Oracle Database
Developed by	Oracle Corporation
Initial release	1979
Latest release	11g / 11 July 2007
Written in	C
OS	Cross-platform (List)
Available in	Multiple languages
Genre	RDBMS
License	Proprietary
Website	http://www.oracle.com/

The relational database management system (RDBMS) officially called Oracle Database (and commonly referred to as Oracle RDBMS or simply as Oracle) has become a major presence in database computing. A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of Oracle Corporation ( specializes in developing and marketing Enterprise software products — particularly Database management systems In 2007 Oracle ranked A software release is the distribution whether public or private of an initial or new and upgraded version of a Computer software product Events 911 - Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. A programming language is an Artificial language that can be used to write programs which control the behavior of a machine particularly a Computer. tags please moot on the talk page first! --> In Computing, C is a general-purpose cross-platform block structured An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination In computing cross-platform (also known as multi-platform) is a term used to refer to Computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function type or field of use A Relational database management system (RDBMS is a Database management system (DBMS that is based on the Relational model as introduced by E A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software The word proprietary indicates that a party or proprietor exercises private Ownership, control or use over an item of Property. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages A Relational database management system (RDBMS is a Database management system (DBMS that is based on the Relational model as introduced by E A Computer Database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system Computing is usually defined like the activity of using and developing Computer technology Computer hardware and software. Oracle Corporation produces and markets this software. Oracle Corporation ( specializes in developing and marketing Enterprise software products — particularly Database management systems In 2007 Oracle ranked

Larry Ellison and his friends and former co-workers Bob Miner and Ed Oates started the consultancy Software Development Laboratories (SDL) in 1977. Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation Bob Miner (1942-1994 co-founded Software Development Labs in August 1977 with Larry Ellison, and Ed Oates. Ed Oates (1946- co-founded Software Development Labs in August 1977 with Larry Ellison, and Bob Miner. SDL developed the original version of the Oracle software. The name Oracle comes from the code-name of a CIA-funded project Ellison had worked on while previously employed by Ampex. near as long as it used to be several months ago It has been actively summarized and split into sub-articles and there is a dynamic talk page discussion of all Ampex ( is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M

Contents 1 Physical and logical structuring in Oracle 1.1 Database schema 1.2 Tablespaces 1.3 Memory architecture 1.3.1 System Global Area 1.3.2 Library cache 1.3.3 Data dictionary cache 1.3.4 Program Global Area 1.4 Process architecture 2 Languages 3 History 3.1 Corporate/technical timeline 3.2 Version numbering 3.3 List of claimed firsts 4 Editions 5 Host platforms 6 Related software 6.1 Database options 6.2 Suites 6.3 Database "features" 6.4 Standalone tools 6.5 Other databases marketed by Oracle Corporation 7 Using Oracle Database software 7.1 Official support 7.2 Database-related guidelines 7.3 Oracle Certification Program 8 Oracle Database in the market 8.1 Competition 8.2 Pricing 8.3 Market share 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

Physical and logical structuring in Oracle

An Oracle database system comprises at least one instance of the application, along with data storage. An instance comprises a set of operating-system processes and memory-structures that interact with the storage. In computing a process is an instance of a Computer program that is being sequentially executed by a computer system that has the ability to run several computer Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to Computer components devices and recording media that retain digital Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to Computer components devices and recording media that retain digital Typical processes include PMON (the process monitor) and SMON (the system monitor).

Users of Oracle databases refer to the server-side memory-structure as the SGA (System Global Area). The SGA typically holds cache information such as data-buffers, SQL commands and user information. In Computer science, a cache (kæʃ like "cash") is a collection of data duplicating original In addition to storage, the database consists of online redo logs (which hold transactional history). A database transaction is a unit of work performed against a Database management system or similar system that is treated in a coherent and reliable way independent of other Processes can in turn archive the online redo logs into archive logs (offline redo logs), which provide the basis (if necessary) for data recovery and for some forms of data replication. An archive refers to a collection of historical records and also refers to the location in which these records are kept Data recovery is the process of salvaging data from damaged failed corrupted or inaccessible secondary storage media when it cannot be accessed normally Replication is the process of sharing information so as to ensure consistency between redundant resources such as Software or Hardware components to improve reliability

The Oracle RDBMS stores data logically in the form of tablespaces and physically in the form of data files. A data storage device is a device for recording (storing information (data A tablespace is a storage location where the actual data underlying Database objects can be kept A computer file is a block of Arbitrary Information, or resource for storing information which is available to a Computer program and is usually Tablespaces can contain various types of memory segments; for example, Data Segments, Index Segments etc. In computing memory segmentation is one of the most common ways to achieve Memory protection; another common one is Paging. Segments in turn comprise one or more extents. Extents comprise groups of contiguous data blocks. Data blocks form the basic units of data storage. At the physical level, data-files comprise one or more data blocks, where the block size can vary between data-files. In Computing (specifically data transmission and data storage) block is a sequence of Bytes or Bits having a nominal length (a block size

Oracle database management keeps track of its computer data storage with the help of information stored in the SYSTEM tablespace. Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to Computer components devices and recording media that retain digital The SYSTEM tablespace contains the data dictionary — and often (by default) indexes and clusters. A data dictionary, as defined in the IBM Dictionary of Computing is a "centralized repository of information about data such as meaning relationships to other data origin A database index is a Data structure that improves the speed of operations on a database table. (A data dictionary consists of a special collection of tables that contains information about all user-objects in the database). In Relational databases and Flat file databases a table is a set of data elements (values that is organized using a model of vertical columns (which are In its simplest embodiment an object is an allocated region of storage Since version 8i, the Oracle RDBMS also supports "locally managed" tablespaces which can store space management information in bitmaps in their own headers rather than in the SYSTEM tablespace (as happens with the default "dictionary-managed" tablespaces).

