“An Oracle spokeswoman said the new Oracle 9i database, due in
the first half of next year, will feature new “clustering”
technology that will make the company’s databases perform faster
and more reliably than before. … The company’s previous
clustering technology, called Oracle Parallel Server, allowed
businesses to add as many servers, or high-end computers, as they
needed, but it acted as a single database because it shared the
same hard drive. If one server went down, a Web site would go down,
the spokeswoman said.”
“The new technology, called Oracle 9i Real Application Clusters,
allows each database to support its own redundant copy of data,
thereby reducing the network bottleneck that occurs when users are
trying to access information, a spokeswoman said. With the new
technology, each database will contain the same data, so if one
goes down, a Web site that it supports will stay up and running,
she said.”
“Oracle also announced plans for Oracle 8i Parallel Server
for Linux, the company’s first clustering database for the emerging
operating system. Oracle will ship the Parallel Server for Linux by
year’s end and will support Real Application Clusters by the first
half of 2001.”