What is RAC and how is it different from non RAC databases?

RAC stands for Real Application Clusters. It allows multiple nodes in a clustered
system to mount and open a single database that resides on shared disk
storage. Should a single system fail (node), the database service will still be
available on the remaining nodes.

A non-RAC database is only available on a single system. If that system fails, the
database service will be down (single point of failure).

Oracle Clusterware Software Component Processing Details

The Oracle Clusterware comprises several background processes that facilitate
cluster operations. The Cluster Synchronization Service (CSS), Event
Management (EVM), and Oracle Cluster components communicate with other
cluster component layers in the other instances within the same cluster database
environment. These components are also the main communication links between
the Oracle Clusterware high availability components and the Oracle Database. In
addition, these components monitor and manage database operations

The following list describes the functions of some of the major Oracle
Clusterware components. This list includes these components which are
processes on Unix and Linux operating systems or services on Windows.

•
Cluster Synchronization Services (CSS)—Manages the cluster configuration by
controlling which nodes are members of the cluster and by notifying members
when a node joins or leaves the cluster. If you are using third-party clusterware,
then thec ss process interfaces with your clusterware to manage node
membership information.

•
Cluster Ready Services (CRS)—The primary program for managing high
availability operations within a cluster. Anything that thec rs process manages is
known as a cluster resource which could be a database, an instance, a service, a
Listener, a virtual IP (VIP) address, an application process, and so on. Thec rs
process manages cluster resources based on the resource's configuration
information that is stored in the OCR. This includes start, stop, monitor and
failover operations. Thecrs process generates events when a resource status
changes. When you have installed Oracle RAC,c rs monitors the Oracle instance,
Listener, and so on, and automatically restarts these components when a failure
occurs. By default, thecrs process makes five attempts to restart a resource and
then does not make further restart attempts if the resource does not restart.
•
Event Management (EVM)—A background process that publishes events that
Crs creates .

•
Oracle Notification Service (ONS)—A publish and subscribe service for
communicating Fast Application Notification (FAN) events.

•
RACG—Extends clusterware to support Oracle-specific requirements and
complex resources. Runs server callout scripts when FAN events occur.

•
Process Monitor Daemon (OPROCD)—This process is locked in memory to
monitor the cluster and provide I/O fencing. OPROCD performs its check, stops
running, and if the wake up is beyond the expected time, then OPROCD resets
the processor and reboots the node. An OPROCD failure results in Oracle
Clusterware restarting the node. OPROCD uses the hangcheck timer on Linux
platforms.

Oracle Clusterware Processes on UNIX-Based Systems

•
crsd—Performs high availability recovery and management operations such as
maintaining the OCR and managing application resources. This process runs as
theroot user, or by a user in theadmin group on Mac OS X-based systems. This
process restarts automatically upon failure.

•
evmd—Event manager daemon. This process also starts the racgevt process to
manage FAN server callouts.

•
ocssd—Manages cluster node membership and runs as the oracle user; failure
of this process results in cluster restart.

•
oprocd—Process monitor for the cluster. Note that this process only appears on
platforms that do not use vendor clusterware with Oracle Clusterware.
The Oracle Real Application Clusters Software Components
Each instance has a buffer cache in its System Global Area (SGA). Using Cache
Fusion, Oracle RAC environments logically combine each instance's buffer cache
to enable the instances to process data as if the data resided on a logically
combined, single cache.

(The SGA size requirements for Oracle RAC are greater than the SGA
requirements for single-instance Oracle databases due to Cache Fusion.)
To ensure that each Oracle RAC database instance obtains the block that it
needs to satisfy a query or transaction, Oracle RAC instances use two
processes, the Global Cache Service (GCS) and the Global Enqueue Service
(GES). The GCS and GES maintain records of the statuses of each data file and
each cached block using a Global Resource Directory (GRD). The GRD contents
are distributed across all of the active instances, which effectively increases the
size of the System Global Area for an Oracle RAC instance.

After one instance caches data, any other instance within the same cluster
database can acquire a block image from another instance in the same database
faster than by reading the block from disk. Therefore, Cache Fusion moves
current blocks between instances rather than re-reading the blocks from disk.
When a consistent block is needed or a changed block is required on another
instance, Cache Fusion transfers the block image directly between the affected
instances. Oracle RAC uses the private interconnect for inter-instance
communication and block transfers. The Global Enqueue Service Monitor

Can one see how connections are distributed across the nodes?
Select from gv$session.

Some examples:
SELECT inst_id, count(*) "DB Sessions" FROM gv$session
WHERE type = 'USER' GROUP BY inst_id;
With login time (hour):

SELECT inst_id, TO_CHAR(logon_time, 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24')

"Hour when connected", count(*) "DB Sessions" FROM gv$session
WHERE type = 'USER' GROUP BY inst_id, TO_CHAR(logon_time, 'DD-MON-
YYYY HH24') ORDER BY inst_id, TO_CHAR(logon_time, 'DD-MON-YYYY
HH24');

What is pinging and why is it so bad?

