Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g

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Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 2

NOTE:
1he ollowing is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended
or inormation purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is
not a commitment to delier any material, code, or unctionality, and should not
be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. 1he deelopment, release, and
timing o any eatures or unctionality described or Oracle`s products remains at
the sole discretion o Oracle.
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 3
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g
Introduction ....................................................................................................... 4
\hat is Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g ............................................ 4
Real Application Clusters Architecture ..................................................... 5
Oracle Clusterware................................................................................... 6
lardware Architecture ............................................................................ 6
lile Systems and Volume Management ................................................
Virtual Internet Protocol Address ,VIP, ..............................................
Cluster Veriication Utility......................................................................
RAC on Lxtended Distance Clusters.................................................... 8
Beneits o Oracle Real Application Clusters................................................ 8
ligh Aailability ........................................................................................... 8
Scalability........................................................................................................ 9
Managing \our Oracle Real Application Clusters Database.................... 10
Lnterprise Manager .................................................................................... 10
Rolling Patch Application.......................................................................... 12
Rolling Release Upgrade Support............................................................. 12
\orkload Management with Real Application Clusters............................ 12
Serices......................................................................................................... 12
Connection Load Balancing...................................................................... 13
last Application Notiication ,lAN,....................................................... 13
Load Balancing Adisory........................................................................... 14
Conclusion........................................................................................................ 14


Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 4
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g
INTRODUCTION
Oracle Real Application Clusters ,RAC, allows Oracle Database to run any
packaged or custom application, unchanged across a set o clustered serers. 1his
proides the highest leels o aailability and the most lexible scalability. I a
clustered serer ails, Oracle continues running on the remaining serers. \hen
you need more processing power, simply add another serer without taking users
oline. 1o keep costs low, een the highest-end systems can be built out o
standardized, commodity parts.
Oracle Real Application Clusters proides a oundation or Oracle`s Lnterprise
Grid Computing Architecture. Oracle RAC technology enables a low-cost
hardware platorm to delier the highest quality o serice that rials and exceeds
the leels o aailability and scalability achieed by the most expensie, mainrame
SMP computers. By dramatically reducing administration costs and proiding new
leels o administration lexibility, Oracle is enabling the enterprise grid
enironment.
1his paper proides a technical oeriew o Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g
with the emphasis on the eatures and unctionality that can be implemented to
proide the highest aailability and scalability or enterprise applications.
WHAT IS ORACLE REAL APPLICATION CLUSTERS?
Oracle Real Application Clusters is an option o Oracle Database that was irst
introduced with Oracle 9i. Oracle Real Application Clusters is now proen
technology used by thousands o customers in eery industry in eery type o
application. Oracle RAC proides options or scaling applications beyond the
capabilities o a single serer. 1his allows customers to take adantage o lower
cost commodity hardware to reduce their total cost o ownership and proide a
scaleable computing enironment that supports their application workload.
Project Mega Grid
1
is an example showing how a real world application workload
can run either on a single SMP serer or a cluster o serers and meet the same
perormance requirements. In addition, the clustered enironment includes high
aailability.

1
Project MegaGrid is a joint project with Oracle, LMC, Dell and Intel
http:,,www.oracle.com,megagrid
Oracle RAC enables the Oracle Database to
run mainstream business applications of all
kinds on clusters including popular
packaged products (such as Oracle
Applications, Peoplesoft, SAP), in-house
developed applications, which can be either
OLTP, DSS, or a mixed workload.
"We're pushing out over a million page views
on our Web site, and each one is dynamic,
hosted up by hits to our database. We required
something that could manage this with ease
and the highest possible availability, so we
chose Oracle Database with Real Application
Clusters." Shawn Kernes, Vice President of
Technology StubHub
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 5
Oracle Real Application Clusters is a key component o the Oracle ligh
Aailability Architecture
2
, which proides direction to architect the highest
aailability or applications. Oracle RAC proides the ability to remoe the serer
as a single point o ailure in any database application enironment.
