Oracle 9iRAC – Clustering on Linux/Firewire

Introduction

Ever since the announcement of Oracle 9i, Oracle’s Real Application Clustering feature has created quite a stir. For those not familiar, 9iRAC is a complete overhaul of Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) from previous versions of the database into a workable product.

For many DBA’s, however, this technology is completely out of reach. Without an employer who has already committed to OPS and wants to upgrade, or a client who would like to venture into the unknown, there’s no way to get ahold of an environment on which to test it. The lowest entry option for clustering technology has been Fibre Channel. Unfortunately cost is prohibitive.

Enter Oracle’s new Linux Firewire project. To some, this announcement is as exciting as Oracle’s first announcement of a port of their RDBMS to the Linux platform. Through the release of various Open Source software components, such as a modified ieee1394 driver for sharing external Firewire disks, a clustered filesystem (OCFS), as well as a number of other interesting components, this platform is now within our reach at very low cost.

Part 1 – Introduction

Part 2 – Basic Costs + Hardware Platform Outline

Part 3 – Software Requirements, Versions, etc

Part 4 – Initial Oracle Setup

Part 5 – Firewire + OCFS Setup

Part 6 – Cluster Manager Setup

Part 7 – Cluster Database Setup

Part 8 – Review of Clustered Features + Architecture

Part 9 – A quick 9iRAC example

Part 10 – Summary