If the Oracle database administrator has instituted Oracle RAC (Real Application Clusters), then multiple instances, usually on different servers, attach to a central storage array. A database administrator ( DBA) is a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a Database. In Database Computing, Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC — an option for the Oracle Database software produced by Oracle Corporation A server is a Computer dedicated to providing one or more services over a computer network typically through a request-response routine A disk array is a Disk storage system which contains multiple Disk drives It is differentiated from a Disk enclosure, in that an array has Cache This scenario offers numerous advantages, most importantly performance, scalability and redundancy. However, support becomes more complex, and many sites do not use RAC. In version 10g, grid computing has introduced shared resources where an instance can use (for example) CPU resources from another node (computer) in the grid. Grid computing is a form of Distributed computing whereby a "super and virtual computer" is composed of a cluster of networked loosely-coupled

The Oracle DBMS can store and execute stored procedures and functions within itself. A stored procedure is a Subroutine available to applications accessing a relational database system. In Computer science, a subroutine ( function, method, procedure, or subprogram) is a portion of code within a larger PL/SQL (Oracle Corporation's proprietary procedural extension to SQL), or the object-oriented language Java can invoke such code objects and/or provide the programming structures for writing them. PL/SQL (Procedural Language/Structured Query Language is Oracle Corporation 's proprietary procedural extension to the SQL database language, used

Database schema

Oracle database conventions refer to defined groups of ownership (generally associated with a "username") as schemas. The schema (pronounced skee -ma) of a Database system is its structure described in a formal language supported by the Database management system

Most Oracle database installations traditionally come with a default schema called SCOTT. After the installation process has set up the sample tables, the user can log into the database with the username scott and the password tiger. The name of the SCOTT schema originated with Bruce Scott, one of the first employees at Oracle (then Software Development Laboratories), who had a cat named Tiger^[1].

The SCOTT schema has seen less use as it uses so few of the features of a modern release of Oracle. Most recent examples reference the default HR or OE schemas.

Other default schemas^[2] include:

• SYS (essential core database structures and utilities)
• SYSTEM (additional core database structures and utilities, and privileged account)
• OUTLN (utilized to store metadata for stored outlines for stable query-optimizer execution plans ^[3].
• BI, IX, HR, OE, PM, and SH (expanded sample schemas^[4] containing more data and structures than the older SCOTT schema)

Tablespaces

Default tablespaces include:

• SYSTEM (essential core database structures and utilities)
• SYSAUX (extra/extended data to supplement the SYSTEM schema)
• TEMP (temporary tablespace)
• UNDOTBS1 (undo tablespace)
• USERS (default users tablespace created by the Database Configuration Assistant - but replaceable by the DBA)

Memory architecture

System Global Area

Main article: System Global Area

Each Oracle instance uses a System Global Area or SGA — a shared-memory area — to store its data and control-information. A tablespace is a storage location where the actual data underlying Database objects can be kept In the Database management systems developed by the Oracle Corporation, the System Global Area ( SGA) forms the part of the RAM shared by all the In the Database management systems developed by the Oracle Corporation, the System Global Area ( SGA) forms the part of the RAM shared by all the In Computing, shared memory is a memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple programs with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies ^[5]

Each Oracle instance allocates itself an SGA when it starts and de-allocates it at shut-down time. The information in the SGA consists of the following elements, each of which has a fixed size, established at instance startup:

• the database buffer cache: this stores the most recently-used data blocks. These blocks can contain modified data not yet written to disk (sometimes known as "dirty blocks"), unmodified blocks, or blocks written to disk since modification (sometimes known as clean blocks). Because the buffer cache keeps blocks based on a most-recently-used algorithm, the most active buffers stay in memory to reduce I/O and to improve performance.
• the redo log buffer: this stores redo entries — a log of changes made to the database. The instance writes redo log buffers to the redo log as quickly and efficiently as possible. The redo log aids in instance recovery in the event of a system failure.
• the shared pool: this area of the SGA stores shared-memory structures such as shared SQL areas in the library cache and internal information in the data dictionary. An insufficient amount of memory allocated to the shared pool can cause performance degradation.

Library cache

The library cache^[6] stores shared SQL, caching the parse tree and the execution plan for every unique SQL statement.

If multiple applications issue the same SQL statement, each application can access the shared SQL area. This reduces the amount of memory needed and reduces the processing-time used for parsing and execution planning.

Data dictionary cache

The data dictionary comprises a set of tables and views that map the structure of the database. A data dictionary, as defined in the IBM Dictionary of Computing is a "centralized repository of information about data such as meaning relationships to other data origin

Oracle stores information here about the logical and physical structure of the database. The data dictionary contains information such as the following:

• User information, such as user privileges
• Integrity constraints defined for tables in the database
• Names and datatypes of all columns in database tables
• Information on space allocated and used for schema objects

The Oracle instance frequently accesses the data dictionary in order to parse SQL statements. In Computer science and Linguistics, parsing, or more formally syntactic analysis, is the process of analyzing a sequence of tokens to The operation of Oracle depends on ready access to the data dictionary: performance bottlenecks in the data dictionary affect all Oracle users. Because of this, database administrators should make sure that the data dictionary cache^[7] has sufficient capacity to cache this data. Without enough memory for the data-dictionary cache, users see a severe performance degradation. Allocating sufficient memory to the shared pool where the data dictionary cache resides precludes these particular performance problems.

