Glossary for Oracle database terms.
General IT terms
3GL -
Third-generation language. A 3GL is a high-level programming language, such as COBOL or C.
4GL -
Fourth-generation language. Languages for accessing a database such as SQL.
API - Application Programming Interface.
ASP -
Application Service Provider. A provider of applications through the Internet.
ASP -
Active Server Pages. Microsoft's technology for dynamic HTML pages.
B2B -
Business 2 Business e-trade
B2C -
Business 2 Consumer e-trade.
Byte -
A group of eight bits. 1 Kilobyte=1024 bytes, 1 Megabyte=1024 Kbyte, 1 Gigabyte=1024 Mbyte.
CSS -
Cascading Style Sheets
CGI -
Common Gateway Interface, used to connect to a database.
EIS -
Enterprise Information System.
ERP -
Enterprise Resource Processing.
CRM -
Customer Relationship Management.
DataWarehouse -
A warehouse of data gathered for analysis. Usually rather large.
ETL -
Extraction, Transformation and Loading (a Data Warehouse).
HR -
Human Resources
LDAP -
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.
Metadata -
Meta data is information about data. The tags of this web page for example:
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="A glossary for Oracle database terms.">
OLAP -
On Line Analytical Processing - analysis done on Data warehouses.
OLTP -
On Line Transaction Processing - transactions done on databases.
Oracle - Place where the ancient Greeks consulted a God.
Wise woman or man giving guidance inspired by the Gods.
SAN -
Storage Area Network. A high-speed server used as a storage system.
SOA - Service-Oriented Architecture.
Standards
ANSI - American National Standards Institute.
ASCII - American Standards Code for Information Interchange.
CORBA - Common Object Request Broker Architecture. A standard for distributed objects.
DHTML - Dynamic HTML pages can be generated by means of CSS or JavaScript
EDI - Electronic Data Interchange
EDIfact - Standard for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
HTML - HyperText Markup Language, a subset of SGML
OFA - Optimal Flexible Architecture.
SGML - Standard Generalized Markup Language
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium
XML - eXtensible Markup Language. A subset of SGML defined by W3C.
Design and Development
CDM Classic - Custom Development Methodology; Oracle's first Standards and Guidelines Library. See also Headstart.
CDM Fasttrack - The newer and faster Custom Development Methodology based on the RAD-method.
Constraint - An integrity constraint is a rule that restricts the values for one or more columns in a table.
Designer - Oracle Designer uses an ER Diagrammer to designing an information system the database. Part of the Oracle Developer Suite.
Developer Suite - The Developer Suite is a group of tools like Oracle Designer; used for generating Forms, Reports etc.
Headstart - Headstart Oracle Designer is set of templates for Oracle Designer based on Oracle Best Practices; it incorporates the CDM standards
JDeveloper - Oracle's Java development tool.
Package - A package is a database object that groups logically related PL/SQL types, objects and subprograms. Packages have two parts: a specification and a body.
PL/SQL - Programming Language/SQL is the Oracle programming language
Procedure - A procedure is a PL/SQL program, the Oracle programming language
Repository - Database or part of a database where a tool (e.g. Designer) stores its data.
Oracle DBA terms for insiders
Analyze - In order to use the Cost Based Optimizer (CBO) a schema has to be analyzed. The number of rows per table is computed or estimated and some other statistics are gathered.
Archiving - The ARCH process saves all filled redo-logfiles. It should be turned on if you want to do a Hot backup.
Background - SMON, PMON, LGWR, DBWR are background processes created on startup of the database.
Backup/cold - A Cold backup is done after shutdown of the database
Backup/hot - A Hot backup is done during normal database operation, without shutting down.
Bitmap index - A form of index indicating the existence of a record by a series of bits. Since Oracle 7.3.4.
Bounce - Bounce a database = stop and start a database
Checkpoint - A checkpoint occurs when DBWR writes all modified buffers in the SGA to the database files.
Checkpoints occur at every redo log switch and also at intervals specified by the DBA.
Coalesce - Coalescing means merging chunks of free space into one
single chunk. After coalescing a tablespace there is more contiguous free space available.
Controlfile - This file contains information about the database (datafiles, SCN). It is read by the kernel when the database is started.
