What's New in Oracle Database Administrator's Guide?

This section describes new features of the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) and provides pointers to additional information. New features information from previous releases is also retained to help those users migrating to the current release.

The following sections describe the new features in Oracle Database:

• Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) New Features in the Administrator's Guide

• Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) New Features in the Administrator's Guide

Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2) New Features in the Administrator's Guide

• Transparent data encryption

  With the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE commands, you can specify table columns for which data is encrypted before being stored in the datafile. If users attempt to circumvent the database access control mechanisms by looking inside datafiles directly with operating system tools, encryption prevents such users from viewing sensitive data.

  See Also:

  Oracle Database Security Guide for information on Transparent Data Encryption.

• Increased maximum number of partitions per schema object

  The maximum number of partitions and subpartitions that can be defined for a table or index has been increased to 1024K - 1.

• DML error logging

  A new error logging clause for all DML statements enables certain types of errors (for example, constraint violations or data conversion errors) to be logged to an error logging table, allowing the statement to continue instead of terminating and rolling back.

  See Also:

  "Inserting Data with DML Error Logging"

• Enhancements to Automatic Shared Memory Management

  The Streams Pool is now also automatically tuned when automatic shared memory management is enabled. A new view, V$SGA_TARGET_ADVICE, provides information to help with tuning SGA_TARGET.

  See Also:

  "Using Automatic Shared Memory Management"

• Improved automatic tuning of undo retention results in fewer "ORA-01555: snapshot too old" messages.

  Automatic tuning of undo retention now always tunes for the maximum possible retention for the undo tablespace based on tablespace size and current system activity. This improves the success rate of Oracle Flashback operations and long-running queries.

  Note:

  This new tuning method for maximum possible retention applies only to fixed size undo tablespaces. For AUTOEXTEND tablespaces, the behavior is unchanged.

  See Also:

  "Undo Retention"

• The Segment Advisor now reports tables with excessive row chaining.

  See Also:

  "Using the Segment Advisor"

• The Segment Advisor now runs automatically during the maintenance window.

  Upon installation, a Scheduler job is automatically created to run the Segment Advisor during the maintenance window. You can also continue to run the Segment Advisor manually. The automatically run Segment Advisor (the "Automatic Segment Advisor") examines statistics on the entire database and selects segments and tablespaces to analyze. You can view recommendations with Enterprise Manager, with the DBA_ADVISOR_* views, or with the new DBMS_SPACE.ASA_RECOMMENDATIONS procedure.

  See Also:

  "Using the Segment Advisor"

• Enhancements to the online segment shrink capability

  Online segment shrink now supports:

  • LOB segments

  • IOT overflow segments (both standalone and as a dependent object of an IOT index segment)

  See Also:

  "Shrinking Database Segments Online"

• Enhancements to online table redefinition

  Online redefinition of tables now supports:

  • Redefining a single partition of a partitioned table

  • Clustered tables, Advanced Queuing queue tables, and materialized view logs

  • Object data types (objects, VARRAYs, and nested tables, including nested table dependent objects)

  • Check and NOT NULL constraints

  • Preservation of table statistics

  • Parallel execution for Long-to-LOB migration

  In addition, dependent PL/SQL package recompilation is no longer required when the redefined table has the same number, types, and order of columns as the original table.

  See Also:

  "Redefining Tables Online"

• Support for XMLTypes in the transportable tablespace facility

  See Also:

  "Transporting Tablespaces Between Databases"

• Enhancements to space management

  The DBMS_SPACE_ADMIN package provides new tools to troubleshoot space management problems.

  See Also:

  "Diagnosing and Repairing Locally Managed Tablespace Problems"

• Control files no longer need to be recreated when changing certain configuration parameters

  Control files can now dynamically grow in size when you increase the values of the following parameters: MAXLOGFILES, MAXLOGMEMBERS, MAXLOGHISTORY, and MAXINSTANCES.

  See Also:

  "When to Create New Control Files"

• Tablespace low-space alert thresholds by free space remaining

  Low-space alert thresholds for locally managed tablespaces can now be by percent full or by free space remaining (in KB). Free-space-remaining thresholds are more useful for very large tablespaces.

