OCA /OCP Oracle Database 11g A ll-in-One Exam Guide- P106 pot

Oracle provides an ODBC driver that will allow clients running Microsoft products to connect to an Oracle database.. The continually incrementing number used to track the sequence and ex

mounted database A situation where the instance has opened the database controlfile, but not the online redo log files or the datafiles

MTBF Mean time between failures A measure of the average length of running time for a database between unplanned shutdowns

MTS Multi-Threaded Server Since release 9i, renamed to Shared Server This is

the technique whereby a large number of sessions can share a small pool of server processes, rather than requiring one server each

MTTR Mean time to recover The average time it takes to make the database available for normal use after a failure

multiplexing To maintain multiple copies of files (particularly controlfiles and redo log files)

N

namespace A logical grouping of objects within which no two objects may have the same name

natural join A join performed using the NATURAL JOIN syntax when the source and target tables are implicitly equijoined using identically named columns

NCLOB National character large object A LOB data type for character data, such as text documents, stored in the alternative national database character set

NetBEUI NetBIOS Extended User Interface An enhanced version of NETBIOS

NetBIOS Network Basic Input Output System The network communications protocol that was burnt onto the first network card that IBM ever produced

NLS National Language Support The capability of the Oracle database to support many linguistic, geographical, and cultural environments—now usually referred to as Globalization

node A computer attached to a network

nonequijoin Performed when the values in the join columns fulfill the join condition based on an inequality expression

null The absence of a value, indicating that the value is not known, missing, or inapplicable

NULLIF A function that tests two terms for equality If they are equal, the function returns null; else it returns the first of the two terms tested

NVL A function that returns either the original item unchanged or an alternative

item if the initial term is null

NVL2 A function that returns a new if-null item if the original item is null or an

alternative if-not-null item if the original term is not null

O

OC4J Oracle Containers for J2EE The control structure provided by the Oracle

Internet Application Server for running Java programs

OCA Oracle Certified Associate

OCI Oracle Call Interface An API, published as a set of C libraries, that

programmers can use to write user processes that will use an Oracle database

OCP Oracle Certified Professional The qualification you are working toward at the

moment

ODBC Open Database Connectivity A standard developed by Microsoft for

communicating with relational databases Oracle provides an ODBC driver that will

allow clients running Microsoft products to connect to an Oracle database

offline backup A backup made while the database is closed

OLAP Online analytical processing Selection-intensive work involving running

queries against a (usually) large database Oracle provides OLAP capabilities as an

option, in addition to the standard query facilities

OLTP Online transaction processing A pattern of activity within a database typified

by a large number of small, short transactions

online backup A backup made while the database is open

online redo log The files to which change vectors are streamed by the LGWR

Oracle Net Oracle’s proprietary communications protocol, layered on top of an

industry-standard protocol

ORACLE_BASE The root directory into which Oracle products are installed

ORACLE_HOME The root directory of any one Oracle product

OS Operating system Typically, in the Oracle environment, this will be a version of

Unix (perhaps Linux) or Microsoft Windows

outer join A join performed when rows, which are not retrieved by an inner join,

are included for retrieval

parse To convert SQL statements into a form suitable for execution

PGA Program global area The variable-sized block of memory used to maintain the state of a database session PGAs are private to the session and controlled by the session’s server process

PL/SQL Procedural Language / Structured Query Language Oracle’s proprietary programming language, which combines procedural constructs, such as flow control, and user interface capabilities with SQL

PMON The Process Monitor The background process responsible for monitoring the state of user’s sessions against an instance

primary key The column (or combination of columns) whose value(s) can be used to identify each row in a table

projection The restriction of columns selected from a table Using projection, you retrieve only specific columns

R

RAC Real Application Clusters Oracle’s clustering technology, which allows several instances in different machines to open the same database for scalability, performance, and fault tolerance

