Summary

In this chapter we described a case study to provide a solution for a highly available Oracle 9i RAC database service. The business case drove the requirements of high availability and expansion options. The selected solution included Sun Fire 4800 servers and StorEdge T3 arrays.

The software environment of the Oracle 9i RAC database was described in detail. Oracle cache fusion was examined along with its arbitration, migration, and database lock recovery methods. The synchronization methods used by cache fusion are very similar to the directory-based coherency protocols used in other computer systems components. These cache fusion synchronization methods were described in some detail, though you are encouraged to refer to the Oracle documentation on the subject.

You can use this case study as a reference for designing clusters that use Sun mid-range servers.