Optimal Flexible Architecture
- /oracle: The top-level directory is called the Oracle Base directory. On UNIX systems, the ORACLE_BASE environment variable will point to this. Windows uses a registry entry named ORACLE_BASE to point to this directory.
- product: Software for Oracle products is installed under this directory.
- 815: Multiple releases of Oracle may be installed on the same machine. The first three digits of the release number form the directory name. This directory contains the Oraclei 8.1.5 release. Using separate directories for each release enables you to install a new release, or delete an old one, without affecting the others. These directories are referred to as Oracle Homes.
- 734: This directory would contain the 7.3.4 release of Oracle, and would also contain subdirectories named bin, rdbms, orainst, and soforth.
- bin, rdbms, orainst, etc.: A number of different directories are used to contain various elements of the Oracle database software.
- admin: This directory tree contains administrative files such as scripts, parameter files, and database alert logs.
- prod, devl, test: Each Oracle database gets its own subdirectory underneath the admin directory.
- pfile: Contains parameter files for the prod database.
- create: Contains database creation scripts for the prod database.
- bdump: Contains the alert log and trace files for the prod database.
- data: Under UNIX, you can place all the mount points used for data files under the data directory. Not all sites do this however. Under Windows you cannot do it at all, because that would force you to put all database files on the same physical disk.
- ora01, ora02: Mount points used for database files are usually numbered, and are also named to make it obvious that they contain Oracle database files.
- prod: This directory contains files for the production database.
- devl: This directory contains files for the development database.
- test: This directory contains files for the test database.
Overview of the Optimal Flexible Architecture Standard
All Oracle components on the installation media are compliant with Optimal Flexible Architecture, which means that Oracle Universal Installer places
Oracle Database components in directory locations that follow Optimal Flexible Architecture guidelines. Although using Optimal Flexible Architecture is not a requirement, Oracle recommends that you use it if the database will grow in size, or if you plan to have multiple databases.
Implementing Optimal Flexible Architecture
This section describes the naming strategy recommended by the Optimal Flexible Architecture standard. It contains the following sections:Number of File Systems
To fully implement the Optimal Flexible Architecture recommendations for a database stored on file systems that are not striped or mirrored, you require at least three file systems located on separate physical devices.
Naming Conventions
Name all file system mount points using the syntax /pm, where p is a string constant and m is a unique fixed-length key (typically a two-digit number) used to distinguish each mount point.For example: /u01 and /u02, or /disk01 and /disk02.
Naming Directories
The following sections describe the naming conventions for directories that are compliant with the Optimal Flexible Architecture standard:
Oracle Base Directory Naming Convention
The Oracle Base directory is the top level directory that you can use to install the various oracle software products. You can use the same Oracle base directory for more than one installation.
If different operating system users install Oracle software on the same system, then each user must create a separate Oracle base directory. Name Oracle base directories using the syntax /pm/s/u. Table 6-3 describes the variables used in this syntax.
Table 6-3: Syntax for Naming Oracle Base Directories
| Variable | Description |
| pm | A mount point name |
| s | A standard directory name |
| u | The name of the owner of the directory (the user running Oracle Universal Installer) |