Program Global Area

The Program Global Area^[8] or PGA memory-area contains data and control-information for Oracle's server-processes.

The size and content of the PGA depends on the Oracle-server options installed. This area consists of the following components:

• stack-space: the memory that holds the session's variables, arrays, and so on.
• session-information: unless using the multithreaded server, the instance stores its session-information in the PGA. (In a multithreaded server, the session-information goes in the SGA. )
• private SQL-area: an area in the PGA which holds information such as bind-variables and runtime-buffers.
• sorting area: an area in the PGA which holds information on sorts, hash-joins, etc.

Process architecture

The Oracle RDBMS typically relies on a group of processes running simultaneously in the background and interacting to further and monitor database operations. The background, in the context of Computer software processes, refers in general to processes that are running with a relatively low priority require little or no Such processes (and their standard abbreviations) can include:^[9]

• archiver processes (ARCn)
• checkpoint process (CKPT)
• database writer processes (DBWn)
• dispatcher processes (Dnnn): multiplex server-processes on behalf of users
• memory-manager process (MMAN): used for internal database tasks such as Automatic Shared Memory Management
• job-queue processes (CJQn)
• log-writer process (LGWR)
• log-write network-server (LNSn): transmits redo logs in Data Guard environments
• logical standby coordinator process (LSP0): controls Data Guard log-application
• media-recovery process (MRP): detached recovery-server process
• memory-monitor process (MMON)
• memory-monitor light process (MMNL): gathers and stores Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) data
• process-monitor process (PMON)
• process-spawner (PSP0): spawns Oracle processes
• queue-monitor processes (QMNn)
• recoverer process (RECO)
• remote file-server process (RFS)
• shared server processes (Snnn): serve client-requests
• system monitor process (SMON)

Languages

Oracle Database software comes in 63 language-versions (including regional variations such as American and British). The software which Oracle Corporation markets as Oracle Data Guard forms an extension to the Oracle RDBMS. Variations between versions cover the names of days and months, abbreviations, time-symbols such as A. M. and A. D. , and sorting^[10].

Oracle Corporation has translated Oracle Database error-messages into Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai and Turkish. ^[11]

History

Corporate/technical timeline

• 1979: Larry Ellison and friends founded Software Development Laboratories. Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation
• 1979: SDL changed its company-name to "Relational Software, Inc. " (RSI) and introduced its product Oracle V2 as an early commercially-available relational database system. The version did not support transactions, but implemented the basic SQL functionality of queries and joins. A database transaction is a unit of work performed against a Database management system or similar system that is treated in a coherent and reliable way independent of other A SQL JOIN clause combines records from two tables in a Relational database, resulting in a new temporary table sometimes called a "joined table" (RSI never released a version 1 - instead calling the first version version 2 as a marketing gimmick. A marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive )^[12]
• 1982: RSI in its turn changed its name, becoming known as "Oracle Corporation",^[13] to align itself more closely with its flagship-product. Oracle Corporation ( specializes in developing and marketing Enterprise software products — particularly Database management systems In 2007 Oracle ranked
• 1983: The company released Oracle version 3, which it had re-written using the C programming language and which supported COMMIT and ROLLBACK functionality for transactions. tags please moot on the talk page first! --> In Computing, C is a general-purpose cross-platform block structured In the context of Computer science and Data management, commit refers to the idea of making a set of tentative changes permanent In Database technologies a rollback is an operation which returns the database to some previous state Version 3 extended platform support from the existing Digital VAX/VMS systems to include Unix environments. Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the Computer industry Open Virtual Memory System ( OpenVMS) initially known just as Virtual Memory System ( VMS) is the name of a High-end Computer server Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer ^[14]
• 1984: Oracle Corporation released Oracle version 4, which supported read-consistency. In Computer science, in a Distributed system such as a Distributed shared memory system or a distributed data store such as a Database, Filesystem
• 1985: the Oracle RDBMS began supporting the client-server model, with networks becoming more widely available in the mid-1980s. The client-server Software architecture model distinguishes client systems from server systems which communicate over a Computer network Oracle version 5. 0 supported distributed queries. Distributed computing deals with Hardware and Software Systems containing more than one processing element or Storage element concurrent
• 1988: Oracle RDBMS version 6 came out with support for PL/SQL embedded within Oracle Forms v3 (version 6 could not store PL/SQL in the database proper), row-level locking and hot backups. PL/SQL (Procedural Language/Structured Query Language is Oracle Corporation 's proprietary procedural extension to the SQL database language, used In Computer science, a lock is a synchronization mechanism for enforcing limits on access to a resource in an environment where there are many threads of In Information technology, backup refers to making copies of Data so that these additional copies may be used to restore the original after a ^[15]
• 1989: Oracle Corporation entered the application products market and developed its ERP product, (later to become part of the Oracle E-Business Suite), based on the Oracle relational database. Application software is a subclass of Computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly and thoroughly to a task that the user wishes to perform Enterprise resource planning ( ERP) is the planning of how business resources (materials employees customers etc Within the overall rubric of Oracle Applications, Oracle Corporation 's E-Business Suite ("EB-Suite" or "EBS" consists of a collection of Enterprise
• 1990: the release of Oracle Applications release 8^[16]
• 1992: Oracle version 7 appeared with support for referential integrity, stored procedures and triggers. The term Oracle Applications is the Applications software or Business software of Oracle Corp Referential integrity in a Relational database is consistency between coupled tables A stored procedure is a Subroutine available to applications accessing a relational database system. A database trigger is Procedural code that is automatically executed in response to certain events on a particular table in a Database.
• 1997: Oracle Corporation released version 8, which supported object-oriented development and multimedia applications. Object-oriented programming (OOP is a Programming paradigm that uses " objects " and their interactions to design applications and computer programs Multimedia is media and content that utilizes a combination of different content forms.
• 1999: The release of Oracle8i aimed to provide a database inter-operating better with the Internet (the i in the name stands for "Internet"). The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks The Oracle 8i database incorporated a native Java virtual machine (Oracle JVM). A Java Virtual Machine ( JVM) is a set of computer software programs and data structures which use a Virtual machine
• 2000: Oracle E-Business Suite 11i pioneers integrated enterprise application software^[17]
• 2001: Oracle9i went into release with 400 new features, including the ability to read and write XML documents. Don't change "Extensible" 9i also provided an option for Oracle RAC, or "Real Application Clusters", a computer-cluster database, as a replacement for the Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) option. In Database Computing, Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC — an option for the Oracle Database software produced by Oracle Corporation
• 2003: Oracle Corporation released Oracle Database 10g. (The g stands for "grid"; emphasizing a marketing thrust of presenting 10g as "grid-computing ready". )
• 2005: Oracle Database 10. 2. 0. 1 — also known as Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10gR2) — appeared.
• 2006: Oracle Corporation announces Unbreakable Linux^[18]
• 2007: Oracle Database 10g Release 2 Sets New World Record TPC-H 3000 GB Benchmark Result^[19]
• 2007: Oracle Corporation released Oracle Database 11g for Linux and for Microsoft Windows. On 2006-10-25 Oracle Corporation announced they would be distributing Oracle Enterprise Linux, an operating system based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. A world record is the best performance in a certain discipline usually a Sports event Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft.
• 2008: Oracle Corporation acquires BEA Systems.

