Installing and configuring Oracle 12c

It was a while since the last time I have installed an instance of the Oracle database for local use. Nothing much has changed in the process, with the noticeable exception of the introduction of pluggable databases. Here I jot down a few remarks I made during the setup of the version 12 release 2.

1. In the page Typical Installation we have to specify the name for our pluggable database. Remember your choice!
2. The Enterprise Manager Database Express is available on https://localhost:5500/em, access it through the SYS user (with the password specified during setup)
3. Add in the tnsnames.ora (in the network\admin directory under the database home) the network configuration settings to access the pluggable database we have created in (1). Something like:

PDBORCL =
  (DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SERVER = DEDICATED)
      (SERVICE_NAME = pdborcl)
    )
  )

4. Use sqlplus to connect to the pluggable database with SYS as sysdba:

sqlplus sys/Oracle_1@pdborcl as sysdba;

5. As usual, unlock the hr user to access the test tables:

alter user hr identified by hr account unlock;

So far so good. All standard stuff. A problem raises if you plan to stop the Oracle service, that should be named OracleServiceORCL. Since it is always memory hungry, sometimes I just want it stay out of my RAM. The first time I did it, I had the surprise of getting a nasty error when I tried to connect to the database after restarting. Basically, the issue was that the pluggable database was mounted but not started.

This is the recipe I followed to solve it:

1. From the shell, enter sqlplus without logging.

sqlplus /nolog

2. In sqlplus, connect as sysdba.

connect / as sysdba

3. Brutally shutdown the database.

shutdown abort

4. Restart it.

startup mount

5. Recover the database, then open it.

recover database 
alter database open;

6. Open all the pluggable database, and then ask them to remember their status, so that we don't have to repeat the maneuver each time.

alter pluggable database all open;
alter pluggable database pdb_name save state;