Beginning Oracle Database 11g Administration From Novice to Professional

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CHAPTER 6 DATABASE CREATION
The Welcome Screen
As the welcome screen indicates, DBCA can be used to create a database, reconfigure
an existing database, delete a database, and manage database templates. A database
template is a copy of all the settings that were used to create a previous database. I recommend
that you save the settings of every database that you create; this makes it easy
to create another database with the same settings. Another good idea is to create an organizational
standard and use it for all your databases. For convenience, Oracle provides
three database templates, but they are not suitable for anything more than a starter database—for
example, redo logs are not mirrored—and some customization is necessary.
Click the Next button on the welcome screen to go to Step 1: Operations.
Tip Every DBCA screen sports a Help button which you can use to display information on how to use the
screen.
Step 1: Operations
Figure 6-8 shows the screen for Step 1: Operations. Here you select the operation that
you want to perform. The only option that needs a little explanation is Configure Automatic
Storage Management. Automatic Storage Management (ASM) is an advanced
Oracle technology for disk management. It replaces traditional volume managers and is
most useful in high-end systems with hundreds of disks; it is also typically used in a Real
Application Clusters (RAC) configuration. I will not be discussing ASM in this book; more
information on this topic can be found in the references listed at the end of this chapter.