• Introduction to the Oracle

Database

1
• Oracle is the world’s most popular DBMS - It is a powerful and
robust DBMS that runs on many different operating systems
• Oracle DBMS engine is available in several versions:
• Example of Oracle products:
– SQL*Plus: a utility for processing SQL and creating components like
stored procedures and triggers:
• PL/SQL is a programming language that adds programming constructs to
the SQL language
– Oracle Developer (Forms & Reports Builder)
• Also third-party products - Quest Software’s TOAD

2
 Oracle History
• 1978 – Oracle V1, never officially released
• 1980 – Oracle V2 released, written in assembly
language
• 1994 – Oracle 7 for PC released
• 1998 – Support for Linux platform
• 1999 – Oracle 8i with Java integration
• 2001 – Oracle 9i
• 2004 – Oracle 10g
• 2007 – Oracle 11g
• 2013 – Oracle 12c
3
 Oracle database
• The best database for large database systems:
– most reliable in terms of data safety
– highest availability
– scalable
– good internationalization support
• Oracle shortcomings:
– price – expensive
– speed – not the fastest database available
– amount of resources consumed

4
 Data safety
• Many features that ensure safety of data:
– multiplexing of important database files
– writing changes to data files and to special log
files. Log files are used to recover database after
software or hardware failure
– archiving of log files. Archived log files can be
written to backup location(s)
– protection from human errors:
•possibility to view data from some point in time in the pas
•possibility to use backup and perform point in time recovery

5
 Availability
• Very high availability:
– online backups – without shutting down the database
– most administrative tasks can be performed while the database is running and
available for users, for example: analyzing, rebuilding indexes, moving data
– disk failure: it is possible to turn off and recover only the part of the database
that was affected by the failure, the rest of the database can continue running
– parameters that ensure that recovery after failure will take no more than the
specified time
– standby database – second database that can be opened if the main database
fails

6
 Scalability
• Oracle can handle unlimited amount of data:
– no limit on number of rows, number of tables etc.
– no limit on total size of the database
• Oracle runs on various operating systems:
– Windows NT/XP
– Linux
– Solaris, HP-UX, AIX
• Oracle Cloud/Grid – single database on a
cluster
7
 Internationalization
• Database supports multiple languages/locales:
– sorting of text can be done in client language
order
– date, time and currency is client dependent
– character set conversion – database running in
utf8 or iso8859-2 will convert data for clients
using windows-1250
• Internally database can store data in Unicode

8
 Oracle editions
• Express edition:
– Simple installation and administration, some
features are not available (for example: Java
Virtual Machine is disabled)
• Standard edition:
– Most frequently used features are available
• Enterprise edition:
– All features, very expensive

9
 Speed of the database
• Oracle favors data safety over speed:
– it is not possible to disable some features to
achieve greater speed (e.g.: transactions)
– some other databases (e.g. MySQL) are faster
than Oracle

10
 Resources consumed
• Oracle consumes large amounts of resources:
– new, empty database – at least 200MB, usually over 1GB
– at least 256MB RAM

• Hint: when installing Oracle on private

computer (Windows):
– install Standard or Enterprise edition
– assign around 256MB RAM for Oracle
– install database normally
– change startup of Oracle services to manual
– when required start the database manually with:
oradim –startup –sid database_sid

11
 Oracle terminology - database
• Database – data stored on disk (data files and
some additional files)
• Database instance – program (group of
programs) that opens the database (disk files)
and makes it available to users
• User connects to the database instance and
retrieves data or requests changes to the
database
• When running Oracle on a cluster, there are
multiple database instances that open the
same database
12
 Oracle terminology - schema
• Schema – set of objects (tables, indexes, views) that
belong to a database user.
– In Oracle SCHEMA = USER
– When new user is created (CREATE USER command), initially it has an
empty schema
– When the user logs in and creates new table, the table is added to his schema
– When user issues:
SELECT * FROM some_table
Oracle looks for some_table in the user’s schema
– It is possible to access data in some other schema:
SELECT * FROM some_user.some_table

13
Major differences from other
database systems

14
 Single database
• Many other database systems (Postgres,
MSSQL) can have multiple databases opened
by a single database engine
– each application can use separate database for its
data
• In Oracle single Oracle Instance can open one
database
– normally on a single database server there will be
only one database
– each application can store its data in separate
user schema
15
 Data storage
• Many other database systems (Postgres,
MySQL) store table data in a separate file or
group of files
• Oracle stores table data in a tablespace.
Multiple tables are normally stored in the
same tablespace. Tablespace can be stored in
one or more data files (physical disk files)

