Overview of Oracle RAC

Noncluster Oracle databases have a one-to-one relationship between the Oracle database and the instance. Oracle RAC environments, however, have a one-to-many relationship between the database and instances. An Oracle RAC database can have up to 100 instances,^Foot 1 all of which access one database. All database instances must use the same interconnect, which can also be used by Oracle Clusterware.

Oracle RAC databases differ architecturally from noncluster Oracle databases in that each Oracle RAC database instance also has:

• At least one additional thread of redo for each instance

• An instance-specific undo tablespace

The combined processing power of the multiple servers can provide greater throughput and Oracle RAC scalability than is available from a single server.

A cluster comprises multiple interconnected computers or servers that appear as if they are one server to end users and applications. The Oracle RAC option with Oracle Database enables you to cluster Oracle databases. Oracle RAC uses Oracle Clusterware for the infrastructure to bind multiple servers so they operate as a single system.

Oracle Clusterware is a portable cluster management solution that is integrated with Oracle Database. Oracle Clusterware is a required component for using Oracle RAC that provides the infrastructure necessary to run Oracle RAC. Oracle Clusterware also manages resources, such as Virtual Internet Protocol (VIP) addresses, databases, listeners, services, and so on. In addition, Oracle Clusterware enables both noncluster Oracle databases and Oracle RAC databases to use the Oracle high-availability infrastructure. Oracle Clusterware along with Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) (the two together comprise the Oracle Grid Infrastructure) enables you to create a clustered pool of storage to be used by any combination of noncluster and Oracle RAC databases.

Oracle Clusterware is the only clusterware that you need for most platforms on which Oracle RAC operates. If your database applications require vendor clusterware, then you can use such clusterware in conjunction with Oracle Clusterware if that vendor clusterware is certified for Oracle RAC.

Figure 1-1 shows how Oracle RAC is the Oracle Database option that provides a single system image for multiple servers to access one Oracle database. In Oracle RAC, each Oracle instance must run on a separate server.

Figure 1-1 Oracle Database with Oracle RAC Architecture

Description of "Figure 1-1 Oracle Database with Oracle RAC Architecture"

Traditionally, an Oracle RAC environment is located in one data center. However, you can configure Oracle RAC on an extended distance cluster, which is an architecture that provides extremely fast recovery from a site failure and allows for all nodes, at all sites, to actively process transactions as part of a single database cluster. In an extended cluster, the nodes in the cluster are typically dispersed, geographically, such as between two fire cells, between two rooms or buildings, or between two different data centers or cities. For availability reasons, the data must be located at both sites, thus requiring the implementation of disk mirroring technology for storage.

If you choose to implement this architecture, you must assess whether this architecture is a good solution for your business, especially considering distance, latency, and the degree of protection it provides. Oracle RAC on extended clusters provides higher availability than is possible with local Oracle RAC configurations, but an extended cluster may not fulfill all of the disaster-recovery requirements of your organization. A feasible separation provides great protection for some disasters (for example, local power outage or server room flooding) but it cannot provide protection against all types of outages. For comprehensive protection against disasters—including protection against corruptions and regional disasters—Oracle recommends the use of Oracle Data Guard with Oracle RAC, as described in the Oracle Database High Availability Overview and on the Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA) Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/availability/htdocs/maa.htm

Oracle RAC is a unique technology that provides high availability and scalability for all application types. The Oracle RAC infrastructure is also a key component for implementing the Oracle enterprise grid computing architecture. Having multiple instances access a single database prevents the server from being a single point of failure. Oracle RAC enables you to combine smaller commodity servers into a cluster to create scalable environments that support mission critical business applications. Applications that you deploy on Oracle RAC databases can operate without code changes.