Personal Oracle7 is a version of the Oracle7 database and it is currently available in the following editions:
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.
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 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.
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 |
| |||||
Database |
Oracle7 Database |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Distributed Options |
Database links, distributed | ||||
queries and updates, read-only |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No | |
snapshots | |||||
Symmetric Replication |
Updatable snapshots |
Yes |
NA |
NA |
Yes |
| |||||
Database Manager |
Startup and shutdown with |
NA |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
customized initialization parameters | |||||
User Manager |
Create and manage user accounts, |
NA |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
roles, and privileges | |||||
Object Manager |
Create and manage database |
NA |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
objects | |||||
Session Manager |
View and kill user sessions |
NA |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Database Expander |
Expand the size of your database |
NA |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Password Manager |
Change the database password |
NA |
Yes |
NA |
Yes |
Navigator |
Database tool |
Yes |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| |||||
Backup Manager |
Back up your Oracle7 database |
NA |
Yes |
NA |
NA |
Recovery Manager |
Recover your Oracle7 database |
NA |
Yes |
NA |
NA |
| |||||
Export |
Export your Oracle7 database to an |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
export file | |||||
Import |
Import data into your Oracle7 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
database from an export file | |||||
SQL*Loader |
Load data from other data source |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
into your Oracle7 database | |||||
| |||||
PL/SQL |
Oracle procedural language |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
extension to SQL | |||||
SQL*DBA |
Administer the database, including |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
areas that cannot be managed with the | |||||
database administration tools | |||||
SQL*Plus |
A command language interface |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
enables you to execute SQL and | |||||
PL/SQL commands and scripts | |||||
| |||||
SQL*Net |
Oracle network interface to enable |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
clients to connect to and access the | |||||
Oracle7 database | |||||
| |||||
Oracle Objects for |
Visual Basic Customer Control and |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
NA |
OLE |
a C++ class library | ||||
Oracle7 ODBC Driver |
Enables other database applications |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
NA |
to work with Oracle7 database | |||||
Online Documentation |
Most of the documentation is |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
available online and in help format |
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.
This section describes the minimum hardware requirements for installing and running Personal Oracle7.
This section describes the minimum software requirements for installing and running Personal Oracle7.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
This section describes the characteristics of the Database Exporter, Database Importer, and SQL*Loader utilities. It also provides several tips for using these utilities.
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.
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.
Personal Oracle7 includes the following SQL products:
The SQL products are discussed in detail in Chapters 5 to 7.
This section describes the additional components that are included with Personal Oracle7: Oracle Objects for OLE and Oracle7 ODBC driver.
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.
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:
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.
This section describes the database options that are available in Personal Oracle7. It includes the distributed options and Symmetric Replication option.
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 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 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.
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.
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.