Oracle® Database

6.1 New Oracle C++ Call Interface Libraries Available for Windows

New Oracle C++ Call Interface (OCCI) libraries are available for Microsoft CRT debugging and for developing applications with Microsoft Visual C++ 7.0 .NET 2002 and Microsoft Visual C++ 7.1 .NET 2003.

7.1 RADIUS Adapter

Oracle Advanced Security supports RADIUS-compliant servers and authentication devices. As in prior releases, RSA ACE/Server and tokens can authenticate Oracle users only through the RADIUS adapter.

In this release, the CHAP (challenge-response) mode has been disabled for Windows, so the challenge-response default interface does not function.

7.2 Central Configuration of RAC Disabled on Windows

The option for configuring central management is not available during RAC installation on Windows. Also not supported on Windows is the use of standalone Enterprise Manager Configuration Assistant or Database Configuration Assistant to configure central management for RAC.

If you want central management for the installed RAC database, then you will have to discover the RAC database target manually from Grid Control after the installation.

10.1 Installation on Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4

Oracle Universal Installer may appear and then disappear on Windows 2000 with Service pack 4. This is because of an underlying JRE bug. There are three workarounds, depending on what you are installing.

For an Enterprise Manager Grid Control installation, run

install\setup.exe -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true

For an Oracle Database installation, run

install\setup.exe -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true

For a Cluster Ready Services installation, run

install\setup.exe -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true 
-Doracle.installer.formCluster=true 

10.2 User Threads

Oracle Database Platform Guide for Windows discusses "User Threads", a new feature of Oracle Database for Windows. This new feature is available in the 64-bit version of Oracle Database, which Oracle plans to release at a later date. It is not available in the current 32-bit release of Oracle Database for Windows.

10.3 Readme Text Files

Some Readme text files contain Unix line breaks. If you simply double-click these files, they will open in Notepad by default, and Notepad does not recognize Unix line breaks. Use write.exe or edit.com instead.

10.4 ORADIM

The Enterprise Database Control service (OracleDBConsoleSID) is dependent on the Oracle Database service (OracleServiceSID). You need to stop the dependent Enterprise Database Control service (if installed) before running ORADIM to delete the database instance or stop the database instance service.

10.5 Error When Deinstalling Cloned Database

If you install Oracle Database 10g on a Windows computer, copy the Oracle home to a second computer, clone the database on the second computer, and then try to deinstall the cloned Oracle home using Oracle Universal Installer, you get the following errors:

isqlplussrv:
Failed to stop the service, Error:997, Overlapped I/O operation is in
progress

isqlplussvc:
CNTService::Uninstall, Failed call to OpenService, Error:1060, The specified 
service does not exist as an installed service.

The problem is that the iSQL*Plus service was never installed, so an attempt to stop a non-existent service gives these errors. Before attempting to deinstall the cloned Oracle home, you need to issue the following command:

%CLONED_ORACLE_HOME%\bin\isqlplusctl start

10.6 SRVCTL Arguments with Comma-Separated Lists

Any SRVCTL arguments that accept comma-separated lists must be enclosed in quotes. So for example:

srvctl status instance -d mydb -i inst1,inst2 

will return the error

PRKO-2002 : Invalid command line option: inst2 

Instead, the instance list should be quoted to protect the commas:

srvctl status instance -d mydb -i "inst1,inst2"

10.7 Oracle Net Configuration Assistant and Active Directory

If you use Oracle Net Configuration Assistant to complete directory access configuration with Active Directory, and the Active Directory server already has an Oracle Context, then select the following non-default radio button:

• Select the directory server you want to use, and configure the directory server for Oracle usage. (Create or upgrade Oracle Schema and Oracle Context as necessary.)

Oracle Net Configuration Assistant will report that the Oracle Context does not exist. Ignore this and choose to create the Oracle Context anyway. Directory access configuration will complete without trying to re-create the existing Oracle Context.

