Oracle Parallel Processing

Oracle’s Parallel Processing Architecture

Oracle’s parallel features fall into two broad categories: parallel execution and parallel server. Table 2.1 shows which parallel features are available under each combination of hardware and software architecture that Oracle supports. Oracle’s parallel processing features are available on all parallel hardware architectures. Table 2.1 provides examples of specific hardware architectures in each type. Oracle runs under many operating systems, including Windows NT, Alpha VMS, and variations of Unix.

Table 2-1. Availability of Oracle’s Parallel Processing Features on Different Hardware Architectures

Hardware/Software Architecture	Oracle Parallel Server?	Parallel Execution?	Vendor Platform Examples
SMP/shared everything	No	Yes	IBM RS/6000 Sun Enterprise 4500 SGI Origin 2000 HP 9000 Windows NT
Cluster/shared disk	Yes	Yes	HP 9000 S800 Cluster IBM RS/6000 HACMP Cluster Sun Ultra Enterprise PDB Cluster Pentium-based NT Clusters
MPP/shared disk	Yes	Yes	IBM RS/6000 SP Siemens MPP RM1000
NUMA /shared everything	No	Yes	IBM NUMA-Q
NUMA cluster/shared disk	Yes	Yes	IBM NUMA-Q Cluster

Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) requires either a clustered system or an MPP system, because it uses a shared disk configuration. OPS is available for several Unix-based clusters and MPP systems. It also is available for Windows NT clusters. In addition, OPS runs on NUMA clusters such as IBM’s NUMA-Q. All major vendors, including Sun Microsystems, IBM, ...