Version numbering

Oracle products have historically followed their own release-numbering and naming conventions. With the Oracle RDBMS 10g release, Oracle Corporation started standardizing all current versions of its major products using the "10g" label, although some sources continued to refer to Oracle Applications Release 11i as Oracle 11i. Major database-related products and some of their versions include:

• Oracle Application Server 10g (also known as "Oracle AS 10g"): a middleware product;
• Oracle Applications Release 11i (aka Oracle e-Business Suite, Oracle Financials or Oracle 11i): a suite of business applications;
• Oracle Developer Suite 10g (9. In Computing, the Oracle Application Server 10g (the "g" stands for Grid) consists of an integrated standards-based software platform. Middleware is computer Software that connects Software components or applications The term Oracle Applications is the Applications software or Business software of Oracle Corp A software suite or application suite is a collection of Computer programs usually Application software and Programming software of related functionality A business (also called firm or an enterprise) is a legally recognized organizational entity designed to provide goods and/or services to Oracle Developer Suite is a suite of development tools released by the Oracle Corporation. 0. 4);
• Oracle JDeveloper 10g: a Java integrated development environment;

Since version 7, Oracle's RDBMS release numbering has used the following codes:

• Oracle7: 7. JDeveloper is a free IDE from Oracle. It offers features for development in Java, XML, SQL and PL/SQL, HTML, In Computing, an integrated development environment ( IDE) is a Software application that provides comprehensive facilities to Computer programmers A Relational database management system (RDBMS is a Database management system (DBMS that is based on the Relational model as introduced by E 0. 16 — 7. 3. 4
• Oracle8 Database: 8. 0. 3 — 8. 0. 6
• Oracle8i Database Release 1: 8. 1. 5. 0 — 8. 1. 5. 1
• Oracle8i Database Release 2: 8. 1. 6. 0 — 8. 1. 6. 3
• Oracle8i Database Release 3: 8. 1. 7. 0 — 8. 1. 7. 4
• Oracle9i Database Release 1: 9. 0. 1. 0 — 9. 0. 1. 5 (Latest current patchset as of December 2003)
• Oracle9i Database Release 2: 9. 2. 0. 1 — 9. 2. 0. 8 (Latest current patchset as of April 2007)
• Oracle Database 10g Release 1: 10. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. 1. 0. 2 — 10. 1. 0. 5 (Latest current patchset as of February 2006)
• Oracle Database 10g Release 2: 10. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. 2. 0. 1 — 10. 2. 0. 4 (Latest current patchset as of April 2008)
• Oracle Database 11g Release 1: 11. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common 1. 0. 6 — no patchset available as of October 2007

The version numbering syntax within each release follows the pattern: major. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. maintenance. application-server. component-specific. platform-specific.

For example, "10. 2. 0. 1 for 64-bit Solaris" means: 10th major version of Oracle, maintenance level 2, Oracle Application Server (OracleAS) 0, level 1 for Solaris 64-bit.

The Oracle Administrator's Guide offers further information on Oracle release numbers. Oracle Corporation provides a table^[20] showing the latest patch-set releases by major release, operating-system, and hardware-architecture.

