You may of course use your personal copy of Oracle for your project work. Alternatively, you are welcome to use the departmental copy, which (like MySQL), is visible on csdb.

To use the department copy of Oracle, log into the Unix machine csdb.csc.villanova.edu, by connecting with ssh to either tanner or csgate, and from there ssh to csdb using the command

	ssh csdb

From your shell prompt, access SQL by entering sqlplus. You will be asked for a username and password. The former is your UNIX login; the latter will initially be set to fL followed by your VUId# (this is not your social security number -- it is your Banner ID, as displayed in Novasis).

(Note that your search path should include /u01/app/oracle/OraHome1/bin, or else invoke sqlplus by its "fully-qualified pathname": /u01/app/oracle/OraHome1/bin/sqlplus).

The default prompt will be SQL> .

Return to the shell by entering exit at the SQL> prompt. You can also toggle between SQL and your shell by entering ! in SQL and exit in your shell.

Some of the commands and symbols you'll want to get acquainted with right away are: help, describe, pause, grant, @, start. Some of the system tables to check out: all_tables, all_views.

Off-campus access is also possible through the Villanova VPN (Virtual Private Network). Instructions are at gateway.villanova.edu (you may need to install the plugin). For more information on the Villanova secure gateway, visit this support page.