The server process records changes to undo and data blocks in the Database Buffer Cache. DBWn writes the dirty buffers from the Database Buffer Cache to the data files. It ensures that a sufficient number of free buffers (buffers that can be overwritten when server processes need to read in blocks from the data files) are available in the Database Buffer Cache. Database performance is improved because server processes make changes only in the Database Buffer Cache.
DBWn defers writing to the data files until one of the following events occurs:
•Incremental or normal checkpoint
•The number of dirty buffers reaches a threshold value
•A process scans a specified number of blocks when scanning for free buffers and cannot find any
•Timeout occurs
•A ping request in Real Application Clusters (RAC) environment