Oracle Real Application Clusters

First and most importantly, I would like to thank my Achan and Amma who brought me into existence, provided me with education and guided me in the right direction throughout my childhood. No words can illustrate the huge commitments and sacrifices they have taken to educate my sister and me. They may be surprised that I ventured into writing a book—something I myself would have never imagined I would do—but it is their strength and support that has enabled me to do so. It is not only my parents but also my relatives and other close family friends who speak with no hesitation when providing guidance. I would like to thank uncle Eswaran, who suggested that I get into the information technology arena. Thanks also to my sister Ambika, my brother in law Satyan, and my niece Smrithi, who are near and dear to my heart and who I will love forever.

In January of 1990, after about 6 years of working in India in the information technology field, I landed at JFK airport in New York for my first consulting assignment with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). I never intended to leave my home country; however, I was promised it would be a small assignment and would be back home before the end of summer. It has been 12 summers and I am still here.

I first met my wife, Jaya, in 1992. When she agreed to become my partner through the journey of life, she never realized how many sacrifices she would have to endure in her married life. Without her, I would not have made it this far. During the past six months, it has been hard on the entire family; writing this book was like a second full-time job. I have to thank my children Grishma and Nabhas, who always said, ''Dad, you need to finish the book so that you can spend time with us.'' Here is a conversation between my son, Nabhas (Nabu), and Jaya in our native language Malayalam, which is spoken in the southern-most state of India, called Kerala. (The state is such a paradise of beauty and freshness that the state's motto is ''God's own land.'')

Nabhas: Amae, eniku sahayam vanum.

Mother: Monai, achanodu chodiku.

Nabhas: Amae, achanu onum ariella. Achanu, Oracle users group and Oracle Real Application Cluster matharme areullu.

Here is the English version of the conversation.

Nabhas: Mom, I need some help.

Mother: Nabu, ask dad to help you.

Nabhas: Mom, dad only knows about Oracle users group and Oracle Real Application Clusters.

Another important person who has always said ''anything is possible if you believe in yourself,'' is my mother-in-law. She has always encouraged me; in fact, I remember her telling Jaya that she should help me in every possible way. It is remarkable to have a family that is so encouraging.

On my professional front, I would like to thank Joe Deluca, my former manager at DEC. His managerial skills were so individual; the entire atmosphere was one of team spirit through the entire project we worked on, my first experience in corporate America. I have had several managers in my 17-year professional career; Joe is one of three that I loved, and would love to work for again.

I would also like to thank Dave Watts who was my manager while I was on a consulting assignment with Navistar in Springfield, Ohio. Dave was the epitome of commitment and involvement on an assignment. It was a perfect opportunity to learn from his experiences.

As a representative of Navistar, I had the opportunity to attend the Oracle Rdb Advisory council at Oracle's New England development center at New Hampshire, USA. There I met Maxine Campbell, and she suggested I join her DBA team in Charlotte, NC. My sincere thanks go to Maxine, for providing me that opportunity. Followed by a move to Charlotte, I joined the local Oracle users group and was soon elected as the president. It was a remarkable experience to provide service to the Oracle user community, and in the process make tons of friends and learn so much.

I would like to thank all the folks at Oracle Consulting who have shared their RAC knowledge during the various encounters. I also would like to thank folks on the metalink forum and members of the RAC pack team, especially Michael Pettigrew who have directly or indirectly provided valuable information, and the folks at Digex, specifically Tom Jones, for their patience in answering my many questions.

However technically well versed you may be, when you put it in writing, you should ensure that it is correct. This book would be worthless without the technical reviews from the following folks: Fitz Fitzgerald, Bank of America (Fitz is a senior database administrator at Bank of America; in addition to his DBA knowledge, Fitz added great clustering and networking knowledge to the review team); and Sudhir Movva, Elogex Inc. (Sudhir is a software engineer at Elogex who helped me with the Java code examples and with testing the OCI interface to Java using TAF). Other folks at Elogex (in no specific order), Ben Green, Mike Newton, Mike Bassett, Brad Harper, Cameron Herrera, Jo-Anne Saldarini, Terroll Joiner, Damon Green, as well as the folks at DST Interactive, Phil Brehm and Cheryl Rowland, who have contributed bits and pieces to this book project.

For a technical person writing is not an easy task. I would like to thank Amy Rodriguez for helping through the technical edits, and when Amy had to take care of her newborn child, Jaya took on the task of reviewing the remaining chapters. I would like to thank the managers and leaders at Elogex, Jeff Carter (CTO), Bill Donner (CIO), and Travis Parsons (President), who have always encouraged me and provided support toward writing this book. It would be the biggest mistake if I did not thank Jennifer Bonk who has been instrumental in helping out with the book abstracts and other related information.

I would have to thank all the folks on the Oracle-L list server where there is a tremendous wealth of knowledge. The list server is a perfect example that Oracle learning never ends. I would like to thank specifically Kirti Deshpande, Jonathan Lewis, Cary Millsap, Steve Adams, Johnson Vardarajan, Tim Gorman, Gaja Krishna Vaidyanatha, and Rachel Carmichael for their in-depth discussions on various technical issues. Reading their discussions and analysis over the years brought about my deep interest in Oracle technology.

The book could not be published without help from the friendly folks at Digital Press. During the proposal phase of this book, I worked with numerous publishing houses. However, none had been as friendly and professional to work with as Theron Shreve and Pam Chester. With such a remarkable team, if I had another opportunity to write a book, I would write again for Digital Press. Thanks are also due to the folks at Keyword; Jeffrey Boys for the excellent final touches to the technical editing process and Maureen Allen for managing and coordinating the efforts of editing, typesetting, and proof reading, to the final product.

I am proud to have been involved in such an incredible project, and I hope my readers benefit from the efforts of so many to bring this book to life. Enjoy.

                                                                                      Murali Vallath