Re: Oracle 9i RAC on Windows or Unix (AIX)

Demetris wrote:

> Hello there,
>
> My company is planning to go ahead with aquiring a new application
> which sits on top of Oracle9i.
> The management is moving towards RAC on Windows.
> Please let me have any opinions/experiences with RAC on Windows.
> How about on Unix, AIX.
> Can you please direct me to any resources on the net which might shed
> some light on this version
>
> Thanks

Lots of experience and would be happy to answer specific questions. As your question is general the following is a general answer.

1. Make sure Oracle is sitting at the table with the hardware people when making the decision on networking, hardware, and operating systems.
2. Make sure that your own network admin, sys admin, and DBA are also at the table when the decision is made.

A lot of money is wasted getting the wrong hardware and/or configuring it incorrectly. Which leads to the point that all vendors must certify, in writing, that every single component down to the NIC cards is RAC compatible ... most hardware is not and Oracle certifies to the O/S not to the hardware.

My preference would be Dell or HP 2CPU x 4GB RAM with RedHat 3.0 patch 1.

3. Make the app vendor certify, in writing, that they have tested

    their app on RAC (specifying version) and guarantee that they     will compensate your company for all costs if their application     doesn't fail-over and/or doesn't scale properly.

RAC has a very impressive ability to spotlight bad designs and bad coding practices.

If you have specific questions ... ask them too.

-- 
Daniel Morgan
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/oad/oad_crs.asp
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/aoa/aoa_crs.asp
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with a 'u' to reply)