List of claimed firsts

Oracle Corporation claims to have provided:

• the first commercially-available SQL-based database (1979)^[21]
• the first database to support symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) (1983)
• the first distributed database (1986)
• the first database product tested to comply with the ANSI SQL standard (1993)^[22]
• the first 64-bit database (1995)
• the first web database (1997)
• the first database to incorporate a native JRE (1998)
• the first proprietary RDBMS to become available on Linux (1998)^[23]
• the first database to support XML (1999)

Editions

Over and above the different versions of the Oracle database management software, Oracle Corporation subdivides its product into varying "editions" - apparently for marketing and license-tracking reasons. In Computing, symmetric multiprocessing or SMP involves a Multiprocessor computer-architecture where two or more identical processors can connect to a single A distributed database is a Database that is under the control of a central Database management system (DBMS in which storage devices are not all attached '64-bit' CPUs have existed in Supercomputers since the 1960s and in RISC -based workstations and servers since the early 1990s. A Java Virtual Machine ( JVM) is a set of computer software programs and data structures which use a Virtual machine A Relational database management system (RDBMS is a Database management system (DBMS that is based on the Relational model as introduced by E Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Don't change "Extensible" In approximate order of decreasing scale, we find:

• Enterprise Edition^[24] (EE) includes more features than the 'Standard Edition', especially in the areas of performance and security. Oracle Corporation licenses this product on the basis of users or of processors, typically for servers running 4 or more CPUs. EE has no memory limits, and can utilize clustering using Oracle RAC software. In Database Computing, Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC — an option for the Oracle Database software produced by Oracle Corporation
• Standard Edition^[25] (SE) contains base database functionality. Oracle Corporation licenses this product on the basis of users or of processors, typically for servers running from one to four CPUs. If the number of CPUs exceeds 4 CPUs, the user must convert to an Enterprise license. SE has no memory limits, and can utilize clustering with Oracle RAC at no additional charge. In Database Computing, Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC — an option for the Oracle Database software produced by Oracle Corporation
• Standard Edition One^[26], introduced with Oracle 10g, has some additional feature-restrictions. Oracle Corporation markets it for use on systems with one or two CPUs. It has no memory limitations.
• Express Edition^[27] ('Oracle Database XE'), introduced in 2005, offers Oracle 10g free to distribute on Windows and Linux platforms (with a footprint of only 150 MB and restricted to the use of a single CPU, a maximum of 4 GB of user data and 1 GB of memory). Support for this version comes exclusively through on-line forums and not through Oracle support.
• Oracle Personal Edition^[28] provides the functionality of the "high end" Enterprise Edition but marketed to (and licensed for) single-user developers working on personal workstations. A workstation, such as a Unix workstation, RISC workstation or Engineering workstation, is a high-end Microcomputer
• Oracle Database Lite, intended to run on mobile devices. A mobile device (also known as cellphone device, handheld device, handheld computer, "Palmtop" or simply handheld) is a pocket-sized The database, partially located on the mobile device, can synchronize with a server-based installation. A Computer Database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system

Host platforms

Prior to releasing Oracle9i, Oracle Corporation ported the database engine to a wide variety of platforms. More recently, Oracle Corporation has consolidated on a smaller range of operating system platforms.

As of October 2006, Oracle Corporation supported the following operating systems and hardware platforms for Oracle Database 10g:

• Apple Mac OS X Server: PowerPC
• HP HP-UX: PA-RISC, Itanium
• HP Tru64 UNIX: Alpha
• HP OpenVMS: Alpha, Itanium
• IBM AIX5L: IBM POWER
• IBM z/OS: zSeries
• Linux: x86, x86-64, PowerPC, zSeries, Itanium
• Microsoft Windows: x86, x86-64, Itanium
• Sun Solaris: SPARC, x86, x86-64

Related software

For links to some of Oracle Corporation's software which integrates with Oracle databases, see the Oracle Corporation category and the Oracle software category pages. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics Mac OS X Server is the server-oriented version of Apple 's Operating system, Mac OS X. PowerPC is a RISC Instruction set architecture created by the 1991 Apple – IBM – Motorola alliance known as AIM HP-UX (Hewlett Packard UniX is Hewlett-Packard 's proprietary implementation of the Unix Operating system, based on System V (initially PA-RISC is a Microprocessor architecture developed by Hewlett-Packard 's Systems & VLSI Technology Operation. Itanium is the brand name for 64-bit Intel Microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture (formerly called IA-64) Tru64 UNIX is a 64-bit UNIX Operating system for the Alpha Microprocessor architecture currently owned by Hewlett-Packard Alpha, originally known as Alpha AXP, was a 64-bit Reduced instruction set computer (RISC Instruction set architecture (ISA developed Open Virtual Memory System ( OpenVMS) initially known just as Virtual Memory System ( VMS) is the name of a High-end Computer server International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology POWER is a RISC Instruction set architecture designed by IBM. z/OS is a 64-bit Operating system for Mainframe computers, created by IBM. IBM System z, or earlier IBM eServer zSeries, is a brand name designated by IBM to all its Mainframe computers In 2000 IBM rebranded the existing Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks See also X86 assembly language The generic term x86 refers to the most commercially successful Instruction set architecture in the history of Personal x86-64 is a Superset of the x86 instruction set architecture. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Sun Microsystems Inc ( is a multinational vendor of Computers computer components Computer software, and Information technology services Solaris is a Unix -based Operating system introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1992 as the successor to SunOS. SPARC (from Scalable Processor Architecture is a RISC Microprocessor Instruction set architecture originally