10.8 Oracle Net Manager and Active Directory

If you use Oracle Net Manager with Active Directory for creating and managing net service names from this release, then partial net service names are created. Oracle recommends that you not use Oracle Net Manager with Active Directory.

If you are already using Active Directory from a previous Oracle release, then you can continue to use Oracle Net Manager from that release to create net service names in Active Directory for Oracle Database 10g databases.

10.9 Stop Database Control Service Before Deinstalling

If you want to deinstall Oracle software or delete Database Control configuration, then Oracle recommends that you first stop the Database Control service (named OracleDBControlSID). This assures complete deconfiguration of Database Control. For Real Application Clusters databases, the Database Control service should be stopped on each node in the cluster.

Not doing so will not fail the deinstallation, but you might encounter Enterprise Manager configuration directories that are not cleaned up after deinstallation. This is because some processes are holding handlers to Enterprise Manager configuration files if processes are not shut down completely.

If you encounter errors when deconfiguring Enterprise Manager, then you can manually delete the following Enterprise Manager configuration directories:

• ORACLE_HOME\HOSTNAME_SID

• ORACLE_HOME\oc4j\j2ee\OC4J_DBConsole_HOSTNAME_SID

The same problem may occur when running Enterprise Manager Configuration Assistant in standalone mode to remove Enterprise Manager configuration without removing the database (emca.bat -x). The same solution should be applied if this problem is encountered.

10.10 Switching Between Database Control and Grid Control

If you want to switch between Database Control and Grid control, then Oracle recommends that you remove the previous configuration before switching to a different mode. For example, if you initially have Database Control configured, then in order to switch to Grid control using Enterprise Manager Configuration Assistant in standalone mode (emca.bat -m), you must first run emca.bat -x to remove Database Control configuration and then run emca.bat -m to switch to Grid control configuration.

10.11 Multiple Network Interface Cards

If you have public and private network interface cards (NICs) on a single Windows computer and they are not in the correct order, then you might experience problems with any configuration (Oracle Enterprise Manager, for example) that uses gethostname.

If the private NIC is seen first by Windows, then a gethostname call will return the hostname of the private interconnect. Whichever tool is calling gethostname will have configuration or connectivity problems stemming from this non-public network information.

On a Windows 2000 computer, you can determine the current order of your NICs, and change it if necessary, as follows:

1. Choose Start > Settings > Network and Dial-up Connections.

2. Choose Advanced > Advanced Settings.

3. The Connections: field lists your public and private Local Area Connections. To change the order in which Windows accesses them, select one of them and click on the Arrow buttons to move it up or down.

4. When the public and private NICs are in the order you want, click OK.

5. The change in priority takes effect immediately. Restarting your computer is not necessary.

10.12 Cluster Ready Services and Network Connection Names

Cluster Ready Services installation requires that you specify the attribute (private network for cluster communications or public network for clients) for each network adapter on the system. If the connection names are not in English, then Oracle Universal Installer might not recognize them.

The workaround for this problem is changing the connection names to ASCII names before Cluster Ready Services installation. On a Windows 2000 computer, perform the following steps:

1. Choose Start > Settings > Network and Dial-up Connections.

2. Right-click each Local Area Connection and select Rename.

3. Change each name to an ASCII string.

4. Close Network and Dial-up Connections.

10.13 PGA Memory Usage Details in Oracle Enterprise Manager

The PGA Memory Usage Details page (under Administration > Instance:Memory Parameters > PGA) will show garbled characters when the product is run in a multi-byte (Asian) language environment. The only workaround currently available is to run the product in a single-byte Western European language when you need to view this page.

10.14 Quick Tour Not Available in Oracle Change Management Pack

Quick Tour is not available in Oracle Change Management Pack. If you try to run it, then an error results.