  See Also:

  "Managing Tablespace Alerts"

• Fast partition split is now supported for partitioned index-organized tables.

  See Also:

  "Optimizing SPLIT PARTITION and SPLIT SUBPARTITION Operations"

• Automatically enabled resource manager

  The Resource Manager no longer needs to be enabled at startup to quiesce the database or to activate a resource plan when a Scheduler window opens.

  See Also:

  "Quiescing aDatabase" and "Using Windows"

• Enhanced Resource Manager monitoring

  The Resource Manager now provides more extensive statistics on sessions, plans, and consumer groups, enabling you to better monitor and tune your Resource Manager settings.

  See Also:

  "Monitoring Results"

• Automatic Storage Management (ASM) files are now accessible through an XML DB virtual folder

  ASM files can now be accessed through the XML DB repository, either programmatically or with protocols like FTP and HTTP/WebDAV.

  See Also:

  "Accessing Automatic Storage Management Files with the XML DB Virtual Folder" and Oracle XML DB Developer's Guide

• Automatic Storage Management now has a command-line utility (ASMCMD)

  With ASMCMD you can easily view and manipulate files and directories within disk groups. ASMCMD can list the contents of disk groups, perform searches, create and remove directories and aliases, display space utilization, and more.

  See Also:

  Oracle Database Utilities

• Automatic Storage Management now supports high-redundancy (3-way mirrored) files in normal redundancy disk groups

  Individual files in a normal redundancy disk group can be specified as high redundancy (with 3-way mirroring) by creating the file with a template that has the redundancy attribute set to HIGH. This applies when explicitly naming a template when creating a file, or when modifying a system default template for the disk group. In addition, the system default template CONTROLFILE in normal redundancy disk groups now has the redundancy attribute set to HIGH.

  See Also:

  Chapter 12, "Using Automatic Storage Management"

• Automatic Storage Management (ASM) supports multiple database versions

  ASM maintains forward and backward compatibility between most 10.x versions of Oracle Database and 10.x versions of ASM. That is, any combination of versions 10.1.x.y and 10.2.x.y for either the ASM instance or the database instance works correctly, with this caveat: For a 10.1.x.y database instance to connect to a 10.2.x.y ASM instance, the database must be version 10.1.0.3 or later.

  See Also:

  "Using Automatic Storage Management in the Database"

• The DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER package can now copy files between a local file system and an Automatic Storage Management (ASM) disk group.

  The DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER package can use a local file system or an ASM disk group as the source or destination for a file transfer. You can now copy files from ASM to the file system or from the file system to ASM.

  See Also:

  "Copying Files Using the Database Server"

• The ALTER DISKGROUP command has a new REBALANCE WAIT clause.

  ALTER DISKGROUP commands that cause a rebalance of an ASM disk group—commands that add, drop, or resize disks, or the command that starts a manual rebalance operation—can now wait until the rebalance operation completes before returning. This is especially useful in scripts.

  See Also:

  "Altering the Disk Membership of a Disk Group"

• Enhancements to the Scheduler

  The Scheduler supports a new type of object called a chain, which is a grouping of programs that are linked together for a single, combined objective. Scheduler jobs can now be started when a specified event occurs, and the Scheduler can raise events when a job state changes (for example, from running to complete).

  See Also:

  "Using Events" and "Using Chains"

  The Scheduler also has an expanded calendaring syntax that enables you to define more complex schedules, such as "the last work day of each fiscal quarter." Existing schedules can be combined to create composite schedules.

  See Also:

  "Using Schedules"

• Resource optimized DROP TABLE...PURGE for partitioned tables

  To avoid running into resource constraints, the DROP TABLE...PURGE command for a partitioned table drops the table in multiple transactions, where each transaction drops a subset of the partitions or subpartitions and then commits. If the DROP TABLE...PURGE command fails, you can take corrective action, if any, and then restart the command.

  See Also:

  "Dropping Partitioned Tables"

Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1) New Features in the Administrator's Guide

• Server manageability features are introduced in "Server Manageability".

• Automatic system task maintenance is discussed in Chapter 23, "Managing Automatic System Tasks Using the Maintenance Window".