Starting with Oracle 9i, RAC can transfer blocks from one instance to another
across the interconnect* (cache fusion). This method is much faster than the old
"pinging" method, where one instance had to write the block to disk before
another instance could read it. *Anin tercon n ect is the high-speed, low latency
communication link between nodes in a cluster.

Oracle 8i and below:

Pinging is the process whereby one instance requests another to write a set of
blocks from its SGA to disk so it can obtain it in exclusive mode. This method of
moving data blocks from one instance's SGA to another is extremely slow. The
challenge of tuning RAC/OPS is to minimize pinging activity.

What is Cache Fusion?

Prior to Oracle 9i, network-clustered Oracle databases used a storage device as
the data-transfer medium (meaning that one node would write a data block todis
k and another node would read that data from the same disk), which had the
inherent disadvantage of lackluster performance. Oracle 9i addressed this issue,
and RAC uses a dedicated network-connection for communications internal to
the cluster. Since all computers/instances in an RAC access the same database,
the overall system must guarantee the coordination of data changes on different
computers such that whenever a computer queries data it receives the current
version — even if another computer recently modified that data. Oracle RAC
refers to this functionality asCache Fusion. Cache Fusion involves the ability of
Oracle RAC to "fuse" the in-memory data cached physically separately on each
computer into a single, global cache.

Administrative Tools for Oracle Real Application Clusters Environments

Oracle enables you to administer a cluster database as a single system image
through Enterprise Manager, SQL*Plus, or through Oracle RAC command-line
interfaces such as Server Control (SRVCTL). You can also use several tools and
utilities to manage your Oracle RAC environment and its components as follows:

•
Enterprise Manager—Enterprise Manager has both the Database Control and
Grid Control GUI interfaces for managing both single instance and Oracle RAC
environments.
•
Cluster Verification Utility (CVU)—CVU is a command-line tool that you can use
to verify a range of cluster and Oracle RAC-specific components such as shared
storage devices, networking configurations, system requirements, and Oracle
Clusterware, as well as operating system groups and users. You can use CVU
for pre-installation checks as well as for post-installation checks of your cluster
environment. CVU is especially useful during pre-installation and during
installation of Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC components. The OUI runs
CVU after Oracle Clusterware and the Oracle installation to verify your
environment.
•
Server Control (SRVCTL)—SRVCTL is a command-line interface that you can
use to manage an Oracle RAC database from a single point. You can use
SRVCTL to start and stop the database and instances and to delete or move
instances and services. You can also use SRVCTL to manage configuration
information.

•
Cluster Ready Services Control (CRSCTL)—CRSCTL is a command-line tool
that
you can use to manage Oracle Clusterware. You can use CRSCTL to start and
stop Oracle Clusterware. CRSCTL has many options such as enabling online
debugging,

•
Oracle Interface Configuration Tool (OIFCFG)—OIFCFG is a command-line
tool for both single-instance Oracle databases and Oracle RAC environments
that you can use to allocate and de-allocate network interfaces to components.
You can also use OIFCFG to direct components to use specific network
interfaces and to retrieve component configuration information.

•
OCR Configuration Tool (OCRCONFIG)—OCRCONFIG is a command-line tool
for OCR administration. You can also use the OCRCHECK and OCRDUMP
utilities to troubleshoot configuration problems that affect the OCR.

What is Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS)?

A: Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS) is a shared file system designed
specifically for Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC). OCFS eliminates the
requirement for Oracle database files to be linked to logical drives. OCFS
volumes can span one shared disk or multiple shared disks for redundancy and
performance enhancements. OCFS is designed to provide an alternative to using
raw devices for Oracle 9iRAC. Managing raw devices is usually a difficult task.
A cluster file system allows a number of nodes in a cluster to concurrently access
a given file system. Every node sees the same files and data. This allows easy
management of data that needs to be shared between nodes.

How many nodes support OCFS?

A: Supports a maximum of 32 nodes

Is OCFS like NFS (Network File System)?

A:No.
With NFS, the file system is hosted by one node; the other nodes must access
the file system via the network. On NFS there is a single point of failure and
slow data throughput. With OCFS the File system is natively mounted on all
nodes.

What is the benefit of OCFS for customers and developers

A: OCFS on Linux implements most of the features of a generic cluster file
system. For Oracle9i Real Application Clusters customers, OCFS will eliminate
the need to manage and set up raw devices, making cluster database
administration much easier as it looks and feels just like a regular file system.
With Raw Devices it is possible to have a maximum of 255 raw partitions, on
OCFS there are no limit on number of files.
Moreover, with a shared file system, the different instances of the database can
share archive logs, which makes media recovery much more convenient
because every node has access to all archived log file when needed.
Known Limitations: at this time Oracle Cluster File System supports Oracle
Datafiles. This includes Redo Log files, Archive log files, Controlfiles and
database Datafiles. The shared quorum disk file for the cluster manager and the
shared init file (srv) are also supported.

