Oracle Security

Setting Up Initialization Parameters for Security

As we described in Chapter 2, the initialization file is a list of parameters supplied by Oracle with your database. You can change the values of these parameters to configure the database system. The file is used to modify parameters that affect performance, set global defaults and limits, and establish file names and locations. This file is generally referred to as the INIT.ORA file even though its actual name might vary. By default, when a database is created, a file with the naming convention of INIT<DATABASE SID>.ORA is also created.

From version 7.3 on, some of the INIT.ORA parameters can be dynamically modified using the following commands:

ALTER SESSION

When specified, the parameters are only changed for that session and will not remain in effect after the session ends.

ALTER SYSTEM

When specified, the parameters will remain in effect until the database is shut down but may not affect the current session.

ALTER SYSTEM DEFFERED

When specified, will not affect the current sessions but will affect all future sessions until the database is shut down.

Viewing the Parameters

There are more than 100 different parameters that can be set in the INIT.ORA file. When a value is changed in the INIT.ORA file, the value will not take effect until the database is “bounced,” or shut down and then restarted using the modified INIT.ORA parameter file. Since the Oracle RDBMS has a default value for every parameter available, the absence of ...