Lesson 2	Prerequisites
Objective	Verify that you have the necessary background for this course.

Oracle Network Course Prerequisites

To get the most from this course, you should have a basic understanding of Linux/Unix, PL/SQL coding techniques, and the following Oracle database concepts:

Oracle tables and tablespaces
Oracle instances
The Oracle data dictionary

Where This Course Fits Today

The fundamentals this course builds on, Oracle Net Services, TNS, the listener, Connection Manager, haven't changed in the way they work. What has changed is where they show up. A growing share of real-world Oracle deployments now run in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, often through Autonomous Database, where the same underlying connectivity concepts get wrapped in cloud-native pieces: private endpoints inside a Virtual Cloud Network, wallet-based credential bundles instead of a hand-configured client, and Connection Manager running in Traffic Director Mode for secure, policy-driven routing. None of that is a prerequisite for this course, it's exactly what this course and the one after it will cover in depth, but it's worth seeing what that architecture actually looks like before diving in. The diagram below previews it.

Oracle AI Database 26ai secure database connectivity diagram: on-premises clients via FastConnect and a Dynamic Routing Gateway, and internet/API clients via an Internet Gateway, both reaching a VCN with public and private subnets, private endpoints or a private database subnet with the Oracle Net listener, an optional Connection Manager tier, and a security controls band covering IAM, TLS/mTLS, and OCI Vault — A preview of secure database connectivity patterns in Oracle AI Database 26ai on OCI: on-premises clients connect through FastConnect and a Dynamic Routing Gateway, while internet and API clients come in through an Internet Gateway, both landing inside a Virtual Cloud Network. From there, traffic reaches either a private endpoint to an Oracle-managed Autonomous AI Database, or a private database subnet with an Oracle Net listener in front of a self-managed Oracle AI Database 26ai system (with RAC/SCAN handling connection establishment where applicable). An optional Connection Manager tier can sit in front of the database listener as an Oracle Net proxy, distinct from the API Gateway, which handles HTTP(S) traffic only. Identity, TLS/mTLS, and OCI Vault-based secret management wrap around all of it. This course builds toward being able to read and reason about an architecture like this one; you don't need to already understand it to start.

In addition, you should already be comfortable with the material from the first course in this series, Oracle Network Topology, which covers:

Identifying networking business trends and problems
Describing Oracle's networking solutions
Developing an Oracle network topology
Defining the procedure by which Oracle Net establishes a server connection
Working with TNS, the Transparent Network Substrate, that underlies Oracle Net communication
Configuring the listener using Oracle Net Manager
Setting up multiple listeners on the same node
Installing the Oracle Net Services client software
Using the host-naming method to test Oracle Net connectivity

If you're not comfortable with one or more of these topics, techniques, or procedures, you may want to consider taking:

first. The next lesson outlines what you need to get the most out of this course.