"Oracle server" would typically refer to the actually computer that the Oracle DBMS software has been installed on.
"Oracle Instance" is the set of processes and memory structures that provide access to an Oracle Database. Multiple Instances can be supported on one Server.
"Table spaces" are a logical structure in Oracle that map tables to actual data file.
"Schema" is an entity in the database that owns a set of database objects (tables, procedures, views, etc).
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by: mrjoltcolaPosted on 2009-10-26 at 17:20:04ID: 25668310
For this many questions the best place to start is the "Oracle Concepts Guide"
/docs/cd/B 28359_01/s erver.111/ b28318/toc .htm
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Server and Instance are the same thing. In oracle the server processes are associated with a single database. Each database is a physical structure on disk and can be mounted by an instance (or server). In the general sense, "Oracle server" can also describe a physical computer running Oracle in a networked fashion.
Tablespace is the logical storage container in Oracle that stores objects. It is made up of the physical datafiles. The tablespace is the platform independant storage container that hides the platform specific datafiles. Tablespaces can be made up of multiple datafiles, spanning multiple disks. However, an object will always exist in one tablespace, whether it spans disks or not. Objects -> Tablespaces -> Datafiles (disk)
A schema is a user and a user is a schema. It is the namespace or privilege container that holds objects. Each schema user will have a "default tablespace" but may also have privileges to store objects in other tablespaces.