Oracle 9i RAC

• OPS (Oracle Parallel Server) was renamed as RAC

• CFS (Cluster File System) was supported
• OCFS (Oracle Cluster File System) for Linux and Windows
• watchdog timer replaced by hangcheck timer

Oracle 10g R1 RAC

• Cluster Manager replaced by CRS
• ASM introduced
• Concept of Services expanded
• ocrcheck introduced
• ocrdump introduced
• AWR was instance specific

Oracle 10g R2 RAC

• CRS was renamed as Clusterware
• asmcmd introduced
• CLUVFY introduced
• OCR and Voting disks can be mirrored
• Can use FAN/FCF with TAF for OCI and ODP.NET

Oracle 11g R1 RAC

• Oracle 11g RAC parallel upgrades - Oracle 11g have
rolling upgrade features whereby RAC database can be
upgraded without any downtime.
• Hot patching - Zero downtime patch application.
• Oracle RAC load balancing advisor - Starting from 10g
R2 we have RAC load balancing advisor utility. 11g RAC
load balancing advisor is only available with clients
who use .NET, ODBC, or the Oracle Call Interface (OCI).
• ADDM for RAC - Oracle has incorporated RAC into the
automatic database diagnostic monitor, for cross-node
advisories. The script addmrpt.sql run give report for
single instance, will not report all instances in RAC,
this is known as instance ADDM. But using the new
package DBMS_ADDM, we can generate report for all
instances of RAC, this known as database ADDM.
 • ADR command-line tool - Oracle Automatic Diagnostic
repository (ADR) has a new command-line interface
named ADRCI, ADR Command Interface. ADRCI can be used
to access the 11g alert log:
$adrci
adrci> show alert
• Optimized RAC cache fusion protocols - moves on from
the general cache fusion protocols in 10g to deal with
specific scenarios where the protocols could be
further optimized.
• Oracle 11g RAC Grid provisioning - The Oracle grid
control provisioning pack allows us to "blow-out" a
RAC node without the time-consuming install, using a
pre-installed "footprint".
• Data Guard - Standby snapshot - The new standby
snapshot feature allows us to encapsulate a snapshot
for regression testing. We can collect a standby
snapshot and move it into our QA database, ensuring
that our regression test uses real production data.
• Quick Fault Resolution - Automatic capture of
diagnostics (dumps) for a fault.

Oracle 11g R2 RAC

• We can store everything on the ASM. We can store OCR &
voting files also on the ASM.
• ASMCA
• Single Client Access Name (SCAN) - eliminates the need
to change tns entry when nodes are added to or removed
from the Cluster. RAC instances register to SCAN
listeners as remote listeners. SCAN is fully qualified
name. Oracle recommends assigning 3 addresses to SCAN,
which create three SCAN listeners.
• AWR is consolidated for the database.
• 11g Release 2 Real Application Cluster (RAC) has
server pooling technologies so it’s easier to
provision and manage database grids. This update is
geared toward dynamically adjusting servers as
corporations manage the ebb and flow between data
requirements for datawarehousing and applications.
• By default, LOAD_BALANCE is ON.
• GSD, gsdctl introduced.
• RAC OneNode is a new option that makes it easier to
consolidate databases that aren’t mission critical,
but need redundancy.