Overview of Primary Components The Oracle architecture includes a number of primary components, which are discussed further in this lesson. Oracle server: There are several files, processes, and memory structures in an Oracle server; however, not all of them are used when processing a SQL statement. Some are used to improve the performance of the database, to ensure that the database can be recovered in the event of a software or hardware error, or to perform other tasks necessary to maintain the database. The Oracle server consists of an Oracle instance and an Oracle database. Oracle instance: An Oracle instance is the combination.
