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Multitenant : Configure Instance Parameters and Modify Container Databases (CDB) and Pluggable Databases (PDB) in Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1)

The multitenant option introduced in Oracle Database 12c allows a single container database (CDB) to host multiple separate pluggable databases (PDB). This article shows how to configure instance parameters and modify container databases (CDB) and pluggable databases (PDB).

Related articles.

Configure Instance Parameters in a CDB (ALTER SYSTEM)

Configuring instance parameters for a CDB is not much different than it was for non-CDB databases. The ALTER SYSTEM command is used to set initialization parameters, with some database configuration modified using the ALTER DATABASE command.

When connected as a privileged user and pointing to the root container, any ALTER SYSTEM command will by default be directed at just the root container. This means the following two commands are functionally equivalent in this context.

alter system set parameter_name=value;
alter system set parameter_name=value container=current;

In addition to the default action, an initialization parameter change from the root container can target all containers using the following syntax.

alter system set parameter_name=value container=all;

By using CONTAINER=ALL you are instructing the PDBs that they should inherit the specific parameter value from the root container. Unless overridden by a local setting for the same parameter, any subsequent local changes to the root container for this specific parameter will also be inherited by the PDBs.

The PDBs are able to override some parameter settings by issuing a local ALTER SYSTEM call from the container. See documentation here.

Configure Instance Parameters in a PDB (ALTER SYSTEM)

In the previous section we mentioned that instance parameters can be set for all PDBs belonging to the CDB by using the CONTAINER=ALL clause of the ALTER SYSTEM command from the root container. Even when this inheritance is set, the local PDB can override the setting using a local ALTER SYSTEM call. Only a subset of the initialization parameters can be modified locally in the PDB. These can be displayed using the following query.

column name format a35
column value format a35
 
select name, value
from   v$system_parameter
where  ispdb_modifiable = 'TRUE'
order by name;

To make a local PDB change, make sure you are either connected directly to a privileged use in the PDB, or to a privileged common user, who has their container pointing to the PDB in question. As mentioned previously, if the CONTAINER clause is not mentioned, the current container is assumed, so the following ALTER SYSTEM commands are functionally equivalent.

conn / as sysdba
alter session set container = pdb1;

alter system set parameter_name=value;
alter system set parameter_name=value container=current;

Instance-level parameter changes in the root container are stored in the SPFILE in the normal way. When you change PDB-specific initialization parameters in the PDB they are not stored in the SPFILE. Instead they are saved in the PDB_SPFILE$ system table, which is discussed below. See documentation here.

Modify a CDB (ALTER DATABASE)

From a CDB perspective, the ALTER DATABASE command is similar to that of a non-CDB database. You just need to understand the scope of the changes you are making. Some ALTER DATABASE commands applied to the CDB will by definition affect all PDBs plugged into the CDB. Others target just the root container itself. The scoping of the the ALTER DATABASE command is shown in a table in the documentation here.

Modify a PDB (ALTER PLUGGABLE DATABASE)

Modifying a PDB is done by pointing to the relevant container and using the ALTER PLUGGABLE DATABASE command, but for backward compatibility reasons the ALTER DATABASE command will work for most of the possible modifications. Not surprisingly, the possible modifications available to PDB are a subset of those possible for a CDB or non-CDB database.

Remember, to target the PDB you must either connect directly to a privileged user using a service pointing to the PDB, or connect to the root container and switch to the PDB container. Some of the possible PDB modifications are shown below.

conn / as sysdba
alter session set container = pdb1;

-- Default edition for PDB.
alter pluggable database default edition = ora$base;

-- Default tablespace type for PDB.
alter pluggable database set default bigfile tablespace;
alter pluggable database set default smallfile tablespace;

-- Default tablespaces for PDB.
alter pluggable database default tablespace users;
alter pluggable database default temporary tablespace temp;

-- Change the global name. This will change the container name and the
-- name of the default service registered with the listener.
alter pluggable database open restricted force;
alter pluggable database rename global_name to pdb1a.localdomain;
alter pluggable database close immediate;
alter pluggable database open;

-- Time zone for PDB.
alter pluggable database set time_zone='GMT';

-- Make datafiles in the PDB offline/online and make storage changes.
alter pluggable database datafile '/u01/app/oracle/oradata/cdb1/pdb1/pdb1_users01.dbf' offline;
alter pluggable database datafile '/u01/app/oracle/oradata/cdb1/pdb1/pdb1_users01.dbf' online;

alter pluggable database datafile '/u01/app/oracle/oradata/cdb1/pdb1/pdb1_users01.dbf'
  resize 1g autoextend on next 1m;

-- Supplemental logging for PDB.
alter pluggable database add supplemental log data;
alter pluggable database drop supplemental log data;

In addition there is a mechanism to control the maximum size of the PDB and the amount of the shared temp space it can use.

Thanks to Pavel Rabel for pointing out the problem with this shared temporary tablespace, as described in this MOS note. PDB to Use Global CDB (ROOT) Temporary Tablespace Functionality is Missing (Doc ID 2004595.1)

-- Limit the total storage of the the PDB (datafile and local temp files).
alter pluggable database storage (maxsize 5g);

-- Limit the amount of temp space used in the shared temp files.
alter pluggable database storage (max_shared_temp_size 2g);

-- Combine the two.
alter pluggable database storage (maxsize 5g max_shared_temp_size 2g);

-- Remove the limits.
alter pluggable database storage unlimited;

More configuration options are discussed in the ALTER PLUGGABLE DATABASE documentation and in the multitenant option articles on this site.

PDB_SPFILE$

As mentioned previously, initialization parameters for PDBs are stored in a system table called PDB_SPFILE$. There isn't much information about it in the main documentation, but it is discussed in the following MOS note.

The documentation encourages us to use the V$PARAMETER, V$SYSTEM_PARAMETER and V$SPPARAMETER views, which all include a CON_ID column, rather than querying the PDB_SPFILE$ table.

It is not 100% clear how the PDB_SPFILE$ table is managed. For example, this MOS note says reset parameters remain in the table, but are marked as deleted, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the row that indicates a value is marked as deleted.

Clearly there are situations where the contents of the PDB_SPFILE$ table can cause issues, and need manual intervention. In the following MOS note, the recommendation is to manually delete a specific parameter from the table and restart the PDB.

What I'm about to discuss is not a recommendation. It is something I have done to solve a specific situation. Do this under advice from Oracle Support, or at your own risk!

One scenario that has caused issues for me relates to creating a PDB from a non-CDB instance. At the end of the process I've been left with PDB-level parameters in the PDB_SPFILE$ table that I don't want, and resetting them at the PDB level doesn't seem to have any impact. To solve this I did the following.

Get the list of parameters, including the PDB_UID.

set linesize 120
column pdb_name format a10
column name format a30
column value$ format a30

select ps.db_uniq_name,
       ps.pdb_uid,
       p.name as pdb_name,
       ps.name,
       ps.value$
from   pdb_spfile$ ps
       join v$pdbs p on ps.pdb_uid = p.con_uid
order by 1, 2, 3;

Delete the PDB-level parameters from the table, using the PDB_UID value.

delete from pdb_spfile$ where pdb_uid = {your PDB_UID value};
commit;

Restart the container database.

It's rather drastic, and as I warned above, this is not a recommendation!

For more information see:

Hope this helps. Regards Tim...

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