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# Preface

The Oracle Big Data Appliance Software User's Guide describes how to manage and use the installed software.

## Audience

This guide is intended for users of Oracle Big Data Appliance including:

- Application developers

- Data analysts

- Data scientists

- Database administrators

- System administrators

The Oracle Big Data Appliance Software User's Guide introduces Oracle Big Data Appliance installed software, features, concepts, and terminology. However, you must acquire the necessary information about administering Hadoop clusters and writing MapReduce programs from other sources.

## Related Documents

For more information, see the following documents:

- Oracle Big Data Appliance Perfect Balance Java API Reference

- Oracle Enterprise Manager System Monitoring Plug-in Installation Guide for Oracle Big Data Appliance

- Oracle Big Data Appliance Owner's Guide

- Oracle Big Data Connectors User's Guide

## Conventions

The following text conventions are used in this document:

Convention | Meaning
--- | ---
boldface | Boldface type indicates graphical user interface elements associated with an action, or terms defined in text or the glossary.
italic | Italic type indicates book titles, emphasis, or placeholder variables for which you supply particular values.
`monospace` | Monospace type indicates commands within a paragraph, URLs, code in examples, text that appears on the screen, or text that you enter.
`#` prompt | The pound (`#`) prompt indicates a command that is run as the Linux `root` user.

## Backus-Naur Form Syntax

The syntax in this reference is presented in a simple variation of Backus-Naur Form (BNF) that uses the following symbols and conventions:

Symbol or Convention | Description
--- | ---
[ ] | Brackets enclose optional items.
{ } | Braces enclose a choice of items, only one of which is required.
| | A vertical bar separates alternatives within brackets or braces.
... | Ellipses indicate that the preceding syntactic element can be repeated.
delimiters | Delimiters other than brackets, braces, and vertical bars must be entered as shown.
boldface | Words appearing in boldface are keywords. They must be typed as shown. (Keywords are case-sensitive in some, but not all, operating systems.) Words that are not in boldface are placeholders for which you must substitute a name or value.