems, have a critical role to play
in addressing these requirements.
It’s not unreasonable, therefore, to push core content management capabilities down to the platform
level first, so that applications can build on these capabilities. Application developers can then
refine these capabilities to fit their specific markets. For example, nearly every content
management application needs content-based searching and extensible metadata. The type of
content to be searched, and the kinds of attributes to be added to these bits of content, will vary
widely from application to application. And platform vendors can continue to play a constructive
role providing scalability, reliability, security, and performance as needed.
In short, the ideal world looks something like this graphic.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 7

 Playing to Oracle’s Strengths

• Scalability
• Performance
• Reliability
• Searchability
• Security
• Manageability

C-8 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Playing to Oracle’s Strengths

Many of the platform requirements for content management play to the strengths of the Oracle9i
database and application server platforms. As content repositories grow both in the amount of
content they store and the number of people accessing them, scalability, performance, and
reliability grow in importance. Content needs to be easy to find, so features like search are critical.
At the same time that you want to make content accessible, you also want to make sure that more
sensitive information remains secure, and that your administrators can effectively manage the
systems where you store your content.
These are exactly the capabilities that Oracle Corporation has been perfecting for the last 25 years.
Some of these capabilities are fundamental to relational databases; others are content-specific
features that Oracle has added to the database, such as the multimedia features provided by
interMedia.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 8

 Oracle Content Management Positioning

End-user
focus Partners Partners
Partners

Oracle9i
Database & Application Server
interMedia, Text, iSearch,
Internet File System, Portal,
Security, Spatial/E-Location
Infrastructure Services, Syndication/Dynamic
focus Services, XML, Wireless,
Workspaces

Document/ Internet/
Intranet focus e-commerce focus

C-9 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle Content Management Positioning

It should not be surprising, then, that Oracle has created exactly the kind of relationship between
itself as a platform vendor and partners as application vendors as described earlier. Oracle provides
the core services for content management, and Oracle partners, such as ArborText, Macromedia,
Bulldog, and others, build on this platform to address the specific needs of different content
management market segments.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 9

 Content Management: An Oracle Focus

Single platform for creating, managing, and delivering

personalized, rich content to any device

Oracle9i Database

XML

Oracle9i Application Server

C-10 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Content Management: An Oracle Focus

Content management is therefore an important focus for Oracle Corporation, one that will receive a
great deal of attention and investment in Oracle9i and beyond. The basic goal of Oracle’s efforts is
to provide the single platform for creating, managing, and delivering personalized, rich content to
any device. There are many capabilities and features implied by that simple mission statement, and
these will be discussed in this presentation.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 10

 Oracle9i Application Server:
Content Management Features

• Internet File System

– File system and content management features
combined
• Portal
– Create, manage, and deliver web content
• Wireless Edition
– Deliver content to wireless devices

C-11 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Application Server: Content Management Features

These features and capabilities can be summarized as follows:
• The Oracle Internet File System (9iFS) provides both an out-of-the-box file system for storing
and managing content in the database, ands a robust development platform for developing
content management applications.
• Oracle Portal simplifies the process of delivering content to the intranet and Internet, and
provides a framework for content providers to publish.
• The Wireless Edition of Oracle9i is designed to push content from the database into wireless
devices.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 11

 Oracle9i Database:
Content Management Features

• interMedia
– Audio, video, image, wireless BMP, IVR
• Text
– Powerful text search and indexing
• Ultra Search
– Unified search for data from anywhere on the Web

C-12 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Content Management Features

These features and capabilities can be summarized as follows:
• Oracle interMedia extracts metadata from rich media files and lets you manipulate these files
within the Oracle9i database.
• Oracle Text indexes textual content stored in the database and lets you perform sophisticated
content-based queries on these indexes.
• Oracle Ultra Search builds on Oracle Text to provide a unified, searchable index of content
stored in databases, file systems, and web sites.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 12

 Oracle9i Database:
Content Management Features

• Spatial and E-Location services

– Region modeling, proximity recall, and so on
• Syndication server and Dynamic services
– Deliver dynamic content to particular subscribers
• Workspaces
– Manage long-duration projects
• XML services
– Parse and render content
– Deliver content in different formats and styles

C-13 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Content Management Features (Continued)

Other features and capabilities are:
• Oracle Spatial/eLocation Services lets you add regional metadata to content and perform spatial
searches.
• Dynamic Services and the Syndication Server make it easy to aggregate content and deliver it
to subscribers.
• Workspaces help version content in the database.
• XML services like the Oracle XML parser help you parse and render XML content, making it
possible to tailor XML-based content to different formats and audiences.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 13

 Access Content Using Any Protocol

• Store, parse, render, search, retrieve

• Text, multimedia, XML, object-relational data

SMB FTP OCI NFS

Desktop

HTTP WebDAV
Browser
XML

IMAP4 SMTP

E-mail

C-14 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Access Content Using Any Protocol

