Re: Oracle 9i RAC

In article <kBac9.20410$g9.61420_at_newsfeeds.bigpond.com>, "Howard says...
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 snip
>>
>> On Windows 2000, we are trying to understand that if you are running
>> Windows 2000 Advanced Server and making Node 1 and Node 2 part of
>> an OS cluster, where would Oracle's cluster file system be installed?
>> My understanding is that Oracle's CFS simply alleviates the need for
>> dealing with raw partitions, but does not replace cluster aware OS
>> software. Is this correct? So if you have Node 1 and Node 2 both
>> running Windows 2000 Advanced Server and they are the two nodes in
>> the window cluster, where is Oracle CFS installed? Can it be on a
>> third machine that is not one of the nodes, but serves as the crude
>> shared storage? Any info would help. The pre-install and install docs
>> don't seem to answer these issues and I can't find anyone who has
>> more detail info.
>>
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>As far as I can tell, it's important that the two machines are NOT part of
>a Windows Cluster. Windows 'clustering' is a bit weird, frankly: what node
>1 writes to the shared disk isn't seen by node 2, until node 1 blows up. In
>other words, it's failover clustering, not true clustering with shared
>access to the shared device.
>
>I don't have the doco to hand, but I could have sworn there's an
>instruction in the Windows installation documents to switch off the
>Microsoft Clustering service before proceeding with the install.

Depends on what you want to do. RAC will work whether you're using MSCS or not. FailSafe on the other hand requires MSCS. From what I understand, FailSafe is the active-standby solution, while RAC can be either active-standby or active-active, but as I mentioned before, RAC on Windows is not something I've played with in great detail so I could be wrong on that.

Pete
>
>Point being, it's perfectly possible to RAC two Windows Pro boxes (and use
>the CFS, even though the installation doco doesn't say that you can do so
>on that version).
>
>When you install the CFS on node 1, incidentally, the relevant software
>gets automatically copied across to node 2, and a service is started on
>*both* nodes. So, no -there's no third machine, and it goes on both nodes
>of the cluster, but *you* only have to physically install it on one.
>
>It makes RAC installation a doddle, since you only need a couple of
>partitions to work with, instead of the bezillion you require with raw
>devices. You get the opportunity to tell Oracle whether you want the CFS to
>be used for the ORACLE_HOME, the datafiles, or both... in other words, it
>makes possible the single installation of Oracle's executables onto the
>shared drive... each node doesn't have to have it installed separately, and
>installation time is therefore about halved. Frankly, it's a godsend.
>
>Regards
>HJR
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>>> HTH. Additions and corrections welcome.
>>>
>>> Pete
>>>
>>> SELECT standard_disclaimer, witty_remark FROM company_requirements;
>

HTH. Additions and corrections welcome.

Pete

SELECT standard_disclaimer, witty_remark FROM company_requirements; Received on Tue Sep 03 2002 - 11:38:38 CDT