10.15 Error When Viewing Period SQL Execution Plan in Korean

Viewing the execution plan of a Period SQL in Korean causes an internal server error. This problem is unique to Korean; it does not reproduce in Japanese or Chinese. The only workaround currently available is to run the product in a non-Korean language when you need to view this page.

10.16 NTS Authentication Failure with .NET Remote Objects

If NTS authentication is used with an Oracle client as a .NET remote object impersonating a user credential, then NTS authentication will fail with the error ora-12638 Credential Retrieval Failed. This happens due to the failure of the Windows API AcquireCredentialsHandle() in the NTS adapter inside the .NET remote object. Refer to OracleMetalink for more details.

10.17 Errors During Cluster Ready Services Deinstallation

When deinstalling Cluster Ready Services, you might see multiple windows appear with the message "oldnodes.exe - unable to locate dll the dynamic link library oran10.dll could not be found in the specified path". Ignore these errors and continue.

10.18 Shortcut Not Removed After Cluster Ready Services Deinstallation on Deleted Node

If you deinstall Cluster Ready Services from a different node (remote node) than the node from which the install was performed (local node), then its shortcut on the Start menu might not be removed. You can manually delete the shortcut by right-clicking on it and selecting Delete.

10.19 Oracle Wallet Manager Missing from the Start Menu

After installing Oracle Database 10g Companion Products, Oracle Wallet Manager is not available from the Start menu. Use commands similar to the following to start Oracle Wallet Manager:

x:\ cd ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\bin
x:\ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\bin launch.exe ORACLE_HOME\bin owm.cl

10.20 Upgrading a Database

If you choose the custom install path and have previous versions of Oracle databases installed, then Oracle Universal Installer displays the option to upgrade the previous databases. If you choose to upgrade an existing database, then Oracle Universal Installer displays another dialog asking if you want to create a starter database.

Database Upgrade Assistant upgrades the older version of the database to 10g release 1 (10.1) at the end of installation. Oracle Universal Installer does not create a new database.

11.1 Globalization Support

The instructions documented in the "Using Oracle9i Database Language and Territory Definition Files with Oracle Database 10g" section of the 10g release 1 (10.1) Database README, related to the ORA_NLS10 environment variable are not correct. This is because the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\nls\data\old directory contains the definitions files which have changed in Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1) only, and not the complete set of the database locale definition files. To switch back to the Oracle 9i definitions, you need to first copy the content of ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\nls\data into a new directory (ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\nls\data\9i for example); next, populate this directory with the content from ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\nls\data\old. Now you can set your ORA_NLS10 variable to point to this new directory.

Please refer to the Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide and the README for more information regarding the changes in the Language and Territory definition files between Oracle9i database and Oracle Database 10g.

11.2 Grid Features

Oracle Database New Features for Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1) lists two Grid features that are not available in the first release of Oracle Database 10g, Resonance and Transparent Session Migration. These features will be available in an upcoming release.

11.3 Full-Text Searching with Oracle Text

For full-text searching with Oracle Text, you must create XML tables manually.

If you will need to use Oracle Text indexes for text-based ora:contains searches over a collection of XML elements, then do not use XML schema annotation storeVarrayAsTable="true". This annotation causes element collections to be persisted as rows in an Index Organized Table (IOT). Oracle Text does not support IOTs.

To be able to use Oracle Text to search the contents of element collections, set parameter genTables="false" during schema registration. Then create the necessary tables manually, without using the clause ORGANIZATION INDEX OVERFLOW. The tables will then be heap-organized instead of index-organized (IOT), as shown in Example 1.

