Wednesday, September 22, 2010

SID, Service Name, Global_dbname, db_unique_name

what is SID
   SID is unique name of the INSTANCE (eg the oracle process running on the machine). Oracle considers the "Database" to the be files.
    
what is Service Name
   Service Name is an alias to an INSTANCE (or many instances). The main purpose of this is if you are running a cluster, the client can say "connect me to SALES.acme.com", the DBA can on the fly change the number of instances which are available to SALES.acme.com requests, or even move SALES.acme.com to a completely different database without the client needing to change any settings.
      
what is global_dbname
   GLOBAL_DBNAME is the service name -- it is just a way to keep it "all      straight", in a multi-database environment, you might think about using the global  dbnames (and using the right ones, not the wrong ones) -- as service names so you  know what the service names are implicitly (global database names) and have a      reasonable expectation of what database you are connecting to.

what is db_unique_name
   DB_UNIQUE_NAME specifies a globally unique name for the database. Databases with the     same DB_NAME within the same DB_DOMAIN (for example, copies of a database created for     reporting or a physical standby) must have a unique DB_UNIQUE_NAME.