INSTANCE_NAME

Property	Description
Parameter type	String
Syntax	`INSTANCE_NAME =` `instance_id`
Default value	The instance's SID Note: The SID identifies the instance's shared memory on a host, but may not uniquely distinguish this instance from other instances.
Modifiable	No
Range of values	Any alphanumeric characters and the underscore (_) character
Basic	No

In a Real Application Clusters environment, multiple instances can be associated with a single database service. Clients can override Oracle's connection load balancing by specifying a particular instance by which to connect to the database. INSTANCE_NAME specifies the unique name of this instance.

In a single-instance database system, the instance name is usually the same as the database name.