Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) provides a graphical interface
for database creation and database configuration. This document will
detail the creation of a database using the Database Configuration
Assistant.
On UNIX systems Database Configuration Assistant can be started with ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbca.
On Windows systems Database Configuration Assistant can be found in the
Start menu under All Programs | Oracle Home | Configuration and
Migration Tools.
After the initialization process completes you will be presented with the Welcome screen. Click the Next button to continue.
On the Operations dialog you have ability to Create, Configure
Database Options and Delete a database. If DBCA is started on server
with no databases configured and registered only the Create Database and
Manage Templates options will be available.
Templates are a way to standardize and automate the creation of
databases. DBCA includes three templates by default. Ensure that the
Create Database option is selected and click the Next button to
continue.
On the Database Templates dialog you have the ability to choose from
three default templates. The General Purpose or Transaction Processing
template builds a database with configurations geared for OLTP type of
access and the Data Warehouse template builds a database with
configurations geared toward data warehouse activities. The third
option, Custom Database is provides the most flexibility in database
configuration and will be the template used in this document.
You can inspect the configuration options by selecting a template and
then click the Show Details… button. A new dialog window will appear
detailing the Oracle components to be installed, character set,
initialization parameters and file names and locations.
Ensure Custom Database is selected and click the Next button to continue.
The Global Database Name is in the format
< database name >.< domain name >. The database to be created in this document is
odlin11g and the domain name is
oracledistilled.com resulting in a Global Database Name of
odlin11g.oracledistilled.com. The SID is generally the first 13 characters of the database name.
Provided a Global Database Name and SID then click the Next button to continue.
On the Management Options dialog you have the choice between using
Enterprise Manager Database Console or registering the new database with
Grid Control. An Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control Agent must be
installed and running in order to register the database with Grid
Control.
In this example the agent is not installed so the only option
available is to use Database Control for local management. When using
the Database Control you can choose to enable alert notification and
schedule daily disk based backups. For this example we are not enabling
the alert notifications or the daily backups.
Click the Automatic Maintenance Tasks tab.
Under the Automatic Maintenance Task tab you have the ability enable
or disable database maintenance jobs such as statistics collections, SQL
tuning recommendations, As stated in the dialog these jobs are
scheduled to run in default maintenance windows between 10pm and 2am
weekdays and all weekend long.
After making any desired changes click the Next button to continue.
On the database credentials dialog you have the ability to provide a
distinct password for the administrative users or use one password for
all administrative users.
You might get a warning on the passwords chosen if they do not meet
the following format: at least 8 characters in length, at least 1 upper
case letter, at least 1 lower case letter and at least 1 digit. Enter
the passwords and click the Next button to continue.
On the Database File Locations dialog you have the option of storing
the files on a file system or ASM. ASM is only available as an option if
an ASM instance is present on the server.
For the Storage Locations there are three options: Locations stored
in template, Common location for all database files, Oracle-Managed
files.
Locations from Template- DBCA will use the directory information contained in the template.
Common Location for All Database Files- All database files will be stored in the location provided.
Oracle-Managed Files- All database files will be stored in a
location provided. File naming, creation and deletion is handled
automatically by the database. Using this option you can choose to
multiplex the redo logs and control files.
The File Location Variables… button can be used view the values to be used for the variables
{ORACLE_BASE}, {ORACLE_HOME}, {DB_NAME}, {DB_UNIQUE_NAME}, {SID}.
For this example the files will be stored on the file system using a common location for all files.
You can choose to enable the Fast (Flash) Recovery Area by providing a
location along with a maximum size to be utilized by the Fast Recovery
Area. The Fast Recovery Area is used to store and manage files related
to backup and recovery of the database. The Fast Recovery Area is
separate from the database files and is managed by the Fast Recovery
Area Size.
If you choose to enable archiving you can click the Edit Archive Mode
Parameters in which you enable automatic archiving, log file format and
the destination in which to write the archive logs.
Click the Next button to continue.
On Database Options dialog you can select database components and the
locations in which to install them including creating a new table space
if necessary. Note: If you are creating a database for production use
you should only install options in which you have a license.
Click the Standard Database Components… button to change the install
locations for components such as XML DB, Java Virtual Machine,
Application Express and Oracle Multimedia.
The XML DB option can be further customized by clicking the Customize… button.
Make any changes to the XML DB configuration and click the OK button
to return to the Standard Database Components dialog. Click the Cancel
button if you have no changes to make. On the Standard Database
Components dialog click the OK button to go back to the Database Content
dialog.
On the Database Content dialog click the Custom Scripts tab.
If you were to have any scripts that need to be executed after the
creation of the database you can add them on this dialog. Note that the
scripts run in the order listed. You can use the arrow buttons on the
right to change the order of execution.
After making your changes click the Next button to leave the Database Content dialog.
The Initialization Parameters dialog contains four sections: Memory, Sizing, Character Sets, Connection Mode.
Oracle 11g introduced Automatic Memory Management as means of further
simplifying sizing of the SGA and PGA. Instead of providing values for
the SGA and PGA you can provide one value that the instance will use to
automatically adjust memory components in the SGA and individual PGAs as
needed. Automatic Memory Management is selected by default.
If desired you can select the Custom option and choose Manual Memory Management.
The All Initialization Parameters… button will bring up a window that
list all of the initialization parameters. Using this screen you see
all of the values to be assigned to the parameters as well as choose to
override the values.
Click the Close button to close the Initialization Parameters window.
Click the Sizing tab
On the Sizing tab you can specify the block size and the maximum
number for processes that can simultaneously connect to the database.
Click the Character Sets tab
The character set determines which languages can be represented in
the database. The default character set is based on the language setting
of the host operating system. You also have the choice between a
Unicode character set or selecting a national character set.
Click the Connection Mode tab
On the Connection Mode tab you can choose between dedicated server
mode or shared server mode. In dedicated server mode each user process
has a dedicated server process. This mode is used in situations were the
number of client connections is small or when clients typically make
long running database requests. Dedicated connection mode is the default
connection mode.
In a shared server connection mode client processes share a
database-allocated pool of server processes. This mode is used in
situations were the number of clients is expected to be high with
typically small work loads. When selecting a shared server configuration
you will need to provide the number of server process to create a
database startup.
After making any necessary changes click the Next button to continue.
Database Storage
On the Database Storage dialog you can structure of the database by
adding, removing or modifying control files, data files and online redo
log groups. You can only make changes to the structure if you did not
choose a pre-configured template.
Click the Next button to continue.
You have the options of creating a template and or generate database
creation scripts. If you choose to generate a template it will be
available for selection on future executions of DBCA. The custom scripts
can be used to create a database with all the selections made during
this run of DBCA.
Click the Finish button to create the database.
The Confirmation page detail all the choices made previously that will be used to create the database.
After reviewing the summary page if you find that you need to make
changes click the cancel button to go back to the Creation Options
dialog and use the back button to go back to the dialog in which you
need to make changes, otherwise click the OK button to start the
database creation.
The progress dialog will detail the database creation process along with showing the percentage complete.
After the database creation is complete the last dialog will provide
details such as the global database name, system identifier (SID) and
the locations of the server parameter file and encryption key. Also
provided on this dialog is the URL in which to connect to Oracle
Enterprise Manager Database Console.
