Chapter 3. Hardware Installation and Configuration

A Cluster is a complex arrangement of bits and pieces that, once combined with the software configuration, produces a highly available platform for mission critical Oracle databases. The hardware configuration requires some knowledge of the application, or at a minimum, its expectation of performance. The goal is always to produce a reliable Red Hat Cluster Suite HA platform, but rarely at the expense of performance or scalability. Oracle uses the terms MAA or Maximum Availability Architecture, but whatever the term, optimizing a platform for availability, scalability and reliability often feels like juggling chainsaws.