RAID Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks Techniques for enhancing

performance and/or fault tolerance by using a volume manager to present a number

of physical disks to the operating system as a single logical disk

RAM Random access memory The chips that make up the real memory in your computer hardware, as against the virtual memory presented to software by the operating system

raw device An unformatted disk or disk partition

RDBMS Relational database management system, often used interchangeably with DBMS

referential integrity A rule defined on a table specifying that the values in a column (or columns) must map onto those of a row in another table

relation A two-dimensional structure consisting of tuples with attributes (aka

a table)

REPLACE A function that substitutes each occurrence of a search item in the source string with a replacement term and returns the modified source string

RMAN Recovery Manager Oracle’s backup and recovery tool.

rowid The unique identifier of every row in the database, used as a pointer to the

physical location of the row The rowid datatype is proprietary to Oracle Corporation,

not part of the SQL standard

RVWR The Recovery Writer background process, an optional process responsible

for flushing the flashback buffer to the flashback logs

S

SBT System backup to tape An RMAN term for a tape device, interchangeable with

SBT_TAPE

schema The objects owned by a database user

SCN System change number The continually incrementing number used to track

the sequence and exact time of all events within a database

segment A database object, within a schema, that stores data

selection The extraction of rows from a table Selection includes the further

restriction of the extracted rows based on various criteria or conditions This allows

you to retrieve only specific rows

self-join A join required when the join columns originate from the same table

Conceptually, the self-join works as a regular join between the source table and itself

sequence A database object, within a schema, that can generate consecutive

numbers

service name A logical name registered by an instance with a listener, which can

be specified by a user process when it issues a connect request A service name will be

mapped onto a SID by the listener when it establishes a session

session A user process and a server process, connected to the instance

SGA System global area The block of shared memory that contains the memory

structures that make up an Oracle instance

SID Either: System Identifier The name of an instance, which must be unique on

the computer the instance is running on Users can request a connection to a named

SID, or to a logical service and let the listener choose an appropriate SID

Or: Session Identifier The number used to identify uniquely a session logged on

to an Oracle instance

SMON The System Monitor The background process responsible for opening a

database and monitoring the instance

spfile The server parameter file: the file containing the parameters used to build an instance in memory

SQL Structured Query Language An international standard language for extracting data from and manipulating data in relational databases

SSL Secure Sockets Layer A standard for securing data transmission, using

encryption, checksumming, and digital certificates

SUBSTR A function that extracts and returns a segment from a given source string

SUM A function that returns an aggregated total of all the nonnull numeric

expression values in a group

synonym An alternative name for a database object

Sysasm The privilege that lets a user connect to an ASM instance with operating system or password file authentication, and start up and shut down the instance

Sysdba The privilege that lets a user connect with operating system or password file authentication, and create or start up and shut down a database

Sysoper The privilege that lets a user connect with operating system or password file authentication, and start up and shut down (but not create) a database

System A preseeded schema used for database administration purposes

T

table A logical two-dimensional data storage structure, consisting of rows and columns

tablespace The logical structure that abstracts logical data storage in tables from physical data storage in datafiles

TCP Transmission Control Protocol Together with the Internet Protocol, TCP/IP: the de facto standard communication protocol used for client/server communication over a network

TCPS TCP with SSL The secure sockets version of TCP

tempfile The physical storage that makes up a temporary tablespace, used for storing temporary segments

TNS Transparent Network Substrate The heart of Oracle Net, a proprietary layered protocol running on top of whatever underlying network transport protocol you choose to use—probably TCP/IP

TO_CHAR A function that performs date to character and number to character

data type conversions

TO_DATE A function that explicitly transforms character items into date values

TO_NUMBER A function that changes character items into number values

transaction A logical unit of work, which will complete in total or not at all

TSPITR Tablespace Point in Time Recovery A recovery method that is ideal for

recovering a set of objects isolated to a single tablespace

tuple A one-dimensional structure consisting of attributes (aka a row)

