High Availability

Although data is the most important asset of your organization, it is equally true that availability is as important as the data itself . Thus, it is necessary to plan and manage systems to obtain the highest availability possible.

The main causes of database unavailability are usually foreign to the project manager, and they have to do with the hardware used, either due to system issues or interventions. It is possible to use configurations that allow us to avoid this type of problems to a large extent.

RAC is the solution to maximize Oracle database availability. It allows you to create an n-node cluster with an active-passive configuration, where process capability is automatically shared by the nodes, and can be configurable by the DBA. With RAC a server failure does not cut off access to the database, keeping the aplications that depend on it working.

An Oracle database can also be integrated into a active-passive cluster in a failover configuration, so that in case of server failure, the instance can be resumed on another cluster node. Besides, Oracle databases include Oracle Clusterware software, that can be used to implement this type of solutions without having to pay for third-party clusterware licences.

When there is only one physical server available, it is possible to maximize the database availability using, on 11gR2, an Oracle Restart solution for the monitoring and automatic management of Oracle starting up processes. This solution, based on Grid Infrastructure, makes it possible to quickly restart the database services in case of DB failure (ASM, listener, instance).

There are failover Oracle RAC solutions in the market that free you from software licensing cost overruns. An independent consultancy in line with the resources of the final client is recommended.

Our experience with high availability systems in different projects enables us to offer HA solutions:

• RAC
• Integration into third-party active-passive clusters (Service Guard, Fail Safe,etc.)
• Active-passive solutions with Oracle Clusterware
• Oracle Restart solutions
• Active Data Guard, allowing continuous standby DB availability

For more information on high availability, feel free to contact Alberto and Antón using the following contact form.