The CDB is a collection of schemas, schema objects, and non-schema objects to which all PDBs belong.

Every CDB has one and only one root container named CDB$ROOT. The root stores the system metadata required to manage PDBs. All PDBs belong to the root. The system container is the CDB root and all PDBs that belong to this root.

The CDB root does not store user data. Oracle recommends that you do not add common objects to the root or modify Oracle-supplied schemas in the root. However, you can create common users and roles for database administration. A common user with the necessary privileges can switch between containers.