U

UGA User global area The part of the PGA that is stored in the SGA for sessions

running through shared servers

UI User interface The layer of an application that communicates with end users—

nowadays, frequently graphical: a GUI

URL Uniform Resource Locator A standard for specifying the location of an object

on the Internet, consisting of a protocol; a host name and domain; an IP port

number; a path and filename; and a series of parameters

UTC Coordinated Universal Time, previously known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

UTC is the global standard time zone; all others relate to it as offsets, ahead or behind

X

X Window System The standard GUI environment used on most computers,

except those made by Apple and those that run Microsoft Windows

XML Extensible Markup Language A standard for data interchange using

documents, where the format of the data is defined by tags within the document

& (ampersand) See ampersand

substitution

* (asterisks)

columns identified with,

374, 376

in queries, 13

@ symbol, 136–137, 153

\ (backslash) character, 374, 376

[ ] (brackets), 526

|| (double pipe symbol), 388

> (greater than) operator, 396, 521

>= (greater than or equal to)

operator, 396, 497, 521

# (hash) character, 374, 376

= (is equal to) operator, 396, 521

< (less than) operator, 396, 521

<= (less than or equal to) operator,

396, 497, 521

<> (not equal to) operator, 396, 521

!= (not equal to) operator, 396, 521

( ) (parentheses)

overriding operator precedence

with, 526

precedence within, 386, 387

% (percentage), 398–400

+ (plus)

prefixing instance names

with, 758

using in join syntax, 486

; (semicolons), 384

‘ (single quotes), 389–390, 395

_ (underscore character), 398–400

A

ABORT shutdown mode, 119–120

accent insensitive sorting, 953–954

ACID test applying to transactions, 330–331 Flashback technology and, 702–703

isolation of transactions, 331, 346 SELECT statements and, 332 undo data and, 351, 353 UPDATE statements and, 333 active session pool method, 787–789 active sessions, 787

ad hoc queries, 408 Add Datafile window (OEM), 183 ADDM (Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor), 871–873 advisors for, 840–841 automatic maintenance jobs, 875–878

Automatic Undo Advisor, 875 Data Recovery Advisor, 875 exercise, 878–880 memory advisors, 871, 874–875, 897–900, 918

MTTR advisor, 875 recommendations offered by, 874 reports generated by, 873, 878–880

Segment Advisor, 857–858,

859, 875–876 SQL advisors, 874, 876–877 ADD_MONTHS function, 431 ADMINISTER RESOURCE MANAGER system, 780 ADR (Automatic Diagnostic Repository)

about, 966–967 command-line interface for, 967–968

defined, 966

diagnosing problems and incidents, 967, 969 Health Monitor checks stored

in, 608 review, 979 self test and answers, 979–981 ADRCI (Automatic Diagnostic Repository Command-line Interface), 967–968 ADVISE FAILURE command, 611 Advisor Central, 906

AFTER SUSPEND ON DATABASE trigger, 851

aggregate functions See group

functions AL32UTF8 Unicode character set, 939

alert logs ASM unavailable for, 755 defined, 45

review, 127 setting tablespace alert thresholds, 190–191 usefulness of, 100 using, 121–122 Alert system exercise, 885–886 monitoring and notifying space, 880–881

notifications by, 882–885 review, 887

self test and answers, 887–889 server-generated, 880 setting thresholds for, 881–882 alerts

configuring, 885–886 navigating to Support Workbench from, 968

1003

raised by MMON process, 847

stateful/stateless, 881

thresholds for, 190–191,

881–882, 883

aliases

column, 387–388, 486

configuring service, 150

naming, 145

table, 487–489

ALL operator, 521, 524

allocation units (AU), 755–756

alphanumeric data types, 264

ALTER DATABASE OPEN

RESETLOGS command, 705

ALTER INDEX COALESCE

command, 857

ALTER INDEX command, 282

ALTER SYSTEM command, 105

ALTER SYSTEM SET SKIP_

UNUSABLE_INDEXES=FALSE;

