When creating a database (DBCA) or after.

Question

Greetings -
When I create a database using 'dbca' I ordinarily just create a 'vanilla'
database - no more then location of files and accepting the defaults.
After creating the db I launch Enterprise Manager and then change any
settings that I need to make or want to make.
My question - is there any compeling reason to use 'dbca' instead of EM
to make the changes to the database - one case is while it is being
created and the other is after it has been created ?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Brian

Answer 1

damorgan wrote:
The one big advantage of using DBCA is that one of the end products is the build script.
I am personally against making changes, of almost every type and description, using EM due to the lack of ability to reliably run in test and then repeat the exact same actions in prod.
For creating "real" databases, not just dev and training, I would recommend using a script created with dbca and from that point on editing and modifying the script. GUIs that do not create repeatable scripts are great for monitoring but not for modifying.Daniel,
I would put a finer point on that ... When using dbca to generate a script for creating a database, if one chooses one of the pre-configured templates (OLTP, Data Warehouse, etc) what you get in the end is a script that creates a database by restoring a pre-packaged backup. If you choose to create a "custom" database, what you get in the end is a script that launches sqlplus and issues a CREATE DATABASE command. One big difference I see is that with the latter approach, the database will naturally be created at the current patch level. It also should give the dba far more flexibility in what he can tweak in the scripts, though it's been so long since I've actually looked at one of the 'create by restore' scripts, I couldn't swear to it.
In fact, I really can't remember the last time I used dbca to create any scripts for me, as I just keep re-using the same set. I even went so far as to go through a "master set" and replace any reference to the sid name with recognizable tags, then use sed to touch it up just before execuing.