CREATE TABLE PurchaseOrder of XMLTYPE
  XMLSCHEMA http://localhost:8080/home/SCOTT/poSource/xsd/purchaseOrder.xsd
  ELEMENT "PurchaseOrder"
  VARRAY "XMLDATA"."ACTIONS"."ACTION"
    STORE AS TABLE ACTION_TABLE ((PRIMARY KEY 
      (NESTED_TABLE_ID, ARRAY_INDEX)))
  VARRAY "XMLDATA"."LINEITEMS"."LINEITEM"
    STORE AS TABLE LINEITEM_TABLE ((PRIMARY KEY 
      (NESTED_TABLE_ID, ARRAY_INDEX)));

11.4 View Descriptions

Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide, Chapter 10, "Instance Tuning Using Performance Views", has two incorrect view descriptions. The view names and correct descriptions are as follows:

• V$EVENT_HISTOGRAM

  The V$EVENT_HISTOGRAM view displays a histogram of the number of waits, the maximum wait, and total wait time on an event basis.

• V$SYSTEM_WAIT_CLASS

  The V$SYSTEM_WAIT_CLASS view provides the instance wide time totals for the number of waits and the time spent in each class of wait events. [This description removes the reference to object number.]

11.5 Configuring Management Service Processes

In Oracle High Availability Architecture and Best Practices, Chapter 8, "Using Enterprise Manager for Monitoring and Detection", the section "Configure At Least Two Service Processes and Load Balance Them" should read as follows:

For the middle tier, the baseline recommendation is to have a minimum of two Management Service processes, using a hardware server load balancer to mask the location of an individual Management Service process and a failure of any individual component. This provides immediate coverage for a single failure in the most critical components in the Enterprise Manager architecture with little interruption of service for all systems monitored using Enterprise Manager. Management Service processes connect to the repository instances using Oracle Net.

11.6 Monolingual Linguistic Sorting

In Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide, Chapter 5, "Linguistic Sorting and String Searching", the section called "Monolingual Linguistic Sorts" should end with the following note:

Monolingual linguistic sorting is not available for non-Unicode multibyte database character sets. If a monolingual linguistic sort is specified when the database character set is non-Unicode multibyte, then the default sort order is the binary sort order of the database character set. One exception is UNICODE_BINARY. This sort is available for all character sets.

11.7 Windows Terminal Services and Remote Desktop Connection Support

Oracle supports both installation and runtime for Windows Terminal Services (also known as Remote Desktop Connection in Windows XP). Disregard limitations on such support that appear in:

• Oracle Database Installation Guide for Windows

• Oracle Database Client Installation Guide for Windows

• Oracle Database Companion CD Installation Guide for Windows

• Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation and Configuration Guide

12.1 Adding and Deleting Nodes and Instances

This section describes changes to the node addition and deletion procedures in Oracle Real Application Clusters Administrator's Guide, part number B10765-01.

12.2 Real Application Clusters Services Deployment Example

The following two sections that describe shadow events and high availability callouts with Oracle Notification Services (ONS) events are supplements for Appendix A, "Services Deployment Example", in Oracle Real Application Clusters Deployment and Performance Guide, part number B10768-01.

SRV_PRECONNECT VERSION=1.0 service=[db_unique_name.db_domain] 
database=[database name] instance=[instance name] host=[host name] 
status=preconn_up reason=timestamp=27-Jan-2004 16:53:58 
reported=Tue Jan 27 16:53:59 PST 2004 
SRV_PRECONNECT VERSION=1.0 service=[db_unique_name.db_domain]
database=RACEY  instance=[instance name] host=[host name] 
status=preconn_down reason=timestamp=27-Jan-2004 16:58:01
reported=Tue Jan 27 16:58:02 PST 2004

@ SRV_PRECONNECT VERSION=1.0 service=MYSERV.us.oracle.com 
database=RACEY instance=RACEY1 host=sun880-1 status=preconn_up 
reason=timestamp=27-Jan-2004 16:53:58 
reported=Tue Jan 27 16:53:59 PST 2004 

@ SRV_PRECONNECT VERSION=1.0 service=MYSERV.us.oracle.com
database=RACEY instance=RACEY1 host=sun880-1 status=preconn_down 
reason=timestamp=27-Jan-2004 16:58:01
reported=Tue Jan 27 16:58:02 PST 2004

sys_context('userenv', 'instance_name');
sys_context('userenv', 'server_host');
sys_context('userenv', 'service_name');
sys_context('userenv', 'db_unique_name');

12.3 Installing Real Application Clusters

After installing Cluster Ready Services on a system that also contains an Oracle9i Real Application Clusters, reboot all of the newly installed Oracle Database 10g release 1 (10.1) cluster member nodes. You can reboot one node at a time so that availability of the Oracle9i databases is not disrupted.

