Oracle Database has several names [1]:
- Global Name: consists of the database name and database domain. The global database name uniquely distinguishes a database from any other database in the same network. To enforce the global database naming, you must set the GLOBAL_NAMES parameter to TRUE. (show parameter global_names)
- Service Name: is specified by the SERVICE_NAMES initialization parameter. It's an identifier of a database service. If you do not specify a service name for a database, the service name will default to the database's global name
- System Identifier (SID): identifies a specific database instance. Oracle database service names are usually the same as the database name in the global name.
Using Database Names in Oracle GoldenGate Replication
When performing replication, especially the downstream capture, you would correctly setup the global_name and make sure it has the proper name to resolve globally by enabling global names with GLOBAL_NAMES= TRUE (alter system set global_names = true scope=both;). For downstream capture, it's recommended to enable this on both the source and mining database. When using Oracle GoldenGate Downstream capture, you also need to make sure the domain name doesn't start with a number.