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CHAPTER 6

Oracle Workgroup
Server

IN THIS CHAPTER

Overview of the Oracle7 Workgroup Server 104
System Requirements 109
Oracle7 Workgroup Server Tools and Utilities 113
Oracle7 Workgroup Server Distributed and Replication Features 119
When to Use Oracle7 Workgroup Server 120

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Oracle7 Workgroup Server is a version of the Oracle7 database, and it is currently available on more than 15 operating system and hardware platforms. Information about Oracle7 Workgroup Server is available on the Oracle Web site. Currently, you can download the 60-day free trial software from the Oracle Web site at http://www.oracle.com/products/trial/html/trial.html . If a trial product is marked with the CD-ROM symbol, you may order it on CD-ROM free of charge, but there is a shipping and handling charge per CD-ROM media. In the U.S., you can order it from the Oracle Store on the Oracle Web site or call Oracle Workgroup Sales at 1-800-633-0586.

This chapter provides an overview of the Oracle7 Workgroup Server platform availability, the system requirements on the major platforms, and the differences among Oracle7 Workgroup Servers and other Oracle packages. It also discusses what tools and utilities are included and their major components . This chapter explains when it is appropriate to use the Oracle7 Workgroup Server and how it meets your business and technical needs.

Overview of the Oracle7 Workgroup Server

The Oracle7 Workgroup Server is targeted for the workgroup client/server environment in which the users and developers have easy access and control of their database with integrated graphical tools and utilities. Oracle7 Workgroup Server is currently available in the following 14 platforms:

Data General DG-UX Novell NetWare

Digital UNIX SCO OpenServer

Hewlett-Packard HP-UX SCO UNIXWare

IBM/Apple/Bull/Motorola AIX Siemens Nixdorf SINIX/Reliant UNIX

IBM OS/2 Sun Solaris Intel

Microsoft Windows NT Sun Solaris SPARC

NCR MP-RAS SGI IRIX

How Oracle7 Workgroup Server Differs from Other Oracle
Packages

The Oracle7 server supports large-scale and distributed database environments, whereas the Oracle7 Workgroup Server is designed for the distributed and interconnected workgroups that require powerful client/server solutions with the advantages of easy installation, ease of use, and simplified database administration and management. The Oracle7 Workgroup Server is a fully functioning, multiuser Oracle7 server. It is designed to meet the needs of workgroups to access data in a distributed and interconnected workgroup environment.

Certain Oracle7 features or options are currently not available in the Oracle7 Workgroup Server version 7.3, such as the Advanced Replication, Parallel Server, Spatial Data, and Context

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options. Some of them are not implemented in the Oracle7 Workgroup Server because most of the independent workgroups do not require real-time access to the data from their distributed databases.

The Oracle7 Workgroup Server is based on the Oracle7 architecture. It is completely scalable because it shares the same Oracle7 code base as the Oracle7 Server that runs on more than 80 different hardware and operating system platforms, from desktop to mainframe. Therefore, when you scale your Oracle7 database and applications from one platform to another, the transition is transparent to the users.

The Oracle7 Workgroup Server is bundled with a set of graphical database administration tools and the Oracle Enterprise Manager to help you perform common database administration tasks in a graphical user interface environment. An authorized administrator can easily manage and maintain the database with these tools without typing any SQL commands.

The installation process of the Oracle7 Workgroup Server is simplified into a one-button install. You provide the necessary information in a single screen, such as the directory for the Oracle home, the character set, the set of products to install, the language used for displaying the error messages, and the database name (SID) for the UNIX platforms.

The installation process also provides automatic operating system configuration on certain platforms. The Oracle Installer of the Oracle7 Workgroup Server for the UNIX platforms examines and tunes the critical operating system parameters to ensure that adequate resources are available to run the Oracle7 database. For example, on Sun Solaris, the following lines are modified or added to /etc/system:

 set shmsys:shminfo_shmmax = 33554432 set shmsys:shminfo_shmseg = 10 set semsys:seminfo_semmns = 1750 set semsys:seminfo_semmni = 70

The Oracle7 Workgroup Server comes with an initial or starter database that is preconfigured for the workgroup environment. The initial database contains four tablespaces on the desktop platforms: SYSTEM, USER_DATA, TEMPORARY_DATA, and ROLLBACK_DATA. On the UNIX platforms, the three additional tablespaces are USERS, TOOLS, and TEMP. When you use the Security Manager to create a new database user account, its default tablespace is USER_DATA and its temporary tablespace is TEMPORARY_DATA. The initial database defaults to NOARCHIVELOG mode. You can change it to ARCHIVELOG mode to archive redo log files.

The Oracle7 Workgroup Server is Web-enabled, which allows Web applications to access any data stored in the Oracle database. The Oracle7 Workgroup Server version 7.3 also contains the Oracle WebServer Manager version 1.0. The Oracle WebServer Manager is integrated within the Oracle Enterprise Manager. You run the Navigator Discovery Wizard from the Oracle Enterprise Manager console to auto-discover the available Web servers in your network. Then, you can manage the Web servers via the Oracle WebServer management screens.

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The Oracle7 Workgroup Server is tightly integrated with the operating system (OS) to produce optimal performance. The Oracle7 Workgroup Server supports symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), asynchronous I/O, and direct file system support on most of the desktop and UNIX platforms. It also supports OS registry on Windows NT and OS threads on the Windows NT, NetWare, and OS/2 platforms. Table 6.1 summarizes the current operating system integration support on Windows NT, NetWare, OS/2, Sun Solaris SPARC, HP 9000 Series HP-UX, IBM RS 6000 AIX, Sun Solaris Intel, SCO UNIXWare, and SCO OpenServer.

Table 6.1. Oracle7 Workgroup Server's operating system integration support.

	Windows NT	NetWare	OS/2	Sun Solaris Intel SCO UNIXWare SCO OpenServer	Sun Solaris SPARC HP 9000 Series HP-UX IBM RS 6000 AIX

Symmetric multiprocessing	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
OS threads	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A
Asynchronous I/O	Yes	Yes	N/A	Yes	Yes
Direct file system support	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Integrated OS authentication	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Native graphical administration tools	Yes	N/A	Yes	Yes	Yes
Integrated Novell Directory Services	N/A	Yes	N/A	N/A	N/A
OS registry support	Yes	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Oracle7 Workgroup Server Components

The Oracle7 Workgroup Server includes the Oracle7 database, Oracle Enterprise Manager, Oracle database tools, Oracle utilities, SQL products, SQL*Net, Oracle Objects for OLE, Oracle7 ODBC driver, and online documentation. These Oracle7 Workgroup Server components can be categorized as server or client software. The primary components of the Oracle7 Workgroup Server are summarized in Table 6.2. For a complete list of all components and their detailed descriptions, refer to your Oracle7 Workgroup Server documentation.