• 56
• Personal Oracle7
• Overview of Personal Oracle7
• Personal Oracle7 Components
• System Requirements
• Hardware Requirements
• Software Requirements
• Database Administration Tools
• Database Manager
• Database Password Manager for Windows
• The User Manager
• The Object Manager
• The Session Manager
• The Database Expander
• Personal Oracle7 Navigator for Windows 95
• Database Backup and Recovery Tools
• The Backup Manager
• The Recovery Manager
• The Export, Import, and SQL*Loader Utilities
• The Database Exporter and Database Importer
• SQL*Loader
• SQL Products
• Middleware
• Oracle Objects for OLE
• Oracle7 ODBC Driver
• Personal Oracle7 Database Options and Networking Software
• Distributed Options
• The Symmetric Replication Option
• SQL*Net and Network Manager
• When To Use Personal Oracle7
• Summary

56

Personal Oracle7

Personal Oracle7 is a version of the Oracle7 database and it is currently available in the following editions:

• Personal Oracle7 for Windows 95
  
  
• Personal Oracle7 for Microsoft Windows
  
  
• Personal Oracle7 for OS/2
  
  
• Personal Oracle7 for Power Macintosh
  
  

Currently, you can download the 90-day free trial software from the Oracle World Wide Web server at http://www.oracle.com. Personal Oracle7 is bundled with a set of Oracle database administration tools or the Personal Oracle7 Navigator for Windows 95, Oracle backup and recovery tools, Oracle utilities, Oracle Objects for OLE, Oracle7 ODBC driver, and Oracle online documentation.

This chapter presents the overview of Personal Oracle7, the system requirements for installing Personal Oracle7, and how it differs from other Oracle packages. It also introduces you to the major components of Personal Oracle7.

Although Personal Oracle7 shares many features with the Oracle7 Server, which functions as a database server and supports a large number of clients, Personal Oracle7 is designed for a single user or developer. This chapter explains when using Personal Oracle7 is appropriate and how Personal Oracle7 meets your business and technical needs.

Overview of Personal Oracle7

Oracle7 runs on many operating systems and it scales well on a wide range of hardware platforms, including personal computers, Macintosh, workstations, midrange computers, and mainframe computers. Personal Oracle7 is a single-user database, and it is designed for users who want to use or to develop Oracle7 database on Windows 95, Microsoft Windows, OS/2, or Power Macintosh. It supports up to 25 concurrent database sessions, but it is not designed to be a database server. The scalability of Oracle7 enables developers to port their applications developed on Personal Oracle7 to other operating systems on different hardware platforms.

Personal Oracle7 Components

Personal Oracle7 includes the Oracle7 database, Oracle database tools, Oracle utilities, SQL products, Oracle Objects for OLE, Oracle7 ODBC driver, Oracle networking software, SQL*Net version 1 and version 2, and online documentation. Personal Oracle7 for Windows 95 includes the Personal Oracle7 Navigator, which replaces a portion of the Oracle database tools, such as the Database Manager. The current major components of Personal Oracle7 are summarized in Table 56.1. For additional information about the Personal Oracle7 components, please refer to your Personal Oracle7 Installation and User's Guide.

Table 56.1. Personal Oracle7 Components.

Components

Descriptions

Personal Oracle7 for Windows 95

Personal Oracle 7 for MS Windows

Personal Oracle 7 for OS/2

Personal Oracle 7 for Power Macintosh

System Requirements

Before you install Personal Oracle7, make sure that your system meets the following minimum hardware and software requirements. Refer to your Personal Oracle7 Installation and User's Guide for additional information on how to determine your system requirements. This section also gives you several tips on installing and using Personal Oracle7.

Hardware Requirements

This section describes the minimum hardware requirements for installing and running Personal Oracle7.

• A 486-based (or higher) IBM, COMPAQ, 100-percent compatible PC, or a Power Macintosh computer.
  
  
• A minimum of 16MB of RAM; 32MB is recommended.
  
  

• A minimum of 50MB of free disk space. Certain Personal Oracle7 installation options might require additional free disk space.
  
  
• Access to a CD-ROM drive (local or network) from your PC. A CD-ROM drive is not required if you download the software from the Web site.
  
  
• A compatible network interface card (NIC) for Oracle products to communicate with each other over a network through SQL*Net. If you are not planning to connect to Oracle products over a network, you may not need the NIC.
  
  

Software Requirements

This section describes the minimum software requirements for installing and running Personal Oracle7.

• Personal Oracle7 for Windows 95 requires Microsoft Windows 95.
  
  Personal Oracle7 for Windows requires Microsoft Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11.
  
  Personal Oracle7 for OS/2 requires IBM OS/2 version 2.1 or IBM OS/2 Warp version 3.
  
  Personal Oracle7 for Power Macintosh requires Macintosh operating system version 7.5 or greater.
  
  

• Personal Oracle7 for Windows requires Microsoft Win32s, which is included on the Personal Oracle7 for Windows CD-ROM (both editions). Win32s is Microsoft's 32-bit extension to Microsoft Windows 3.1. Because Personal Oracle7 is a 32-bit database, you need to install Win32s first and make sure it is working properly before you install Personal Oracle7 for Windows.
  
