The first half of this presentation reviews the status quo of Oracle RAC deployments including minimum requirements, cluster architectures as well as virtualized and cloud deployments. The second half provides an outlook on where RAC is heading regarding general enhancements and technology adaption. This presentation was first presented in the DOAG 2017 conference and exhibition and was subsequently updated for Tech 17.

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Oracle Real Application Clusters
(RAC) 12c Release 2 – What’s Next?
Markus Michalewicz
Senior Director of
Product Management,
Oracle RAC Development
December 4, 2017
Markus.Michalewicz@oracle.com
@OracleRACpm
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markusmichalewicz
http://www.slideshare.net/MarkusMichalewicz

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Program Agenda
Oracle RAC – The Status Quo
What’s Next for Oracle RAC?
1
2
3

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Program Agenda
Oracle RAC – The Status Quo
What’s Next for Oracle RAC?
1
2
4

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Oracle Database 10g
RAC (* 2004)
Oracle9i Rel. 1
Oracle9i Rel. 2
RAC (* 2001)
Oracle Database 11g
Rel. 1 with RAC
(* 2007)
Oracle Database 11g
Rel. 2 with RAC
(* 2009)
Oracle Database 12c
Rel. 1 with RAC
(* 2013)
Memory Memory
SALES SALES
Row
Format
Column
Format
Oracle Database 12c
Rel. 2 with RAC
(* 2016)
Oracle RAC Evolution

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Oracle Database 10g
RAC (* 2004)
Oracle9i Rel. 1
Oracle9i Rel. 2
RAC (* 2001)
Oracle Database 11g
Rel. 1 with RAC
(* 2007)
Oracle Database 11g
Rel. 2 with RAC
(* 2009)
Oracle Database 12c
Rel. 1 with RAC
(* 2013)
Memory Memory
SALES SALES
Row
Format
Column
Format
Oracle Database 12c
Rel. 2 with RAC
(* 2016)
Oracle RAC Evolution
Internet
Grid /
Private Cloud
Cloud

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Scalability
7
High Availability Efficient Management
Oracle RAC Benefits

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On Premises /
Private Database Cloud
8
Bare Metal /
Virtualized
Oracle Cloud
combines all deployments
Oracle RAC Deployments

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Self-Driving - User defines service levels, database makes them happen
Self-Tuning - Continuous adaptive performance tuning
Self-Scaling - Instantly resize compute and storage without downtime
Self-Securing - Protection from both external attacks and internal users
Self-Repairing - Automated protection from all downtime
Less Labor, Lower Cost, Fewer Errors, More Secure, More Reliable
RAC is Now Part of The World’s First Autonomous Database
9

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Oracle Restart
Not a cluster,
but back for good!
See updates in
MOS Note 1584742.1
Standalone Cluster
Dedicated cluster for OLTP,
DWH or mixed-WL systems.
Cluster Domain
Domain Services Cluster (DSC) &
Member Clusters for large cluster
estates and storage consolidation.
Extended Cluster
Standalone Cluster or DSC
maintaining two independent
storage arrays (over distance).
Architecture Choices On-Premises
Site A Site B
Domain
Services Cluster

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Oracle Restart
Not a cluster,
but back for good!
See updates in
MOS Note 1584742.1
Standalone Cluster
Dedicated cluster for OLTP,
DWH or mixed-WL systems.
Cluster Domain
Domain Services Cluster (DSC) &
Member Clusters for large cluster
estates and storage consolidation.
Extended Cluster
Standalone Cluster or DSC
maintaining two independent
storage arrays (over distance).
Architecture Choices On-Premises
Site A Site B
Domain
Services Cluster
DOAG Conference 2016:
https://www.slideshare.net/
MarkusMichalewicz/oracle-
extended-clusters-for-oracle-rac

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Oracle Restart
Not a cluster,
but back for good!
See updates in
MOS Note 1584742.1
Standalone Cluster
Dedicated cluster for OLTP,
DWH or mixed-WL systems.
Cluster Domain
Domain Services Cluster (DSC) &
Member Clusters for large cluster
estates and storage consolidation.
Extended Cluster
Standalone Cluster or DSC
maintaining two independent
storage arrays (over distance).
Architecture Choices in the Oracle Cloud (Currently)
Site A Site B
Domain
Services Cluster
Standardized on è
Planning Unplanned

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Shared Storage
Network /
Interconnect
Virtualization /
Container
Cloud
Oracle RAC Requirements and Considerations

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Shared Storage
Network /
Interconnect
Virtualization /
Container
Cloud
Oracle RAC Requirements and Considerations

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Shared Storage Requirement
• Shared storage is the top requirement for Oracle RAC.
• Block storage that is supported as shared storage for RAC by
the storage vendor and the server vendor is supported for RAC.
https://www.slideshare.net/MarkusMichalewicz/how-to-use-oracle-rac-in-a-cloud-a-support-question
• Exceptions prove the rule.
– Shared File System require certification.
– Storage solutions may be subject to “special ruling”.
• Currently, No 3rd Party Public Cloud supports shared storage for
Oracle RAC natively.
• Oracle ASM and ACFS are by far the preferred storage
management solutions for Oracle RAC.
15

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Network / Interconnect Requirement
• The interconnect is crucial to the operation of Oracle RAC.
– Think of it as a RDMA access path rather than a network.
– 1 GigE and redundancy should be the bare minimum.
– 10 GigE and redundancy are strongly recommended.
• Converged networks and switches are supported. Routing is not.
– I.E. combining public / private network communication.
• In future, communication on interconnect is planned to be secured by default.
– VLANs are a logical separation, not a physical one.
• E.g. they do not protect from interference on the same physical network.
– When network and storage communication are combined,
storage communication should get prioritized.
16

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Shared Storage
Network /
Interconnect
Virtualization /
Container
Cloud
Oracle RAC Requirements and Considerations

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Virtualization / Container Considerations
• Choosing a virtualization solution or a container-based
infrastructure is a database-independent decision.
• Whether an Oracle RAC database can be operated in a
particular virtualization solution / container is the question.
• Many of them can be supported. More information:
https://www.slideshare.net/MarkusMichalewicz/how-to-use-oracle-rac-in-a-cloud-a-support-question
– OpenStack, Docker (soon & for test purposes), etc.
– Oracle VM is a certified virtualization solution for Oracle RAC.
• With the exception of Oracle RAC in Oracle VM, there is
currently no best practices recommendation for any
virtualization or container-based solution from Oracle.
– For containers, Oracle documentation is provided.
18

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Cloud Considerations
• Choosing a Third Party Public Cloud for Oracle RAC is mainly
a licensing question at this point in time. Discussed here:
https://www.slideshare.net/MarkusMichalewicz/how-to-use-oracle-rac-in-a-cloud-a-support-question
– For license-restricted 3rd Party Public Clouds no support statements are issued.
• For an Infrastructure Cloud (IaaS) the same rules as for
virtualization solutions / containers apply in principle.
– Most IaaS / 3rd Party Public Clouds are subject to “special ruling” (see above).
• Three Oracle RAC offerings in the Oracle Cloud:
1. In the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Compute Classic Service
2. In the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Database Service
3. As part of the Engineered System Cloud Services
19
PaaS
Infrastructure

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• Virtual Machines
• Test, Development,
Departmental Applications
• Oracle Apps Unlimited, PaaS
• Compute Shapes – by OCPU,
Standard or High RAM, 2 nodes
• Block Storage – by the GB
• Up to 7.8TB database
• Bare Metal
• Intensive Test, Development,
Departmental Applications
• Custom Applications
• Bare Metal Compute Shape –
2-node RAC DB System
• SSD drives as storage
• Up to 8.6TB database
20
• Mission Critical, Intensive
OLTP and Decision Support
• Oracle and Custom Apps
• ¼, ½ and Full Rack Shapes
• 2/4/8-node Exadata DB System
• Fixed Storage & RAM by Shape
• Up to 168TB database
Oracle RAC in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
OCI - Compute Classic OCI – Database Service Engineered Systems
Retired effective
Dec 1, 2017

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Program Agenda
Oracle RAC – The Status Quo
What’s Next for Oracle RAC?
1
2
21

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Safe Harbor Statement
The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for
information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a
commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied
upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any
features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of
Oracle.
22

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On Premises /
Private Database Cloud
23
Bare Metal /
Virtualized
Oracle Cloud
combines all deployments
Oracle RAC Will Continue to Support These Deployments

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On-Premises /
Private Database Cloud
24
Oracle Cloud
Optimizations Will Focus On the Cloud
As cloud optimizations benefit others

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Scalability
25
High Availability Efficient Management
Oracle RAC Will Continue to Provide These Benefits

