Installing a Loopback Adapter on Windows 2000

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) assigns dynamic IP addresses on a network. Dynamic addressing allows a computer to have a different IP address each time it connects to the network. In some cases, the IP address can change while the computer is still connected.

You can have a mixture of static and dynamic IP addressing in a DHCP system. In a DHCP setup, the software tracks IP addresses, which simplifies network administration. This lets you add a new computer to the network without having to manually assign that computer a unique IP address. However, before installing Oracle Database onto a computer that uses the DHCP protocol, you need to install a loopback adapter to assign a local IP address to that computer.

Loopback adapter approach is recommended particularly for laptops (presumably used only for learning purposes!) which connect and disconnect from the real, corporate network. The loopback adapter means that Oracle will function regardless of whether the laptop is connected to the network or not. It gives Oracle a static, always-there, point of reference independent of what shenannigans the real NIC gets up to.

For instructions regarding the Loopback Adapter on Windows 2000 see the instructions from 2.4.5.3 onwards:

http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/html/B10130_02/reqs.htm#BABDJJFF

Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)

You can find all the basic stuff about Transparent Data Encryption here:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/05-sep/o55security.html

and here:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/05-jan/o15security.html

We needed to issue the statement in MicroStrategy before running the report:
alter system set encryption wallet open authenticated by "password"; so that the encrypted columns would be displayed in the report.

" around password are double quotes.

However if the statement is issued like this then by selecting the Sql view for the report in MicroStrategy, one can easily see the password and so we needed to hide it inside a procedure.

I couldnt find any examples of using the alter statement in a procedure and this failed when executed:

create or replace procedure open_my_wallet is
begin
execute immediate 'alter system set encryption wallet open authenticated by "password"'; end;

with privilege errors.

The reason is that the alter system privilege was given through a role and needs to be granted directly. Alternatively by doing it this way, the privileges are granted directly

--
create or replace procedure open_wallet authid current_user
is
begin
execute immediate 'alter system set encryption wallet open authenticated by "password"';
end open_wallet;
/
--

When a procedure is defined as authid current_user (invoker rights), than all privileges available with granted roles will be available to the procedure