Book Image

OCA Oracle Database 11g: Database Administration I: A Real-World Certification Guide

Book Image

OCA Oracle Database 11g: Database Administration I: A Real-World Certification Guide

Overview of this book

Oracle Database Server is the most widely used relational database in the world today. This book gives you the essential skills to master the fundamentals of Oracle database administration and prepares you for Oracle DBA certification."OCA Oracle Database 11g: Database Administration I: A Real-World Certification Guide" prepares you to master the fundamentals of Oracle database administration using an example driven method that is easy to understand. The real world examples will prepare you to face the daily challenges of being a database administrator.Starting with the essentials of why databases are important in today's information technology world and how they work, you are then guided through a full, customized installation of the Oracle software and creating your own personal database. We then examine fundamental concepts of Oracle, including architecture, storage structures, security, performance tuning, networking, and instance management. Finally, we take an in-depth look at some of the most important concepts in the daily life of an Oracle DBA - backup, recovery, and data migration."OCA Oracle Database 11g: Database Administration I: A Real-World Certification Guide" provides you with the skills you need in order to become a successful Oracle DBA, both for certification and real life tasks.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
OCA Oracle Database 11g: Database Administration I: A Real-World Certification Guide
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.packtpub.com
Preface
Index

Understanding the Oracle RDBMS


In the previous chapters, we made a reference to the term RDBMS, or Relational Database Management System. This term can be used in many ways and, more often than not, simply refers to a commercial database management product. However, the true meaning of the term RDBMS refers to the way the product operates internally to store and retrieve data. There are many commercial and open source database management systems available today. While they all attempt to interface with the user in a manner that is generally compliant with international standards, they all operate differently internally. We will explore the characteristics that make the Oracle RDBMS unique and, in doing so, understand how it works.

Distinguishing between an instance and a database

To define the Oracle database architecture, we must first define two terms and make a distinction between them. An instance is the set of background processes and memory structures that enable the Oracle kernel...