I

Introduction to RAC and Grid Computing

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

What Is a Cluster?

Interconnected nodes
act as a single server.
Cluster software
hides the structure.
Disks are available
for read and
write by all nodes.
Operating system
is the same on each Cluster ware
machine.
on each node

Interconnect
Node

Disks

I-2

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

What Is Oracle Real Application Clusters?

Multiple instances
accessing the same
database
Instances spread across
nodes
Physical or
logical access
to each
database file
Software-controlled
data access

Interconnect

Shared
cache

Instances
spread
across nodes
Database
files

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Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Why Use RAC?

High availability: It can survive node and instance

failures.
No scalability limits: You can add more nodes later.
Pay as you grow: Pay for just what you need today.
Key grid computing feature:
Can grow and shrink on demand
Has single-button addition and removal of servers
Has automatic workload management for services

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Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Clusters and Scalability

SMP model

RAC model

Memory

Shared
storage

Cache

Cache

SGA

SGA

CPU CPU

CPU CPU

CPU CPU

CPU CPU

Cache coherency

I-5

Cache fusion

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Levels of Scalability

Hardware: Disk input/output (I/O)

Internode communication: High bandwidth and low
latency
Operating system: Number of CPUs
Database management system: Synchronization
Application: Design

I-6

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Scaleup and Speedup

Original system
Hardware Time

Cluster system scaleup

Hardware Time
Hardware

Hardware

I-7

Time

up to
200%
of
task

100% of task

Cluster system speedup

up to
300%
of
task

Hardware

Hardware

Time

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

100%
of task
Time/2

Speedup/Scaleup and Workloads

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Workload

Speedup

Scaleup

OLTP and Internet

No

Yes

DSS with parallel query

Yes

Yes

Batch (mixed)

Possible

Yes

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

I/O Throughput Balanced: Example

Each switch needs to support 800 MB/s

to guarantee a total system throughput
of 1600 MB/s

FC-switch

Disk
array 1

I-9

Disk
array 2

Disk
array 3

Each machine has 2 HBAs:

8 * 200 MB/s = 1600 MB/s

HBA1
HBA2

HBA1
HBA2

HBA1
HBA2

HBA1
HBA2

Each machine has 2 CPUs:

2 * 200 MB/s * 4 = 1600 MB/s

Disk
array 4

Disk
array 5

Disk
array 6

Disk
array 7

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Disk
array 8

Each disk array

has one 2 Gbit
controller:
8 * 200 MB/s =
1600 MB/s

Demos

RAC scalability and transaction throughput:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/obe/demos/admin/demos.html

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Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Typical Cluster Stack with RAC

Servers
Interconnect
High-speed Interconnect: Gigabit Ethernet
UDP
Oracle CRS
RAC
Linux, UNIX,
Windows

RAC
Linux
Windows

RAC
Linux
Windows

ASM

OCFS

RAW

RAC
AIX, HP-UX, Solaris
ASM

Database shared storage

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Proprietary
Proprietary
OS C/W

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

RAW CFS
OS CVM

Typical Components Performance

Throughput Performance
Component theory (Bit/s) maximal Byte/s
HBA 1/2Gbit/s 100/200 Mbytes/s
16 Port Switch 8 x 2Gbit/s 1600 Mbytes/s
Fiber Channel 2Gbit/s 200 Mbytes/s
Disk Controller 2Gbit/s 200 Mbytes/s
GigE NIC

1Gbit/s 80 Mbytes/s

Infiniband 10Gbit/s 890 Mbytes/s

CPU 200-250 MB/s

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Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

RAC Certification Matrix

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

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Connect and log in to http://metalink.oracle.com.

Click the Certify tab on the menu frame.
Click the View Certifications by Product link.
Select Real Application Clusters and click Submit.
Select the correct platform and click Submit.

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Complete Integrated Cluster Ware

9i RAC

Oracle Clusterware

Applications

Membership

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Cluster control/Recovery APIs

Automatic Storage Management
Messaging and Locking
Membership

Connectivity

Connectivity

Hardware/OS kernel

Hardware/OS kernel

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Management APIs

Messaging and Locking

Services framework
Event Services

Volume Manager
file system

System Management

Event Services

Cluster control

Applications/RAC

A History of Innovation
Automatic
Workload
management
Automatic
Storage
Management

Enterprise

Grids

Grid
Control

RAC
Data
Guard
Nonblocking
queries

Low-cost
commodity
clusters

Resource
Manager

OPS
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Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Oracle
Clusterware