oracle active-passive ha on linux,Oracle RAC active-passive mode

ACTIVE_INSTANCE_COUNT enables you to designate one instance in a two-instancecluster as the primary instance and the other instance as the secondary instance. This parameter has no functionality in a cluster with more than two instances. When you set this parameter to 1, the first instance you start up becomes the primary instance and accepts client connections. The second instance starts up as a secondary instance and can accept client connections only if the first instance fails. In such an

event, the secondary instance becomes the primary instance.

When the failed instance can once again be started up, it starts up as the secondary instance, and will not accept client connections unless the current primary instance fails.

In my experiences,

the terms "active-active" and "active-passive" mean different things to

different people. So, let's not bother labeling the two main

configurations (at least that's what I think you're talking about) and

just explain them.

With multi-instance

databases in Oracle, you can optionally set the active_instance_count

parameter. If set to 1, then one instance will assume the "primary"

role and it will allow sessions to connect directly to it. All other

instances will have the "secondary" role until the primary instance

fails. When the primary instance fails, one of the secondary instances

will assume the primary role and begin accepting connections.

There are

a number of reasons that this configuration is useful, and it is

typically used to provide very fast failover. This is useful for

applications that require faster failover than a traditional failover

cluster but that cannot run in a parallel configuration due to an

application design problem (all users update one row in one table or

any number of other related issues).

When the

active_instance_count is set to a value other than 1 (or it is not set

at all), then users may connect to any instance. This is what most

people think of as a "true" parallel database since processing is

taking place on multiple nodes at the same time. In versions prior to

9i, this was the configuration that required very careful planning and

design to avoid pings created when application users touch the same

data from multiple instances.

In general, most

people refer to an "active-passive" configuration as the first one I've

described (when active_instance_count is set to 1) and "active-active"

is commonly associated with the second case where users are active on

more than one node simultaneously.