I

image copies

A bit-for-bit duplicate of datafiles or archived redo log files in a database. You can create image copies using operating system commands or RMAN (Recovery Manager).

inconsistent backup

A backup performed when the database is open and the system change number (SCN) in the datafiles and the control file do not necessarily match. Also referred to as online backup.

incremental backup

A backup that makes a copy of all data blocks that have changed since a previous baseline backup.

incrementally updated backup

A backup that applies an incremental backup to an image copy, reducing the amount of time required in the event of media recovery.

index

An optional schema object to aid data retrieval.

index key

A single occurrence of an index value.

instance

The Oracle SGA (System Global Area) and all the Oracle background processes. See also System Global Area (SGA).

instance failure

A circumstance in which the database instance fails unexpectedly, due to a power outage or the failure of an Oracle background process.

instance recovery

The process of synchronizing the contents of each datafile with the control file during instance startup using the online redo log files and data in the undo tablespace.

IP-filtering firewalls

A type of firewall that monitors the network packet traffic on IP networks and filters out packets that either originated or did not originate from specific groups of machines

iSQL*Plus

A web-based version of the SQL*Plus command line and Windows-based products offered by Oracle. You can use this tool to execute queries against a database.