command, 918

altering

indexes, 282

views, 294–295

alternative quote (q) operator,

389–390

ampersand (&) substitution,

405–412

about, 405–406

DEFINE and UNDEFINE

commands with, 409–411

double, 407–408

exercise, 411–412

expression and text substitution

in WHERE clauses, 409

review, 413

single, 406–407

substituting column names,

408–409

VERIFY command in, 411

ANALYZE command, 854

AND operator, 401, 403

anonymous PL/SQL, 25, 340–341

ANY operator, 521, 524

ANY privileges, 218–219

Application Server architecture, 6–7

Application Server Control, 7–8

applications

client-server model for, 6

Oracle Collaboration Suite, 11

Oracle Developer Suite, 10

Oracle E-Business Suite, 10

running with incompletely

recovered databases, 616

web, 6

architecture

Application Server, 6–7

ASM, 751–756

Data Pump, 839–840, 860 database server, 4–6 database storage structures, 40–48

Enterprise Manager, 7–8 Flashback Database, 704–705 instance memory structures, 19–28

instance process structures, 28–40

product stack, 4–13 Resource Manager, 775–780 review, 49–50

Scheduler, 806–807 self test and answers, 50–54 separation of user and server code, 6

shared server, 157–164 single-instance architecture, 13–28

two-tier client-server processing, 5 archival backups creating in RMAN, 596–597 retention policies and, 595,

600, 601 archive logs directing to ASM, 763 incomplete recovery if missing, 620 making image copies of files, 588

multiplexing, 566–567, 571–572 archive redo log files, 45, 578–579 archivelog mode

converting database to, 565–566 critical datafile recovery in, 690–691

noncritical file recovery in, 616 RMAN commands for, 615 used by Flashback Database, 705 user-managed backups in, 680–681

archiving databases See also archive

logs; archivelog mode;

Flashback Data Archive

archive redo log files, 45, 578–579

multiplexing archived logs, 566–567, 571–572 review, 571 using archivelog mode and archiver process, 563–566 ARCn (Archiver), 35–36, 563–566 arithmetic operators, 386–387 ascending

indexes, 281 sort order, 404

ASM (Automatic Storage Management) about, 178, 179, 748 architecture of, 751–756 ASM datafiles, 762–763 command line for, 765–766 disk groups, 760–762 exercises, 759–760, 761–762 file types for, 752, 755–756 instance components in, 753–754

managing instances, 757–760 raw devices needed for, 756–757 RDBMS instances using ASM files, 754–755

review, 766–768 RMAN with, 763–764 self test and answers, 768–772 third-party LVMs vs., 750–751 using cluster services with,

751, 759 ASMB background process, 754 ASMCMD utility, 765–766 asterisks (*)

mandatory columns identified with, 374, 376

in queries, 13 asynchronous I/O in RMAN, 665,

666, 671

at (@) symbol, 136–137, 153 atomicity, 330

auditing, 240–248 databases, 241–248 exercise for database, 247–248 fine-grained, 245–247 limiting by session, 242 need for, 240

review, 248–249 self test and answers, 249–256 SYSDBA activity, 241

techniques for, 240–241 value-based, 244–245 authentication

database connections and, 112–114

external, 211–212 global, 212 password, 211 user account, 209–212 using SYSOPER and SYSDBA privileges during, 114–115 autobackups of controlfile, 623–627 autocommit, 338–339

automated TSPITR, 655–657, 670 automatic consumer group switching, 794–795 Automatic Database Diagnostic

Monitor See ADDM alerts (continued)

