⟩ What is SID (System Identifier)?
A SID (almost) uniquely identifies an instance. Actually, $ORACLE_HOME, $ORACLE_SID and $HOSTNAME identify an instance uniquely. The SID is 64 characters, or less; at least on Oracle 9i. The system identifier is included in the CONNECT_DATA parts of the connect descriptors in a tnsnames.ora file. The SID defaults to the database name.