Oracle System Identifier (SID)

A name that identifies a specific instance of the running Oracle8 or Oracle7 database. The SID is also used internally by the database as pointer to the an instance's System Global Area (SGA). For any database, there is at least one instance referencing the database.

Connect descriptors used by clients to connect to an Oracle8 or Oracle7 database should be configured with the SID parameter. The SID is also specified in the listener.ora file.

See Also:

Database Identification by Service Name Rather than SID