F

failure group

Disks as part of an ASM disk group that share a common resource whose failure causes the entire set of disks to be unavailable to the disk group.

fine striping

An ASM striping method for low-latency objects that uses a stripe size of 128KB.

fixed tables

Memory structures that emulate tables in that they can be queried and can be the object of views. Oracle uses fixed tables to store dynamic performance statistics.

flash recovery area

The centralized storage area for Oracle Database 10g backups where recovery-related files can be managed. This is also the area where flashback database logs are written to.

flashback database

A new Oracle Database 10g recovery mechanism that allows you to recover to a point-in-time by using "before" block images.

flashback database logs

Logs that contain the "before" block images required to recover with the flashback database.

Flashback Drop

The process of saving a copy of the dropped database object and dependent objects in the Recycle Bin so that the object can be recovered. Oracle overwrites these objects to ensure that there is enough free space for existing objects in the tablespace. See also Recycle Bin.

Flashback Table

A flashback technology that allows you to recover a table or set tables to a specific point-in-time without performing an incomplete recovery.

Flashback Transaction Query

A query designed to be a diagnostic tool to help identify changes made to the database at the transaction level.

FLASHBACK_TRANSACTION_QUERY view

A view that can be queried to perform diagnostics and analysis on a version of data in a particular table.

Flashback Versions Query

A query that allows you to retrieve all of the versions of the rows that exist or existed between the times the query was executed to a determined point-in-time in the past.

format option

An option that allows for making backup sets, copies, and pieces unique with options that format the filenames according to specified naming options.

full backup

A non-incremental Recovery Manager (RMAN) backup. This can be for a whole database or for individual database files or components.