Re: RAC on Windows 2000 installation question

You do NOT need to install the Microsoft Cluster Service. It's perfectly possible to RAC with two Windows 2000 Professional boxes, whereas MCS is a "feature" of Advanced Server. So if you can RAC with an O/S that wouldn't know what MCS was if it came up and hit it on the head, it's a safe bet that MCS is not a prerequisite for successful RAC'ing.

As to whether MCS is *ever* required, it all rather depends on what type of RAC you want. If you want a primary node to which all user access is directed, with a 'standby' secondary node ready to take over when the first one fails (the 'high availability but not much scalability' solution) then yes, MCS can be used.

But if you want two co-equal nodes to which users can make equally successful connections (the 'high availability, and some scalability too' solution) then MCS is not only not needed but positively must not be anywhere near your nodes, because MCS does not permit both nodes of a Windows cluster to write to the same drive at the same time.

You then reasonably ask how can two nodes share the same disk in Windows. And the answer is, by keeping Windows as far away from the disks as possible: you're supposed to RAC with raw partitions (ie, logical volumes on which no file system is created), or to use Oracle's own Cluster File System for Windows. In other words, Microsoft's own sense of what constitutes a cluster is so far removed from what Oracle needs for a RAC that Oracle had to go out and write its own distributed file system to get the job done properly.

All you need for a Windows RAC is to have a connection between two boxes running some form of 'professional' Windows O/S (ie, NT4, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Advanced Server or XP Professional); for both boxes to be able to communicate with each other over some form of interconnect (bog-standard 100Mbps Ethernet with TCP/IP works OK); for the *Oracle* Cluster Services to be running before you begin the install; and for the shared disk to contain either about 6 raw partitions (="Logical Volumes") or to be using the Oracle Cluster File System.

Regards
HJR "joe" <flyingbuick_at_yahoo.com> wrote in message news:ghHn9.9919$Mw4.1443_at_nwrddc01.gnilink.net...
> Hi all,
> Got a question which I could not find definitive answer on from any of the
> Oracle sites (otn, metalinks, tahiti, etc...)
>
> The pre-install notes require creating volumes on the shared drives before
> installing RAC. Do you need to install Microsoft Cluster Server before
> starting RAC installation? Else, how would both nodes access the same
share?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
Received on Sat Oct 05 2002 - 15:05:14 CDT