Database options

Oracle Corporation refers to some extensions to the core functionality of the Oracle database as "database options". ^[29] As of 2008 such options include:

• Active Data Guard (extends Oracle Data Guard physical standby functionality in 11g)
• Advanced Security (adds data encryption methods)
• Content database (provides a centralized repository for unstructured information)
• Database Vault (enforces security on data access)
• Data Mining (ODM) (mines for patterns in existing data)
• In-Memory Database Cache (utilizes TimesTen technology)
• Label Security (row-level security)
• Management Packs (various)
• Oracle Answers (for ad-hoc analysis and reporting)
• Oracle OLAP (adds analytical processing)
• Partitioning (granularizes tables and indexes for efficiency)
• Real Application Clusters (RAC) (coordinates multiple processors)
• Oracle Real Application Testing (new at version 11g) — including Database Replay (for testing workloads) and SQL Performance Analyzer (SPA) (for preserving SQL efficiency in changing environments)^[30]
• Records database (a records management application)
• Oracle Spatial (integrates relational data with geographic information systems (GIS))
• Total Recall (optimizes long-term storage of historical data)
• Oracle Warehouse Builder (in various forms and sub-options)

In most cases, using these options entails extra licensing costs. 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common The software which Oracle Corporation markets as Oracle Data Guard forms an extension to the Oracle RDBMS. TimesTen is a Database product from Oracle Corporation. It provides a family of real-time infrastructure Software products designed for Online Analytical Processing or OLAP (ˈoʊlæp is an approach to quickly provide answers to analytical queries that are multi-dimensional in nature In Database Computing, Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC — an option for the Oracle Database software produced by Oracle Corporation Records management, or RM is the practice of identifying classifying archiving preserving and destroying records Oracle Spatial forms a separately-licensed option component of the Oracle Database. ^[31]

Suites

In addition to its RDBMS, Oracle Corporation has released several related suites of tools and applications relating to implementations of Oracle databases. A Relational database management system (RDBMS is a Database management system (DBMS that is based on the Relational model as introduced by E For example:

• Oracle Application Server, a J2EE-based application server, aids in developing and deploying applications which utilise Internet technologies and a browser. In Computing, the Oracle Application Server 10g (the "g" stands for Grid) consists of an integrated standards-based software platform. In n-tier architecture an application server is a Server that hosts an API to expose Business Logic and Business Processes for use by other The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks
• Oracle Collaboration Suite contains messaging, groupware and collaboration applications. Launched in 2000, the Oracle Collaboration Suite represented the first attempt by Oracle Corporation to enter the Enterprise messaging system market
• Oracle Developer Suite contains software development tools, including JDeveloper. Oracle Developer Suite is a suite of development tools released by the Oracle Corporation. JDeveloper is a free IDE from Oracle. It offers features for development in Java, XML, SQL and PL/SQL, HTML,
• Oracle E-Business Suite collects together applications for enterprise resource planning (including Oracle Financials), customer relationship management and human resources management (Oracle HR). Within the overall rubric of Oracle Applications, Oracle Corporation 's E-Business Suite ("EB-Suite" or "EBS" consists of a collection of Enterprise Enterprise resource planning ( ERP) is the planning of how business resources (materials employees customers etc Within the overall rubric of Oracle Applications, Oracle Corporation 's E-Business Suite ("EB-Suite" or "EBS" consists of a collection of Enterprise Customer relationship management ( CRM) is a term applied to processes implemented by a company to handle its contact with its customers
• Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) used by database administrators (DBAs) to manage the DBMS, and recently in version 10g, a web-based rewrite of OEM called "Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control". The Computer application Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM or EM aims to manage Software produced by Oracle Corporation as well as by some non-Oracle A database administrator ( DBA) is a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a Database. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Oracle Corporation has dubbed the super-Enterprise-Manager used to manage a grid of multiple DBMS and Application Servers "Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control".

Database "features"

Apart from the clearly-defined database options, Oracle databases may include many semi-autonomous software sub-systems, which Oracle Corporation sometimes refers to as "features" in a sense subtly different from the normal usage of the word. ^[32] Such "features" may include (for example):

• Automatic Workload Repository (AWR), providing monitoring services to Oracle database installations from Oracle version 10. Prior to the release of Oracle version 10, the Statspack facility provided similar functionality.
• Clusterware
• Data Aggregation and Consolidation
• Data Guard for high availability
• Data Pump utilities, which aid in importing and exporting data and metadata between databases. High availability is a System design protocol and associated implementation that ensures a certain absolute degree of operational continuity during a given measurement period ^[33]
• Flashback for selective data recovery and reconstruction^[34]
• iSQL*Plus, a web-browser-based graphical user interface (GUI) for Oracle database data-manipulation (compare SQL*Plus)
• Oracle-managed files (OMF) -- a feature allowing automated naming, creation and deletion of datafiles at the operating-system level. In Oracle databases Flashback tools allow administrators and users to view and manipulate past states of an instance 's Data without (destructively Data Manipulation Language ( DML) is a family of Computer languages used by computer programs or database users to retrieve insert delete and update data in a
• Recovery Manager (rman) for database backup, restoration and recovery
• SQL*Plus, a program that allows users to interact with Oracle database(s) via SQL and PL/SQL commands on a command-line. For information on obtaining the Wikipedia database see WikipediaDatabase download. Data recovery is the process of salvaging data from damaged failed corrupted or inaccessible secondary storage media when it cannot be accessed normally SQL*Plus is an Oracle command line utility which runs SQL and PL/SQL commands interactively or from a script PL/SQL (Procedural Language/Structured Query Language is Oracle Corporation 's proprietary procedural extension to the SQL database language, used Compare iSQL*Plus.

