Srikanth Technologies

Getting Started With Oracle Database 10g

Today I received a mail seeking my help regarding using Oracle Database 10g. That made me feel I should write about how to install and get started with Oracle Database 10g.

Getting Software and Installing It

The first step is obviously to download oracle software from oracle.com. When you try to download Oracle Database 10g express edition, it will ask you to register (if not already registered).  Don't worry! Registration process is very simple and just do it.

Download Oracle Database 10g express edition, which is a download of 156MB. With a lot of people using broadband of 256kbps or above, it doesn't take any time to download 156MB.

You downloaded a simple file oraclexe.exe. Just double click on that and follow the instructions. At one point it asks you to provide password for system account. Provide a password and make sure you remember it. Here, I have a suggestion. Try to simplify your password. Give you name or something that you can easily remember. After all you are not going to put any confidential data in your database and moreover in many cases only you access the database and no one else.

Unlocking HR account

Until Oracle9i we had an account called SCOTT with password TIGER. Many try to use that to log in but fail. Oracle Database 10g doesn't come with SCOTT account any more. It instead provides HR account HR password.

But, HR account is locked and cannot be used unless you unlock it. So here are the steps to unlock HR account.
  1. Start SQL Plus using Oracle Database 10g Express Edition->Run SQL Command Line.
  2. At SQL> prompt, connect to Oracle using SYSTEM account with password given at the time of installation. Oracle password are NOT case sensitive. 

    CONNECT  SYSTEM/password
  3. Unlock HR account with the following command. 

    ALTER USER  HR ACCOUNT UNLOCK;
    Now, HR account is unlocked and ready to be used.
  4. So, try to connect to HR account using the following command. 

    CONNECT HR/HR
    5. It will prompt you to enter new password and current password is expired. This is because of the fact, HR account's password is expired by default. Don't worry enter new password for HR. To make life easy, you better enter the same HR as password.

That's all you have to do to access HR account and enjoy all the sample table that come with HR account.

If you want to know more about HR account tables their relationships and queries related to those tables, please visit Human Resource Schema Of Oracle10g.