Building on top of the local high availability solutions is the Oracle Application Server disaster recovery solution. pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.overrideAttributeFunctions(); These redundant configurations provide increased availability either through a distributed workload, through a failover setup, or both. Footnote7Recovery time depends on block media recovery and the time it takes to restore a consistent block from the flashback logs or database backups, and to recover the block by applying all the redo from archive logs and online redo logs. If the primary database uses the asynchronous redo transport, configure your maximum data loss tolerance or the Oracle Data Guard broker's FastStartFailoverLagLimit property to meet your business requirements. It supports bidirectional replication, data transformations, subsetting, custom apply functions, and heterogeneous platforms. Oracle Database with Oracle GoldenGate provides granularity and control over what is replicated and how it is replicated. Better resilience and data protectionOracle Data Guard ensures much better data protection and data resilience than remote mirroring solutions. Figure 7-8 shows an Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Data Guard architecture that consists of a primary and a secondary site. Split brain syndrome occurs when the instances in a RAC fails to connect or ping to each other via the private interconnect, Although the servers are physically up and running and the database instances on these servers is also running. Online Patching allows for dynamic database patching of typical diagnostic patches. All single-instance high availability features, such as the Flashback technologies and online reorganization, also apply to Oracle RAC. Even though split brain scenario occurs in both Oracle RAC and Percona's XtraDB Cluster, a two node cluster is allowed and split brain scenario is resolved in RAC but a two node is not recommended in Percona Cluster ( 3 nodes is recommended ). the number of database services executing on a node. The clusters that are typical of Oracle RAC environments can provide continuous service for both planned and unplanned outages. Figure 7-7 Oracle Database with Oracle Data Guard on Primary and Multiple Standby Sites, Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration for more information about the various types of standby databases and to find out what data types are supported by logical standby databases, Oracle Database High Availability Best Practices for configuration best practices, The "Managing Data Guard Configurations Having Multiple Standby Databases - Best Practices" white paper, and other Oracle Data Guard white papers at. The heartbeat is maintained by background processes like LMON, LMD, LMS and LCK. 1. Clients are connected to the logical standby database and can work with its data. However, starting from Oracle Database 12.1.0.2c, the node with higher weight will survive during split brain resolution. There are numerous high availability features that you can use in the Oracle Database single-instance database architecture. Then this process is referred as Split Brain Syndrome. the clusterware identifies the largest sub-cluster, and aborts all the nodes which do NOT belong to that sub-cluster. With the snapshot standby database hub, you can use the combined storage and server resources of a grid instead of building and managing individual servers for each application. The combination of Oracle RAC and Oracle Data Guard provide the most comprehensive architecture for reducing downtime for scheduled outages and preventing, detecting, and recovering from unscheduled outages. Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC make use of Redundant Interconnect Usage that distributes network traffic and ensures optimal communication in the cluster. In simple terms Split brain means that there are 2 or more distinct sets of nodes, or cohorts, with no communication between the two cohorts. Site configurations are on heterogeneous platforms. All of the business benefits of Oracle RAC and Oracle Data Guard. Longer detection time usually leads to longer recovery time required to repair the appropriate transactions. With either the active-active or the active-passive category, multiple solutions exist that differ in ease of installation, cost, scalability, and security. This would lead to collision and corruption of shared data as each sub-cluster assumes ownership of shared data. It is possible, under certain circumstances, to build and deploy an Oracle RAC system where the nodes in the cluster are separated by greater distances. To protect against site failures, the MAA recommends that Oracle RAC and Oracle Data Guard reside on separate systems (clusters) and data centers. During normal operation, the production site services requests; in the event of a site failover or switchover, the standby site takes over the production role and all requests are routed to that site. Footnote2Oracle ASM automatically rebalances stored data when disks are