Oracle Internals: An Introduction

Chapter 5. Instance Locks

Instance locks are used for inter-instance locking and communication between the instances of an Oracle parallel server database. Although instance locks are scarcely used in single-instance Oracle, I encourage all readers to browse this chapter anyway. Single-instance Oracle is really just a special case of parallel server, and there are some aspects of its operation that you will find difficult to grasp unless you understand the general case. If nothing else, reading this chapter will deepen your appreciation for the simplicity of single-instance Oracle.

The Lock Manager

The part of Oracle that manages instance locks is called the lock manager. The lock manager is a layer of functionality that affects the operation of all processes. However, its most obvious manifestations are the presence of a set of lock management processes, and an in-memory database of instance lock information in each instance.

The lock manager is said to be distributed. There is no central point of control. Each instance only maintains information about the instance locks in which it has an interest. The lock manager is also said to be integrated. This is because, prior to Oracle8, a separate product provided by the operating system vendors was required for lock management. In Oracle8, release 8.0, this functionality was incorporated into the Oracle kernel.

The Instance Lock Database

The lock and resource structures for instance locks reside in a dedicated area within the SGA called ...