12.4 Upgrading Real Application Clusters

Database Upgrade Assistant does not support a direct upgrade of Oracle Parallel Server version 8.1.7 databases to Oracle Database 10g with RAC.

First upgrade the Oracle Parallel Server database to Oracle Real Application Clusters Oracle9i release 2 (9.2), and then upgrade it to Oracle Database 10g with RAC.

12.5 Deleting an Instance When Archiving is Enabled

The following error displays when archiving is enabled for a RAC database and you try to delete an instance using Database Configuration Assistant:

00350, 00000, "log %s of instance %s (thread %s) needs to be archived"
//*Cause: The command cannot be done because the log has not been archived,
//          and media recovery has been enabled.
//*Action: Archive the log or disable media recovery. If the command supports
//          an UNARCHIVED option then it can be used. However this may result
//          in making backups unuseable, and forcing the drop of some offline
//          files.

Workaround: Click Ignore and continue with the instance deletion. After the instance is deleted, perform the following steps:

1. Find out thread number and redo group numbers for the instance you just deleted by looking in the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_BASE\admin\DB_NAME\bdump\alert_SID.log file.

2. From the node where you ran Database Configuration Assistant, connect to the database:

   c:\> sqlplus /nolog
   sqlplus> connect " / AS SYSDBA"
   
   

3. Archive the current redo logs for the disabled thread.

   SQL> alter system archive log thread threadNum current;
   
   

4. Drop the redo group log files for all groups associated with the thread number.

   SQL> alter database drop logfile group groupNum; 
   
   

5. If you are not using Oracle Managed Files or raw devices, then delete the redo log files.

12.6 Multiple Instances of a RAC Database on a Particular Node

When two or more instances of a RAC database are installed on a particular node, the port numbers for Enterprise Manager Database Control (HTTP, RMI, and JMS ports) and Enterprise Manager Agent (HTTP port) are not unique.

Perform the following steps to assign unique ports:

1. Back up all files before making modifications.

2. Stop the OracleDBConsoleSID service.

3. Follow the steps in "Changing the Oracle Management Service Port" in the Database Control README.

4. Follow the steps in "Changing the agent port for an agent monitoring cluster targets" in the Database Control README. to update the emd.properties file.

   
   

   Note: The emd.properties file can exist in three different locations: Database Control installation: ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\HOST_SID\sysman\config\emd.properties RAC Central Agent installation: ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\HOST\sysman\config\emd.properties Regular Central Agent installation: ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\sysman\config\emd.properties

5. Change the rmi-server port value in ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\oc4j\j2ee\OC4J_DBConsole_HOST_SID\config\rmi.xml file.

6. Change the jms-server port value in theORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\oc4j\j2ee\OC4J_DBConsole_HOST_SID\config\jms.xml file.

7. Start the OracleDBConsoleSID service.

12.7 Adding a Node on a Shared Oracle Home

If you are using Oracle Universal Installer to add a node on a Shared Oracle Home, then an error similar to the following may appear but can be ignored:

Alert: The following file(s) have been modified on the disk:
y:\oracle\ra\inventory\ContentsXML\comps.xml y:\oracle\rac\inventory
\ContentsXML\libs.xml
Proceeding with the installation may corrupt some important data. You should stop this session and restart OUI. Do you want to stop this session now?

Ignore this error; click NO and continue.