Standalone tools

Various tools address specific environments or specific market requirements.

Development of applications commonly takes place in Java (using Oracle JDeveloper) or through PL/SQL (using, for example, Oracle Forms and Oracle Reports). Oracle Forms is a tool (somewhat like Visual Basic in appearance but the code inside is PL/SQL) which allows a developer to quickly create user-interface applications which Oracle Reports is a tool for developing reports against data stored in an Oracle database. Oracle Corporation has started a drive toward 'wizard'-driven environments with a view to enabling non-programmers to produce simple data-driven applications.

Oracle SQL Developer, a free graphical tool for database development, allows developers to browse database objects, run SQL statements and SQL scripts, and edit and debug PL/SQL statements. It incorporates standard and customized reporting.

A list of some of the binaries and scripts supplied by Oracle Corporation to operate with/alongside Oracle databases and associated software appears on the Oracle executables web-page.

Other databases marketed by Oracle Corporation

• TimesTen, a memory-resident database that has the ability to cache transactions and synchronize data with a centralized Oracle database server. TimesTen is a Database product from Oracle Corporation. It provides a family of real-time infrastructure Software products designed for It functions as a real-time infrastructure software product intended for the management of low-latency, high-volume data, of events and of transactions. In Computer science, real-time computing (RTC is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"—i In Computing and especially Computer networks lag (slang is a symptom where the result of an action appears later than expected
• BerkeleyDB, a simple, high-performance, embedded database
• Oracle Rdb, a legacy relational database for the Open VMS operating system

Using Oracle Database software

Users of Oracle databases may access the online documentation, the Oracle Technology Network site, and the comp. Berkeley DB (BDB is a Computer software library that provides a high-performance embedded Database, with bindings in C, An embedded database system is a DBMS that is tightly integrated with an application that requires access to stored data, such that the database system is “hidden” Rdb/VMS is a Relational database management system (RDBMS for the Hewlett-Packard OpenVMS Operating system. Open Virtual Memory System ( OpenVMS) initially known just as Virtual Memory System ( VMS) is the name of a High-end Computer server databases. oracle Usenet discussion group. Usenet, a Portmanteau of "user" and "network" is a world-wide distributed Internet discussion system The Oracle Technet site offers downloads of full-featured evaluation software. Users can also check the Oracle FAQ site before posting questions to forums, mailing lists, etc. They can also log on to http://asktom.oracle.com to post questions to and get answers from Tom Kyte, a Vice-President of Oracle Corporation and the author of several Oracle books including Expert One-On-One Oracle (ISBN 1-59059-525-4).

The Oracle RDBMS has had a reputation among novice users as difficult to install on Linux systems. Oracle Corporation has packaged recent versions for several popular Linux distributions in an attempt to minimize installation challenges beyond the level of technical expertise required to install a database server. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

Official support

Users who have Oracle support contracts should turn to Oracle's MetaLink web site (password required). MetaLink provides users of Oracle Corporation products with a repository of reported problems, diagnostic scripts and solutions. It also integrates with the provision of support tools, patches and upgrades.

The Remote Diagnostic Agent or RDA^[35] can operate as a command-line diagnostic tool executing a script. The data captured provides an overview of the Oracle Database environment intended for diagnostic and trouble-shooting.

Database-related guidelines

Oracle Corporation also endorses certain practices and conventions as enhancing the use of its database products. These include:

• Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA), guidelines on developing high-availability systems
• Optimal Flexible Architecture (OFA), blueprints for mapping Oracle-database objects to file-systems

Oracle Certification Program

Main article: Oracle Certification Program

The Oracle Certification Program, a professional certification program, includes the administration of Oracle Databases as one of its main certification paths. The Oracle Certification Program is a Professional certification program offered by the Oracle Corporation. The Oracle Certification Program is a Professional certification program offered by the Oracle Corporation. Overview Certifications are earned from a Professional society and in general must be renewed periodically or may be valid for a specific period of time (e It contains three levels:

