Oracle8i Client Administrator's Guide
Release 2 (8.1.6) for Windows
Part Number A73017-01

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Oracle8i Configuration Parameters and the Registry

This appendix describes use of the registry for various Oracle8i Client components. It also lists the recommended values and ranges for configuration parameters.

Specific topics discussed are:

About Configuration Parameters

Oracle8i for Windows NT uses configuration parameters to locate files and specify runtime parameters common to all Oracle products. When an Oracle program or application requires a translation for a particular configuration variable, Oracle8i for Windows NT uses the associated parameter. All Oracle parameters are stored in the registry.

Registry Overview

Oracle8i Client stores its configuration information in a database (the registry) that is organized in a tree format. The tree format consists of keys in the registry and parameter values for the keys. Keys and parameter values can be viewed and modified in the Registry Editor.

Keys are folders that appear in the left pane of a Registry Editor window. A key contains subkeys or parameters.

WARNING:

Although the Registry Editor lets you view and modify registry keys and parameter values, you normally do not need to do so. In fact, you may render your system useless if you make incorrect changes. Therefore, only advanced users should edit the registry! Back up your system before making any changes in the registry. 

Parameters in the Registry Editor appear as a string, consisting of three components:

For example, parameter ORACLE_SID can have the following entry in the registry: 

ORACLE_SID:REG_SZ:ORCL1

Value classes for Oracle8i Client parameters consist of the following:

Registry Parameters

This section describes the Oracle8i Client registry parameters for the following keys. Other products, such as Oracle Enterprise Manager, have additional keys and parameters that are not described in this appendix.

To modify the registry values described below, see "Modifying a Registry Value with REGEDT32".

Note:

This appendix describes how to use REGEDT32 to edit your registry. If you are using Windows 95 or Windows 98, you must use REGEDIT. REGEDIT operates slightly differently than REGEDT32. See your Windows 95 or Windows 98 documentation for instructions. 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\HOMEID

Each time you install Oracle products into a new Oracle home on your computer, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\HOMEID is created and ID is incremented. This subkey contains parameter values for most Oracle products.

See Also:

Chapter 3, "Multiple Oracle Homes and Optimal Flexible Architecture" for details on the PATH variable and registry values when you are working with multiple Oracle homes. 

This figure shows the parameter subkeys created with two Oracle home directories on the same computer.


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\HOMEID includes the following parameters for an Oracle home directory on a computer. Depending on the products you install, additional parameters can also be created.

Parameter  Description  Default Value 

MSHELP_TOOLS  

Specifies the location of the Windows help files. 

ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\MSHELP 

NLS_LANG  

Specifies the supported language, territory, and character set. This parameter specifies the language in which the messages are displayed, the territory and its conventions for calculating week and day numbers, and the character set displayed. 

During installation, Oracle Universal Installer sets this value based on the language setting of the operating system. See Oracle8i Client Installation Guide for Windows for a list of commonly used values.

Note: If this parameter is deleted at a later time, Oracle uses the value AMERICAN_AMERICA.US7ASCII. 

ORA_CWD  

Specifies the current working directory. This parameter must be manually set. For example, if you set this parameter and then use ORADIM, a log file called ORADIM.LOG is created in this directory. 

The value for this parameter must be set manually. 

ORA_SID_AUTOSTART  

Starts the database when the OracleServiceSID service is started. 

TRUE 

ORA_SID_PFILE  

The full path to the initialization parameter file.  

ORACLE_BASE\ADMIN\DB_NAME\PFILE\INIT.ORA 

ORA_SID_ SHUTDOWN  

When set to TRUE, shuts down the Oracle database identified by SID when OracleServiceSID is stopped. 

TRUE 

ORA_SID_
SHUTDOWN_
TIMEOUT  

Sets the maximum time (in seconds) to wait for the shutdown to complete before the service for a particular SID stops. 

30 

ORA_SID_SHUTDOWNTYPE  

The mode in which the database is shut down when you stop OracleServiceSID. The valid values are a (Abort), i (Immediate), and n (Normal). 

i (Immediate) 

ORACLE_AFFINITY  

Specifies the Windows NT processor affinity of the threads within the Oracle process. The format is: 

name1:cpumask1;name2:cpumask2

Each name setting must be the name of a background thread, USER for non-background (shadow) threads, and DEF for any thread type not handled specifically.

The name MASK sets the affinity mask of the Oracle process. Valid background thread names are DBWR, LGWR, PMON, SMON, ARCH, RECO, CKPT, TRWR, SNP0 through SNP9, and P000 through P481.

Each affinity setting must be a valid affinity mask (or its numeric equivalent) for the corresponding name. The process affinity mask is used only when the Oracle service is first started. Each thread's affinity is set only when the individual thread is started (for example, at database startup time for the background threads).

Note: This parameter must be manually added. 

The value for this parameter must be set manually. Oracle Corporation recommends consulting Oracle Support Services before changing this parameter. 

ORACLE_BASE  

The top-level Oracle directory (for example, C:\ORACLE) that contains ORACLE_HOME, \ADMIN, and \ORADATA. 

ORACLE_BASE 

ORACLE_GROUP_
NAME  

Specifies the name of the group containing icons of the Oracle products installed. The parameter is added to your registry when you first install Oracle products, even if Oracle Universal Installer does not create a program group for the Oracle products you have installed (for example, if you have installed only Net8 software). 

Oracle - HOME_NAME 

ORACLE_HOME  

Specifies the Oracle home directory in which Oracle products are installed. This directory is immediately beneath the Oracle base directory in the Oracle directory hierarchy.  