ASM Features
PURPOSE
-------
Automatic Storage Management is a file system and volume manager built
into the database kernel that allows the practical management of
thousands of disk drives with 24x7 availability. It provides management across
multiple nodes of a cluster for Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) support as
well as single SMP machines. It automatically does load balancing in parallel
across all available disk drives to prevent hot spots and maximize performance,
even with rapidly changing data usage patterns. It prevents fragmentation so
that there is never a need to relocate data to reclaim space. Data is well
balanced and striped over all disks. It does automatic online disk space
reorganization for the incremental addition or removal of storage capacity. It can
maintain redundant copies of data to provide fault tolerance, or it can be built on
top of vendor supplied reliable storage mechanisms. Data management is done
by selecting the desired reliability and performance characteristics for classes of
data rather than with human interaction on a per file basis. ASM solves many of
the practical management problems of large Oracle databases. As the size of a
database server increases towards thousands of disk drives, or tens of nodes in
a cluster, the traditional techniques for management stop working.They do not
scale efficiently, they become too prone to human error, and they require
independent effort on every node of a cluster.
Other tasks, such as manual load balancing, become so complex as to prohibit
their application. These problems must be solved for the reliable management of
databases in the tens or hundreds of terabytes. Oracle is uniquely positioned to
solve these problems as a result of our existing Real Application Cluster
technology. Oracle’s control of the solution ensures it is reliable and integrated
with Oracle products. This document is intended to give some insight into the
internal workings of ASM.

It is not a detailed design document. It should be useful for people

that need to support ASM. Automatic Storage Management is part of the
database kernel. It is linked into
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/oracle so that its code may be executed by all
database processes.

One portion of the ASM code allows for the start-up of a special
instance called an ASM Instance. ASM Instances do not mount databases,
but instead manage the metadata needed to make ASM files available to
ordinary database instances.

Both ASM Instances and database instances have access to some common
set of disks. ASM Instances manage the metadata describing the layout of the
ASM files. Database instances access the contents of ASM files directly,
communicating with an ASM instance only to get information about the
layout of these files. This requires that a second portion of the ASM
code run in the database instance, in the I/O path.
Note:

1. One and only one ASM instance required per node. So you might have
multiple databases, but they will share the same single ASM.

2. ASM is for DATAFILE, CONTROLFILE, REDOLOG, ARCHIVELOG and

SPFILE. So you can use CFS for common oracle binary in RAC.

3. ASM can provide mirroring for files in a disk group.

4. In external redundancy disk groups, ASM does not mirroring. For normal
redundancy, ASM 2-way mirrors files by default, but can also leave files
unprotected. [Unprotected files are not recommended]. For high redundancy
disk groups, ASM 3-way mirrors files.

5. Unless a user specifies an ASM alias filename during file creation,

the file is OMF. OMF files are deleted automatically when the higher
level object (eg tablespace) is dropped, whereas non-OMF files must be
manually deleted. Oracle is recommending to use OMF.
HOW TO USE ?
------------
Use DBCA to configure your ASM.
DBCA eases the configuring and creation of your database while EM
provides an integrated approach for managing both your ASM instance and
database instance.

Automatic Storage Management is always installed by the Oracle

Universal Installer when you install your database software. The
Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) determines if an ASM
instance already exists, and if not, then you are given the option of
creating and configuring an ASM instance as part of database creation
and configuration. If an ASM instance already exists, then it is used instead.

DBCA also configures your instance parameter file and password file.

Steps in DBCA:
1. Choose ASM disk.

2. Create diskgroup by choosing available disk.

3. While creating ASM you have choice of mirroring for files in a disk
group and the options are like below
HIGH, NORMAL or EXTERNAL.

High
-> ASM 3-way mirrors

Normal
-> ASM 2-way mirrors

External -> If you have already mirror disk in H/W label like EMC or
another third party

4. dbca will create a separate instance called "+ASM" which will be in nomount
stage to control your ASM.

5. Choose your all datafile, controlfile, redolog and spfile to your

ASM volume. Preinstall: Here DBA will create the ASM volume, so Sysadmin
should give the ownership or proper privs to DBA.
Example in LINUX
----------------
You have two disk say "/dev/sdf" and "/dev/sdg"
Determine what those devices are bound as raw:
$ /usr/bin/raw -qa
If not:
Include devices in diskgroups by editing /etc/sysconfig/rawdevices :
eg
/dev/raw/raw1 /dev/sdf
/dev/raw/raw2 /dev/sdg

Set owner, group and permission on device file for each raw device:

$ chown oracle:dba /dev/raw/rawn, chmod 660 /dev/raw/rawn

Bind disk devices to raw devices:

$ service rawdevices restart

So from DBCA you can see the device "raw1" and "raw2".
After finishing of ASM volume creation, when you create a database on
an ASM volume, you should see the file details using Enterprise Manager
(EM). Or you can use V$ or DBA view to check the datafile name. Oracle
recommended not to specify the datafile name while adding datafile or
creating new tablespace, because ASM will automatically generate OMF
file.
Note: If DBA's by mistake or intentionally choose the datafile name,
dropping of tablespace, will not drop the datafile from ASM volume.

IMPORTANT VIEW in ASM

=====================
V$ASM_DISKGROUP
V$ASM_CLIENT
V$ASM_DISK
V$ASM_TEMPLATE
V$ASM_ALIAS
V$ASM_OPERATI