added or removed while the database remains online. See Section 1.5, "Roadmap to Implementing the Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA)" for more information about the best practices documentation. Consider using Oracle Database with Oracle GoldenGate if one or more of the following conditions are true: Updates are required on both sites or databases, and the changes must be propagated bidirectionally. Split Brain Condition occurs when a single cluster has a failure that results in reconfiguration of cluster into multiple partitions, with each partition forming its own sub-cluster without the knowledge of the existence of other. Q39) Mention what is split brain syndrome in RAC? host01 is evicted although it has a lower node number. Footnote1Architectures for which the MO is high might require additional time and expertise to build and maintain, but offer increased flexibility and capabilities required to meet specific business requirements. Oracle Clusterware cold cluster failover combined with Oracle Data Guard makes a tightly integrated solution in which failover to the secondary node in the cold cluster failover is transparent and does not require you to reconfigure the Oracle Data Guard environment or perform additional steps. Outages or data loss that could affect customer service and safety are avoided by using Oracle Data Guard synchronous transport and automatic failover (fast-start failover). Clients on the network experience a period of lockout while the failover occurs and are then served by the other database instance after the instance has started. You should determine if both sites are likely to be affected by the same disaster. When the instance members in a RAC fail to ping/connect to each other via this private network and continue to process data block independently. Logical or user failures that manipulate logical data (DMLs and DDLs). Fast Recovery Area manages local recovery-related files. Chapter 2 describes how the high availability requirements for the business plus its allotted budget determine the appropriate architecture. For logical standby databases, this solution: Provides the simplest form of one-way logical replication, Allows for structural changes to the standby database, such as changes to local tables, adding schemas, indexes, and materialized views, Off-loads production by providing read-only access to a synchronized standby database and allows read/write access to local tables that are not being modified by the primary database, All of the business benefits of Oracle Clusterware (cold cluster failover) and Oracle Data Guard. Clusterware will evaluate cluster resources on implied workload 3. . Whatever the case, these Oracle RAC interview questions and answers are for you. Oracle Application Server instances can be installed in either site as long as they do not interfere with the instances in the disaster recovery setup. Support for heterogeneous platforms, versions, and character sets. But 1 and 2 cannot talk to 3, and vice versa. Hello Friends,Welcome you back on exciting topic, today's session is onNode Membership || Voting Disk || Split Brain Syndrome in Oracle RAC - Real Applicatio. Oracle Clusterware manages the availability of both the user applications and Oracle databases. But 1 and 2 cannot talk to 3, and vice versa. In simple terms "Split brain" means that there are 2 or more distinct sets of nodes, or "cohorts", with no communication between the two cohorts. Because Oracle Data Guard only propagates the redo data in the logs, and the log file consistency is checked before it is applied, all such external corruptions are eliminated by Oracle Data Guard. The application VIP is tied to the application by making it dependent on the application resource defined by Cluster Ready Services (CRS). Maximum RTO for instance or node failure is in minutes. If it takes seconds to detect a malicious DML or DLL transaction, it typically only requires seconds to flash back the appropriate transactions. Compared to mirroring, Oracle Data Guard provides better performance and is more efficient, Oracle Data Guard always verifies the state of the standby database and validates the data before applying redo data, and Oracle Data Guard enables you to use the standby database for updates while it protects the primary database. Oracle Quality of Service (QoS) Management for policy-based run-time management of resource allocation to database workloads to ensure service levels are met in order of business need under dynamic conditions. Figure 7-5 shows an Oracle RAC extended cluster for a configuration that has multiple active instances on six nodes at two different locations: three nodes at Site A and three at Site B. Oracle Clusterware: Enables you to use an entire software solution from Oracle, avoiding the cost and complexity of maintaining additional cluster software. Several standby databases in an Oracle RAC environment residing in a cluster of servers, called a grid server. The active site is generally called the production site, and the passive site is