Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
New Features in RAC 12c
by Syed Jaffar Hussain, Kai Yu, and Tariq Farooq
The goal of this chapter is to explain some of the key new features and enhancements in Oracle 12cR1 pertaining to
Clusterware and RAC Database technologies. Cloud computing is a key focus of the Oracle 12c database, and “cloud”
is what the letter “c” in Oracle 12c stands for. In the first part of this chapter, we will explain two core new features
of Oracle Clusterware:
Oracle Flex Cluster
and
Oracle Flex Automatic Storage Management (ASM)
. One reason
why we put these features in this chapter is that they are very closely related. It would be very difficult to discuss one
without mentioning the other; in particular, it is not possible to have Flex Clusters without Flex ASM. The use cases
of these two new features are very similar and it is likely that they will be implemented together in real database
environments.
The new Flex Clusters and Flex ASM features are designed to provide scalable and high-availability cluster
infrastructure for database cloud and application cloud. The chapter will discuss the architecture of Oracle 12c Flex
Clusters and Flex ASM, and how this Flex architecture helps to improve the scalability and availability of the cluster
infrastructure. We will also discuss the configuration and management of the Flex Clusters and Flex ASM, and how to
configure and run Oracle databases on the new Flex Cluster environment.
Pluggable databases (PDBs) are one of the key new features introduced in Oracle Database 12c. They allow multi-
tenancy in a database by having multiple PDBs within a big container database (CDB). And these PDBs can be easily
plugged into or unplugged from a CDB. This solution simplifies consolidation of multiple-application databases in a
single CDB database. This also allows moving the application database from one CDB to another CDB. After a brief
discussion of the PDB architecture, this chapter will focus on the RAC-based PDB and CDB. It will discuss how to
create CDB and PDBs, how to connect to PDBs, and how to manage them with their associated database services.
The latter part of this chapter will give you a brief overview of other miscellaneous new features of 12cR1, such as:
•
IPv6 Support for Public Networks
•
Global Data Services
•
Oracle ASM Cluster File System (ACFS) and Oracle ADVM: Enhancements
•
Online Resource Attribute Modification
•
Policy-Based Management and Administration
•
ASM Disk Group: Shared ASM Password File
•
Valid Node Checking: Restricting Service Registration
•
Shared Grid Naming Service (GNS)
•
Restricting Service Registration
•
NFS High Availability