• Bigfile tablespaces

  Oracle Database lets you create single-file tablespaces, called bigfile tablespaces, which can contain up to 2³² or 4G blocks. The benefits of bigfile tablespaces are the following:

  • They significantly enhance the storage capacity of an Oracle Database.

  • They reduce the number of datafiles needed for an ultra large database.

  • They simplify database management by providing datafile transparency.

  See"Supporting Bigfile Tablespaces During Database Creation" and "Bigfile Tablespaces".

• Multiple default temporary tablespace support for SQL operations

  You can create a temporary tablespace group that can be specifically assigned to users in the same way that a single temporary tablespace is assigned. A tablespace group can also be specified as the default temporary tablespace for the database.

  See "Multiple Temporary Tablespaces: Using Tablespace Groups".

• Rename tablespace

  The RENAME TO clause of the ALTER TABLESPACE statement enables you to rename tablespaces.

  See "Renaming Tablespaces".

• Cross-platform transportable tablespaces

  Tablespaces can be transported from one platform to another. The RMAN CONVERT command is used to do the conversion.

  See "Transporting Tablespaces Between Databases: A Procedureand Example".

• SYSAUX tablespace

  Oracle Database creates an auxiliary system tablespace called SYSAUX at database creation. This tablespace can be used by various Oracle Database features and products, rather than saving their data in separate tablespaces or in the SYSTEM tablespace.

  See "Creating the SYSAUX Tablespace" and "Managing the SYSAUX Tablespace".

• Automatic Storage Management

  Automatic Storage Management provides a logical volume manager integrated with Oracle Database, eliminating the need for you to purchase a third-party product. Oracle Database creates Oracle-managed files within user-defined disk groups that provide redundancy and striping.

  See Chapter 12, "Using Automatic Storage Management".

• Drop database

  The new DROP DATABASE statement lets you delete a database and all of its files that are listed in the control file.

  See "Dropping a Database".

• Oracle Flashback Transaction Query

  This feature introduces the FLASHBACK_TRANSACTION_QUERY view, which lets you examine changes to the database at the transaction level. As a result, you can diagnose problems, perform analysis, and audit transactions.

  See "Auditing Table Changes Using Flashback Transaction Query".

• Oracle Flashback Version Query

  Using undo data stored in the database, you can now view multiple changes to one or more rows, along with the metadata for the changes.

• Oracle Flashback Table

  A new FLASHBACK TABLE statement lets you quickly recover a table to a point in time in the past without restoring a backup.

  See "Recovering Tables Using the Flashback Table Feature".

• Oracle Flashback Drop

  Oracle Database now provides a way to restore accidentally dropped tables. When tables are dropped, they are placed into a recycle bin from which they can later be recovered.

  See "Using Flashback Drop and Managing the Recycle Bin".

• Enhanced online redefinition

  New procedures have been added to the DBMS_REDEFINITION package that automate the cloning of dependent objects such as indexes, triggers, privileges, and constraints. Some restrictions have been lifted, allowing more types of tables to be redefined.

  See "Redefining Tables Online".

• Automatic statistics collection

  You no longer need to specify the MONITORING keyword in the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement to enable the automatic collecting of statistics for a table. Statistics are now collected automatically as controlled by the STATISTICS_LEVEL initialization parameter. Automatic statistics collection is the default.

  See "Automatically Collecting Statistics on Tables".

• Scheduler

  Oracle Database provides advanced scheduling capabilities through the database Scheduler.

  See Part VI, "Database Resource Management and Task Scheduling".

• Database Resource Manager enhancement

  The following are enhancements to the Database Resource Manager:

  • Adaptive consumer group mapping

    You can configure the Database Resource Manager to automatically assign consumer groups to sessions by providing mappings between session attributes and consumer groups.

    See "Automatically Assigning Resource Consumer Groups to Sessions"

  • New plan directives

    New resource plan directives let you set idle timeouts, cancel long-running SQL statements, terminate long-running sessions, and restore sessions to their original consumer group at the end of a top call.

    See "Specifying Resource Plan Directives".

