8.1. Oracle Components Overview
An Oracle server consists of both a database and an instance. In Oracle terminology, database refers to only the physical files on disk. These are the files that store the data itself, the database state information in the control file, and the changes made to the data in the redo log files. The term instance refers to the Oracle processes and memory structures that reside in the server's memory and access an Oracle database on disk. One of the reasons for separating the concepts of a database and an instance is that a database may be shared by two or more different Oracle instances as part of an Oracle configuration that enhances the scalability, performance, and reliability of the Oracle server.
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