Overview of Transparent Application Failover Oracle Database JDBC Developer's Guide, 11g Release 2 (11.

2) Part Number E10589-01 http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14072_01/java.112/e10589/ocitaf.htm Transparent Application Failover (TAF) is a feature of the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) Oracle Call Interface (OCI) driver. It enables the application to automatically reconnect to a database, if the database instance to which the connection is made fails. In this case, the active transactions roll back. When an instance to which a connection is established fails or is shut down, the connection on the clientside becomes stale and would throw exceptions to the caller trying to use it. TAF enables the application to transparently reconnect to a preconfigured secondary instance, creating a fresh connection, but identical to the connection that was established on the first original instance. That is, the connection properties are the same as that of the earlier connection. This is true regardless of how the connection was lost. 11G Oracle Call Interface http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/oci/index-090945.html Oracle Call Interface Reliable - the Oracle Database executes SQL Statements with OCI. Oracle Call Interface (OCI) is the most comprehensive, high performance, native 'C' language based interface to the Oracle Database that exposes the full power of the Oracle Database. OCI provides the foundation on which various language specific interfaces such as Oracle JDBC-OCI, ODP.Net, Oracle Precompilers, Oracle ODBC and Oracle C++ Call Interface (OCCI) drivers are built. OCI is also used by leading Open Source interfaces such as the PHP OCI8 extension, ruby-oci8, Perl DBD::oracle and Python cx_oracle. OCI being the native interface to the Oracle Database also powers queries, statements and calls issued by the Oracle Database kernel internally. Various Oracle tools such as SQL*Plus, Real Application Testing (RAT), SQL*Loader and Data-Pump are also OCI based. In addition, Oracle In-Memory Database Cache (IMDB Cache a.k.a. TimesTen) supports OCI and Oracle Pro*C/C++ Pre-compilers. Oracle Instant Client gives ISVs and customers the ability to quickly install and deploy Oracle applications. See the Oracle Instant Client site for more information. Which is faster, the THIN driver or the THICK (OCI-based) driver? Oracle Support Note [ID 423733.1] According to: http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/java/sqlj_jdbc/htdocs/jdbc_faq.html#35_01 ... it depends. There are some applications where the the THIN driver is faster, some where the THICK (OCI-based) driver is faster. As of 10.1.0.x, the THIN driver is probably slightly faster than the THICK driver. In cases when the client and server are the same type of hardware and OS, the THICK driver puts a little less load on the RDBMS, even though the THIN client is faster. The differences are usually small, less than 10%.

Most of Customers use the THIN driver because of its easier administration. What JDBC drivers does Oracle provide? Oracle JDBC FAQ http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/jdbc-faq-090281.html Oracle JDBC in General What JDBC drivers does Oracle provide? Oracle provides four different types of JDBC drivers, for use in different deployment scenarios. The 11.2.0 drivers can access Oracle 9.0.1 and higher. While all Oracle JDBC drivers are similar, some features apply only to JDBC OCI drivers and some apply only to the JDBC Thin driver. * JDBC OCI client-side driver: This is a JDBC Type 2 driver that uses Java native methods to call entrypoints in an underlying C library. That C library, called OCI (Oracle Call Interface), interacts with an Oracle database. The JDBC OCI driver requires an Oracle client installation of the same version as the driver. The use of native methods makes the JDBC OCI driver platform specific. Oracle supports Solaris, Windows, and many other platforms. This means that the Oracle JDBC OCI driver is not appropriate for Java applets,because it depends on a C library. Starting from 10.1.0, the JDBC OCI driver is available for install with the OCI Instant Client feature, which does not require a complete Oracle client-installation. Please refer to Oracle Call Interface for more information. * JDBC Thin client-side driver: This is a JDBC Type 4 driver that uses Java to connect directly to Oracle. It implements Oracle's SQL*Net Net8 and TTC adapters using its own TCP/IP based Java socket implementation. The JDBC Thin driver does not require Oracle client software to be installed, but does require the server to be configured with a TCP/IP listener. Because it is written entirely in Java, this driver is platform-independent. The JDBC Thin driver can be downloaded into any browser as part of a Java application. (Note that if running in a client browser, that browser must allow the applet to open a Java socket connection back to the server.) * JDBC Thin server-side driver: This is another JDBC Type 4 driver that uses Java to connect directly to Oracle. This driver is used internally within the Oracle database. This driver offers the same functionality as the client-side JDBC Thin driver (above), but runs inside an Oracle database and is used to access remote databases. Because it is written entirely in Java, this driver is platform-independent. There is no difference in your code between using the Thin driver from a client application or from inside a server. * JDBC Server-Side Internal driver: This is another JDBC Type 2 driver that uses Java native methods to call entrypoints in an underlying C library. That C library is part of the Oracle server process and communicates directly with the internal SQL engine inside calls and thus avoiding any network traffic. This allows your Java code running in the server to access the underlying database in the fastest

possible manner. It can only be used to access the same database. The use of native methods makes the JDBC Server-Side Internal driver platform specific. This serverside internal driver is fully consistent with the client-side drivers and supports the same features and extensions.