Real Application Clusters Architecture
A RAC database is a clustered database. A cluster is a group o independent
serers that cooperate as a single system. Clusters proide improed ault
resilience and modular incremental system growth oer single symmetric multi-
processor ,SMP, systems. In the eent o a system ailure, clustering ensures high
aailability to users. Access to mission critical data is not lost. Redundant
hardware components, such as additional nodes, interconnects, and disks, allow
the cluster to proide high aailability. Such redundant hardware architectures
aoid single points-o-ailure and proide exceptional ault resilience.
Iigure J Real Application Clusters Architecture
\ith Real Application Clusters, we de-couple the Oracle Instance ,the processes
and memory structures running on a serer to allow access to the data, rom the
Oracle database ,the physical structures residing on storage which actually hold the
data, commonly known as datailes,. A clustered database is a single database that
can be accessed by multiple instances. Lach instance runs on a separate serer in
the cluster. \hen additional resources are required, additional nodes and instances
can be easily added to the cluster with no downtime. Once the new instance is

2
lor more inormation on Oracle ligh Aailability Architecture:
http:,,www.oracle.com,technology,deploy,aailability,htdocs,maa.htm

With Oracle we can add capacity without
throwing out or replacing old
computers.
John Kerin Executive Vice President,
Chief Operating Officer, and Chief
Technology Officer Chicago Stock
Exchange
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 6
started, applications using serices can immediately take adantage o it with no
changes to the application or application serer.
Real Application Clusters is an extension o the Oracle Database and thereore
beneits rom the manageability, reliability and security eatures built into Oracle
Database 11g.
Oracle Clusterware
Starting with Oracle Database 10g, Oracle proides Oracle Clusterware, a portable
clusterware solution that is integrated and designed speciically or Oracle
Database. \ou no longer hae to purchase third party clusterware in order to hae
a RAC database. Oracle Clusterware is integrated with the Oracle Uniersal
Installer, which the Oracle DBA is already amiliar with. Support is made easier as
there is one support organization to deal with or the clusterware and cluster
database. \ou can choose to run Oracle RAC with selected third party
clusterware, Oracle will work with certiied third party clusterware howeer, Oracle
Clusterware must manage all RAC databases.
Oracle Clusterware monitors and manages Real Application Cluster databases.
\hen a node in the cluster is started, all instances, listeners and serices are
automatically started. I an instance ails, the clusterware will automatically restart
the instance so the serice is oten restored beore the administrator notices it was
down.
\ith Oracle Database 10g Release 2, Oracle added a ligh Aailability API so that
non-Oracle processes can be put under the control o the high aailability
ramework within Oracle Clusterware. \hen registering the process with Oracle
Clusterware, inormation is proided on how to start, stop, and monitor the
process. \ou can also speciy i the process should be relocated to another node
in the cluster when the node it is executing on ails.
Hardware Architecture
Oracle Real Application Clusters is a shared eerything architecture. All serers in
the cluster must share all storage used or a RAC database. 1he type o disk
storage used can be network attached storage ,NAS,, storage area network ,SAN,,
or SCSI disk. \our storage choice is dictated by the serer hardware choice and
what your hardware endor supports. 1he key to choosing your storage is
choosing a storage system that will proide scaleable I,O or your application, an
I,O system that will scale as additional serers are added to the cluster.
A cluster requires an additional network to the Local Area Network ,LAN, that a
database serer is attached to or application connections. A cluster requires a
second priate network commonly known as the interconnect. Oracle
recommends that you use 2 network interaces or this network or high
aailability purposes. A network interace bonding external to Oracle should be
used to proide ailoer and load balancing. 1he interconnect is used by the
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 7
cluster or inter-node messaging. 1he interconnect is also used by RAC to
implement the cache usion technology. Oracle recommends the use o UDP oer
GigL or the cluster interconnect. 1he use o crossoer cables as the interconnect
is not supported or a production RAC database.
1he cluster is made up o 1 to many serers each haing a LAN connection, an
interconnect connection, and must be connected to the shared storage. Oracle
Clusterware and Real Application Clusters support up to 100 nodes in the cluster.
Lach serer in the cluster does not hae to be exactly the same but it must run the
same operating system, and the same ersion o Oracle. All serers must support
the same architecture L.G. all 32bit or all 64bit.
Current detailed inormation on certiications and technology restrictions related
to Oracle Real Application Clusters can be obtained through Oracle Metalink
,http:,,metalink.oracle.com,.
File Systems and Volume Management
Since RAC is a shared eerything architecture, the olume management and ile
system used must be cluster-aware. Oracle recommends the use o Automatic
Storage Management ,ASM,, which is a eature, included with Oracle Database 11g
to automate the management o storage or the database. ASM proides the
perormance o async I,O with the easy management o a ile system. ASM
distributes I,O load across all aailable resource to optimize perormance while
remoing the need or manual I,O tuning.
Alternatiely Oracle supports the use o raw deices and some cluster ile systems
such as Oracle Cluster lile System ,OClS, that is aailable on \indows and
Linux.
Virtual Internet Protocol Address (VIP)
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g requires a irtual IP address or each serer in
the cluster. 1he irtual IP address is an unused IP address on the same subnet as
the Local Area Network ,LAN,. 1his address is used by applications to connect to
the RAC database. I a node ails, the Virtual IP is ailed oer to another node in
the cluster to proide an immediate node down response to connection requests.
1his increases the aailability or applications, as they no longer hae to wait or
network timeouts beore the connection request ails oer to another instance in
the cluster.
Cluster Verification Utility
Oracle RAC includes a cluster coniguration eriication tool. 1he cluster
eriication tool eliminates errors through pre and post alidation o installation
steps and,or coniguration changes. It can also be used or ongoing cluster
alidation. 1he tool is inoked through a command line interace or through an
API by other programs such as Oracle Uniersal Installer ,OUI,.
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 8
RAC on Extended Distance Clusters
RAC on Lxtended Distance Clusters is an architecture where nodes in the cluster
reside in locations that are physically separate. RAC on Lxtended Distance
Clusters proides extremely ast recoery rom a site ailure and allows or all
nodes, at all sites, to actiely process transactions as part o single database cluster.
\hile this architecture creates great interest and has been successully
implemented, it is critical to understand where this architecture best its especially
in regards to distance, latency, and degree o protection it proides.
1he high impact o latency, and thereore distance, creates some practical
limitations as to where this architecture can be deployed. 1his architecture its best
where the 2 datacenters are located relatiely close ,~100km, and where the
extremely expensie costs o setting up direct cables with dedicated channels
between the sites has already been taken.
RAC on Lxtended Distance Clusters proides greater high aailability than local
RAC but it may not it the ull Disaster Recoery requirements o your
organization. leasible separation is great protection or some disasters ,local power
outage, airplane crash, serer room looding, but not all. Disasters such as
earthquakes, hurricanes, and regional loods may aect a greater area. Customers
should do an analysis to determine i both sites are likely to be aected by the
same disaster. lor comprehensie protection against disasters including protection
against corruptions and regional disasters, Oracle recommends the use o Data
Guard with RAC as described in the Oracle ligh Aailability Architecture
documentation. Data Guard also proides additional beneits such as support or
rolling upgrades across Oracle ersions.
Coniguring an extended distance cluster is more complex than a local cluster.
Speciic ocus needs to go into node layout, oting disks, and data disk placement.
Implemented properly, this architecture can proide greater lA than a local RAC
database. 1he combination o Oracle Clusterware, Oracle Real Application
Clusters and Automatic Storage Management can be used to create extended
distance clusters.
