Expert Oracle9i Database Administration ISBN:1590590228 by Sam R Alapati Apress © 2003 This guide provides users with the foundation necessary to progress to the level of an expert Oracle DBA It also provides a primer on Oracle9i SQL and PL/SQL, as well as an introduction to UNIX Table of Contents Expert Oracle9i Database Administration Introduction Part One - Database Basics, Data Modeling, and UNIX/Linux Chapter 1 - The Oracle DBA's World Relational Database Modeling and Chapter 2 Database Design Essential Unix (and Linux) for the Oracle Chapter 3 DBA Part Two - The Oracle RDBMS Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 - Installing the Oracle9i RDBMS - Introduction to the Oracle9i Architecture - Using SQL*Plus and i SQL*Plus - Schema Management in Oracle9i - Oracle Transaction Management Part Three - Database Creation, Connectivity, and User Management Chapter 9 - Creating an Oracle Database Chapter 10 - Connectivity and Networking Chapter 11 - User Management and Database Security Part Four - Data Loading, Backup, and Recovery Chapter 12 - Loading and Transforming Data Chapter 13 - Using the Export and Import Utilities Chapter 14 - Backing up Databases Chapter 15 - Database Recovery Part Five - Managing the Operational Oracle Database Chapter 16 - Managing the Operational Database Chapter 17 - Using Oracle9i Enterprise Manager Part Six - Performance Tuning and Troubleshooting the Production Database Improving Database Performance: SQL Query Optimization Chapter 19 - Performance Tuning: Tuning the Instance The Oracle Data Dictionary and the Chapter 20 Dynamic Performance Views Chapter 21 - Using Oracle PL/SQL Packages Managing Oracle Databases on Windows Chapter 22 and Linux Systems Appendix A - Brief Oracle9i SQL and PL/SQL Primer Index List of Figures List of Tables List of Listings List of Sidebars Chapter 18 - Back Cover This is the only real Oracle 9i Database Administration book on the market! This 1,000 page book enables a beginner or intermediate level Oracle DBA of Oracle Developer/Manager to master the art of building and managing complex Oracle 9i databases Expert Oracle9i Database Administration is thorough in covering all aspects of the 9i database and also includes a UNIX primer, as well as an introduction to SQL and PL/SQL Sam R Alapati covers the entire spectrum of the new Oracle 9i RDBMS software and clearly explains how to use all of its powerful features Currently, there is no one book that combines the necessary UNIX administration, Windows NT management, and SQL backgrounds and the necessary database administration principles Sam R Alapati's book fills that gap well, by providing all the necessary material in one comprehensive volume Expert Oracle9i Database Administration is designed as the most complete Oracle 9i database text available today It takes several courses, as well as mastery of several Oracle manuals, to become a proficient DBA A major focus of this book is on the most important features of the Oracle 9i database Readers will be able to become expert Oracle DBAs by using this book About the Author Sam R Alapati is an experienced Oracle Database Administrator, who holds the Oracle OCP DBA certification and the Hewlett Packard UNIX System Administrator certification He currently manages Oracle databases at the Boy Scouts of America National Headquarters in Los Colinas, Texas Alapati has been dealing with databases for a long time, including the Ingres RDBMS in the mid 1980s He is also well versed in the Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, and the IBM DB2 database management systems Expert Oracle9i Database Administration SAM R ALAPATI Copyright © 2003 by Sam R Alapati All rights reserved No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher ISBN (pbk): 1-59059-022-8 Printed and bound in the United States of America 1098765432 Trademarked names may appear in this book Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark Technical Reviewer: Kee Heng Tiow Editorial Directors: Dan Appleman, Gary Cornell, Simon Hayes, Martin Streicher, Karen Watterson, John Zukowski Assistant Publisher: Grace Wong Project Manager: Alexa Stuart Development Editor: Tracy Brown Collins Copy Editor: Nicole LeClerc Production Editor: Laura Cheu Compositor: Diana Van Winkle, Van Winkle Design Group Indexer: Julie Kawabata Artist and Cover Designer: Kurt Krames Production Manager: Kari Brooks Manufacturing Manager: Tom Debolski Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10010 and outside the United States by Springer-Verlag GmbH & Co KG, Tiergartenstr 17, 69112 Heidelberg, Germany In the United States: phone 1-800-SPRINGER, email , or visit http://www.springerny.com Outside the United States: fax +49 6221 345229, email , or visit http://www.springer.de For information on translations, please contact Apress directly at 2560 Ninth Street, Suite 219, Berkeley, CA 94710 Phone 510-549-5930, fax 510-549-5939, email , or visit http://www.apress.com The information