Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i and Oracle8, Second Edition

Chapter 11. Oracle and Hardware Architecture

In Chapter 2 we discussed the architecture of the Oracle database, and in Chapter 6 we described how Oracle uses hardware resources. Although Oracle operates in the same way on many hardware platforms, different hardware architectures can ultimately determine the specific scalability, performance tuning, management, and reliability options available to you.

This chapter explains the following hardware systems and how Oracle takes advantage of the features inherent in each of the platforms:

• Uniprocessors

• Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) systems

• Clusters

• Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) systems

• Nonuniform Memory Access (NUMA) systems

We’ll also discuss the use of different disk technologies and how to choose the hardware system that’s right for your purposes.

System Basics

Any discussion of hardware systems begins with a review of the components that make up a hardware platform and the impact these components have on the overall system. You’ll find the same essential components under the covers of any computer system:

• A CPU, which executes the basic instructions that make up computer programs

• Memory, which stores recently accessed instructions and data

• An input/output (I/O) system, which typically consists of a disk, a diskette, tape controllers for pulling data and programs off physical media, and network controllers for connecting the system to other systems on the network.

The number of each of these components and the capabilities of ...