BENEFITS OF ORACLE REAL APPLICATION CLUSTERS
High Availability
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g proides the inrastructure or datacentre
high aailability. It is also an integral component o Oracle`s ligh Aailability
Architecture, which proides best practices to proide the highest aailability data
management solution. Oracle Real Application Clusters proides protection
against the main characteristics o high aailability solutions. Reliability - Oracle
Database is known or its reliability. Real Application Clusters takes this a step
urther by remoing the database serer as a single point o ailure. I an instance
ails, the remaining instances in the cluster are open and actie.
We chose the Oracle technology stack,
including Oracle Real Application Clusters,
to ensure that our systems are always
available, secure, flexible, cost-effective,
and easy to use. - Marc Ladin, Vice
President of Marketing, 3n (National
Notification Network)

Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 9
Recoverability - Oracle Database includes many eatures that make it easy to
recoer rom all types o ailures. I an instance ails in a RAC database, it is
recognized by another instance in the cluster and recoery automatically takes
place. last Application Notiication, last Connection lailoer and 1ransparent
Application lailoer make it easy or applications to mask component ailures
rom the user.
Lrror Detection - Oracle Clusterware automatically monitors RAC databases and
proides ast detection o problems in the enironment. Also it automatically
recoers rom ailures oten beore anyone has noticed a ailure has occurred. last
Application Notiication proides the ability or applications to receie immediate
notiication o cluster component ailures and mask the ailure rom the user by
resubmitting the transaction to a suriing node in the cluster.
Continuous Operations Real Application Clusters proides continuous serice
or both planned and unplanned outages. I a node ,or instance, ails, the database
remains open and the application is able to access data. Most database
maintenance operations can be completed without down time and are transparent
to the user. Many other maintenance tasks can be done in a rolling ashion so
application downtime is minimized or remoed. last Application Notiication and
last Connection lailoer assist applications in meeting serice leels and masking
component ailures in the cluster.
Scalability
Oracle Real Application Clusters proides unique technology or scaling
applications. 1raditionally, when the database serer ran out o capacity, it was
replaced with a new larger serer. As serers grow in capacity, they are more
expensie. lor databases using RAC, there are alternaties or increasing the
capacity. Applications that hae traditionally run on large SMP serers can be
migrated to run on clusters o small serers. Alternatiely, you can maintain the
inestment in the current hardware and add a new serer to the cluster ,or to
create a cluster, to increase the capacity. Adding serers to a cluster with Oracle
Clusterware and RAC does not require an outage and as soon as the new instance
is started, the application can take adantage o the extra capacity. All serers in
the cluster must run the same operating system and same ersion o Oracle but
they do not hae to be exactly the same capacity. Customers today run clusters
that it their needs whether they are clusters o serers where each serer is a 2
CPU commodity serer to clusters where the serers hae 32 or 64 cpus in each
serer.
Oracle Real Application Clusters architecture automatically accommodates rapidly
changing business requirements and the resulting workload changes. Application
users, or mid tier application serer clients, connect to the database by way o a
serice name. Oracle automatically balances the user load among the multiple
nodes in the cluster. 1he Real Application Clusters database instances on the
dierent nodes subscribe to all or some subset o database serices. 1his proides
"Instead of maintaining more than 2,000
decentralized databaseswith their
recurring upgrade, support, and
management costsrequests from each
cash-advance center are directed to a
service running on all four nodes of the
Oracle RAC cluster. This allows us to
adjust the resources available to each
group of clients as the workload fluctuates.
It's working beautifully." Sanjay Bamba,
Database Administration Director, Advance
America
Kroll Factual Datas customers demand real-
time performance and high availability. With
Oracle, we were able to provide best in class
performance while implementing a system
that has increased our capabilities
significantly.
- Russ Donnan, Chief Information Officer,
Kroll Factual Data, Inc.
Moving to Oracle Real Application Clusters
on Linux has given us continuous availability
for about 65% less than what a traditional
implementation would have cost. This
improved availability for our patient care
systems also positions us to have zero-
downtime upgrades for system
maintenance. Kay Carr, Chief Information
Officer, St. Luke's Episcopal Health System

Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 10
DBAs the lexibility o choosing whether speciic application clients that connect
to a particular database serice can connect to some or all o the database nodes.
Administrators can painlessly add processing capacity as application requirements
grow. 1he Cache lusion architecture o RAC immediately utilizes the CPU and
memory resources o the new node. DBAs do not need to manually re-partition
data.
Another way o distributing workload in an Oracle database is through the Oracle
Database's parallel execution eature. Parallel execution ,I.L. parallel query or
parallel DML, diides the work o executing a SQL statement across multiple
processes. In an Oracle Real Application Clusters enironment, these processes
can be balanced across multiple instances. Oracle`s cost-based optimizer
incorporates parallel execution considerations as a undamental component in
arriing at optimal execution plans. In a Real Application Clusters enironment,
intelligent decisions are made with regard to intra-node and inter-node parallelism.
lor example, i a particular query requires six query processes to complete the
work and six CPUs are idle on the local node ,the node that the user connected
to,, then the query is processed using only local resources. 1his demonstrates
eicient intra-node parallelism and eliminates the query coordination oerhead
across multiple nodes. loweer, i there are only two CPUs aailable on the local
node, then those two CPUs and our CPUs o another node are used to process
the query. In this manner, both inter-node and intra-node parallelism are used to
proide speed up or query operations.
MANAGING YOUR ORACLE REAL APPLICATION CLUSTERS
DATABASE
Oracle Real Application Clusters proides a single system image or easy
coniguration and management. 1he RAC database can be installed, conigured,
and managed rom a single location. All tools and utilities proided to manage the
database are cluster-aware rom the Oracle Uniersal Installer ,OUI,, to Lnterprise
Manager including the database coniguration assistant ,DBCA,, the database
upgrade assistant ,DBUA,, the network coniguration assistant ,NL1CA,, and the
command line interaces such as srctl.
Enterprise Manager
Lnterprise Manager Database Control is the GUI management tool proided by
Oracle to manage your Oracle Database. Database Control is automatically
conigured by the DBCA when a database is created. Lnterprise Manager 10g
Grid Control is the GUI Management tool proided by Oracle to manage your
enterprise. Grid Control is installed rom a separate CD included in the Oracle
Database CD pack. Both these tools are cluster-aware and proide a centralized
console to manage your cluster database.
Oracle Grid Control is becoming very
important eliminating tedious work and
making our DBAs more productive David
Milne, Director Database Technologies,
Chicago Stock Exchange
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 11
lrom the Cluster Database Page you can:
View oerall system status, e.g., the number o nodes in the cluster
database and their current status
View alerts aggregated across all instances with drill down to the source o
each alert and additional detail
Set threshold or alert generation on a cluster database-wide basis
Monitor perormance metrics aggregated across all instances or displayed
side by side so that instances can be readily compared, with additional drill
down as needed
Monitor cluster cache coherency statistics ,e.g., global buer gets, etc.,
Perorm cluster database-wide operations including the ability to initiate
backup & recoery operations, start,stop instances, and so on.
Manage serices by perorming operations such as create, modiy,
start,stop, enable,disable and relocate serices as well as monitoring o
serice perormance.
Oracle Lnterprise Manager 10g Grid Control proides a Cluster Page or iewing
the cluster hardware and operating system as a whole. 1his is particularly useul
when the cluster is supporting multiple databases. Oerall cluster platorm status
can be readily accessed with easy drill down capabilities to indiidual databases
when needed.
Oracle Lnterprise Manager 10g Release 2 Grid Control proides a utility that
automates the conersion o a single instance Oracle Database to a RAC Database.
Oracle Lnterprise Manager 10g Release 2 Grid Control proides additional
capabilities to make the proisioning o Real Application Clusters databases easier.
1he initial creation o a cluster including lying down o Oracle home and the
coniguring o the clusterware can be easily done through Lnterprise Manager.