in this book is distributed on an "as is" basis, without warranty Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author(s) nor Apress shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this work To my mother, Swarna Kumari, And my father, Appa Rao, For all the love, affection, and sacrifice To the memory of my sister, Usha Rani, Your words of praise still ring in my ears To my wife, Valerie, For your selfless support and help About the Author Sam R Alapati is an experienced Oracle DBA who holds the Oracle OCP DBA certification and the Hewlett-Packard UNIX System Administrator certification He currently manages Oracle databases at the Boy Scouts of America's national office in Los Colinas, Texas Previously, Alapati worked for AMR Holdings (Sabre) and the Blanch Company in Dallas Alapati was a senior principal consultant for Oracle Corporation in New York and worked at NBC and Lehman Brothers on behalf of Oracle Alapati's other DBA experience, which includes Sybase and DB2 databases, consists of assignments with Lewco Securities and AT&T in New Jersey About the Technical Reviewer Kee Heng Tiow is a consultant at Procase Consulting Inc., taking the role of technical project manager at workopolis.com, the biggest job site in Canada Prior to joining Procase Consulting Inc., Kee Heng worked in different Oracle Corporation Canada departments, including Oracle Consulting and Oracle University He was involved in various consulting projects for many clients using Oracle products, primarily the Oracle database, Oracle Designer/Developer/Discoverer, and PL/SQL Currently, Kee Heng is an instructor for Oracle technology training courses at Learning Tree International He graduated with a bachelor's degree (with honors) in computer science from the University of Toronto, Canada Acknowledgments I have had the idea of writing a book such as this for a long time, and the book would have remained just thatan idea—but for two people: my father, Dr Appa Rao, who encouraged me to go ahead with the plan and explained why it was a good idea, and my wife, Valerie, who not only supported the idea, but also backed it up with a lot of sacrifice over the last year I'm grateful to both for helping make my idea a reality This book has benefited from the suggestions of several good technical reviewers Sheldon Barry reviewed the first half of the book and Martin Reid reviewed some of the early chapters Thanks to both of you, Sheldon and Martin The reviewer who spent the most time on this book, however, was Kee Heng Tiow Kee, thank you for your painstaking technical reviews and your great suggestions for improving the content You were on the mark all the time, and I'm grateful for your conscientious effort Karen Watterson, editorial director at Apress, has been instrumental in bringing this book about, and I'm grateful for her suggestions and support throughout the writing process Karen, thanks also for reviewing the entire book and for your enormous patience and the grace you have shown throughout Several people at Apress have contributed significantly to the book I've had the great fortune of having a most unique and talented team work on this book Alexa Stuart, the book's project manager, showed tremendous organizational skill in shepherding the book through to publication It's simply amazing how she kept up with the monumental task of keeping everything moving in an orderly fashion The book has benefited tremendously from great developmental editing by Tracy Brown Collins Tracy's graceful handling of many difficult issues made the developmental review process a lot of fun The magical touch of "copy editor extraordinaire" Nicole LeClerc made the book far better than it was in its original form I'm simply astonished at how Nicole could time and again improve a highly technical sentence or paragraph without changing its meaning Alexa, Tracy, and Nicole, I'm grateful for the extraordinary work and care you devoted to my book My thanks to Apress's marketing director, Simon Hayes, who helped with several issues dealing with the publication of this book Laura Cheu, the book's production editor, displayed tremendous skill in dealing with the minutiae while keeping the production process moving along Production manager Kari Brooks took over as production editor toward the very end, and thanks to you, Kari, for seeing the project through Diana Van Winkle of the Van Winkle Design Group has been a most skillful and fast compositor Although I didn't deal with them directly, Grace Wong, Apress's assistant publisher, and Gary Cornell, Apress's publisher, helped the project at critical times with answers to important questions about the publication process Apress's manufacturing manager, Tom Debolski, helped tremendously several times by providing fast and accurate answers to difficult questions Thanks to all of you for your help Several people have indirectly played a role in the publication of this book because of the role they have played