Administering your RDS for Oracle DB instance

Following are the common management tasks that you perform with an RDS for Oracle DB instance. Some tasks are the same for all RDS DB instances. Other tasks are specific to RDS for Oracle.

The following tasks are common to all RDS databases, but Oracle Database has special considerations. For example, you connect to an Oracle database using the Oracle clients SQL*Plus and SQL Developer.

Task area	Relevant documentation
Instance classes, storage, and PIOPS If you are creating a production instance, learn how instance classes, storage types, and Provisioned IOPS work in Amazon RDS.	RDS for Oracle DB instance classes Amazon RDS storage types
Multi-AZ deployments A production DB instance should use Multi-AZ deployments. Multi-AZ deployments provide increased availability, data durability, and fault tolerance for DB instances.	Configuring and managing a Multi-AZ deployment for Amazon RDS
Amazon VPC If your AWS account has a default virtual private cloud (VPC), then your DB instance is automatically created inside the default VPC. If your account doesn't have a default VPC, and you want the DB instance in a VPC, create the VPC and subnet groups before you create the instance.	Working with a DB instance in a VPC
Security groups By default, DB instances use a firewall that prevents access. Make sure that you create a security group with the correct IP addresses and network configuration to access the DB instance.	Controlling access with security groups
Parameter groups If your DB instance is going to require specific database parameters, create a parameter group before you create the DB instance.	Parameter groups for Amazon RDS
Option groups If your DB instance requires specific database options, create an option group before you create the DB instance.	Adding options to Oracle DB instances
Connecting to your DB instance After creating a security group and associating it to a DB instance, you can connect to the DB instance using any standard SQL client application such as Oracle SQL*Plus.	Connecting to your Oracle DB instance
Backup and restore You can configure your DB instance to take automated backups, or take manual snapshots, and then restore instances from the backups or snapshots.	Backing up, restoring, and exporting data
Monitoring You can monitor an Oracle DB instance by using CloudWatch Amazon RDS metrics, events, and enhanced monitoring.	Viewing metrics in the Amazon RDS console Viewing Amazon RDS events
Log files You can access the log files for your Oracle DB instance.	Monitoring Amazon RDS log files

Task area

Relevant documentation

Instance classes, storage, and PIOPS

If you are creating a production instance, learn how instance classes, storage types, and Provisioned IOPS work in Amazon RDS.

RDS for Oracle DB instance classes

Amazon RDS storage types

Multi-AZ deployments

A production DB instance should use Multi-AZ deployments. Multi-AZ deployments provide increased availability, data durability, and fault tolerance for DB instances.

Configuring and managing a Multi-AZ deployment for Amazon RDS

Amazon VPC

If your AWS account has a default virtual private cloud (VPC), then your DB instance is automatically created inside the default VPC. If your account doesn't have a default VPC, and you want the DB instance in a VPC, create the VPC and subnet groups before you create the instance.

Working with a DB instance in a VPC

Security groups

By default, DB instances use a firewall that prevents access. Make sure that you create a security group with the correct IP addresses and network configuration to access the DB instance.

Controlling access with security groups

Parameter groups

If your DB instance is going to require specific database parameters, create a parameter group before you create the DB instance.

Parameter groups for Amazon RDS

Option groups

If your DB instance requires specific database options, create an option group before you create the DB instance.

Adding options to Oracle DB instances

Connecting to your DB instance

After creating a security group and associating it to a DB instance, you can connect to the DB instance using any standard SQL client application such as Oracle SQL*Plus.

Connecting to your Oracle DB instance

Backup and restore

You can configure your DB instance to take automated backups, or take manual snapshots, and then restore instances from the backups or snapshots.

Backing up, restoring, and exporting data

Monitoring

You can monitor an Oracle DB instance by using CloudWatch Amazon RDS metrics, events, and enhanced monitoring.

Viewing metrics in the Amazon RDS console

Viewing Amazon RDS events

Log files

You can access the log files for your Oracle DB instance.

Monitoring Amazon RDS log files

Following, you can find a description for Amazon RDS–specific implementations of common DBA tasks for RDS Oracle. To deliver a managed service experience, Amazon RDS doesn't provide shell access to DB instances. Also, RDS restricts access to certain system procedures and tables that require advanced privileges. In many of the tasks, you run the rdsadmin package, which is an Amazon RDS–specific tool that enables you to administer your database.

