Expert Oracle Database Architecture: 9i and 10g Programming Techniques and Solutions

CHAPTER 3Files

In this chapter, we will examine the eight file types that make up a database and instance. The files associated with an instance are simply

• Parameter files: These files tell the Oracle instance where to find the control files, and they also specify certain initialization parameters that define how big certain memory structures are, and so on. We will investigate the two options available for storing database parameter files.
• Trace files: These are diagnostic files created by a server process generally in response to some exceptional error condition.
• Alert file: This is similar to a trace file, but it contains information about "expected" events, and it also alerts the DBA in a single, centralized file of many database events. ...