We are developing a web application and need to setup a database for each customer/user. Users can create their own attributes. Except those user defined attributes, the database schemas for each user are the same. We used to use MS SQL Server to create a separate database for each user.

Now we are switching to Oracle. My question is: How can we setup user database in Oracle? It seems we can create a schema for each user, but I would like to know if there is any other choices. As the database schemas are the same except the user defined attributes, is it possible to use Virtual Private Database?

One thing we need consider is that we need to backup/restore data/schema for single user.

Thanks for any help.