called the standby site. Oracle Security Features prevent unauthorized access and changes. If your VM is sized too small, you can migrate the Oracle RAC One instance to another larger Oracle VM node in the cluster (using the online database relocation utility) or move the Oracle RAC One instance to another Oracle VM node, and then resize the Oracle VM. (adsbygoogle=window.adsbygoogle||[]).push({}); Split Brain is often used to describe the scenario when two or more nodes in a cluster, lose connectivity with one another but then continue to operate independently of each other, including acquiring logical or physical resources, under the incorrect assumption that the other process(es) are no longer operational or using the said resources. Table 7-2 recommends architectures based on your business requirements for RTO, RPO, MO, scalability, and other factors. In an Oracle cluster prior to version 12.1.0.2c, when a split brain problem occurs, the node with lowest node number survives. When a node is physically up and running and database instances are also running fine, but private interconnect fails between two or more nodes and an . Oracle RAC on an extended cluster provides greater availability than a local Oracle RAC cluster, but an extended cluster may not completely fulfill the disaster recovery requirements of your organization . Split Brain Syndrome in RAC. There are three typical causes of corruption: The processes that were once co-operating prior to the Split-Brain event occurring, independently modify the same logically shared state, thus leading to conflicting views of system state. Suppose there are 3 nodes in the following situation. Nodes 1,2 can talk to each other. You might choose to use Oracle GoldenGate to configure and maintain a logical copy of your production database. New requests are accepted after the Split-Brain event and then performed on potentially corrupted system state (thus potentially corrupting system state even further). Rolling upgrades for system and hardware changes, Rolling patch upgrades for some interim patches, security patches, CPUs, and cluster software, Fast, automatic, and intelligent connection and service relocation and failover, Comprehensive manageability integrating database and cluster features with Grid Plug and Play and policy-based cluster and capacity management, Load balancing advisory and run-time connection load balancing help redirect and balance work across the appropriate resources. With the Oracle Grid technologies, you can enable a high level of usage and low TCO without sacrificing business requirements. Why is it like that? For more information, see the "Administering Oracle RAC One Node" section in the Oracle Real Application Clusters Administration and Deployment Guide. This unique solution combines the proven Oracle Data Guard technology in Oracle Database with advanced disaster recovery technologies in the application realm to create a comprehensive disaster recovery solution for the entire application system. Split Brain Syndrome Basic Concept in Oracle RAC. Split brain scenario - RAC and PXC. The probability of failing over all databases at the same time is unlikely. This is often called the multi-master problem. For physical standby databases, this solution: Supports very high primary database throughput. The observer (thin client watchdog) resides in the application tier and monitors the availability of the primary database. Online Application Maintenance and Upgrades with Edition-based redefinition allows an application's database objects to be changed without interrupting the application's availability, Automatic and fast failover for computer failure, Minimum rolling upgrade capabilities for system, clusterware, and operating systemFootref1, High availability, scalability, and foundation of server database grids, Automatic recovery of failed nodes and instances, Fast application notification (FAN) with integrated Oracle client failover, FAN with integrated Oracle client failover for pooled resources and third-party vendor middle tiers. Commonly, one will see messages similar to the followings in ocssd.log when split brain happens: Above messages indicate the communication from node 2 to node 1 is not working, hence node 2 only sees 1 node, but node 1 is working fine and it can see two nodes in the cluster. The instances monitor each other by checking "heartbeats." A nationally recognized insurance provider in the U.S. maintains two standby databases in the same Oracle Data Guard configuration: one physical standby and one logical standby database. Traditionally, Oracle RAC is used in a multinode architecture, with many separate database instances running on separate servers. It allows you to select the table columns depending on a set of criteria. However, remote mirroring solutions affect DBWR process performance because they subject all DBWR process write I/O's to network and disk I/O induced delays inherent to synchronous, zero-data-loss configurations. A global provider of information services to legal and financial