3.7.0 HP StorageWorks MxDB-Oracle-HiAv installation and administration guide HP MxDB-Oracle-HiAv for Linux (AG513-96009, June 2009)

NOTE:
A Virtual Oracle Service is a type of HP Scalable NAS custom service monitor. For
more information about this type of monitor, see Chapter 18, “Configure Service
Monitors,” in the HP Scalable NAS File Serving Software administration guide .
MxDB-Oracle-HiAv takes the following actions in the event that service for a database
is lost:
• Server Failure. HP Scalable NAS monitors the health of the servers in the cluster
and provides for application failover if a server becomes unavailable. In the case
of MxDB-Oracle-HiAv, if a server executing a monitored database goes down,
the database and associated listener will be started on the node configured as
the first backup for the Virtual Oracle Service. The new server will become the
primary server for the Virtual Oracle Service.
• Database/Listener Service Loss. If a database or listener under MxDB-Oracle-HiAv
control should fail while the primary server remains healthy, it will be restarted.
Failure is detected by the MxDB-Oracle-HiAv monitor probe.
NOTE:
This document also refers to the Virtual Oracle Service as the “virtual host.” From a
network perspective, these terms are synonymous. When a virtual host has an
associated service monitor and an associated database, it becomes a Virtual Oracle
Service.
Deployment in the cluster
MxDB-Oracle-HiAv relies on a concept of a shared Oracle home and shared access
to Oracle data files within the cluster. HP Scalable NAS provides exactly this
capability. For any database under MxDB-Oracle-HiAv control, access to its
$ORACLE_BASE and its datafiles must be configured in the same way from any
server that will act as either the primary or a backup server. It is perfectly acceptable
to have a single Oracle Home that hosts many Oracle databases, each using a
different primary server in the cluster.
There are implications to using a shared Oracle home. It saves space, since only
one copy of an installation is necessary for all databases created with that Oracle
Home. Managing configuration files for any database is conveniently done from any
server you happen to be using, not necessarily the primary server. For configuration
Introduction10