The PFILE (initSID.ora) is a text file that can be maintained using a standard operating system editor. The PFILE is read only during instance startup. If the file is modified, the instance must be shut down and restarted in order to make the new parameter values effective.
By default, the PFILE is located in the $ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory and named initSID.ora.
Creating a PFILE
A sample init.ora file is created by the Universal Installer during installation. This sample init.ora file can be used to create an instance-specific initSID.ora. A text editor can be used to modify the parameters within the initSID.ora file specific to database needs.
- Copy sample using operating system copy command
- Uniquely identified by database SID
cp init.ora $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initdba01.ora
PFILE Example
1. Specify the values in the following format: keyword=value.
2. The server has a default value for each parameter. This value may be operating system dependent, depending on the parameter.
3. Parameters can be specified in any order, although there are some exceptions.
4. Comment lines begin with the # symbol.
5. Enclose parameters in double quotation marks to include character literals.
6. Additional files can be included with the keyword IFILE.
7. If case is significant for the operating system, then it is also significant in filenames.
8. Multiple values are enclosed in parentheses and separated by commas.
Note: Develop a standard for listing parameters; either list them alphabetically or group them by functionality. The PFILE varies from instance to instance
Initialization Parameter File: initdba01.ora
db_name = dba01
instance_name = dba01
control_files = ( /home/dba01/ORADATA/u01/control01dba01.ctl,
/home/dba01/ORADATA/u02/control01dba02.ctl)
db_block_size = 4096
db_cache_size = 4M
shared_pool_size = 50000000
java_pool_size = 50000000
max_dump_file_size = 10240
background_dump_dest = /home/dba01/ADMIN/BDUMP
user_dump_dest = /home/dba01/ADMIN/UDUMP
core_dump_dest = /home/dba01/ADMIN/CDUMP
undo_management = AUTO
undo_tablespace = UNDOTBS
. . .