The first step in authoring content is, of course, accessing the place where it will be stored. To put
content into the Oracle9i database, you have a variety of protocols available. Aside from the
traditional relational interfaces, Oracle9i is accessible through file-based network protocols like
WebDAV, FTP, and IMAP4. These protocols let users access content from a variety of different
platforms (Windows, UNIX, Macintosh, and network computers) and applications (for example, e-
mail clients, productivity applications running on Windows, web authoring tools using WebDAV).
Whether the content is traditional row/column data, multimedia, XML, or text, you can store it and
access it in Oracle9i.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 14

 Collaborate on Content Creation

• Checkin and checkout • ACL-based security

• Version control • Groups

C-15 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Collaborate on Content Creation

Collaboration is a key part of content management. In fact, it might be the most fundamental
content management requirement. If different users cannot effectively collaborate on the same files,
their content is not being well managed. Collaborative features are available in both the Oracle
Internet File System and Oracle Portal. For example, checkin, checkout, and ACL-based security
help to control read and write access to files.
Version control maintains earlier versions of files, in order to leave a history of changes and to
make it possible to recover to earlier versions.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 15

 Index and Search Content

Other
data sources • Unified search across
diverse information
HTTP SQL ODBC stores
Crawler
• Leverage Oracle text
Oracle Ultra Search
– Index 150+ document
types
• Crawling
– Web pages
– Databases
– Mail
Oracle text • Query results
– Enter keywords or
Content phrases into dynamically
repository generated HTML pages

C-16 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Index and Search Content

While you are creating content, the platform should be indexing it for later searches. Oracle Text, a
long-established part of the Oracle database, can index textual content, either short text strings or
files stored as LOBs, that is inserted in the database. Once indexed, content-based searches can be
much faster than searches in a file system. Oracle Text lets you perform more sophisticated
searches as well, such as synonym, theme, and fuzzy matching searches.
New in Oracle9i is Ultra Search, which extends the capabilities of Oracle Text to content stored in
databases, file systems, and Web sites. Ultra Search can crawl these data stores and build the index
entries needed to perform fast and powerful searches.
Similarly, interMedia AVI can extract encoded metadata from audio, video, and image files, such
as play length and color depth, and then store these attributes with the file. interMedia AVI also lets
you manipulate rich media as you access it, by changing formats, cropping images as you query
them, and so on.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 16

 Store Content in a Secure Repository
• User and document access control
• Login and password protection
• Single sign-on service Data source
• Virus protection
XML Documents Objects
Dynamic Static Web
E-mail
Web pages pages
Customers Video Audio Locations
Structured
Text Image
data

LDAP
SSL SSL directory
Internet Application
server
C-17 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Store Content in a Secure Repository

After you create content, you must manage it. The most obvious connotation of the word
management is security, and Oracle9i provides many high-security features. The Login Server and
Oracle Internet Directory consolidate security management into a single sign-on for database
applications and a single LDAP service for user and group management. ACL-based security in
products like the Oracle Internet File System and Oracle Portal provide fine-grain security. Other
services, like virus protection plug-ins provided by Oracle partners, keep content both safe and
uncorrupted. Oracle’s business depends on making customers comfortable putting their most
sensitive data into the Oracle9i database, so over 25 years of security expertise are now at the
disposal of content creators, consumers, and application developers.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 17

 Organize Content Efficiently

• Multiple file folders

• Extensible metadata: Add or derive application
specific information about the content
O: Internet file system
MP3 music

Blues music
Song A
Song B
Rock music
Metadata
Artist Song B
Track length

C-18 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Organize Content Efficiently

Managing content also requires organizing it effectively. Storing the same file in multiple Oracle
Internet File System folders, for example, is more manageable than copying the same file into
multiple folders and then managing each copy. Because organization also depends on what kind of
metadata you can assign to files, extensible metadata in products like the Oracle Internet File
System and Oracle Portal make it easier to manage your content. Automatic metadata extraction
from multimedia files has long been the strength of interMedia AVI, and is a capability that is now
accessible through the Oracle Internet File System.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 18

 Manage Long-Duration Projects

Workspaces: Allow concurrent projects to coexist

against different versions of content

Discard

Branch
Merge

C-19 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Manage Long-Duration Projects

Management also means organizing content into projects. Workspaces, a set of PL/SQL procedures
designed to help organize database content into projects, provides a versioning interface to all
content stored in Oracle9i. Workspaces lets you created nested projects, perform merges, and
identify the currently published version of the project.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 19

 Develop Custom CM Applications

• Oracle Portal Developer kit

• Oracle iFS Developer kit
• Oracle Media Developer kit
• Oracle XML Developer kit
• Oracle Syndication Server framework
• Oracle interMedia APIs
• Oracle iSearch API
• Oracle jLocation APIs