  

If you experience the stack overflow error, the follow steps might help you resolve it:

You might need to change STACKS=9,256
to STACKS=36,256 in the CONFIG.SYS
file.

Certain display drivers, such as
STBVISN.DRV, might not be compatible
with Win32s and might cause stack
overflow errors. Replacing the display
driver might solve the problem.

• Network transport protocol software (Named Pipes, SPX, TCP/IP, or AppleTalk), which is required to be supported by Oracle SQL*Net version 1 or version 2 if you are planning to connect to Oracle products through SQL*Net.
  
  

Database Administration Tools

This section introduces you to the database administration tools of the Personal Oracle7. These graphical database tools enable you to perform the common database administration tasks and to maintain and customize your database. For step-by-step instructions on how to use the database administration tools, please refer to your Personal Oracle7 Installation and User's Guide and the Oracle Database Tools User's Guide.

Database Manager

The Database Manager enables you to start or shut down the database, check the status of the database, customize the database configurations, and modify aliases for the database. Figure 56.1 shows the Oracle Database Manager dialog box.

Figure 56.1. The Oracle Database Manager dialog box.

Before you select any dialog element in the Database Manager, you want to make sure the Database dialog box contains a correct database name and the Configuration dialog box shows the appropriate configuration name for the database you have selected. The database name for the local Personal Oracle7 database is 2: (the number two followed by a colon). You can assign a database alias for it. You can also select a remote database name.

A configuration is equivalent to an initialization parameter file. Therefore, if you modify any initialization parameter using the Configure dialog box, then you need to make the same change in your initialization parameter file if you are going to use SQL*DBA to start or shut down your database. When you use the Configure dialog box to customize and set the initialization parameters, the changes are saved in VS10.INI. The Database Manager uses both the built-in (VSP10.INI) and user-defined (VS10.INI) configurations.

Database Password Manager for Windows

The Database Password Manager enables you to change the database password to protect your database. The database password is the same as the password for INTERNAL. The default database password is ORACLE in Personal Oracle7 for Windows. The initial database password in Personal Oracle7 for OS/2 is assigned by you during the installation.

Shut down the database before you use the Password Manager to change the database password. Otherwise, you will not be able to shut down the database from the Database Manager because the database will not accept any password. If your database is started up with an initialization parameter REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE=SHARED in the configuration, you can change the database password while the database is up.

The User Manager

The User Manager enables you to create and delete user accounts and roles, grant user and role privileges, and change a user's password.

When you create a new user using the User Manager, the default tablespace for the new user is USER_DATA and the temporary tablespace is TEMPORARY_DATA. If any one of the tablespaces does not exist, you will receive a warning dialog box. If you select OK to continue, the User Manager will use the SYSTEM tablespace. The workaround is to use SQL*DBA to create new users by specifying a default tablespace and a temporary tablespace in the CREATE USER statement for each new user.

The Object Manager

The Object Manager enables you to create and modify database objects, including tables, indexes, synonyms, database links, views, and snapshots. You can also use the Object Manager to grant object privileges to users or roles.

The Session Manager

The Session Manager enables you to view all the sessions, the session IDs, serial number, and the status of each connected session. The Session Manager also enables you to disconnect or terminate sessions.

The Database Expander

When the database is 75 percent full, you should expand the database. The Database Expander enables you to view the current free and used space in each tablespace. After you select a tablespace that you need to expand, you can input the size (in KB) you want to add and click the Expand button to expand the tablespace. In Personal Oracle7 for Windows, the Database Expander adds a new data file in the \ORAWIN\BIN directory. However, the original data files are stored in the \ORAWIN\DBS directory. For the Database Expander to add new data files in the \ORAWIN\DBS directory, you can change the working directory of the Database Expander to \ORAWIN\DBS in the Properties option of the Database Expander icon.

Personal Oracle7 Navigator for Windows 95

The Personal Oracle7 Navigator for Window 95 enables you to access all of your projects, database connections, and database objects. It functions like the database administration tools and enables you to create, modify, and delete database objects. You can create a new project and administer the database using the Oracle7 Navigator menu bar or the Oracle7 Navigator toolbar. Figure 56.2 shows the Personal Oracle7 Navigator dialog box.

Figure 56.2. The Personal Oracle7 Navigator dialog box.

Database Backup and Recovery Tools

This section gives an overview of the Backup Manager and the Recovery Manager for Windows. For instructions on using these tools, refer to your Personal Oracle7 Installation and User's Guide and the Oracle Database Tools User's Guide.

The Backup Manager

The Backup Manager enables you to do an online (hot) backup of a selected tablespace and the control file and an offline (cold) backup of the entire database to a tape or selected directory. The Online - Selected Tablespace option is available only when the database is running and in ARCHIVELOG mode.

The Recovery Manager

After a database failure, you can use the Recovery Manager to recover your database. The Recovery Manager enables you to do Automatic Recovery, Restore from full database backup, Restore data file, and then do recovery, or Restore control file, and then do recovery.

