Remarkable new features Oracle 18c for DBAs

New Default Location of Oracle Database Password File

Password file in earlier releases was stored in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs location. This has been changed to $ORACLE_BASE. This steps seems to be taken in order to leverage read-only ORACLE_HOME that is next feature worth noting.

Read-Only Oracle Home

You can choose for a Read only Oracle Home!!! Yes, a read only Oracle Home that will keep only configuration files.

So where will processes and database tools maintain logfiles? --> ORACLE_BASE.

This will maintain version control and standardization 

RPM-based Database Installation

This was observed by me when deploying recent versions for jdk and good to see the same has been now introduced in leveraging Oracle database software installation.

Using the rpm-ivh command, an RPM-based database installation performs 

preinstallation validations

extracts the packaged software

reassigns the ownership of the extracted software to the preconfigured user and groups

maintains the Oracle inventory 

executes all the root operations required to complete the Oracle Database software installation.

File /etc/sysconfig/oracledb_ORCLCDB-18c.conf is worth noting before running rpm command.

Shared Single Client Access Names

 Imagine set of ips needed for datacenter having 40 clusters. Each cluster will have its own SCAN. This SCAN will be resolved using DNS/GNS, suppose DNS, then there will be set of 3 ips that will be used for single SCAN, which means you will be needing 120 ip addresses for 40 clusters!!!

A shared single client access name (SCAN) enables the sharing of one set of SCAN virtual IPs (VIPs) and Listeners (referred to as the SCAN setup) on one dedicated cluster in the data center with other clusters to avoid the deployment of one SCAN setup per cluster.

 

NodeVIP-Less Cluster

NodeVIP-Less Cluster enables the configuration of a cluster without the need to explicitly configure nodevips on the public network. While the VIP resources on Clusterware level will still be maintained, there is no need to provision additional IPs for each node in the cluster, which in larger cluster estates can potentially save hundreds of IPs per subnet. 

Integration of Active Directory Services with Oracle Database

Starting with this release, you can authenticate and authorize users directly with Microsoft Active Directory. EUS is not being replaced or deprecated; this new feature is another simpler option if you only want to authenticate and authorize users with Microsoft Active Directory.

Ability to Create Schema Only Accounts

You now can create schema only accounts, for object ownership without allowing clients to log in to the schema.

A user (or other client) cannot log in to the database schema unless the account is modified to accept an authentication method.