Servers, Databases, Instances, and Schemas

As a DBA, you are certainly familiar with database terminology. The problem is that on different database platforms, the terms don’t always mean the same thing. Consider that even general terms can take on various meanings. A generic definition of database is “data and information that is collected together for the ability to access and manage.” The term server could refer to the actual server hardware or to the database server.

A SQL Server database is not the same as an Oracle database. The SQL Server database has users allocated to it, its own system objects, and its own datafiles. In Oracle, the term schema is more closely related to the SQL Server database. Schemas can own the objects in both environments. ...

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