How to create and drop a pluggable database in Oracle 12c

This method uses OMF (Oracle Managed Files):

1. Create directory on host:

mkdir -p /u02/oradata/cdbveg/pdbveg2

2. Set session parameter to enable OMF:

alter session set db_create_file_Dest='/u02/oradata/cdbveg/pdbveg2';

3. Create a pluggable database with a new and local PDBA:

create PLUGGABLE database PDBVEG2
admin user VEGARD
identified by "MySecretPassword"
roles=(DBA);

The statement above copies data files from the seed PDB to the target directory specified in step 2.
It will also grant the local role PDB_DBA to the new PDBA, Vegard.

4. Check the status of the newly created PDB:

select pdb_name,status,con_id from CDB_PDBS;

PDB_NAME	STATUS	CON_ID
PDBVEG1	NORMAL	3
PDB$SEED	NORMAL	2
PDBVEG2	NEW	4

5. Open the pluggable database:

alter pluggable database pdbveg2 open;

6. Check status again:

select pdb_name,status,con_id from CDB_PDBS;

PDB_NAME	STATUS	CON_ID
PDBVEG1	NORMAL	3
PDB$SEED	NORMAL	2
PDBVEG2	NORMAL	4

To drop a pluggable database, perform the following steps:

alter pluggable database PDB1 close;
-- Unplug the database. If you try to drop it before unplugging it, Oracle report
-- ORA-65179: cannot keep datafiles for a pluggable database that is not unplugged
alter pluggable database PDB1 unplug into '/tmp/PDB1.xml';
drop pluggable database PDB1;

If you want Oracle to remove the physical files from disk for you in the same operation, use the following syntax:

drop pluggable database PDB1 including datafiles;