institutions uses multiple standby databases in the same Oracle Data Guard configuration to minimize downtime during major database upgrades and platform migrations. Data Recovery Advisor provides intelligent advice and repair of different data failures, Oracle Secure Backup provides a centralized tape backup management solution. Choice of RPO equal to zero (SYNC) or near-zero (ASYNC). Oracle Secure Backup provides a centralized tape backup management solution. Footnote8With automatic block repair, this should be the most common block corruption repair. Recovery Manager optimizes local repair of data failures using local backups. The following sections provide an overview of Oracle Database high availability architectures and implement the MAA best practices: Oracle Database with Oracle Clusterware (Cold Cluster Failover), Oracle Database with Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC), Oracle Database with Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Data Guard, Oracle Database with Oracle RAC One Node and Oracle Data Guard, Oracle Database with Oracle RAC and Oracle Data Guard. Figure 7-8 Oracle Clusterware (Cold Cluster Failover) and Oracle Data Guard, The application servers on the secondary site are connected to the WAN traffic manager by a dotted line to indicate that they are not actively processing client requests at this time. 2. Oracle RAC One Node allows you to run one instance of an Oracle RAC database on a single node in a cluster. Section 7.1.8 describes how you can achieve the highest level of availability with Oracle RAC and Oracle Data Guard. Split Brain is often used to describe the scenario when two or more nodes in a cluster, lose connectivity with one another but then continue to operate independently of each other, including acquiring logical or physical resources, under the incorrect assumption that the other process (es) are no longer operational or . Any of these processes experience IPC Send time out will incur communication reconfiguration and instance eviction to avoid split brain. Note, however, that the synchronous redo transport does not impose any physical distance limitation. Maximum RTO for data corruptions, database, or site failures is in seconds to minutes. To maintain the standby site for failover, not only must the standby site contain homogeneous installations and applications, data and configurations must also be synchronized constantly from the production site to the standby site. Run-time performance level management with Oracle Database Quality of Service Management (This functionality is available starting with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.2)), Zero downtime with Grid Control provisioning, Rolling upgrade for system, clusterware, operating system, CPUs, and some Oracle interim patchesFoot1, Database Grid with site failure protection, Simplest high availability, data protection, and disaster-recovery solution, Automatic and fast failover for computer failure, storage failure, data corruption, for configured ORA- errors or conditions and database failures, Rolling upgrade for system, clusterware, database, and operating systemFoot2, Ability to off-load backups to the standby database, Ability to off-load read and reporting workload to the standby database. Automatic block repair may be possible, thus eliminating any downtime in an Oracle Data Guard configuration. Corruption Prevention, Detection, and Repair detect and prevent some corruptions and lost writes. Also, to prevent a full cluster outage if either site fails, the configuration includes a third voting disk on an inexpensive, low-end standard network file system (NFS) mounted device. The figure shows users making local updates to the snapshot standby database. Maximum RTO for instance or node failure is zero for the databaseFootref1. The cold cluster failover solution with Oracle Clusterware provides these additional advantages over a basic database architecture: Automatic recovery of node and instance failures in minutes, Automatic notification and reconnection of Oracle integrated clientsFoot3, Ability to customize the failure detection mechanism. Higher ROIBusinesses must obtain maximum value from their IT investments, and ensure that no IT infrastructure is sitting idle. Oracle Data Guard is operating in a steady state, with the primary database transmitting redo data to the target standby database and the observer monitoring the state of the entire configuration. Check that only two nodes (host01 and host02) are active and host01 has lower node number: Create two singleton services for the RAC database admindb: Verify that admindb is the only database in the cluster having its instances executing on host01 and host02. Maximum RTO for instance or node failure is in seconds to minutes. Oracle Data Guard Advantages Compared to Remote Mirroring Solutions. Oracle RAC Split Brain Syndrome Scenerio. which node first joined the cluster). The following list describes examples of Oracle Data Guard configurations using single standby databases: A national energy company