CHAPTER 2Clustering Basics and History

As defined in Chapter 1, a cluster is a group of interconnected nodes that acts like a single server. In other words, clustering can be viewed logically as a method for enabling multiple standalone servers to work together as a coordinated unit called a cluster. The servers participating in the cluster must be homogenous—that is, they must use the same platform architecture, operating system, and almost identical hardware architecture and software patch levels—and independent machines that respond to the same requests from a pool of client requests.

Traditionally, clustering has been used to scale up systems, to speed up systems, and to survive failures.

Scaling is achieved by adding extra nodes to the ...

Get Oracle Database 10g Real Application Clusters Handbook now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.