C-20 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Develop Custom CM Applications

Of course, no content management system can provide everything that each organization needs.
Every content management feature in Oracle9i has its own developer kit, providing PL/SQL, Java,
and XML interfaces. Oracle partners, depending on these development environments, are building
sophisticated, focused applications for their businesses on the Oracle9i content management
platform.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 20

 Self-Service Publishing

Users publish Intuitive, browser-based

documents controls
themselves

Direct control of page

display
Direct editing of content

C-21 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Self-Service Publishing
Finally, you need to deliver content. Oracle Portal provides an easy-to-use interface for publishing
content, and you can define different groups and group administrators responsible for particular
content areas.
Even more significant, however, is the portlet framework in Oracle Portal. This framework
provides the hooks needed for content providers to register the different types of content available
within the portal, to which users can then subscribe in their personalized portal. The portlet
framework also lets you create reports based on content stored in the database, and portlets provide
access to other Oracle9i components, such as the Oracle Internet File System, and Oracle
applications. In short, Oracle Portal provides a web-based desktop that lets you both publish your
content as well as subscribe to other content sources.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 21

 Location-Enabled Content

Geocoding, region modeling,

and distance queries for
location information

Perform routing
computations
in the database

Mobile applications can

directly access location
services

C-22 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Location-Enabled Content
In the process of delivering content, you may want to indicate the geographical region to which it
applies. Some content may appear on one regional version of your Web site, but not in others. An
instructional video may be designed for one region, but not for others. Geographic encoding, or
geocoding, of content in the database helps to provide this kind of location intelligence. Users can
then perform geographic searches on content that applies to a particular area.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 22

 Aggregated Content

5. Deliver results via

multiple channels

1. Trigger Portal
an event Oracle
Low dynamic
inventory services
4. Sort results
HTML by price Wireless
2. Check prices
HTML HTML 3. Process the dynamic service
• Input price to current conversion
• Input company info. to translation
• Convert price and translate info.
Exchange
Web sites Currency Translation
conversion
Web site Web site

C-23 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Aggregated Content
Oracle Dynamic Services is a programmatic framework for incorporating Internet services into
portals, wireless, and B2B applications. Dynamic services let you use many standard protocols,
such as SOAP and ICE, to help broadcast that this content is available and make it available for
subscription aggregation.
Intelligent aggregation is one of Dynamic Services’ important capabilities. For example, you can
query a variety of separate sources to find the best price on laptops for sale in Paris. If you are
traveling abroad, Dynamic Services can help aggregate retail, currency conversion, and consumer
reviews into a single query.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 23

 Syndicated Content
Content
Subscribers
providers
News and
quotes
Translation Content Subscription
manager
Messaging/
paging
ICE 1.0
ICE 1.0 Dynamic
Dynamic Services
Services Protocol
input adapters gateways
Scheduler/Delivery
Currency manager
conversion
Loan rates Content Syndication
manager
Shipping/
tracking

C-24 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Syndicated Content
Aside from these kinds of one-off queries, Dynamic Services provides the framework for
subscribing to content sources. The Syndication Server, based on Dynamic Services, provides
subscription services that can push content out to portals, wireless devices, and other platforms for
delivering content.
The Syndication Server includes:
• Subscription Manager to manage subscriptions for customers, perform content updated (partial
or full), and track subscription activities
• Content Syndication Manager to coordinate syndication execution flow and manage affiliates
profiles, delivery policies, targeted offers
• Syndication Affiliate Profile Manager used to create, modify, and remove user accounts and
business-related information
• Syndication System Administrator to assist the administrator to supervise the system
It also provides a Performance Monitor to track down any performance-related issues, such as a
network bottleneck due to a large amount of full content updates.
The Syndication Server capabilities in Oracle9i support the Internet Content Exchange (ICE) 1.0
protocol, and includes adapters to allow for subscription and delivery from non-ICE compliant
providers and syndicators.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 24

 Any Content to Any Device
with Oracle9i AS Wireless Edition

The right content

to the right audience
at the right time

XSL

XSL XML HTTP XSL

processor
XSL XML
parser

Repository

C-25 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Any Content to Any Device With Oracle9i AS Wireless Edition

As the world becomes increasingly wireless, moving content to wireless devices, such as cellular
phones and PDAs becomes increasingly important. Users are getting accustomed to searching for
data, such as movie ticket availability, and performing transactions like buying tickets through
these cellular devices. Wireless capabilities in Oracle9i help to publish content stored in Oracle9i to
these wireless devices, and to provid the application platform needed to let users purchase tickets,
read e-mail, or receive alerts when documents are updated.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 25

 Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned to explain:

• How Oracle components fit together to deliver
content over the Internet
• What function is performed by each Oracle
component

C-26 Copyright © Oracle Corporation, 2001. All rights reserved.

Oracle9i Database: Product Overview C - 26