The following are common DBA tasks for DB instances running Oracle:

System tasks

Disconnecting a session	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.disconnect` Oracle method: `alter system disconnect session`
Terminating a session	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.kill` Oracle method: `alter system kill session`
Canceling a SQL statement in a session	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.cancel` Oracle method: `alter system cancel sql`
Enabling and disabling restricted sessions	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.restricted_session` Oracle method: `alter system enable restricted session`
Flushing the shared pool	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.flush_shared_pool` Oracle method: `alter system flush shared_pool`
Flushing the buffer cache	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.flush_buffer_cache` Oracle method: `alter system flush buffer_cache`
Granting SELECT or EXECUTE privileges to SYS objects	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.grant_sys_object` Oracle method: `grant`
Revoking SELECT or EXECUTE privileges on SYS objects	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.revoke_sys_object` Oracle method: `revoke`
Managing RDS_X$ views for Oracle DB instances	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.create_sys_x$_view` Oracle method: `CREATE VIEW`
Granting privileges to non-master users	Amazon RDS method: `grant`
Creating custom functions to verify passwords	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_password_verify.create_verify_function` Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_password_verify.create_passthrough_verify_fcn`
Setting up a custom DNS server	—
Listing allowed system diagnostic events	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.list_allowed_system_events` Oracle method: —
Setting system diagnostic events	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.set_allowed_system_events` Oracle method: `ALTER SYSTEM SET EVENTS 'set_event_clause'`
Listing system diagnostic events that are set	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.list_set_system_events` Oracle method: `ALTER SESSION SET EVENTS 'IMMEDIATE EVENTDUMP(SYSTEM)'`
Unsetting system diagnostic events	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.unset_system_event` Oracle method: `ALTER SYSTEM SET EVENTS 'unset_event_clause'`

Database tasks

Changing the global name of a database	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.rename_global_name` Oracle method: `alter database rename`
Creating and sizing tablespaces in RDS for Oracle	Amazon RDS method: `create tablespace` Oracle method: `alter database`
Setting the default tablespace in RDS for Oracle	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.alter_default_tablespace` Oracle method: `alter database default tablespace`
Setting the default temporary tablespace in RDS for Oracle	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.alter_default_temp_tablespace` Oracle method: `alter database default temporary tablespace`
Creating a temporary tablespace on the instance store	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.create_inst_store_tmp_tblspace` Oracle method: `create temporary tablespace`
Checkpointing a database	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.checkpoint` Oracle method: `alter system checkpoint`
Setting distributed recovery	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.enable_distr_recovery` Oracle method: `alter system enable distributed recovery`
Setting the database time zone	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.alter_db_time_zone` Oracle method: `alter database set time_zone`
Working with external tables in RDS for Oracle	—
Generating performance reports with Automatic Workload Repository (AWR)	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_diagnostic_util` procedures Oracle method: `dbms_workload_repository` package
Adjusting database links for use with DB instances in a VPC	—
Setting the default edition for a DB instance	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.alter_default_edition` Oracle method: `alter database default edition`
Enabling auditing for the SYS.AUD$ table	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_master_util.audit_all_sys_aud_table` Oracle method: `audit`
Disabling auditing for the SYS.AUD$ table	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_master_util.noaudit_all_sys_aud_table` Oracle method: `noaudit`
Cleaning up interrupted online index builds	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_dbms_repair.online_index_clean` Oracle method: `dbms_repair.online_index_clean`
Skipping corrupt blocks	Amazon RDS method: Several `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_dbms_repair` procedures Oracle method: `dbms_repair` package
Resizing tablespaces, data files, and tempfiles in RDS for Oracle	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.resize_temp_tablespace`, `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.resize_tempfile`, or `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.autoextend_tempfile` procedures `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.resize_datafile` or `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.autoextend_datafile` procedure Oracle method: —
Purging the recycle bin	Amazon RDS method: `EXEC rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.purge_dba_recyclebin` Oracle method: `purge dba_recyclebin`
Setting the default displayed values for full redaction	Amazon RDS method: `EXEC rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.dbms_redact_upd_full_rdct_val` Oracle method: `exec dbms_redact.UPDATE_FULL_REDACTION_VALUES`

Log tasks

Setting force logging	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.force_logging` Oracle method: `alter database force logging`
Setting supplemental logging	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.alter_supplemental_logging` Oracle method: `alter database add supplemental log`
Switching online log files	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.switch_logfile` Oracle method: `alter system switch logfile`
Adding online redo logs	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.add_logfile`
Dropping online redo logs	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.drop_logfile`
Resizing online redo logs	—
Retaining archived redo logs	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_util.set_configuration`
Downloading archived redo logs from Amazon S3	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_archive_log_download.download_log_with_seqnum` Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_archive_log_download.download_logs_in_seqnum_range`
Accessing online and archived redo logs	Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_master_util.create_archivelog_dir` Amazon RDS method: `rdsadmin.rdsadmin_master_util.create_onlinelog_dir`

RMAN tasks