Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Database Connection Features
The connection between the client and the database server is a key component of the
overall architecture. The database connection is responsible for supporting all com‐
munications between an application and the data it uses. Database users connect to the
database by establishing a network connection. You can also link database servers via
network connections. Oracle provides a number of features to establish connections
between users and the database and/or between database servers, as described in the
following subsections.
Oracle Net Services
Oracle's Net Services provide the interface between networks and distributed Oracle
Databases establishing database sessions for purposes of distributed processing. You
can use Oracle Net Services over a wide variety of network protocols including
TCP/IP, HTTP, FTP, and WebDAV. The Services include Oracle Net, used to establish
sessions, and the Oracle Database Server Listener. Client requests can be handled
through dedicated or shared servers.
Oracle Internet Directory
The Oracle Internet Directory (OID) is an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Pro‐
tocol) directory and supports Oracle Net and other LDAP-enabled protocols. Database
support first appeared in Oracle8
i
and replaced Oracle Names, which was used to enable
user connections to an Oracle Database server without having a client-side configura‐
tion file. The directory services are provided by the Oracle Fusion Middleware Identity
Management platform.
Oracle Connection Manager
Each connection to the database takes up valuable network resources, which can impact
the overall performance of a database application. Oracle's Connection Manager
(CMAN), illustrated in
Figure 1-3
, reduces the number of Oracle Net client network
connections to the database through the use of
concentrators
, which provide connection
multiplexing to implement multiple connections over a single network connection.
Connection multiplexing provides the greatest benefit when there are a large number
of active users.
