Load balancing between an RAC database cluster and Top Link

From: Greg Collett <gcollett_at_reserveamerica.com>
Date: 26 Jan 2004 06:04:29 -0800
Message-ID: <1f7e9d73.0401260604.19ad4d64@posting.google.com>

All,

We are designing an environment which is comprised of 3 database servers clustered together using RAC 10g. Connecting to the database is an Oracle Application Cluster of 4 App Servers running toplink. Currently the connection is facilitated through XML using oracle jdbc drivers.

My question: In order to properly load balance the calls to the databse servers, do I require a hardware level load balancer between the Application tier and the Database tier?

My understanding is that Oracle chares the db cache between the 3 servers, and I believe it does load balancing between the servers as well. However, the jdbc connection on the app servers currently points at 1 database machine directly, and if that machine went down, the app could not connect to the RAC cluster (without a manual change). Is there a non-hardware solution to get around this?

I am new to some of this and would appreciate any guidance.

Thanks,
Greg Received on Mon Jan 26 2004 - 08:04:29 CST