Re: Parallel Oracle

In article <45gb1t$qti_at_inet-nntp-gw-1.us.oracle.com>, Jack Jung <jjung_at_ca.oracle.com> wrote:

> mreagan_at_fast.net wrote:
>
> >
> >Parallel server was invented on OpenVMS (remember V 6.2 of Oracle?). It
> >was so successful that they decided to port it to other platforms.
> >
> >Matt...
>
> Actually Parallel Server was available with RDBMS 5.1.22 Multi-Instance Oracle
> On VAXClusters. There's probably some Dept. of National Defense site still
> running this because:
>
> 1. It's been running for years
> 2. It works perfectly fine
> 3. Nobody knows it exists, except for the users
>
> :)

Actually actually, the name Oracle Parallel Server was created for Oracle Version 6.2, which was released on three platforms in the spring of 1991: VaxClusters, the nCube, and Meiko. The functionality in Oracle Version 5 to which you refer is not called Oracle Parallel Server. In Oracle Version 5, Oracle did table-level locking, which made it relatively easy to functionally support running on VaxClusters, but made the system perform very poorly. Of course, there are lots of things in Oracle V5 which hold back its performance.

The Oracle Parallel Server was developed to continue the functionality that existed in Oracle V5 into Oracle V6. When it was time to release Oracle V6, in July of 1988, the Oracle Parallel Server part (at that time simply called VaxCluster support) wasn't ready, and it was decided to release Oracle V6 without full VaxCluster support. It took almost three years before the performance problems with VaxCluster support were fixed, and by that point market forces had made it obvious that the technology being created would be useful on many more platforms than VaxClusters (like clustered SMP's, MPP's, etc.). So a new name had to be invented, and after much discussion, argument, gnashing of teeth, etc., Larry Ellison eventually stepped in and threw out all the names that had been suggested so far, and named it Oracle Parallel Server. The subsequent adoption of OPS on almost every Unix platform, and even MVS Sysplex, has proven the usefulness of the technology.

• Kevin Jernigan (former product manager for Oracle Parallel Server at Oracle)

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~ emergent: delivering scalable solutions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
kevin jernigan                                      415-567-8915 (p)
emergent corporation                                415-265-0785 (c)
kjerniga_at_emergent.com   http://www.emergent.com     415-367-6414 (f)