1. Oracle Certified Associate (OCA)
2. Oracle Certified Professional (OCP)
3. Oracle Certified Master (OCM)

Oracle Database in the market

Competition

In the market for relational databases, Oracle competes against commercial products such as IBM's DB2 UDB and Microsoft SQL Server. DB2 is one of IBM 's families of Relational database management system (RDBMS (or as IBM now calls it data server software products within IBM's broader Information Microsoft SQL Server is a Relational database management system (RDBMS produced by Microsoft. Oracle and IBM tend to battle for the mid-range database market on UNIX and Linux platforms, while Microsoft dominates the mid-range database market on Microsoft Windows platforms. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. However, since they share many of the same customers, Oracle and IBM tend to support each other's products in many middleware and application categories (for example: WebSphere, PeopleSoft, and Siebel Systems CRM), and IBM's hardware divisions work closely with Oracle on performance-optimizing server-technologies (for example, Linux on zSeries). Headline text == WebSphere refers to a Brand of IBM software products that are mostly proprietary, although the term PeopleSoft Inc was a company that provided Human resource management systems (HRMS Customer relationship management, Manufacturing Financials Enterprise Siebel Systems Inc was a software company principally engaged in the design development marketing and support of CRM applications Customer relationship management ( CRM) is a term applied to processes implemented by a company to handle its contact with its customers The two companies have a relationship perhaps best described as "coopetition". Coopetition or Co-opetition is a Neologism coined to describe cooperative Competition. Niche commercial competitors include Teradata (in data warehousing and business intelligence), Software AG's ADABAS, Sybase, and IBM's Informix, among many others. Teradata Corporation ( is a hardware and software vendor specializing in data warehousing and analytic applications ADABAS ( Acronym for Adaptable DAta BAse System is Software AG ’s primary Database management system Sybase Inc ( is an enterprise software and services company exclusively focused on managing and mobilizing information Informix is a family of Relational database management system (RDBMS products by IBM.

Increasingly, the Oracle database products compete against open-source relational database systems, particularly PostgreSQL, Firebird, and MySQL. Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge PostgreSQL is an Object-relational database management system (ORDBMS Firebird (sometimes erroneously called FirebirdSQL is a Relational database management system offering many ANSI features MySQL is a Relational database management system (RDBMS which has more than 11 million installations Oracle acquired Innobase, supplier of the InnoDB codebase to MySQL, in part to compete better in the open source market. InnoDB is a storage engine for MySQL, included as standard in all current Binaries distributed by MySQL AB. InnoDB is a storage engine for MySQL, included as standard in all current Binaries distributed by MySQL AB. Database products developed on the basis of the open-source model generally cost significantly less to acquire than Oracle systems.

Recently, competition with SAP AG software has occasioned litigation from Oracle Corporation^[36]. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. SAP AG (,) is the largest European Software enterprise and the fourth largest in the world with headquarters in Walldorf, Germany

Pricing

Oracle Corporation offers term licensing for all Oracle products. It bases the list price for a term-license on a specific percentage of the perpetual license price. ^[37] As of March 2006, the "Enterprise Edition" of the Oracle database costs the most per machine-processor among Oracle database engines. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Standard Edition comes cheaper: it can run on up to 4 processors but has fewer features than Enterprise Edition — it lacks proper parallelization, etc; but remains quite suitable for running medium-sized applications). Standard ONE edition sells even more cheaply, but remains limited to 2 CPUs. Standard Edition ONE sells on a per-seat basis with a 5-user minimum. Oracle Corporation usually sells the licenses with an extra 22% cost for support and upgrades (access to MetaLink - Oracle Corporation's support site) which customers need to renew annually. Oracle Express Edition (Oracle XE), an addition to the Oracle database product family (beta version released in 2005, production version released in February 2006), offers a free version of the Oracle RDBMS, but one limited to 4 GB of user data and to 1 GB of RAM. A software release is the distribution whether public or private of an initial or new and upgraded version of a Computer software product XE will use no more than one CPU and lacks an internal JVM. A Java Virtual Machine ( JVM) is a set of computer software programs and data structures which use a Virtual machine As computers running Oracle often have eight or more processors, the software price can rise into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The total cost of ownership exceeds this, as Oracle databases usually require experienced and trained database administrators to do the set-up properly. Total cost of ownership (TCO is a financial estimate designed to help consumers and enterprise managers assess direct and indirect costs A database administrator ( DBA) is a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a Database. Because of the product's large installed base and available training courses, Oracle specialists in some areas have become a more abundant resource than those for more exotic databases. Oracle frequently provides special training offers for database-administrators. On Linux, Oracle's certified configurations include mostly commercial Linux distributions (RedHat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4, SuSE SLES8 and 9, Asianux) which can cost in a range from a few hundred to a few thousand USD per year (depending on processor architecture and the support package purchased). A Linux distribution (also called GNU/Linux by distributions such as Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Mandriva and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ( SLES) is a Linux distribution supplied by Novell, targeted at the business market Asianux is an Operating system (a Linux distribution) It is a joint development between Linux vendors Red Flag Software Co One can avoid paying for those distros by using free alternatives such as any Red Hat Enterprise Linux clones (such as CentOS or White Box Linux). A Linux distribution (also called GNU/Linux by distributions such as Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Mandriva and Red Hat Enterprise Linux derivatives are Linux distributions which are based on the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. CentOS is a freely-available Operating system that is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. White Box Enterprise Linux is a free Linux distribution that is an alternative to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL primarily funded by the Beauregard Parish Library Oracle also runs stable on unsupported distributions.

Market share

See also

• List of relational database management systems
• List of object-relational database management systems
• Comparison of relational database management systems
• Comparison of object-relational database management systems
• Oracle Rdb for OpenVMS
• List of ERP software packages
• Run Book Automation

References

External links

• Oracle Database, a view provided by Oracle Corporation
• On-line documentation
• Oracle Data Archiving by Solix, an Oracle Partner
• On-line demos
• Metalink, Oracle Corporation's online support site (requires a password)
• Ask Tom: Oracle-related questions addressed by Thomas Kyte
• OTN: Oracle support website
• OraFAQ: an unofficial website for users of the Oracle Database
• Oracle Performance Tuning using STATSPACK/AWR: a site presenting a set of performance-tuning tools and techniques for Oracle Databases using STATSPACK/AWR, Oracle-provided technology

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