Lesson 1

Oracle Parallel Server was first released in 1993. It was a multi-user, multi-threaded database server that could be used to run Oracle databases on a cluster of computers. Oracle Parallel Server was designed to provide high performance and scalability for demanding applications. Oracle Parallel Server was discontinued in 2009. Oracle replaced it with Oracle RAC, which is a newer and more scalable multi-node database solution.
Here is a timeline of the major releases of Oracle Parallel Server:

1. 1993: Oracle Parallel Server 1.0 is released.
2. 1994: Oracle Parallel Server 2.0 is released.
3. 1995: Oracle Parallel Server 3.0 is released.
4. 1996: Oracle Parallel Server 4.0 is released.
5. 1997: Oracle Parallel Server 5.0 is released.
6. 1998: Oracle Parallel Server 6.0 is released.
7. 1999: Oracle Parallel Server 7.0 is released.
8. 2000: Oracle Parallel Server 8.0 is released.
9. 2001: Oracle Parallel Server 8.1 is released.
10. 2002: Oracle Parallel Server 8.1.6 is released.
11. 2003: Oracle Parallel Server 8.1.7 is released.
12. 2004: Oracle Parallel Server 8.1.8 is released.
13. 2005: Oracle Parallel Server 9.0 is released.
14. 2006: Oracle Parallel Server 9.2 is released.
15. 2007: Oracle Parallel Server 9.2.0.1 is released.
16. 2008: Oracle Parallel Server 9.2.0.2 is released.
17. 2009: Oracle Parallel Server is discontinued.

Setting up an Oracle Parallel Server^[1] (OPS) can be tedious. You must install and configure each node and then connect it to the whole. Once created, the nodes must be monitored to assure that each one is being used efficiently. Special programming is required to take advantage of parallel processing. Oracle8i added enhancements to simplify the setup, use, and tuning of an OPS system. This module covers these enhancements, as well as some basic concepts of OPS that were new to Oracle8 and carry over to Oracle8i.

By the end of the module, you will be able to:

1. Identify Oracle8i enhancements and Oracle8i new features for Parallel Server
2. Use the OPS Assistant to define Parallel Server instance
3. Recognize correct syntax for parallel DML
4. Create a parallel query for an object table
5. Describe the background processes in an Oracle Parallel Server system
6. Describe the IDLM utility
7. Use the DBMS_JOB package to control job execution
8. Define node affinity
9. Describe how to set up TAF

The next lesson gives you an overview of OPS enhancements.

[1]Oracle Parallel Server: A database server consisting of multiple database instances that act as a single database. The OPS distributes activity by concurrently executing transactions on multiple database instances. Each database instance can be located on a different machine to maximize use of resources.