The geodatabase administrator account in Oracle is the account that owns the geodatabase repository. The geodatabase administrator for the master geodatabase must be named sde. This account owns and manages the following:
- The system tables, triggers, and procedures that make up the master geodatabase
- The SQL types and functions
- The DEFAULT geodatabase version in the master geodatabase
In addition to the master geodatabase, your Oracle database can store geodatabases in the schemas of individual users. The administrator for those geodatabases is the schema owner. That user owns and manages the following:
- The geodatabase system tables, triggers, and procedures in the user's geodatabase
- The DEFAULT geodatabase version within the user's geodatabase
Because the geodatabase administrator owns all the geodatabase system files, directories, and tables, this account must be created before the geodatabase can be created. If you use the Create Enterprise Geodatabase geoprocessing tool or script to create the master geodatabase, an sde database user is created for you and granted the privileges necessary to create a geodatabase. If you use the Create Enterprise Geodatabase geoprocessing tool or script to create a user-schema geodatabase or the Enable Enterprise Geodatabase geoprocessing tool, script, or wizard to enable geodatabase functionality in an Oracle database, you must create the geodatabase administrator user and grant it the privileges required to create a geodatabase.
Keep in mind that the geodatabase administrator user is not the same as the database administrator. Although conditions at your site may necessitate that the geodatabase administrator have database administrator-level permissions, this is not required for day-to-day operation of a geodatabase.
The geodatabase administrator and schema
It is recommended that the sde user's schema only be used to manage and store the master sde geodatabase repository. You should create separate users to create datasets, such as feature classes and raster datasets.
If your database contains user-schema geodatabases, the owners of the user-schema geodatabase can only own data in that geodatabase; he or she cannot own data in the sde master geodatabase or any other user's schema geodatabase. Users who do not own a user-schema geodatabase can only own data in the master sde geodatabase. See The relationship between the master and user-schema geodatabases in Oracle for more information.