Database Creation Course Expectations

Creating an Oracle database is a significant undertaking that demands a strategic approach and meticulous attention to detail. The following considerations are imperative for an Oracle Database Administrator (DBA) using Oracle 12c:

1. System Requirements: Ensure your system meets the minimum hardware and software requirements. This includes operating system specifications, memory, hard disk space, and network protocol environment.
2. Database Design: Designing the database is a crucial step. The design should be informed by the data requirements of your organization. This includes establishing the number and type of data files, redo log files, control files, and tablespaces that are necessary.
3. Database Name: Choose a unique name that represents the database function or the organization. The Oracle system identifier (SID) and database name are limited to eight alphanumeric characters.
4. Character Set: Decide the character set for your database. It can impact the language and locale-specific settings, including the storage of multilingual data and date, time, and numeric formats.
5. Memory Allocation: Allocate appropriate memory to the System Global Area (SGA) and Program Global Area (PGA). The allocation should be based on the expected workload, as it impacts the performance of the database. Oracle 12c features the Automatic Memory Management (AMM) system, which simplifies this process.
6. Process and Sessions: Set the appropriate limit for the number of processes and sessions. Remember, each session requires a process. Also, allow for background processes in your calculation.
7. Storage Structure and Relationships: Determine the data blocks' size, which influences the efficiency of data retrieval. Also, establish the extent management policies and segment space management policies according to your requirements.
8. Backup and Recovery Strategy: Formulate a comprehensive backup and recovery strategy to protect against data loss. Consider using Oracle's Recovery Manager (RMAN) for this purpose.
9. Security Policies: Define database security policies including roles, privileges, profiles, and auditing policies. Implement data encryption and masking where necessary.
10. Network Configurations: Define the network environment for your database, which includes configuring Oracle Net Services, deciding on the network protocol, and setting up listener configuration.
11. Performance Monitoring and Tuning: Oracle provides several tools like Automatic Workload Repository (AWR), Automatic Database Diagnostic Monitor (ADDM), and SQL Tuning Advisor. Decide on a strategy to monitor performance, identify bottlenecks, and make necessary adjustments.
12. Compatibility and Interoperability: Ensure the compatibility of your database with any existing systems, applications, and software. This includes checking for cross-version compatibility if you're migrating or linking to databases on different Oracle versions.

Keep in mind that these considerations may not be exhaustive, depending on the specific circumstances or requirements of your organization. Always consult the Oracle Database 12c documentation and best practices when creating a new database. An Oracle DBA must also consider factors like system architecture, data migration, scalability, and potential future requirements, which could influence the design and creation of the database.

At regular intervals throughout the course, you will find multiple-choice quizzes and exercises providing hands-on practice with Oracle-related concepts and procedures. These learning checks enable you to assess what you have learned and to plan your progress through the course accordingly. You will also have the opportunity throughout this course to use five of our Java applets: the Simulation, the SlideShow, and the ToolTip.

At certain points in this course, a step in a lesson will be called out with this task icon. This indicates that if you are running Oracle, you should complete the task being discussed. Performing these tasks is good practice, and will often be important to your work later in this course. In addition to the tasks called out with the icon, you will find important tasks in the course exercises.

Whenever you see this graphic within the course, a diagram will explain the components of a window or code snippet. Below the diagram will be an ordered list detailing the elements of the diagram explaining the particular feature, button, or line of code.
The 1) Diagram and 2) Slideshow used in this course are always followed by a link to a transcript. So even if your browser does not support JavaScript, you will not miss any information.

Occasionally in this course, you will need to examine images, code, or output that are larger than our standard lesson pages. When this is necessary, you will see a View Image or View Code button in the left margin. Click this button to open a new Web browser window and view the image, code or output.