Oracle Architecture Overview

The Database Server

 Database vs. Instance
 Database – A collection
of physical operating
system files
 Instance – A set of
Oracle processes and an
SGA (System Global Area)
 Multiple instances could
access the same database.

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Instances on Unix vs. Windows
 Unix – as processes
 $ /bin/ps -aef | grep ora816
 ora816 20827 1 0 Feb 09 ? 0:00 ora_d000_ora816dev
 ora816 20821 1 0 Feb 09 ? 0:06 ora_smon_ora816dev
 ora816 20817 1 0 Feb 09 ? 0:57 ora_lgwr_ora816dev
 ora816 20813 1 0 Feb 09 ? 0:00 ora_pmon_ora816dev
 ora816 20819 1 0 Feb 09 ? 0:45 ora_ckpt_ora816dev
 ora816 20815 1 0 Feb 09 ? 0:27 ora_dbw0_ora816dev
 ora816 20825 1 0 Feb 09 ? 0:00 ora_s000_ora816dev
 ora816 20823 1 0 Feb 09 ? 0:00 ora_reco_ora816dev
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 Windows – as threads
 1072 ORACLE.EXE
 CWD: C:\oracle\DATABASE\
 CmdLine: c:\oracle\bin\ORACLE.EXE TKYTE816
 VirtualSize: 144780 KB PeakVirtualSize: 154616 KB
 WorkingSetSize: 69424 KB PeakWorkingSetSize: 71208 KB
 NumberOfThreads: 11
 0 Win32StartAddr:0x00000000 LastErr:0x00000000 State:Initialized
 5 Win32StartAddr:0x00000000 LastErr:0x00000000 State:Initialized
 5 Win32StartAddr:0x00000000 LastErr:0x00000000 State:Initialized
 5 Win32StartAddr:0x00000000 LastErr:0x00000000 State:Initialized
 5 Win32StartAddr:0x00000000 LastErr:0x00000000 State:Initialized
 5 Win32StartAddr:0x00000000 LastErr:0x00000000 State:Initialized
 5 Win32StartAddr:0x00000000 LastErr:0x00000000 State:Initialized
 5 Win32StartAddr:0x00000000 LastErr:0x00000000 State:Initialized
 5 Win32StartAddr:0x00000000 LastErr:0x00000000 State:Initialized
 5 Win32StartAddr:0x00000000 LastErr:0x00000000 State:Initialized
 5 Win32StartAddr:0x00000000 LastErr:0x00000000 State:Initialized
 0.0.0.0 shp 0x00400000 ORACLE.EXE
 5.0.2163.1 shp 0x77f80000 ntdll.dll
 0.0.0.0 shp 0x60400000 oraclient8.dll
 0.0.0.0 shp 0x60600000 oracore8.dll
 0.0.0.0 shp 0x60800000 oranls8.dll
Dedicated Server
 A new dedicated server
process is created per
user/session.
 Client process talks
directly to the server
process.
 OS manages the server
processes.

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MTS – Multi-threaded Server

 Client processes
communicate with a
dispatcher to send in
requests and receive
responses.
 Both requests and •The client connection will send a request to the
dispatcher.The dispatcher will first place this
responds are queued request onto the request queue in the SGA (1).
•The first available shared server will dequeue this
up. request (2) and process it.
•When the shared server completes, the response
 More client processes (return codes, data, and so on) is placed into the
response queue (3) and subsequently picked up by
than (shared) server the dispatcher (4), and transmitted back to the
client.
processes.
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Dedicated vs. Shared Configurations

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Oracle Files
 Server Parameter Files (SPFILEs) – These files tell the
Oracle instance where to find the control files. For example,
how big certain memory structures are, and so on.
 The major files that make up the database are:
 Data files – For the database (these hold your tables, indexes and
all other segments).
 Redo log files – Transaction logs for recovery.
 Control files – Which tell us where these data files are, and other
relevant information about their state.
 Temp files – Used for disk-based sorts and temporary storage.
 Password files – Used to authenticate users performing
administrative activities over the network.
 Trace files – sources of debugging and diagnostic information.

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Storage Hierarchy
 A block is the smallest
allocation unit, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32KB.
 An extent consists of
contiguous blocks.
 A segment consists of one or
more extents.
 A database object (table, index,
…) is stored as a segment.
 A data file consists of
segments.
 A segment could reside in
multiple data files.
 An extend reside in exactly one
file.
 A tablespace is made up of data
files.

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Memory Structures
 SGA, System Global Area – This is a large, shared
memory segment that virtually all Oracle processes will
access at one point or another.
 PGA, Process Global Area – This is memory that is
private to a single process or thread, and is not accessible
from other processes/threads.
 UGA, User Global Area – This is memory associated
with your session. It will be found either in the SGA or
the PGA depending on whether you are running in MTS
mode (then it'll be in the SGA), or dedicated server (it'll
be in the PGA).

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 SGA
 Java pool – The Java pool is a fixed amount of
memory allocated for the JVM running in
thedatabase.
 Large pool – The large pool is used by the MTS for
session memory, by Parallel Execution for message
buffers, and by RMAN Backup for disk I/O buffers.
 Shared pool – The shared pool contains shared
cursors, stored procedures, state objects, dictionary
caches, and many dozens of other bits of data.
 The 'Null' pool – This one doesn't really have a
name. It is the memory dedicated to block buffers
(cached database blocks), the redo log buffer and a
'fixed SGA' area.
 Redo Buffer - is where data that needs to be
written to the online redo logs will be cached
temporarily before it is written to disk.
 Block Buffer Cache - is where Oracle will store
database blocks before writing them to disk, and
after reading them in from disk
 Fixed SGA – Contains a set of variables that point
to the other components of the SGA, and variables
that contain the values of various parameters.

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Server Process - Dedicated
 Remote Execution – It is
very natural for the client
application to be executing on
a machine other than the
database itself.
 Address Space Isolation –
The server process has read-
write access to the SGA. An
errant pointer in a client
process could easily corrupt
data structures in the SGA, if
the client process and server
process were physically linked
together.
 Process control via OS.
 Suitable for long sessions.

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Server Process - MTS
 Reduces the number of
OS processes/threads - In
a typical system, only a
fraction of the thousands of
users are concurrently active
at any point in time. (50 out
of 5000)
 Allows you to artificially
limit the degree of
concurrency
 Reduces the memory
needed on the system
 Suitable for short
sessions.
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Focused Background Processes

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Selected Background Processes
 PMON – The Process Monitor
 This process is responsible for cleaning up after abnormally
terminated connections.
 SMON – The System Monitor
 Temporary space clean up
 Crash recovery
 Coalescing free space
 Recovering transactions active against unavailable files
 Instance recovery of failed node in OPS
 Cleans up OBJ$ – a low-level data dictionary table
 RECO – Distributed Database Recovery
 It recovers transactions that are left in a prepared state because of a
crash or loss of connection during a two-phase commit (2PC).

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Selected Background Processes
 CKPT – Checkpoint Process
 Assists DBWn by updating file headers.
 DBWn – Database Block Writer
 The background process responsible for writing dirty blocks to disk.
 LGWR – Log Writer
 The LGWR process is responsible for flushing to disk the contents
of the redo log buffer, located in the SGA.
 ARCn – Archive Process
 The job of the ARCn process is to copy an online redo log file to
another location when LGWR fills it up.
 Other Utility Processes
 Job Queues, Advanced Queues, Event Monitor Processes, Memory
Manager, Manageability Monitors, Change Tracking Processes,
Recovery Writer.

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