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Oracle Database Questions

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What are the benefits of Oracle 11g?

To summarise the benefits of 11g highlighted by Oracle, it:

  • Reduces the cost of downtime
  • Minimises the risk when changing IT systems
  • Expediates querying power
  • Allows for more economical use of disk space
  • Offers advanced data protection

Is it easy to install Oracle Database 11g?

According to Oracle, Oracle Database 11 g Standard Edition and Standard Edition One versions are easy to install and come preconfigured for production usage ‘out-of-the-box’, with automated space, storage and memory management capabilities that distribute stored data across available disks, along with automatic backup and recovery and automatic optimizer statistics management.

There is a built in Enterprise Manager 11g Database Control that immediately shows users the status of database and cluster environments, and allows them to administer the database from any browser connected to the system.

Whilst this functionality exists for a quick start-up, most organisations need a more complex configuration to get the database working well with the existing operating system and application technology. This is where a company like Xynomix would come in to ensure that the database was configured around an organisation’s exact specifications and was functioning smoothly, rather than at odds, with the rest of the technology stack.

What Oracle Database 11g Products are available to my organisation?

  • Oracle Database Standard Edition – geared towards medium-sized businesses and includes Oracle Real Application Clusters [Oracle RAC] and associated clusterware and storage management capabilities.

Standard Edition is upwardly compatible with Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition and can be deployed across 4 CPUs.

  • Oracle Database Standard Edition One – geared towards fast growing businesses. Like Standard Edition, it has automated management capabilities and allows organisations to manage all data types whist achieving high performance, reliability, security and scalability. It is suitable for organisations running smaller single server environments to more complex, highly distributed branch environments.

Standard Edition One includes the necessary facilities to build business-critical applications and can be deployed across a maximum of 2 CPUs. It does not include Oracle RAC functionality.

Standard Edition One is upwardly compatible with other Oracle Database Editions.

  • Oracle Database Enterprise Edition [currently 11g Release 2] – geared towards organisations operating mission-critical applications that require a high volume of online transactional processing [e.g OLTP or Internet apps, and/or query-intensive data warehouses].

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition can be deployed on clustered or single Windows, Linux and Unix machines.

  • Oracle Database Express Edition [XE, currently based on 10g Release 2 code] – an entry-level edition of Oracle database that is free to develop and deploy, and straightforward to administer. It is upwardly compatible with other Oracle editions and can be installed on any size machine with and number of CPUs, but will use only one CPU on the host machine. Oracle XE can store up to 4GB of user data, using up to 1GB of memory.

XE is an ideal small footprint database for application developers, DBAs looking to learn more about Oracle database and its deployment, and ISVs and hardware vendors looking to distribute free starter databases.

  • Oracle Database Personal Edition – geared towards developers or DBAs looking for a single-user development and deployment environment that is upwardly compatible with Oracle Database Standard Edition, Oracle Database Standard Edition One and Oracle Database Enterprise Edition.

Oracle Database Personal Edition is currently available on:

  • Windows NT
  • Windows XP
  • Windows Server 2003 [32 and 64-bit]
  • Windows 2000

Further details of the different Oracle Database 11g editions and their features can be found at:

http://www.oracle.com/database/product_editions.html

Are there limits to database size depending on which version we are running?

Standard Edition, Standard Edition One and Enterprise Edition do not have a maximum database size. However, if running Express Edition 10g, you are limited to 4GB.

What are the CPU limits for each Oracle Database version?

Express Edition – 1
Standard Edition One – 2
Standard Edition – 4
Enterprise Edition – Unlimited

Are all Oracle database versions compatible with Windows, Linux and Unix?

Oracle Personal Edition is only compatible with Windows. Oracle Database Standard Edition One, Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition are all compatible with Windows, Linux and Unix. Express Edition is compatible with Windows and Linux only.

Which Oracle Database versions offer Real Application Clustering technology?

Oracle Database Standard Edition includes Real Application Clustering [Oracle RAC]. Oracle RAC is available as an option with Oracle Database Enterprise Edition.

Which Oracle Database version is best for application development?

All Oracle 11g Database versions include the following development tools: Oracle SQL Developer; Application Express; XML Support and Microsoft .Net, OLE DB and ODBC support.

Java support is available on all but Express Edition, and Java, PL/SQL Native Compilation is also available on all but Express Edition, where it is available in PL/SQL only.

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