ORACLE FILE TYPES

Database files are important to a storage administrator, because you normally do not want to backup the
database files with your standard utilities, so you need to know what they are, and also some small
database administration files are very important, so you need to know what they are and how to handle
them. The different types of file that comprise an Oracle database and its supporting data include:
 Control files
 Data files, temporary data files, and data file copies
 SPFILEs
 Online redo logs, archive logs, and Flashback logs
 RMAN backups
 Disaster recovery configurations
 Change tracking bitmaps
 Data Pump dumpsets
In Oracle file terminology, data is stored logically in tablespaces and physically in datafiles. A tablespace
is a logical partition that contains both a table and its indexes. Each datafile belongs to only one
tablespace but a tablespace can consist of more than one datafile. Database file backups are usually
managed by RMAN and so the files should be excluded from standard file system backups. Database file
names usually look like sid.DBS.CONTROL.DBF, sid.DBS.DATABASE1.DBF, or sid.DBS.LOG1.DBF.
Note that by convention, datafile extensions are .dbf, but this is a convention and can be changed so it is
worth checking the file names with your DBA before adding the excludes. You can run several Oracle
Database instances on each system, and each instance is identified by a unique 'sid' or system identifier
in the filename above
Some Oracle table sizes can run to terrabytes, so partitioning is used to make them easier to manage.
Partitioning can be used on tables, indexes, and index-organized tables.
Oracle Database v 19 supports hybrid partitioned tables, which are tables in which some partitions reside
in the database and some partitions reside outside the database in external files. These externl files could
be operating system files or Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) files.
The control file is a binary file that contains the database and log file names. It is impossible to start an
Oracle database without a control file, so they are usually replicated - preferably on different disks. If you
use Netbackup to backup your databases, it is essential that you know where the current control file is.
Control files are usually called controlnn.ctl where n is an integer. You could search for files that follow
that pattern, but the only reliable way to identify them is with an SQL query within Oracle. In other words,
ask your DBA.
The redo logs contain changed data for wind-forward purposes and the undo logs contain the original
data before changes were applied for wind-back purposes. Log file extensions are usually .rdo or .log,
Redo and undo log backups are usually managed by RMAN and should be excluded from standard file
system backups. A redo log is often called a log group, because there can be two or more mirrored
copies of the online redo log files in each group.
Temporary files are used to hold in flight work that is too big to be held in memory. These files cannot be
recovered and so do not require backup.
A couple of important system files are:
 The parameter file which contains start up information and is usually called init.ora or
initdatabasename.ora. The parameter contains things like how much RAM the database is going
to use, where to find the control files and where to write trace files
 The System tablespace which is part of the database and contains the data dictionary. This
contains database descriptor tables like column names, data types, user privileges, constraints
and space allocations and is very frequently referred to during database processing, so it can be
a performance bottleneck. It could be worth while identifying the underlying database files for this
tablespace to see if they can be placed for better performance.
The Oratab is a colon-delimited text file on Unix and Linux systems that defines the association between
ORACLE_SID and ORACLE_HOME variables. This file is held in /etc/oratab
Entries are of the form: $ORACLE_SID:$ORACLE_HOME:<N|Y>:
The first and second fields are the system identifier and home directory of the database respectively. The
third field indicates if the database should be brought up at system boot time. For example,
agent10g:/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/agent10g:N

Oracle Storage
 Oracle Files
 Oracle RMAN
 Oracle RAC
 Dataguard
 Oracle ASM

Lascon updTES
I retired 2 years ago, and so I'm out of touch with the latest in the data storage world. The Lascon site has
not been updated since July 2021, and probably will not get updated very much again. The site hosting is
paid up until early 2023 when it will almost certainly disappear.
Lascon Storage was conceived in 2000, and technology has changed massively over those 22 years. It's
been fun, but I guess it's time to call it a day. Thanks to all my readers in that time. I hope you managed
to find something useful in there.
All the best
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