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The complexity of information storage and retrieval is hidden from casual database users, but that's exactly what you need to know if you want to administer Oracle.
by Joe Lax
August 20, 2001
atabase programs, with few exceptions, need to utilize both the computer's memory and permanent storage space such as the hard drive to operate. The drives provide both long-term storage and the necessary room for millions of records and gigabytes worth of information. However, accessing information from disks is much slower than retrieving the same information from memory. Therefore, database engines use memory to cache information, which speeds its retrieval.
The complexity of how the information is stored and where it is retrieved from is hidden from the casual user who queries the database. But if you plan on administering Oracle, you need to become familiar with how Oracle handles both resources. In this article, I discuss two basic but important concepts with regard to memory and disk: the database and the instance.
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atabase programs, with few exceptions, need to utilize both the computer's memory and permanent storage space such as the hard drive to operate. The drives provide both long-term storage and the necessary room for millions of records and gigabytes worth of information. However, accessing information from disks is much slower than retrieving the same information from memory. Therefore, database engines use memory to cache information, which speeds its retrieval.