in my life Thanks to Brother Roberts of All Saints High School for lending all those books to me I'm grateful to Professor Janardhana Reddy for helping me come to the United States when it wasn't easy to do so Thanks to Madan Mohan Rao for helping me when I first came to the United States and for years after that, in so many ways I thank Eddie Colon of New Brunswick, New Jersey, from the bottom of my heart for helping me when I really needed it I wouldn't have been an Oracle DBA but for Jayesh Patel's help—thank you, Jayesh, for all you've done for me I wish to thank Yuri for helping me learn the UNIX operating system and unravel the mysteries of databases My thanks to Anil Sinha and J Ram for their help while I worked with them I owe a special debt of gratitude to my good friend Rajanna (Rajeshwara Rao) for explaining why ideas are so important Yes, Bishop Berkeley did have a point Several colleagues at the Boy Scouts of America were helpful during the course of writing this book My colleague Mark Potts has helped me in several ways, including letting me use his PC when I was having problems with mine Thanks, Mark, for all the help at work and outside My thanks also to Stan Galbraith, who somehow managed to provide space on the server for the Oracle9i test databases Thanks to Lance Parkes, who helped with some questions I had during the installation process I'm also thankful to Rob Page for all the kindness and help at work I wish to thank my friend Don Rios for helping me with answers to several difficult Oracle programming questions I'm appreciative of Dan Nelson's encouragement and support for my endeavors I'm thankful to Linda Almanza for her consistent support and help in various matters at work I'm extremely grateful for having two remarkable people, David Jeffress and Dave Campbell, as my managers at the Boy Scouts of America David's wide technical knowledge coupled with his exquisite sense of humor helps us keep our perspective and stay on top of things My thanks to Dave, whose compassion for people coupled with his technical savvy is a source of inspiration for our group Information Systems Division Director Nathan O Langston encourages us to strive for higher goals and shows the way by leading from the front By focusing relentlessly on efficient customer service, Nate helps us understand the Chapter 22: Managing Oracle Databases on Windows and Linux Systems Listing 22-1: Viewing the Oracle Processes Listing 22-2: Querying the V$BGPROCESS View for Thread Information Appendix A: Brief Oracle9i SQL and PL/SQL Primer Listing 1: A Hierarchical Relationship Between Data Listing 2: A Group By with a Rollup Clause Listing 3: Using an Explicit Cursor Listing 4: Using the Cursor For Loop Listing 5: A PL/SQL Package Listing 6: Inserting an XML Document into an Oracle Table Listing 7: Viewing XML Data Stored in an Oracle Table Listing 8: A Simple JDBC Program Listing 9: A Simple SQLJ Program List of Sidebars Introduction Reading the Oracle Manuals Chapter 1: The Oracle DBA's World System Administration and the Oracle DBA Chapter 2: Relational Database Modeling and Database Design The Changing Nature of Relationships Denormalization Chapter 3: Essential Unix (and Linux) for the Oracle DBA Linux and UNIX Getting Help in UNIX Other Editors Raw Files vs UNIX File Systems Implementing RAID Chapter 4: Installing the Oracle9i RDBMS Running the Installer in "Silent" Mode The Oratab File Chapter 5: Introduction to the Oracle9i Architecture What's Inside a Data Block? Why Tablespaces? The High Cost of Disk I/O Locking the SGA Transaction Processing in Oracle Chapter 6: Using SQL*Plus and iSQL*Plus Inapplicable SQL*Plus Commands in iSQL*Plus Chapter 7: Schema Management in Oracle9i What's the Dual Table? Extracting Object DDL Using the DBMS_METADATA Package Chapter 10: Connectivity and Networking Shared Server vs Dedicated Server Architecture Using the Oracle Net GUI Tools Chapter 12: Loading and Transforming Data Tips for Optimal Use of SQL*Loader Chapter 15: Database Recovery What Is Resetlogs? Chapter 19: Performance Tuning: Tuning the Instance Patches and New Versions of Software The Promise and the Performance ... Developer/Manager to master the art of building and managing complex Oracle 9i databases Expert Oracle9i Database Administration is thorough in covering all aspects of the 9i database and also includes a UNIX primer, as well as an introduction to... also well versed in the Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase, and the IBM DB2 database management systems Expert Oracle9i Database Administration SAM R ALAPATI Copyright © 2003 by Sam R Alapati All rights reserved No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted... For information on translations, please contact Apress directly at 2560 Ninth Street, Suite 219, Berkeley, CA 94710 Phone 510-549-5930, fax 510-549-5939, email , or visit http://www .apress. com The information in this book is distributed on an "as is" basis, without