1he Oracle lome sotware can be kept in Lnterprise Manager as the known
Gold Image` or sourced rom a known reerence host. 1he Gold Image` is
created rom a copy o a known good implementation o Oracle Clusterware or
Oracle Real Application Clusters enironment. In Grid Control 10g Release 3, the
cloning application will support complete end-to-end creation o new RAC and
Oracle Clusterware sotware including execution o superuser actions ,root.sh, and
customizable pre and post steps. 1his can also be used when adding a new node to
an existing cluster.
lor Linux operating systems, Oracle can also proision an image` to a bare metal
node. 1he image could consist o the Operating System, the Oracle Lnterprise
Manager agent, Oracle Clusterware, and Oracle Database with Real Application
Clusters. 1his image can be associated with a hardware proile. All the
components or this image are stored as "Gold Images" in Lnterprise Manager. A
"Oracle Grid Control provides us with a
single solution for monitoring the whole
clustera centralized place to look at the
health of our system," Sanjay Bamba,
Database Administration Director, Advance
America
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 12
wizard allows or choosing o hardware and proisioning o the whole stack onto
new hardware. 1he new node is automatically added to the cluster.
Rolling Patch Application
Oracle supports the application o patches to the nodes o a RAC database in a
rolling ashion with no downtime. Patches are applied one node at a time while the
other nodes in the RAC system are up and operational. 1his requires that each
node has a separate Oracle lome. Patches will be labeled as being qualiied or
installation as rolling upgradeable, or not, depending on the changes being made by
the patch. Some patches that modiy common structures shared between
instances, or the contents o the database, will not be. In addition, only indiidual
patches - not patch sets - will be rolling upgradeable. 1his capability is supported
beginning with Oracle 9.2.0.2. All Oracle Clusterware patches can be applied in a
rolling ashion.
Rolling Release Upgrade Support
Oracle Clusterware supports rolling upgrades. 1his proides the ability to upgrade
the clusterware without taking the cluster out o serice and thereore enables 24x
operation o business. Once you hae upgraded Oracle Automatic Storage
Management to 11g, you will be able to do rolling upgrades.
Oracle RAC 11g supports database sotware upgrades ,rom Oracle Database 10g
Release 1 Patchset 1 onwards, in a rolling ashion - with near zero database
downtime, by using Data Guard SQL Apply. 1he steps inole upgrading the
logical standby database to the next release, running in a mixed mode to test and
alidate the upgrade, doing a role reersal by switching oer to the upgraded
database, and then inally upgrading the old primary database. \hile running in a
mixed mode or testing purpose, the upgrade can be aborted and the sotware
downgraded, without data loss. lor additional data protection during these steps, a
second standby database may be used.
By supporting rolling upgrades with minimal downtimes, Data Guard reduces the
large maintenance windows typical o many administratie tasks, and enables the
24x operation o the business.
WORKLOAD MANAGEMENT WITH REAL APPLICATION CLUSTERS
Applications using a RAC database need to manage the workload across the
cluster. Oracle Real Application Clusters includes innoatie technology to
manage workloads proiding the best application throughput gien the
coniguration and high aailability or the application.
Services
\orkload Management relies on the use o Serices, a eature o Oracle Database.
Serices hide the complexity o a RAC database by proiding a single system image
to manage workload. Serices allow applications to beneit rom the reliability o a
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 13
cluster. 1raditionally a database proided a single serice and this name was the
connect data gien to SQLNL1. \ith Oracle Database 11g, a DBA can deine
up to 100 database serices to be proided by a single database. 1his allows you to
breakup workloads rom applications into manageable components based on
business requirements such as serice leels and priorities. Serices are integrated
with many eatures o Oracle Database. Application users can be automatically
assigned to a Resource Manager consumer group, which limits their resources such
as cpu. Batch Jobs can be assigned to speciic job classes based on their serice.