uses a standby database located in a separate facility 10 miles away from its primary data center. It requires only a standard TCP/IP-based network link between the two computers. When a node is physically up and running and database instances are also running fine, but private interconnect fails between two or more nodes and an instance member fails to connect or ping to one . See the high availability solutions and recommendations for Oracle Application Server, Oracle Enterprise Manager, and Oracle Applications on the MAA Web site at: Oracle Database High Availability Best Practices, Oracle Real Application Clusters Administration and Deployment Guide, Oracle Data Guard Concepts and Administration, Oracle Streams Replication Administrator's Guide, Oracle Fusion Middleware High Availability Guide, Oracle Application Server High Availability Guide, Section 1.5, "Roadmap to Implementing the Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA)", Corruption Prevention, Detection, and Repair, Online Application Maintenance and Upgrades, Description of "Figure 7-1 Single-Node, Nonclustered Oracle Database with an Oracle ASM Instance", Section 7.1.3, "Oracle Database with Oracle RAC One Node", Description of "Figure 7-2 Oracle Database with Oracle Clusterware (Before Cold Cluster Failover)", Description of "Figure 7-3 Oracle Database with Oracle Clusterware (After Cold Cluster Failover)", Description of "Figure 7-4 Oracle Database with Oracle RAC Architecture", Description of "Figure 7-5 Oracle RAC Extended Cluster", http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/clustering/overview/, Description of "Figure 7-6 Primary and Standby Databases and the Observer During Fast-Start Failover", Description of "Figure 7-7 Oracle Database with Oracle Data Guard on Primary and Multiple Standby Sites", Description of "Figure 7-8 Oracle Clusterware (Cold Cluster Failover) and Oracle Data Guard", Description of "Figure 7-9 Oracle Database with Oracle RAC and Oracle Data Guard - MAA". Where two or more instances . Oracle Flashback Technology optimizes logical failure repair. For example: Active Data Guard, Redo Apply for physical standby databases, and SQL Apply for logical standby databases, multiple protection modes, push-button automated switchover and failover capabilities, automatic gap detection and resolution, GUI-driven management and monitoring framework, cascaded redo log destinations. Node 2 is connected to Node 1 and to Oracle Database, but it is currently standby mode. Footnote1Applications (or a portion of an application) connected to the system that is being maintained may be temporarily affected. Customer can designate which server(s) and resource(s) are critical 2. To ensure data consistency, each instance of a RAC database needs to keep heartbeat with the other instances. Common messages in instance alert log are similar to: In above example, instance 2 LMD0 (pid 29940) is the receiver in IPC Send timeout. Oracle Data Guard provides a number of advantages over traditional solutions, including the following: Fast, automatic or automated database failover for data corruptions, lost writes, and database and site failures, Automatic corruption repair automatically replaces a corrupted block on the primary or physical standby by copying a good block from a physical standby or primary database, Most comprehensive protection against data corruptions and lost writes on the primary database, Reduced downtime for storage, Oracle ASM, Oracle RAC, system migrations and some platform migrations, and changes using Data Guard switchover, Reduced downtime with Oracle Data Guard rolling upgrade capabilities, Ability to off-load primary database activitiessuch as backups, queries, or reportingwithout sacrificing the RTO and RPO ability to use the standby database as a read-only resource using the real-time query apply lag capability, Ability to integrate non-database files using Oracle Database File System (DBFS) as part of the full site failover operations, No need for instance restart, storage remastering, or application reconnections after site failures, Transparent and integrated support for application failover. the clusterware identifies the largest sub-cluster, and aborts all the nodes which do. (adsbygoogle=window.adsbygoogle||[]).push({}); The biggest risk following a Split-Brain event is the potential for corrupting system state. As the result, 1 or more instance(s) will be evicted. Then this process is referred as Split Brain Syndrome. The problem which could arise out of this situation is that the sane . At the snapshot standby database redo data is received, but it is not applied until the snapshot standby database is reconverted to a physical standby database. Thus, this feature allows you to consolidate many databases into a single cluster for easier management, while still providing high availability by quickly relocating instances in the event of server failure. Split Brain Syndrome: In a Oracle RAC environment all the instances/servers communicate with each other using high-speed interconnects