Some RAC Concepts

   Oracle Clusterware consists of the following components:
• Cluster Synchronization Services (CSS): manages cluster node membership
• Cluster Ready Services (CRS): performs management operations and high availability recovery
• Event Manager (EVM): manages event notifications and callouts

 

Oracle Notification Service (ONS)
Oracle Notification Service (ONS) is used by Oracle Clusterware to propagate messages both within the RAC cluster and to clients and application-tier systems. ONS uses a publish-and-subscribe method to generate and deliver event messages to both local and remote consumers.ONS is automatically installed as a node application on each node in the cluster. In Oracle 10.1 and above, it is configured as part of the Oracle Clusterware installation process. ONS daemons run locally, sending and receiving messages from ONS daemons on other nodes in the cluster. The daemons are started automatically by Oracle Clusterware during the reboot process. ONS provides the foundation for Fast Application Notification (FAN), which in turn provides the basis for Fast Connection Failover (FCF).

 

Global Services Daemon (GSD)
In Oracle 9i each node runs a Global Services Daemon (GSD). The GSD allows clients including the SRVCTL utility, the EM, and the DBCA to execute administrative commands such as instance start-up and shutdown. In Oracle 9i, the GSD is implemented as a Java program. It is not an Oracle instance background process. It is managed independently using the Global Services Daemon Control utility (GSDCTL). In Oracle 10.1 and above the GSD is implemented as a node application and can only be managed using Oracle Clusterware or the SRVCTL utility.

 

Undo Tablespaces
Automatic Undo Management (AUM) was introduced in Oracle 9.0.1 and is recommended for RAC databases. If AUM is implemented, then one undo tablespace is required for each instance. If you decide to implement manual undo management using rollback segments, then a single rollback segment tablespace can be used for the entire database.

 

The information in the Global Resource Directory (GRD), which is maintained by two internal services known as the Global Cache Service (GCS) and the Global Enqueue Service (GES).

Global Cache Service (GCS)
In a RAC database each instance has its own database buffer cache, which is located in the SGA on the local node. However, all instances share the same set of datafiles. It is therefore possible that one or more instances might attempt to read and/or update the same block at the same time. So access to the data blocks across the cluster must be managed in order to guarantee only one instance can modify the block at a time. In addition, any changes must be made visible to all other instances immediately once the transaction is committed. This is managed by the GCS, which coordinates requests for data access between the instances of the cluster.

 

Global Enqueue Service (GES)
In a RAC database, the GES is responsible for interinstance resource coordination. The GES manages all non-Cache Fusion intra-instance resource operations. It tracks the status of all Oracle enqueue mechanisms for resources that are accessed by more than one instance. Oracle uses GES to manage concurrency for resources operating on transactions, tables, and other structures within a RAC environment.