1he use o serices achiees location transparency or queues when using Oracle
Streams Adanced Queuing. \ith Oracle RAC 11g, a inter-node parallel query
will be restricted to the instances where the serice is actie.
A serice can span one or more instances o an Oracle database and an instance
can support multiple serices. 1he number o instances oering a serice is
managed dynamically by the DBA independently o the application. \hen outages
occur, serices are automatically restored to suriing instances. \hen instances
are restored, any serices that are not running are restored automatically.
Connection Load Balancing
Oracle Net Serices proides connection load balancing or database connections.
Client side load balancing which balances connection requests across all listeners
or the cluster, is achieed by listing all serers in the cluster in the address list o
the client connect string. SQLNL1 will randomly select one o the serers. I
the serer chosen is not aailable, the next serer in the list is tried. Serer side
load balancing is achieed at the listener. Lach listener is aware o all instances in
the cluster proiding each serice. Based on goal deined or the serice, the
listener chooses the instance that will best meet the goal and the connection is
made to that instance.
Fast Application Notification (FAN)
last Application Notiication proides integration between the RAC database and
the application. It allows the application to be aware o the current coniguration
o the cluster at any gien time so that application connections are only made to
instances that are currently able to respond to the application requests. 1he Oracle
RAC lA ramework posts a lAN eent immediately when a state change occurs
within the cluster.
Integrated clients receie these eents and immediately react. lor down eents,
application interruption is minimized by cleaning up connections to the ailed
instance, in-light transactions are interrupted with an error returned to the
application. Applications making connections are directed to actie instances only.
Serer side callouts can be used to log trouble tickets or page administrators
alerting them o the ailure. lor UP eents, new connections are created to allow
the application to immediately take adantage o the extra resources aailable.
Oracle JDBC, ODP.NL1 and OCI clients are integrated with lAN. Other
Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g Page 14
applications can take adantage o lAN by using the application-programming
interace to directly subscribe to lAN eents.
Load Balancing Advisory
Database workloads change oer time as well as the cluster coniguration can
change, it is important to create and allocate database connections based on the
most up to date inormation. Oracle Real Application Clusters proides a load
balancing adisory. RAC constantly monitors the workload being executed or
each serice by each instance proiding the serice. 1his inormation is published
to the Automatic \orkload Repository and published to the application using
lAN eents. 1he lAN eent includes the current serice leel proided and a
recommendation o what percentage o connections to be directed to each
instance.
1he integrated Oracle Clients use these eents to proide intelligent load balancing
o application requests. Most connection pools use a random or round robin
algorithm to select an idle connection rom the pool when the application does a
get connection. Using lAN eents rom the load balancing adisory, the
connection pool will select the connection currently proiding the best serice.
Oracle JDBC, OCI, and ODP.NL1 proide runtime connection load balancing
through integration with the load balancing adisory.
CONCLUSION
Oracle Real Application Clusters has been designed or high aailability and
scalability. By proiding protection rom hardware and sotware ailures, Oracle
Real Application Clusters proides systems aailability ensuring continuous data
access. Its scale out and scale up eatures oer a platorm, which can grow in any
direction allowing enterprises to grow their businesses. Lxisting applications as
well as newly deeloped applications beneit rom the transparency Oracle Real
Application Clusters proides. Application deelopment as well as administration
and change management thus become much easier allowing reduction in total cost
o ownership. Oracle Real Application Clusters is unique to the market with its
oering and capabilities. RAC is used by thousands o customers worldwide in all
industries in mission critical and many other application enironments.
We successfully completed a Big Bang
migration from a mainframe system to a
clustered server environment. The Oracle
environment is highly stable and offers
powerful performance and easy scalability,
which has enhanced user satisfaction and
customer service. NoCheol Park, CIO &
Senior VP, NGM Program Manager, SK
Telecom



Oracle Real Application Clusters 11g
April 2007
Author: Barb Lundhild
Contributing Authors:

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