Re: definition of database

The documentation is referring to creating more than one database (i.e. instance) on the same server.

The terms database and instance are interchangeable in the vast majority of situations.
However....

The database is the collection of all objects that have a physical representation as files.
The instance is the set of ORACLE processes that access these objects. Uually there is a 1-to-1 relationship,
i.e. One set of ORACLE processes is created to access one database. You could create different instances(i.e. sets or programs) that access the same database but I have not seen this configuration in practice. Received on Wed Nov 18 1998 - 23:50:54 CST