on the private network. Section 3.4.1 describes how Oracle Clusterware is software that, when installed on servers running the same operating system, enables the servers to be bound together to operate as if they are one server, and manages the availability of user applications and Oracle databases. For example, if the primary database fails over to one of the standby databases in the Data Guard hub, the new primary database acquires more system and storage resources while the testing resources may be temporarily starved. The logical standby database may contain additional indexes and materialized views. A global manufacturing company used Oracle Data Guard to replace storage-based remote mirroring and maintain a standby database at its recovery site 50 miles away from the primary site. For example : These best practices are required to maximize the benefits of each architecture. Footnote3Recovery time consists largely of the time it takes to restore the failed system. Filed Under: oracle, RAC Tagged With: RAC, split brain, vcs basics Communication faults, jeopardy, split brain, I/O fencing, How to Enable or Disable Veritas ODM for Oracle database 12.1.0.1, ORA-16713: The Oracle Data Guard broker command timed out When Changing LogXptMode, Managing Oracle Database Backup with RMAN (Examples included), Cron Script does not Execute as Expected from crontab Troubleshoot, Oracle SQL Script to Report Tablespace Free and Fragmentation, Beginners Guide to Flash Recovery Area in Oracle Database, How to Identify the Last and Next Refresh Dates for a Materialized View, Oracle 20c New Feature: PDB Point-in-Time Recovery or Flashback to Any Time, How to use nomodeset to Troubleshoot Boot Issues. They will enhance your knowledge and help you to emerge as the best candidate. Rolling upgrade for system, clusterware, database, and operating system. Support for bidirectional replication and updating anything and anywhere. Their strategy further mitigates risk by maintaining multiple standby databases, each implemented using a different architecturesRedo Apply and SQL Apply. These solutions are categorized into local high availability solutions that provide high availability in a single data center deployment, and disaster-recovery solutions, which are usually geographically distributed deployments that protect your applications from disasters such as floods or regional network outages. If the sub-clusters have unequal node weights, the sub-cluster having the higher weight survives so that, in a 2-node cluster, the node with the lowest node number might be evicted if it has a lower weight. After you have chosen an architecture, then implement it using the operational and configuration best practices described in the MAA white papers and in Oracle Database High Availability Best Practices. Network addresses are failed over to the backup node. Although using Oracle GoldenGate might require additional work, it offers increased flexibility that might be necessary to meet specific business requirements. Footnote2The portion of any application connected to the failed system is temporarily affected. For more information, see "Data Guard Support for Heterogeneous Primary and Physical Standbys in Same Data Guard Configuration" in My Oracle Support Note at, https://support.oracle.com/CSP/main/article?cmd=show&type=NOT&id=413484.1. The following list describes examples of Oracle Data Guard configurations using multiple standby databases: A world-recognized financial institution uses two remote physical standby databases for continuous data protection after failover. The high availability benefits to using Oracle RAC One Node include the following: Offers better database availability than traditional cold failover solutions, Provides better virtualization for databases than hypervisor-based solutions, Enables online migration of database instances and online patching and upgrading of operating system and database software (incurring no downtime), Delivers a comprehensive, single-vendor solution, with no need to implement third-party products, Is ready to scale and upgrade to multinode Oracle RAC, Provides a standardized environment and a common toolset for both single-node and multinode Oracle database deployments, Is less expensive than cold fail over solutions or a full Oracle RAC deployment. Footnote5Storage failures are prevented by using Oracle ASM with mirroring and its automatic rebalance capability. From the entry point to an Oracle Application Server system (content cache) to the back-end layer (data sources), all the tiers that are crossed by a request can be configured in a redundant manner with Oracle Application Server. You can define multiple application VIPs, with generally one application VIP defined for each application running. In such a scenario, integrity of the cluster and its data might be compromised due to uncoordinated writes to shared data by independently operating nodes. Then there are two cohorts: {1, 2} and {3}. Figure 7-6 Primary and Standby Databases and the Observer During Fast-Start Failover.