Re: OFA Standard?

Michael Peck wrote:
>

 <snip...>
>
> A DBA told me that the way we structure Oracle is following a standard
> that Oracle came up with called OFA, which stands for (I think) Oracle
> Flexible Architecture. It was explained to me that this allows for
> having several instances running from the same oracle_base, and several
> versions of the binaries running those instances. The directory tree
> looks something like this:
>
> /opt/oracle_base
> /opt/oracle_base/admin
> /opt/oracle_base/admin/<SID>
> /opt/oracle_base/admin/<SID>/create (where the db create scripts are)
> /opt/oracle_base/admin/<SID>/pfile (where the init.ora really is)
> /opt/oracle_base/admin/<SID>/?dump (bdump, udump, cdump)
> /opt/oracle_base/product
> /opt/oracle_base/product/7.1.6 (7.1.6 binaries)
> /opt/oracle_base/product/7.1.6/* (rdbms, dbs, bin, etc)
> /opt/oracle_base/product/7.1.6/dbs/init<SID>.ora (link to
> /opt/oracle_base/admin/<SID>/pfile/init<SID>.ora)
> /opt/oracle_base/product/7.3.2
> /opt/oracle_base/product/7.3.2/* (rdbms,dbs,bin,etc)
> /opt/oracle (link to /opt/oracle_base/product/7.1.6)
> /opt/oracle2 (link to /opt/oracle_base/product/7.3.2)
>
> and so on.
>
> For an instance that is version 7.1.6, ORACLE_HOME would be /opt/oracle,
> for an instance that is version 7.3.2, ORACLE_HOME would be
> /opt/oracle2.
>

<snip...>

Thanks for the responses I got!

They hit the jackpot. I searched www.oramag.com and got two strong hits-/archives/55dba.html and /archives/65dba.html, which are part 1 and part 2 of Cary Millsap's article.

In summary: OFA is Optimal Flexible Architecture. It does lay out the structre that I described above, with a few additions. Oracle announced it in 1991 (it was designed by Cary) and it was refined by Cary in 1993. It covers both the way the binary and admin stuff is installed and how the data files are installed and their names.

It doesn't mention having a link called /opt/oracle that points at /opt/oracle_base/product/7.3.2, like I did, and it also suggests using my /opt/oracle_base as the home directory for the user oracle. It also says you should have /opt/oracle_base/local for locally created scripts and software, such as your standard dba 'stuff'.

The article implies that beginning with Oracle7, the Oracle's installer will put things in this kind of structure automatically. Since I've never run it, I don't know;)

Thanks again for the help!

Mike Received on Wed Jul 16 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT