RelationalDBDesign RelationalDBDesign


Recovery File Structures   «Prev  Next»
Lesson 11State and structure of a database
ObjectiveDetermine the state of your database system.

State Structure of Database

This lesson reviews the information presented in our project database. We will use the initialization files and V$ views to collect information about our database ORC1. Our ORACLE_HOME is c:\oracle8.

initorc1.ora

The initorc1.ora file is read by the instance during startup to determine where to find files and to set some parameters. This file should be backed up regularly and is usually located in ORACLE_HOME\DATABASE. This file points to where the control file(s) are located.

Control file

This file is read by the instance at startup and contains information to identify instance parameters and file placement. This file should be duplexed and must be backed up regularly. One copy of this file is usually found in ORACLE_HOME\database directory.

Redo log files

These files should be multiplexed and spread over multiple disk drives. The default location for these files is ORACLE_HOME\database. You need at least two redo logs for Oracle to work.

Archive log files


These files should be duplexed and contain information from the redo logs. They must not reside on the same disk as the redo logs. The default location for the archive logs is ORACLE_HOME\database/archive.

V$ views


Here is a list of all the V$ views:
  1. V$SGA
  2. V$INSTANCE
  3. V$PROCESS
  4. V$DATABASE
  5. V$DATAFILE
  6. V$LOG
  7. V$LOGFILE
  8. V$LOG_HISTORY
  9. V$CONTROLFILE

The next lesson wraps up the module.