F

FAST_START_MTTR_TARGET

An initialization parameter that specifies the desired amount of time, in seconds, to perform instance recovery after an instance failure.

FGA

See fine-grained auditing (FGA).

field

The intersection of a column and a row in a table.

fine-grained auditing (FGA)

Special auditing that allows custom rules to be used in monitoring and capturing audit records.

firewall

Generally, a combination of hardware and software that controls network traffic and prevents intruders from compromising corporate network security.

Flashback Database

A flashback feature that lets you recover the entire database to a specific point in time in the past.

Flashback Drop

A flashback feature that retrieves a table after it has been dropped without using other more complicated and disruptive recovery techniques such as point in time recovery or flashback database.

Flashback Query

A feature of the Oracle database that allows a user to view the contents of a table as of a user-specified point in time in the past. How far in the past a flashback query can retrieve rows depends on the size of the undo tablespace and on the setting of the UNDO_ RETENTION system parameter.

Flashback Table

A flashback feature that allows you to recover one or more existing tables to a specific point in time. Flashback table is done in place by rolling back only the changes made to the table or tables and their dependent objects, such as indexes.

Flash Recovery area

A single, unified storage area for all recovery-related files and recovery activities in an Oracle database.

foreign key

A constraint requiring that the value inserted into a column matches the value in a primary or unique key. See also self-referencing foreign key.

full backup

A backup that includes all blocks of every datafile backed up in a whole or partial database backup.

function

A PL/SQL (Procedural Language SQL) program that returns a value.