Creating an Oracle 10g database from the

command line only

This article is the successor to Creating an Oracle 9i database on NT from the command line
only.
There are basically three ways to create an Oracle database:

• Using the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA)

• With the SQL create database statement
• Through upgrading an existing database.

This article focuses on the second option. It can be completed on the command line only, that
is, without any GUI tool.
Also, the article is a bit biased towards Windows and its command prompt (cmd.exe: start-
>run->cmd).

Specifying the Instance's SID

There can be more than one Oracle instance on a single machine. In order to be able to
distinguish these instances, Oracle uses a SID (System Identifier) which is a string.
The SID can be set through the ORACLE_SID environment variable.

D:\oracle\product\10.1.0>set ORACLE_SID=ORA10

Creating an Oracle Service

On Windows, each instance requires a Windows service. This service must first be created with
oradim:
D:\oracle\product\10.1.0\Db_1>oradim -new -sid %ORACLE_SID%
-intpwd MYSECRETPASSWORD -startmode M

Instance created.

It can be verified that a Windows service was created by typing services.msc into the
console. A service named OracleServiceORA10 (ORA10 = %ORACLE_SID%) will be found.
Also, the startup type is manual as was requested by -startmode M.
Oracle also created a password file under %ORACLE_HOME%\database:
D:\oracle\product\10.1.0\Db_1>dir database

Volume in drive D has no label.

Volume Serial Number is C4E9-469A

Directory of D:\oracle\product\10.1.0\Db_1\database

03/05/2005 03:54 PM <DIR> .

03/05/2005 03:54 PM <DIR> ..

03/05/2005 11:16 AM <DIR> archive

03/05/2005 11:13 AM 31,744 oradba.exe

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 03/05/2005 03:54 PM 2,560 PWDORA10.ORA

As can be seen, the SID is in the password file's name.

Creating the initialization parameter file

When an Oracle instance starts up, it requires either an initialization paramter file (init.ora) or
an SPFILE.
SPFILES have binary content and must be created from init.ora files. Therefore, the init.ora file
(which is an ordianary text file) is created first.
Here's a minimal init.ora (under $ORACLE_HOME/dbs if it is Unix, or
%ORACLE_HOME%\database, if it is windows) just to demonstrate how the control files
are found. Of course, you will add more init params into the init.ora file.

D:\oracle\product\10.1.0\Db_1\database\initORA10.ora

control_files = (d:\oracle\databases\ora10\control01.ora,

d:\oracle\databases\ora10\control02.ora,

d:\oracle\databases\ora10\control03.ora)

undo_management = auto

db_name = ora10

db_block_size = 8192

The undo_management parameter is necessary if we want to use automatic undo

management.
Although the above seems to be the bare required minimum, you probably also want do define
background_dump_dest, core_dump_dest and user_dump_dest.

Starting the instance

Now, that we have created an Oracle service and the init.ora file, we're ready to start the
instance:

D:\oracle\product\10.1.0\Db_1>sqlplus /nolog

SQL*Plus: Release 10.1.0.2.0 - Production on Sat Mar 5 16:05:15

2005

Copyright (c) 1982, 2004, Oracle. All rights reserved.

SQL> connect sys/MYSECRETPASSWORD as sysdba

Connected to an idle instance.

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SQL*Plus tells us that we're connected to an idle instance. That means that it is not yet
started. So, let's start the instance. We have to start the instance without mounting
(nomount) as there is no database we could mount at the moment.
SQL> startup nomount

ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area 113246208 bytes

Fixed Size 787708 bytes

Variable Size 61864708 bytes

Database Buffers 50331648 bytes

Redo Buffers 262144 bytes

This created the SGA (System Global Area) and the background processes.

Creating the database

We're now ready to finally create the database:

SQL>create database ora10

logfile group 1 ('D:\oracle\databases\ora10\redo1.log') size

10M,

group 2 ('D:\oracle\databases\ora10\redo2.log') size

10M,

group 3 ('D:\oracle\databases\ora10\redo3.log') size

10M

character set WE8ISO8859P1

national character set utf8

datafile 'D:\oracle\databases\ora10\system.dbf'

size 50M

autoextend on

next 10M maxsize unlimited

extent management local

sysaux datafile 'D:\oracle\databases\ora10\sysaux.dbf'

size 10M

autoextend on

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 next 10M

maxsize unlimited

undo tablespace undo

datafile 'D:\oracle\databases\ora10\undo.dbf'

size 10M

default temporary tablespace temp

tempfile 'D:\oracle\databases\ora10\temp.dbf'

size 10M;

If something goes wrong with the creation, Oracle will write an error into the alert.log. The
alert log is normaly found in the directory that is specified with the background_dump_dest. If
this parameter was not specified (as is the case in our minimal init.ora), the alert.log will be
written into %ORACLE_HOME%/RDMBS/trace.
If an ORA-01031: insufficient privileges is returned, that means most likely, that the current
user is not in the dba group (on unix), or the ORA_DBA (windows).
If the init.ora file is not at its default location or has not been found with the pfile attribute, an
ORA-01078: failure in processing system parameters and an LRM-00109: could not open
parameter file '/appl/oracle/product/9.2.0.2/dbs/initadpdb.ora' error is issued.
The create database command also executes a file whose name is determined by the (hidden)
init parameter _init_sql_file (which seems to default to sql.bsq)
After the creation of the database, it can be mounted and opened for use.

Completing the DB creation

In order to complete the db creation, the following scripts must be run as sys:

• %ORACLE_HOME%/rdbms/admin/catalog.sql
• %ORACLE_HOME%/rdbms/admin/catproc.sql and

SQL*Plus provides a shortcut to refer to the ORACLE_HOME directory: the question mark (?).
Therefore, these scripts can be called like so:

SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/catalog.sql

SQL> @?/rdbms/admin/catproc.sql

catalog.sql creates the data dictionary. catproc.sql creates all structures required for PL/SQL.
catalog.sql calls, for example, catexp.sql which is a requirement for exp, or dbmsstdx.sql
which is a requirement to create triggers.
The user system might also want to run ?/sqlplus/admin/pupbld.sql. pupbld.sql creates a
table that allows to block someone from using sql plus.

SQL> connect system/manager

SQL> @?/sqlplus/admin/pupbld

Of course, tablespaces, users, tables and so on must be created according to the use of the
database.

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Setting up database to using java
Also call @?/javavm/install/initjvm if you want to enable the JServer option(?).

Oracle managed files

Refer also to DB_CREATE_ONLINE_LOG_DEST_n and DB_CREATE_FILE_DEST for Oracle-
managed files.

Errors while creating database

If there is an error while the database is created, such as a ORA-01092: ORACLE instance
terminated. Disconnection forced, the alert log should be consulted. This file most probably
contains a more desriptive error message.
If the error occurs at a very early stage, there won't be an alert.log. In this case, the error will
most probably be found in a trace file in udump directory.

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