A
Operating System Specific Information

This manual occasionally refers to other Oracle manuals that contain detailed information for using Oracle on a specific operating system. These Oracle manuals are often called installation and configuration guides, although the exact name can vary on different operating systems.

This appendix lists all the references in this manual to operating system specific Oracle manuals, and lists the operating system-dependent initialization parameters. If you are using Oracle on multiple operating systems, this appendix can help you ensure that your applications are portable across these operating systems.

Operating system specific topics in this manual are listed alphabetically as follows.

• Administrator privileges, prerequisites: "Connection with Administrator Privileges"; connect string syntax: Oracle9i Net Services Administrator's Guide
• Auditing: "Events Always Audited to the Operating System Audit Trail" and "Audit to the Operating System Audit Trail"
• Authenticating DBAs: "Connection with Administrator Privileges" and "Authentication of Database Administrators"
• Authenticating users: "Authentication by the Operating System"
• Background processes, ARCn: "Archiver Processes (ARCn)" and the Oracle9i Backup and Recovery Concepts
• Background processes, creating: "Background Processes"
• Background processes, DBWn processes: "Database Writer Process (DBWn)"
• Client/server communication: "Dedicated Server Configuration"
• Communication software: "Communications Software for the Operating System"
• Configuring Oracle: "Types of Processes"; for dedicated server (two-task Oracle), see "Dedicated Server Configuration"; for shared server, see "Shared Server Architecture"
• Data blocks, size of: "Data Blocks Overview"
• Datafiles, size of file header: "Datafiles Overview"
• Dedicated server, requesting for administrative operations: "Restricted Operations of the Shared Server"
• Indexes, overhead of index blocks: "Format of Index Blocks"
• Operating system audit trails: On operating systems that do not make an audit trail accessible to Oracle, these audit trail records are placed in an Oracle audit trail file in the same directory as background process trace files.

  Oracle allows audit trail records to be directed to an operating system audit trail if the operating system makes such an audit trail available to Oracle. On some other operating systems, these audit records are written to a file outside the database, with a format similar to other Oracle trace files.

  Check your platform-specific Oracle documentation to see if this feature has been implemented on your operating system.

• Oracle Net Services, choosing and installing network drivers: "Program Interface Drivers"
• Oracle Net Services, drivers included in Oracle Net Services software: "How Oracle Net Services Works"; also, the Oracle9i Net Services Administrator's Guide
• Password files and authentication schemes: "Authentication of Database Administrators"
• Program global areas (PGAs): "SQL Work Areas"
• Role management by the operating system: "The Operating System and Roles"
• Software code areas, shared or unshared: "Software Code Areas"