Before You Begin

This guide is your primary source of introductory, post-installation, configuration, and administration information for using the Oracle8i Client products.

Specific topics discussed are:

Prerequisites

This guide assumes that you are familiar with the following:

Windows NT, 95, and 98, and have installed and tested them on your computer system
Object-relational database management concepts

See Also:
Oracle8i Concepts if you are not familiar with object-relational database management concepts.

Intended Audience

This guide is necessary for anyone installing, configuring, or administering Oracle8i Client.

Note:
This guide describes only the features of Oracle8i Client software that apply to the Windows NT, Windows 95, and Windows 98 operating systems. For information about Oracle8i Client that is applicable to all operating systems, see the other documentation included in your package, listed in Appendix E of Oracle8i Client Installation Guide for Windows.

How This Guide Is Organized

This guide is organized as follows:

Documentation and Code Conventions

The following conventions are used in this guide:

Convention Example Meaning

All uppercase plain

C:\ORACLE\ORA81

Indicates command names, SQL reserved words, and keywords, as in ALTER DATABASE. All uppercase plain is also used for directory names and file names.

Italic

Used to indicate a variable:

file name

Used to indicate the title of a guide.

Indicates a value that you must provide. For example, if a command asks you to type file name, you must type the actual name of the file.

Square brackets [ ]

X:\[PATHNAME]\ORACLE\
HOME_NAME

Encloses optional items. For example, when you create an OFA-compliant Oracle home directory, you can place an optional pathname before the \ORACLE pathname.
Square brackets also indicate a function key, for example [Enter].

Choose Start >

Choose Start > Programs > Oracle - HOME_NAME > Network Administration > Net8 Assistant

How to start a program. For example, to start Net8 Assistant, you must click the Start button on the taskbar and then choose Programs, Oracle - HOME_NAME > Network Administration > Net8 Assistant.

C:\>

C:\ORACLE\ORADATA>

Represents the Windows NT command prompt of the current hard disk drive. Your prompt reflects the subdirectory in which you are working. Referred to as the MS-DOS command prompt in this guide.

Backslash (\) before a directory name

\ORADATA

Indicates that the directory is a subdirectory of the root directory.

ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_BASE

Go to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\RDBMS\ADMIN directory

In releases prior to 8.1, when you installed Oracle8i Client, all subdirectories were located under a top level Oracle home directory, that by default was:

C:\ORANT for Windows NT

C:\ORAWIN95 for Windows 95

C:\ORAWIN98 for Windows 98

or whatever you may have called your Oracle home.
In this Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA)-compliant release, all subdirectories are no longer under a top level ORACLE_HOME directory. There is now a new top-level directory called ORACLE_BASE that by default is C:\ORACLE. If you install Oracle8i Client release 8.1.6 on a clean computer (that is, there is no other Oracle software on the computer), the default setting for the first Oracle home directory is C:\ORACLE\ORA81. If you run Oracle Universal Installer again and install release 8.2.x, the second Oracle home directory is called \ORA82. These Oracle home directories are located directly under ORACLE_BASE. All directory path examples in this guide follow OFA conventions.

%ORACLE_HOME%

SQL> @%ORACLE_HOME%\ADMIN\DB_NAME\ADHOC\CATALOG.SQL

In SQL*Plus commands, you may see %ORACLE_HOME%. SQL*Plus is able to locate your Oracle Home directory using the %ORACLE_HOME% variable. This convention can be used in Server Manager, SQL*Plus, Export Utility, and Import Utility.

HOME_NAME

OracleHOME_NAMETNSListener

Represents the Oracle home name.
The home name can be up to sixteen alphanumeric characters. The only special character allowed in the home name is the underscore.

HOMEID

HOME0, HOME1, HOME2

Represents a unique registry subkey for each Oracle home directory in which you install products. A new HOMEID is created and incremented each time you install products to a different Oracle home directory on one computer. Each HOMEID contains its own configuration parameter settings for installed Oracle products.