  • New policies

    Two new resource manager policies have also been added: the RATIO CPU allocation policy and the RUN_TO_COMPLETION scheduling policy.

• New initialization parameter RESUMABLE_TIMEOUT

  The RESUMABLE_TIMEOUT initialization parameter lets you enable resumable space allocation and set a timeout period across all sessions.

  See "Enabling and Disabling Resumable Space Allocation".

• Application services

  Tuning by "service and SQL" augments tuning by "session and SQL" in the majority of systems where all sessions are anonymous and shared.

  See "Defining Application Services for Oracle Database 10g" and Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide for more information.

• Simplified recovery through resetlogs

  The format for archive log file naming, as specified by the ARCHIVE_LOG_FORMAT initialization parameter, now includes the resetlogs ID, which allows for easier recovery of a database from a previous backup.

  See "Specifying Archive Destinations".

• Automated shared server configuration and simplified shared server configuration parameters.

  You no longer need to preconfigure initialization parameters for shared server. Parameters can be configured dynamically, and most parameters are now limiting parameters to control resources. The recommended method for enabling shared server now is by setting SHARED_SERVERS initialization parameter, rather than the DISPATCHERS initialization parameter.

  See "Configuring Oracle Database for Shared Server".

• Consolidation of session-specific trace output

  For shared server sessions, the trcsess command-line utility consolidates in one place the trace pertaining to a user session.

  See "Reading the Trace File for Shared Server Sessions".

• Block remote access to restricted instances

  Remote access to a restricted instance through an Oracle Net listener is blocked.

  See "Restricting Access to an Instance at Startup".

• Dynamic SGA enhancements

  The JAVA_POOL_SIZE initialization parameter is now dynamic. There is a new STREAMS_POOL_SIZE initialization parameter, which is also dynamic. A new view, V$SGAINFO, provides a consolidated and concise summary of SGA information.

  See "Managing the System Global Area (SGA)".

• Irreversible database compatibility

  In previous releases you were allowed to lower the compatibility setting for your database. Now, when you advance the compatibility of the database with the COMPATIBLE initialization parameter, you can no longer start the database using a lower compatibility setting, except by doing a point-in-time recovery to a time before the compatibility was advanced.

  See "The COMPATIBLE Initialization Parameter and Irreversible Compatibility".

• Flash recovery area

  You can create a flash recovery area in your database where Oracle Database can store and manage files related to backup and recovery.

  See "Specifying a Flash Recovery Area".

• Sorted hash clusters

  Sorted hash clusters are new data structures that allow faster retrieval of data for applications where data is consumed in the order in which it was inserted.

  See "Creating a Sorted Hash Cluster".

• Copying Files Using the Database Server

  You do not have to use the operating system to copy database files. You can use the DBMS_FILE_TRANSFER package to copy files.

  See "Copying Files Using the Database Server"

• Deprecation of MAXTRANS physical attribute parameter

  The MAXTRANS physical attribute parameter for database objects has been deprecated. Oracle Database now automatically allows up to 255 concurrent update transactions for any data block, depending on the available space in the block.

  See "Specifying the INITRANS Parameter".

• Deprecation of use of rollback segments (manual undo management mode)

  Manual undo management mode has been deprecated and is no longer documented in this book. Use an undo tablespace and automatic undo management instead.

  See Chapter 10, "Managing the Undo Tablespace".

• Deprecation of the UNDO_SUPPRESS_ERRORS initialization parameter

  When operating in automatic undo management mode, the database now ignores any manual undo management mode SQL statements instead of returning error messages.

  See "Overview of Automatic Undo Management".

• Deprecation of the PARALLEL_AUTOMATIC_TUNING initialization parameter

  Oracle Database provides defaults for the parallel execution initialization parameters that are adequate and tuned for most situations. The PARALLEL_AUTOMATIC_TUNING initialization parameter is now redundant and has been deprecated.

• Removal of LogMiner chapter

  The chapter on LogMiner has been moved to Oracle Database Utilities

• Removal of job queues chapter on using the DBMS_JOB package

  Using the DBMS_JOB package to submit jobs has been replaced by Scheduler functionality.

  See Part VI, "Database Resource Management and Task Scheduling".