Automatic Diagnostic Repository

See ADR

Automatic Diagnostic Repository

Command-line Interface (ADCRI),

967–968

Automatic Memory Management,

892–900 See also PGA; SGA

exercise, 896–897

MEMORY_TARGET for, 896–897

PGA memory management,

892–894, 929

review, 927

SGA memory management,

892, 894–895, 928

Automatic Storage Management

See ASM

Automatic Undo Advisor

(ADDM), 875

Automatic Workload Repository

See AWR

automating consistent backups,

580–582, 600

AutoTasks (Scheduler), 875–876

auxiliary databases

connecting to, 579

defined, 651

AVG function, 461, 463–464

AWR (Automatic Workload

Repository), 866–871

about, 866–867

DBMS_WORKLOAD_

REPOSITORY package,

869–870

exercise, 870–871

launched by MMON, 871

managing, 867–868

metrics and baselines in, 869

review, 886

self test and answers,

887–889

snapshots of data, 866, 867,

868, 871–872

statistics gathered in,

866–867, 869

B

B*Tree indexes

about, 276–278, 280

options for, 280–281

background processes, 14

backslash (\) character, 374, 376

BACKUP command

multiplexing parameters for, 664

tuning RMAN, 665, 670–671

backup mode, 681, 695

backup sets

about, 579, 600

compressed, 579, 583, 600

parallelizing, 663–664

unallocated blocks not backed

up, 583

backups See also archiving databases;

failures; recovery; user-managed backups

archival, 596–597 automating consistent, 580–582, 600 creating reports from, 597 crosschecking, 597–598 databases, 544–546 detecting corrupt blocks during, 629–630

duplexing, 588–589, 600 enabling controlfile autobackup, 624–625 encrypting, 591–592, 601 incomplete recovery using backup controlfiles, 625–627 incremental, 578, 583–587,

600, 619 making image copies, 588 managing RMAN, 594–596, 598–599

multiple channels, 590–591, 601 multiplexing RMAN, 664–665 optimizing, 601

parallelizing operations, 590–591 resyncing catalog, 647

RMAN steps for, 662–663 self test and answers, 572–576 server-managed, 580–583 types of, 578–579 user-managed, 678, 679 using archivelog mode and archiver process, 563–566 using RMAN for ASM, 763–764 utilities for database, 68 while database open, 680 bad files (SQL*Loader), 833 baseline data (AWR), 869 bash shell variables, 74 BETWEEN operator making comparisons with, 395,

397, 403 setting nonequijoin conditions with, 497

binaries ASM unavailable for, 755 program files as, 13 binary sorting, 941, 953 bitmap indexes, 278–281 block change tracking, 585 Block Media Recovery (BMR), 630–631, 633

BLOCKRECOVER command, 630–631 blocks

detecting corrupt, 629–630 fractured, 583, 681

grouped into extents, 45–46 illustrated, 46

occurring in database buffer cache, 20–21

Oracle and operating system, 173–174

recovering corrupted, 630–631 Boolean operators

AND operator, 401, 403 NOT operator, 401–402

OR operator, 401, 403 brackets ([ ]), 526

BY SESSION clause, 242

C

caching sequence values, 300 calendars, 944

Cartesian product, 482, 485–486, 505–507, 509

CASCADE keyword, 856 case

case sensitivity in statements, 383–384

conversion functions for, 421–423

insensitive sorting by, 953–954 CASE expressions, 450–452 CD-ROM, 988–989 change tracking files, 585 change vectors, 15, 21 channels

allocating for backup, 601 defined, 579

launching multiple, 590–591 monitoring RMAN, 659–660 parallelizing RMAN backup sets, 663

RMAN backup steps for, 662–663 character manipulation functions, 423–426

about, 423 CONCAT, 423 exercise, 433–434 INSTR, 425–426 LENGTH, 424 LPAD and RPAD, 424–425 REPLACE, 426

SUBSTR, 426 TRIM, 425 character sets changing, 89, 946–947 choosing, 938–940, 945–946 default, 939

review, 957 Unicode, 939, 945–946, 957 characters

changing to date, 443–444 character-based conditions in WHERE clauses, 393–394