The Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) allows multiple computer systems in a loosely coupled configuration or massively parallel processor configuration to share a common database (shown in Figure 1.3). With this option, you will be able to survive the failure of a single computer system as long as your shared disk storage remains available. With OPS, you will still need to maintain redundant computer systems, and you will want to use a redundant disk technology. However, you might be able to use the additional computer systems during normal operation.

Figure 1-3. Oracle Parallel Server with two CPUs