This chapter provides the "big picture", outlining the concepts and terminology you need to understand the Oracle Server. You should read this overview before using the detailed information in the remainder of this manual.
Part II
Basic Database Operation
Chapter 2 Database and Instance Startup and Shutdown
This chapter describes how the database administrator (DBA) can control the accessibility of an Oracle database system. This chapter also describes the parameters that control how the database operates.
This chapter discusses how data is stored and how storage space is allocated for and consumed by various objects within an Oracle database. The space management background information here supplements that in the following two chapters.
Chapter 4 Tablespaces and Datafiles
This chapter discusses how physical storage space in an Oracle database is divided into logical divisions called tablespaces. The physical operating system files associated with tablespaces, called datafiles, are also discussed.
This chapter describes the objects that can be created in the domain of a specific user (a schema), including tables, views, numeric sequences, and synonyms. Indexes and clusters, optional structures that make data retrieval more efficient, are also described.
This chapter describes the types of data that can be stored in an Oracle database table, such as fixed- and variable-length character strings, numbers, dates, and binary large objects (BLOBs). Among the issues covered are the following:
This chapter discusses data integrity and the declarative integrity constraints used to enforce it.
This chapter describes the data dictionary, which is a set of reference tables and views that contain read-only information about an Oracle database.
This chapter describes the memory structures and processes that make up an Oracle database system. This chapter also describes the different process configurations available for Oracle.
This chapter explains how Oracle provides concurrent access to and maintains the accuracy of shared information in a multi-user environment. It describes the automatic mechanisms that Oracle uses to guarantee that the concurrent operations of multiple users do not interfere with each other.
This chapter briefly describes SQL (the Structured Query Language), the language used to communicate with Oracle, as well as PL/SQL, Oracle's procedural language extension to SQL.
Chapter 12 Transaction Management
This chapter defines the concept of transactions and explains the SQL statements used to control them. Transactions are logical units of work that are executed together as a unit.
This chapter explains how the optimizer works. The optimizer is the part of Oracle that chooses the most efficient way to execute each SQL statement.
This chapter discusses the procedural language constructs called procedures, functions, and packages, which are PL/SQL program units that are stored in the database.
This chapter describes the procedural language constructs called triggers, procedures that are implicitly executed when anyone inserts rows into, updates, or deletes rows from a database table.
Chapter 16 Dependencies Among Schema Objects
This chapter explains how Oracle manages the dependencies for objects such as procedures, packages, triggers, and views.
This chapter describes how user access to data and database resources is controlled.
Chapter 18 Privileges and Roles
This chapter discusses system and object security.
This chapter discusses how Oracle's auditing feature tracks database activity.
This chapter discusses distributed processing environments and the Oracle Server.
Chapter 21 Distributed Databases
This chapter discusses the Oracle Server's distributed architecture, remote data access, and table replication.
This chapter describes the files and structures used for database recovery: the redo log files and the control files. Media and software failure are covered.
This chapter discusses how to protect an Oracle database from possible failures.
This chapter explains how to recover a database from failures.
This appendix lists all of the operating system-specific references within this manual.