Symbols

period .
comma ,
hyphen -
semicolon ;
colon :
equal sign =
backslash \
single quote '
double quote "
parentheses ()

Symbols other than brackets and vertical bars must be entered in commands exactly as shown.

Before You Begin

Prerequisites

Intended Audience

How This Guide Is Organized

Chapter 1, "Oracle8i Differences between Windows NT and UNIX"

Chapter 2, "Database Tools Overview"

Chapter 3, "Multiple Oracle Homes and Optimal Flexible Architecture"

Chapter 4, "Using Oracle8i Client Directory Features with Active Directory"

Chapter 5, "Post-Installation Configuration Tasks"

Chapter 6, "Developing Applications"

Appendix A, "Directory Structures"

Appendix B, "Oracle8i Configuration Parameters and the Registry"

Appendix C, "Net8 Configuration"

Appendix D, "Error Messages"

Glossary

Documentation and Code Conventions

Convention	Example	Meaning
All uppercase plain	C:\ORACLE\ORA81	Indicates command names, SQL reserved words, and keywords, as in ALTER DATABASE. All uppercase plain is also used for directory names and file names.
Italic	Used to indicate a variable: file name Used to indicate the title of a guide.	Indicates a value that you must provide. For example, if a command asks you to type file name, you must type the actual name of the file.
Square brackets [ ]	X:\[PATHNAME]\ORACLE\ HOME_NAME	Encloses optional items. For example, when you create an OFA-compliant Oracle home directory, you can place an optional pathname before the \ORACLE pathname. Square brackets also indicate a function key, for example [Enter].
Choose Start >	Choose Start > Programs > Oracle - HOME_NAME > Network Administration > Net8 Assistant	How to start a program. For example, to start Net8 Assistant, you must click the Start button on the taskbar and then choose Programs, Oracle - HOME_NAME > Network Administration > Net8 Assistant.
C:\>	C:\ORACLE\ORADATA>	Represents the Windows NT command prompt of the current hard disk drive. Your prompt reflects the subdirectory in which you are working. Referred to as the MS-DOS command prompt in this guide.
Backslash (\) before a directory name	\ORADATA	Indicates that the directory is a subdirectory of the root directory.
ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_BASE	Go to the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\RDBMS\ADMIN directory	In releases prior to 8.1, when you installed Oracle8i Client, all subdirectories were located under a top level Oracle home directory, that by default was: C:\ORANT for Windows NT C:\ORAWIN95 for Windows 95 C:\ORAWIN98 for Windows 98 or whatever you may have called your Oracle home. In this Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA)-compliant release, all subdirectories are no longer under a top level ORACLE_HOME directory. There is now a new top-level directory called ORACLE_BASE that by default is C:\ORACLE. If you install Oracle8i Client release 8.1.6 on a clean computer (that is, there is no other Oracle software on the computer), the default setting for the first Oracle home directory is C:\ORACLE\ORA81. If you run Oracle Universal Installer again and install release 8.2.x, the second Oracle home directory is called \ORA82. These Oracle home directories are located directly under ORACLE_BASE. All directory path examples in this guide follow OFA conventions.
%ORACLE_HOME%	SQL> @%ORACLE_HOME%\ADMIN\DB_NAME\ADHOC\CATALOG.SQL	In SQLPlus commands, you may see %ORACLE_HOME%. SQLPlus is able to locate your Oracle Home directory using the %ORACLE_HOME% variable. This convention can be used in Server Manager, SQL*Plus, Export Utility, and Import Utility.
HOME_NAME	OracleHOME_NAMETNSListener	Represents the Oracle home name. The home name can be up to sixteen alphanumeric characters. The only special character allowed in the home name is the underscore.
HOMEID	HOME0, HOME1, HOME2	Represents a unique registry subkey for each Oracle home directory in which you install products. A new HOMEID is created and incremented each time you install products to a different Oracle home directory on one computer. Each HOMEID contains its own configuration parameter settings for installed Oracle products.
Symbols	period . comma , hyphen - semicolon ; colon : equal sign = backslash \ single quote ' double quote " parentheses ()	Symbols other than brackets and vertical bars must be entered in commands exactly as shown.