16
 Transactions
• Oracle executes every statement in a
transaction
– there is no command to start a transaction (like
BEGIN TRANSACTION)
– transaction is started automatically with a first
statement after COMMIT or ROLLBACK
– usually transaction must be finished manually with
COMMIT, exceptions:
•it is possible to turn on AUTOCOMMIT (by default: disabled)
•some statements commit the transaction automatically: all CREATE, ALTER,
DROP and TRUNCATE statements

17
 Transaction example
-- user connects to the database
DELETE FROM table1;
-- new transaction created
INSERT INTO table1 VALUES (1, ‘some text’);
INSERT INTO table1 VALUES (2, ‘some text’);
CREATE TABLE table2
(
id NUMBER PRIMARY KEY,
text VARCHAR2(256)
);
ROLLBACK; -- table1 contains 2 rows,
-- the rollback statement rolled
-- back empty transaction

18
 Date format, language
• Oracle has no fixed date and time format.
When displaying dates, Oracle uses the format
consistent with the connected client
• Language used by Oracle (for example: error
messages) also depend on the language
settings
• To use English with Oracle, set the
environment variable NLS_LANG before
starting SQLPlus:
– SET NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8

19
 General database terminology
• Database user – login and password used to connect
to the database. Each user has:
– set of privileges for accessing the database
– schema objects: objects: tables, indexes etc.

• Table – database object used for data storage:

– can have any number of rows
– has fixed number of columns, each column has a name and datatype
– can have constraints, indexes and relations to other tables

• Relation – defines a dependency between two tables

20
• Constraint – rule that must be satisfied by
each table row. Constraint can be:
– PRIMARY KEY constraint
– NOT NULL constraint
– UNIQUE constraint
– FOREIGN KEY constraint (relation)
– CHECK constraint
• Index – object that organizes data in a table.
Indexes are used:
– to enforce PRIMARY KEY and UNIQUE constraints
– to improve query performance

21
• Trigger – action performed when user makes
changes to database data
• Session – single connection to the database.
One user can open multiple sessions to the
database
• Transaction – set of operations that are visible
as single (atomic) operation on the database.
Transaction belongs to a single open database
session.

22
 Accessing the database
• Oracle can be accessed from various tools:
– Oracle tools:
•SQLPlus (always available) – command line tool for executing SQL
statements. All administrative statements can be executed from SQLPlus
•SQL Developer – free development tool, easier to use than SQLPlus
– Third party tools:
•TOAD –application for administrating Oracle database, executing SQL
statements, TOAD Freeware Edition is available for free

23
 Connecting to the database
• In order to connect, you need to specify:
– user name
– password
– connect string (optional)
– connect mode (optional)
• Connect string:
– determines location of the database, if not
specified – local database
• Connect mode – specified for administrative
connections (database startup and shutdown)
24
 Starting database session
• The following commands will start SQLPlus
and connect to the database:
– Log in as user “test”
– sqlplus test/testpass
password “testpass” to local database
– sqlplus test/testpass@db – Log in as user “test” to
database “db”
– sqlplus system/orclstudent – Log in as user “system”
password “orclstudent”
– sqlplus sys/orclstudent as sysdba– Log in as user
“sys” with special SYSDBA privileges

25
Networking

26
 Connecting to Oracle
• Connection to Oracle is possible:
– in local mode – when connecting to local database
only
– via network – when connecting to some other
database
• All non-local connections are done through
the listener

27
 The listener
• Oracle Listener is separate from the database
• In Windows it starts as service
OraclexxxxTNSListener
• One listener can handle connections for
multiple databases
• Listener configuration determines how clients
will connect to the database. By default
listener:
– uses TCP/IP
– listens on port 1521 – default Oracle port
28
 Listener configuration
• Listener configuration is in
$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/listener.ora

• Example configuration:
LISTENER =
(DESCRIPTION_LIST =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)
(HOST = host_name)(PORT = 1521))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC0))
)
)

29
 Listener startup and shutdown
• Listener can be started manually from the
command line:
– lsnrctl start
• Other commands:
– lsnrctl stop – stops the listener
– lsnrctl status – shows list of services that
this listener supports

30
 Naming configuration
• When connecting to database using SQLPlus
you specify:
– user name
– password
– database name
• When the database name is empty –
connection to the local database
• When the database name is not empty –
lookup of the database name. By default
database names are looked up in
tnsnames.ora file 31
 tnsnames.ora
• Location:
$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora

• This file is used to lookup names of databases:

– IP address of the database
– listener port number
– name of the Oracle instance

32
 tnsnames.ora - example
• Typical entry in the tnsnames.ora file:
TEST =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = name_or_ip)
(PORT = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME = database_instance_name)
)
)

33
 tnsnames.ora - example
• Entries in tnsnames.ora enable:
– specifying multiple addresses for a connection
– request load balancing between the list of available addresses

TEST =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = name_or_ip)
(PORT = 1521))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = other_host)
(PORT = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME = database_instance_name)
)
)

34
 tnsnames.ora - example
• Load balancing example
TEST =
(DESCRIPTION =
(ADDRESS_LIST =
(LOAD_BALANCE=on)
(FAILOVER=off)
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = name_or_ip)
(PORT = 1521))
(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = other_host)
(PORT = 1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA =
(SERVICE_NAME = database_instance_name)
)
)

35
Database administration

36
 Administrative privileges
• Database administration requires strong
privileges:
– SYSDBA – the most powerful database privilege,
enables database startup, shutdown and access to
all data in the database
– SYSOPER – enables database startup and
shutdown without access to database data
– DBA – role (a group of privileges) giving user full
administrative access, but without the right to
start and shut down the database

37
 Administrator accounts
• Each Oracle database has two accounts:
– SYS – owner of the administrative objects, created
with DBA role, has SYSDBA and SYSOPER privileges
– SYSTEM – automatically created with DBA role
• SYS and SYSTEM users should not be used to
create any tables

38
 DBA, SYSDBA and SYSOPER
• DBA role grants administrator access to the
database when the database is running
• DBA role is not enough to startup and
shutdown the database
• SYSDBA and SYSOPER enable database startup
and shutdown
• In order to use the SYSDBA or SYSOPER
privilege, the connection must be in special
mode:
connect sys/sys_password as
39
 Important!
• SYSDBA is not database user name – it is a
privilege and special connect mode.
• When connecting to the database:
connect sys/sys_password as
sysdba
special connection with in SYSDBA mode is
requested.

40
 SYSDBA and SYSOPER
• DBA user can be granted SYSDBA or SYSOPER
privilege
• SYSDBA privilege enables you to
– Perform STARTUP and SHUTDOWN operations
– ALTER DATABASE: open, mount, back up, or change character set
– CREATE DATABASE
– DROP DATABASE
– CREATE SPFILE
– ALTER DATABASE ARCHIVELOG
– ALTER DATABASE RECOVER
– Includes the RESTRICTED SESSION privilege
– SYSDBA lets you look at any user’s data

41
 Database shutdown
• SHUTDOWN NORMAL – waits for all users
to disconnect, not recommended – can take a
long time
• SHUTDOWN TRANSACTIONAL – waits for
all users to finish their transactions
• SHUTDOWN IMMEDIATE – rolls back all
uncommitted transactions, closes all sessions,
closes the database and shuts down the
instance
• SHUTDOWN ABORT – aborts the instance,
does not close the database properly.
Requires automatic recovery after startup. 42
 Database startup
• Database startup involves 3 steps:
– starting the instance
– mounting the database
– opening the database – opened database is
available for use
• STARTUP – executes those 3 steps
• When performing administrative actions,
those steps can be performed one by one:
– STARTUP NOMOUNT – only start the instance,
useful when creating the database
– STARTUP MOUNT – start the instance and
mount the database (open database control files) 43
 Database startup
• Example startup (rarely used):
– STARTUP NOMOUNT
– ALTER DATABASE MOUNT
– ALTER DATABASE OPEN
• Example startup (used for many
administrative actions):
– STARTUP MOUNT
– perform some administrative actions, e.g. recover
the database, change archiving mode
– ALTER DATABASE OPEN – opens database for
use 44
 System views
• Oracle provides many system views that
provide information about the database:
– v$session – all open sessions
– v$datafile – all data files
– v$logfile – all log files
– v$database – general information about the
database
– v$instance – general information about the
instance
• Some of those views are available when the
database is closed 45
 Example scenario
• The database cannot start, error message is
that file number 4 is corrupt.
• Recovery:
– STARTUP MOUNT
– SELECT name FROM v$datafile WHERE file# = 4

– fix the problem with the file, e.g. restore it from

backup
– recover the database
– ALTER DATABASE OPEN

46
Oracle Installation

47
• Double-click database setup.exe and the
installation will start.
• To prepare for the installation, you will
be presented with a dialog box:

48
49
• Enter the same password in the indicated text
boxes. Remember the password you type here
because you will (always) need it later:

50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62