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There is never a perfect size
Scalability Is Important (Again)

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Self-Driving - User defines service levels, database makes them happen
Self-Tuning - Continuous adaptive performance tuning
Self-Scaling - Instantly resize compute and storage without downtime
Self-Securing - Protection from both external attacks and internal users
Self-Repairing - Automated protection from all downtime
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unboxing-cloud-oracle-markus-michalewicz/
RAC Is Part of The World’s First Autonomous Database
27

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-know-ibms-watson-salesforces-einstein-now-meet-michalewicz/
Continue Applied Machine Learning Efforts
Subject Matter
Expert
ASH
ML
Knowledge
Extraction
Model
Generation
Human
Supervision
Application
Optimized
Models
Feedback

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Better (Fleet) Management
No Downtime Scaling, Patching and Upgrade with Rapid Home Provisioning (RHP) +
• Zero Impact Patching
• Zero Downtime Upgrade (ZDU)
RHP Server
11.2.0.4.2
11.2.0.4.1
12.1.0.2
11.2.0.4.1
11.2.0.4.2
12.2.0.1
12.1.0.2
12.2.0.1
11.2.0.4.2
11.2.0.4.1
12.1.0.2
Remote
RHP Server
• GlaaS (Gold Image as a Service)
https://www.slideshare.net/MarkusMichalewicz/new-in-oracle-universal-installer-oui

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Storage
Network /
Interconnect
Virtualization /
Container
Cloud
Areas of Advancements to be Expected

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Storage
Network /
Interconnect
Virtualization /
Container
Cloud
Areas of Advancements to be Expected

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Oracle RAC Always Chooses the “Right Path”
32
• RAC determines the optimal path to
serve blocks – network or disk
• SSDs and NVMe storage technology
continue to drive down latency
• e.g. flash storage may provide better
access times to data than the private
network under high load
• RAC takes those statistics into account
Query
Block Block
Network
congestion

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Oracle RAC 11.2 Oracle RAC 12.1 / 12.2 Further down the Road
Local Storage access Multi Cluster Shared Storage Virtual Shared Storage Pool
Cross Cluster sharing
too cumbersome
Single Domain Service Cluster Single Common Name Space
Remote ASM
Remote ACFS
Cross app/db shared data
33
Data Mobility

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• NUSA virtualizes physical
storage from many integrated
servers into a single common
Name Space.
• All databases and applications
in the integrated multi-cluster
share access to a Virtual
Shared Storage pool.
• Available post 12.2.
34
Non-Uniform Storage Architecture (NUSA) Model
O/S
RAC Storage Services
DB
Instance
APPS
DB
Instance
APPS
O/S
RAC Storage Services
DB
Instance
APPS
DB
Instance
APPS
Cluster
O/S
RAC Storage Services
DB
Instance
APPS
DB
Instance
APPS
O/S
RAC Storage Services
DB
Instance
APPS
DB
Instance
APPS
Cluster
Virtual Shared Storage
O/S
RAC Storage Services
DB
Instance
APPS
DB
Instance
APPS
O/S
RAC Storage Services
DB
Instance
APPS
DB
Instance
APPS
Cluster
ASMSVC
ACFSSVC
ASMSVC
ACFSSVC
O/S
RAC Storage Services
DB
Instance
APPS
DB
Instance
APPS
O/S
RAC Storage Services
DB
Instance
APPS
DB
Instance
APPS
Cluster
ASMSVC
ACFSSVC
ASMSVC
ACFSSVC
Storage
ASMSVC
ACFSSVC
ASMSVC
ACFSSVC
Storage
ASMSVC
ACFSSVC
ASMSVC
ACFSSVC
Storage Storage

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Storage
Network /
Interconnect
Virtualization /
Container
Cloud
Areas of Advancements to be Expected

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Network / Interconnect Adaptations
• The interconnect is crucial to the operation of Oracle RAC.
– Think of it as a RDMA access path rather than a network.
– 10 GigE and redundancy will be the new standard.
– RDS over IB will be Engineered System specific.
– RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) is upcoming.
• Converged networks and switches are supported.
– Communication on interconnect is planned to be secured by default.
– Protection from interference on the same physical network remains open.
– Looking into supporting routing and flat networks if possible.
36

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On-Premises /
Private Database Cloud
37
Oracle Cloud
Conclusion – Oracle RAC is Prepared for the Future
✔