The Export, Import, and SQL*Loader Utilities

This section describes the characteristics of the Database Exporter, Database Importer, and SQL*Loader utilities. It also provides several tips for using these utilities.

The Database Exporter and Database Importer

When you want to move data between Oracle databases, you can use the Database Exporter to export tables, users, or the full database to a transportable file. Then, you can use the Database Importer to read data from the transportable file back into an Oracle database. This transportable file can be used as a database backup. These export and import utilities are available for various platforms. That means the transportable file generated by the Database Exporter from the Windows environment could be used to import the data into an Oracle7 database in another platform.

SQL*Loader

The SQL*Loader utility enables you to load data from external files in ASCII format into Oracle database tables. Before using the SQL*Loader utility, you might need to create a SQL*Loader control file, which is used by the SQL*Loader utility to interpret the data file.

SQL Products

Personal Oracle7 includes the following SQL products:

• PL/SQL. Procedural Language/Structured Query Language is the procedural language extension to SQL.
  
  
• SQL*DBA. The SQL*DBA utility enables you to execute SQL scripts and perform database administration tasks. Certain database administration tasks can only be performed using the SQL*DBA utility. For example, to create a new database, you can use the SQL*DBA utility. Currently, the GUI implementation of SQL*DBA does not support the monitor functions, such as MONITOR SESSION.
  
  

• SQL*Plus. SQL*Plus is a command language interface that enables you to run SQL and PL/SQL scripts and commands.
  
  

The SQL products are discussed in detail in Chapters 5 to 7.

Middleware

This section describes the additional components that are included with Personal Oracle7: Oracle Objects for OLE and Oracle7 ODBC driver.

Oracle Objects for OLE

Oracle Objects for OLE is a set of programmable objects (dynaset objects) that enables you to develop C++, Microsoft Visual Basic, and OLE 2 scripting-enabled applications to access the data of an Oracle database and the advanced Oracle7 features. It supports Borland C++ 4.0 or higher, Microsoft Visual C++ 1.5 or higher, Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0 or higher, Visual Basic for Applications, and any other Windows-based application that supports OLE 2 scripting. Part VIII of this guide gives an overview of Oracle Objects for OLE and discusses the OLE Server and Data Control.

Oracle7 ODBC Driver

The Oracle7 ODBC driver is a program that can function as an interpreter between the ODBC interface and the native interface to an Oracle7 database. It enables the direct access between the ODBC-compliant database applications and the Oracle7 database. For example, the Oracle7 ODBC driver enables you to use Microsoft Access to retrieve and modify data from your Oracle7 database.

Before you use the Oracle7 ODBC driver, you might need to use the ODBC Administrator to configure it properly. The following steps illustrate how to configure the current Oracle7 ODBC driver:

1. Select the ODBC Administrator icon.
   
   
2. In the Data Source dialog box, select the Add button.
   
   
3. In the Add Data Source dialog box, select the appropriate Oracle database version from the Installed ODBC Driver list, and then select OK.
   
   
4. The Oracle7 ODBC Setup dialog box appears on the screen; enter the required information. Figure 56.3 shows the Oracle7 ODBC Setup dialog box.
   
   

Figure 56.3. The Oracle7 ODBC Setup dialog box.

When you access the local Personal Oracle7 database, you can use 2: as the SQL*Net connect string.

Personal Oracle7 Database Options and Networking Software

This section describes the database options that are available in Personal Oracle7. It includes the distributed options and Symmetric Replication option.

Distributed Options

The distributed options enable you to develop and deploy distributed databases. Personal Oracle7 enables you to create database links to access remote databases, create distributed queries to retrieve information from remote databases, do distributed updates to modify data in remote databases, and create read-only table snapshots to replicate data from remote databases.

The Symmetric Replication Option

The Symmetric Replication option supports "update anywhere," which means all copies of data at different sites can be updated and the updates are applied to all other copies. The update can be made at the data level or schema level. The Oracle7 Symmetric Replication option also supports both conflict avoidance and conflict detection and resolution. For more information on symmetric replication, refer to the Oracle7 Server Distributed Systems, Volume II: Replicated Data.

SQL*Net and Network Manager

SQL*Net is the Oracle network interface that enables the clients to connect to the Oracle database servers and enable the connectivity among the Oracle database servers in a distributed environment. The Network Manager is a GUI tool that enables you to create and modify your SQL*Net V2 configurations. Chapter 53 contains additional information about SQL*Net.

When To Use Personal Oracle7

Personal Oracle7 is preconfigured and easy to install, maintain, use, and manage with a set of GUI database tools. If you are an application developer and you develop applications for an Oracle7 database using Windows 95-based, Windows-based, or OS/2-based tools, you can install and run Personal Oracle7 on the same system. Personal Oracle7 is cost-effective because it delivers all the power and functionality of Oracle7 at a lower cost. Personal Oracle7 is appropriate for mobile, on-site, or remote users who require a local database on the same machine.

Summary

This chapter gave you an overview of Personal Oracle7, including system requirements, installation tips, a summary of the major components, and how Personal Oracle7 is different from the Oracle7 Server. The next two chapters introduce you to the Oracle7 Workgroup Server and the Oracle7 Server for the desktop platforms.