The drive letter and name that you specify during installation 

ORACLE_HOME_KEY  

The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE location of Oracle parameters. 

SOFTWARE\ORACLE\HOMEID 

ORACLE_HOME_ NAME  

Specifies the home name of the Oracle home directory in which Oracle products are installed.  

The name that you specify during installation 

ORACLE_PRIORITY  

Determines the Windows NT scheduling priorities of the threads within the Oracle ORDBMS or DBMS process. The format is: 

name1:priority1;name2:priority2 . . .
 

CLASS:normal; DEF:normal

The name CLASS sets the priority class of the Oracle process.

Threads can be assigned priority either collectively or individually. The collective name USER designates non-background (shadow) threads; the collective name DEF designates any thread type not handled specifically. Valid individual background thread names are DBWR, LGWR, PMON, SMON, ARCH, RECO, CKPT, TRWR, and SNP0 through SNP9.

Note: ORACLE_PRIORITY is not automatically created for you in the registry. When it is not defined in the registry, the Windows NT default values are used for the priorities of the thread.  

ORACLE_SID  

Specifies the name of the Oracle database instance on the host machine. The value of this parameter is the SID for the instance. 

The default value is specified by the entry in the Database Identification window of Oracle Universal Installer. 

OWAST  

Specifies the location of Oracle Web Publishing Assistant files. 

ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\ASSISTANTS\OWAST 

OWASTDBS  

Specifies whether database connection sharing is disabled. 

OFF 

OWAST_HOME  

Specifies the name of the Oracle Web Publishing Assistant service. 

OracleWebAssistant0 

RDBMS_
ARCHIVE  

Specifies the location of the backup database files. 

ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\DATABASE
\ARCHIVE 

RDBMS_
CONTROL  

Specifies the location of the backup database control files. 

ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\DATABASE 

SQLPATH 

Specifies the location of SQL scripts. 

ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\DBS 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE

This subkey contains the following parameters:

Parameter  Description  Default Value Entry 

INST_LOC  

Specifies the location of Oracle Universal Installer files. 

System Drive:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory 

OO4O  

Specifies the location of Oracle Objects for OLE message files. 

ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\OO4O\MESG 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\ALL_HOMES

This subkey provides general information on each Oracle home directory on a computer. This subkey contains the IDx subkey(s) and its parameters, described below, as well as other parameters listed.

IDx

This subkey corresponds to the HOMEID of the same number (for example, HOME0 for the first installation, HOME1 for the second installation, and so on). IDx contains the following parameters. The values that display are determined by what you enter during installation in the File Locations dialog box of Oracle Universal Installer.

Parameter  Description  Default Value Entry 

NAME  

Specifies the home name of the Oracle home for IDx. This is the value that you specify when prompted for an Oracle home name. 

The name that you specify during installation. 

PATH  

Specifies the Oracle home directory for IDx. 

ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\ALL_HOMES Parameters

This subkey contains the following parameters.

Parameter  Description  Default Value 

DEFAULT_HOME  

Specifies the default Oracle home name (that is, the first Oracle home installed on your machine). 

The name that you specify during installation. 

HOME_COUNTER  

Specifies the number of installed Oracle homes. 

1 

LAST_HOME  

Displays the ID number of the most recently installed Oracle home. For example, if HOME0 was the most recently installed Oracle home, the number 0 appears. 

0 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services

The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services subkey contains additional subkeys that correspond to each Oracle service.

Each service subkey contains the following parameters:

Parameter  Description  Default Value Entry 

DisplayName 

Specifies the service name of the instance whose SID is SID. 

Name of the service. For example, OracleServiceORCL1, where ORCL1 is the SID. 

ImagePath 

Specifies the fully qualified path name of the executable invoked by the service and any command-line arguments passed into the executable at runtime.  

Path to the executable file of the product. 

ObjectName 

Specifies the logon user account and machine to which the service should log on. 

LocalSystem 

Modifying a Registry Value with REGEDT32

CAUTION:

Do not edit your registry unless absolutely necessary. If an error occurs in your registry, Oracle8i Client can stop functioning and the registry itself can become unusable. 

To edit the Oracle-related settings:

  1. Start the registry in one of two ways:

    The Registry Editor window appears.


  2. Navigate to the values you want to view or modify by double-clicking the appropriate keys.

    The left-hand side of the window shows the hierarchy of registry keys, and the right-hand side of the window shows various values associated with a key.

  3. Double-click the parameter to edit.

    The String Editor dialog box appears:


  4. Make any necessary edits.

  5. Click OK.

  6. Choose Exit from the Registry menu.

Adding a Registry Parameter with REGEDT32

To add a parameter to the registry:

  1. Start the registry in one of two ways:

    The Registry Editor window appears.

  2. Navigate to the key to which you want to add the new value.

  3. Choose Add Value from the Edit menu.

    The Add Value dialog box appears:


  4. In the Value Name text box, type the name that you want to assign to the currently selected key.

  5. In the Data Type list, select the value class that you want to assign to the added value:

    • REG_SZ, REG_EXPAND_SZ (for an expandable string), or REG_MULTI_SZ (for multiple strings) for a data string

    • Binary value with a REG_DWORD prefix to identify a value entry as a DWORD (hexadecimal data) entry

  6. Click OK.

    A String Editor dialog box appropriate for the data type appears:


  7. Type the value for the parameter.

  8. Click OK.

    The Registry Editor adds the parameter.

  9. Choose Exit from the Registry menu.

    The registry exits.

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