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When we need to install Oracle database in Linux then the user should be in dba group. What is this group and why the user should be in this group for installing Oracle database. What happens if the user does not belong to this group? Please help me in understanding this.

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Apr 2 '13 at 11:14

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This group is the owner of the Oracle software installation and also the owner of the datafiles, redo logs and other files Oracle uses. The Oracle Server should have read/write access to these files and dirs. This group is also used to authenticate users with SYSDBA privilege, so that they log in without providing password from command line. You will also want to create directories and give dba group read/write access to them so that Oracle can read from and write to these directories when you use Data Pump, SQL*Loader, BFILEs etc. –  Yasir Arsanukaev Apr 2 '13 at 11:28
Good question, I thought the documentation would say more on this but I couldn't easily find the relevant links. Can someone add them to an answer here? –  Colin 't Hart Apr 2 '13 at 11:33
Some information is here: docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/install.112/e24321/… –  Colin 't Hart Apr 2 '13 at 11:39

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