Oracle has been making big strides in the area of content management. A recent press release touted two new products, Oracle Content Database and Oracle Records Database (or just Content DB and Records DB, for short). In short, Content DB allows you to use a single Oracle database instance as a repository for all kinds of unstructured data, and gives you the ability to use powerful tools like SQL and database privileges to query and manage that data. Records DB offers additional lifecycle management utilities that allow you to apply policies for document auditing, retention, and disposal to meet regulatory compliance obligations.

A Brief History of Content Management at Oracle
If this sounds familiar to you, then you're one of the not-so-many people who's been paying attention to this space over the past few years. Oracle's content management offerings are not entirely new, having undergone several transformations, from iFS (Internet File System), to Oracle Files, to the more recent Oracle Content Services, introduced in Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g.

This marks the first time that a content management product has moved out of being in its own collaboration offering, and into the head-of-the-class database suite. It makes a strong statement about the importance of having access to the right tools for managing the overwhelming amounts of data companies are juggling today. Hopefully making it easier to obtain and install that technology will be a big step toward easing the burden. (Note that shortly after Oracle made this announcement, Microsoft announced that their perpetually elusive WinFS project was being taken out of the operating system track, and integrated into their SQL Server product. Coincidence?).

ContentDB Installation
Installation of ContentDB is fairly straightforward:
1. Download and install Oracle Identity Management 10.1.4.0.1

Install the Infrastructure, with the Identity Management and Repository, including Internet Directory, Single Sign-on, Delegated Administration Services and Directory provisioning.

This will create a 10.1.0.5 database. The default database parameters are too low for contentDB.

alter system set processes=250 scope=spfile
sga_max_size=629145600 scope=spfile
shared_pool_size=184549376 scope=spfile
java_pool_size=125829120 scope=spfile
db_cache_size=150994944 scope=spfile
db_file_multiblock_read_count=32 scope=spfile
db_create_file_dest='/u02/oradata' scope=spfile
job_queue_processes=10 scope=spfile
session_max_open_files=50 scope=spfile
open_cursors=400 scope=spfile
star_transformation_enabled=true scope=spfile
pga_aggregate_target=203423744 scope=spfile;

Stop the Application server infrastructure before restarting the database to make the parameters above effective.

$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl stop iasconsole
$ $ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/opmnctl stopall
$ sqlplus / as sysdba
SQL> shutdown immediate
SQL> startup
$ $ORACLE_HOME/opmn/bin/opmnctl startall
$ $ORACLE_HOME/bin/emctl start iasconsole

2. Install ContentDB in this database.
Of course the ContentDB could be installed in a separate database, it does not have to be the same as the infrastructure database.

Download Content DB 10.2.0.0.0
Install Content DB.

To launch Content DB, point a Web browser to http://instance_name:7779

Login with orcladmin and the password you've specified for IAS_ADMIN.

ContentDB interface let you upload and download files. You can use it to keep your documentation in a single location. It has versioning, workflow, check-in/out capabilities too.