A few weeks ago, we posted that there is a new PDF that consolidates all the help topics on user-schema geodatabases in Oracle. In that post, it was mentioned that user-schema geodatabases were implemented so you could store multiple geodatabases in one Oracle instance.
Being able to store more than one geodatabase in a single Oracle instance is significant because in Oracle, the instance is basically the database. Prior to the advent of user-schema geodatabases at ArcGIS 9.2, if you wanted to set up a second geodatabase in Oracle, you had to install and setup another instance of Oracle and create your second geodatabase in that.
This is different from how other database management systems work. In IBM DB2, Informix IDS, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQL, you can have multiple databases per DBMS instance (or database cluster). You can create a geodatabase in each one of those databases, thereby having multiple, independent geodatabases on one DBMS instance.
User-schema geodatabases in Oracle, therefore, were designed to mimic this and meet the needs of users who wanted to have multiple geodatabases in a single Oracle instance. Because the implementation is different, though, we have topics and a PDF specific to user-schema geodatabases in Oracle.
“Thats cool, but I’m using one of those other database management systems, not Oracle. How do I set up multiple geodatabases in one of the other supported database management systems?”
Well Lenny, you basically set up subsequent geodatabases the same way you set up the first one. You just have fewer steps the second (and third, and fourth) time around because you’ve already installed and set up your DBMS instance, installed ArcSDE, and created your users.
The installation guides provided with ArcSDE contain details on setting up a geodatabase, so you and Lenny should read those for specific instructions on how to complete the setup steps for each DBMS.