It cannot be edited.
DA - The Data Administrator is responsible for the corporate database standards
DBA - The DataBase Administrator is responsible for the database design, implementation and operation.
DDL - Data Definition Language. SQL-stmt that creates or alters objects (create table, create view etc.)
DML - Data Manipulation Language. SQL-stmt that retrieves and manipulates data (select, insert, update..)
Cooked - A Cooked device is an ordinary Unix file.
Raw - Oracle can access a Unix Raw device directly, bypassing the Unix file system.
init.ora - Oracle's initialization parameter file. When the database is started the kernel reads this file.
Instance - An instance is a means of accessing a database. It is composed of background processes and memory(SGA). One instance accesses 1 database, except for RACclusters where 2 instances access 1 database.
DMT - Dictionary Managed Tablespace. Used since the first Oracle version 2.0 )
LMT - Locally Managed Tablespace (since Oracle version 8.1.5)
NLS - National Language Support is used to define national date/number/currency and language settings and can make your currency show up as $ or € (Euro) sign. NLS can be defined on several levels:
OEM - Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control, used for management and monitoring databases on other servers. Uses agents to collect data for Change management, tuning and diagnostics.
OPS - Oracle Parallel Server. Two or more instances on 2 computers accessing 1 database using a hardware cluster. In Oracle 9i renamed to Real Application Cluster. (RAC)
Optimizer: CBO - Cost Based Optimizer uses the "cost" of a query to decide how retrieve data. The cost is based on the number of rows in tables and the index efficiency.
The CBO was introduced in Oracle7.
Optimizer: RBO - Rule Based Optimizer uses rules to retrieve data. Without statistics the RBO will be used to access the database.
PGA - Program Global Area is the memory used by each separate Oracle user process (or program).
Plan table - The Plan table shows which execution plan the Optimizer chooses
RAC - Real Application Cluster. Two or more instances on separate computers can access 1 database using a cluster; e.g. a cluster on Linux or Unix hardware.
RDBMS - Relational Database Management System, based on the relational model developed by Codd.
SGA - System Global Area - the buffer memory Oracle takes when the database is started.
SID - System ID is an identifier of a instance/database. Usually the same as the Connect_string.
The environment variable can be ORACLE_SID(Windows) or $ORACLE_SID(Unix)
Schema - The collection of database objects that are owned by a particular user are that user's schema. In Sybase however, a schema is referred to as a database.
Trace - Tracing is done to check the performance, it involves TKProf and the "Plan table".
TKProf - Diagnostics utility for analysing SQL statements executed during an Oracle database session.
Programming, SQL, Java.
OAS server - Oracle Application Server
BC4J -
Business Components for Java
CTAS - Create Table As Select - Create table TEST as Select NAME from EMP;
EJB - Enterprise Java Beans.
Java - Java is a programming language somewhat similar to C. Java is not JavaScript.
JavaScript - JavaScript is an interpreted programming language. JavaScript is not Java.
J2SE - Java2 Standard Edition.
J2EE - Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition - The Java platform developed by Sun Microsystems.
JavaServer - JavaServer is part of the database; it generates Java Server Pages (JSP)
JDeveloper - Oracle's Java development tool.
JSP - JavaServer Pages, generated by JavaServer.
JVM - Java Virtual Machine. The Java engine in a browser, application or database.
SQL - Structured Query Language.
SQL J - Structured Query Language embedded in Java.
XDK - XML Development Kit; XML/XSL tool.
SQLNet and TNS
Connect string - connect username/passwd@Connectstring. With this string the TNSnames.ora file is read to direct you to an instance
Dedicated - Dedicated server is the older type of network connection
JDBC - JAVA DataBase Connectivity; used by JAVA programs to interface with the database
listener.ora - Listener initialization parameter file, read by listener on startup
MTS server - Multi Threaded Server, used when many users are connected concurrently
ODBC - Open DataBase Connectivity is an independent interface that including drivers for most databases.
SSL - Secure Socket Layer
TNS - Transparent Network Substrate. Used by SQLNet to resolve server connections independent of operating system or protocol, thus making the network transparent.
TNSnames.ora - SQLNet parameter file, read by applications to connect to an instance
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