Sun's Reference Architechure for Oracle 11g

Sun and Oracle have been working together for over 25 years. Each company tries to takes full advantage of the other's technology. A few months ago, Sun published a white paper, "SUN’S REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE FOR ORACLE 11g GRID", (October 2007), that shows how Sun's technology can be used to create a horizontally scalable grid for database application deployment:

Sun’s Reference Architecture for Oracle 11g Grid delivers a robust, scalable, and manageable database platform that maintains or increases customer service levels with a low TCO. The architecture provides an optimal combination of cost savings, superb performance, and high availability with its ultimate value being the ability to synthesize these individual elements into an integrated architecture that can be managed with ease.

Some of the Sun technology used in this reference architecture:

• Solaris 10
• Sun Fire x64 (AMD and Intel) servers
• Solaris Cluster Advanced Edition for Oracle RAC
• Comprised of Sun StorageTek QFS software, Solaris Cluster RAC agent, and Solaris Volume Manager software
  
• InfiniBand technology
• Sun N1 System Manager Software

The paper finishes with a summary:

Sun’s Reference Architecture for Oracle 11g Grid is a portfolio of Sun and third-party products designed to reduce the risks, uncertainty, and costs associated with implementing an Oracle database within a grid computing environment. Designed, tested, implemented, and tuned at the Sun Competency Center for Oracle in Menlo Park, California, the reference architecture consists of recommended, integrated hardware and software stacks for a proven grid database solution. Along with this architecture, Sun provides a best practices framework for obtaining optimal performance, availability, and resiliency.

The most compelling benefits of Sun’s Reference Architecture for Oracle 11g Grid come not from the individual components, but from the ability to integrate complementary elements — whether they come from Sun or another vendor. The combination of Sun Fire x64 servers with AMD Opteron processors and Cisco InfiniBand technology ensures higher database throughput, while the adoption of Solaris Cluster Advanced Edition for RAC enhances the reliability and availability of Oracle RAC 11g. The result is a solution that can help deliver the highest service levels and satisfy the most demanding business requirements of a database grid.