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Defining Real Application Clusters (RAC) vs. Storage Area Network (SAN)

Brian Peasland EXPERT RESPONSE FROM: Brian Peasland

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QUESTION POSED ON: 29 February 2008
For an application like a billing and charging application in a telecom company carrying a huge database, which one is a better solution.... a SAN or a RAC? I am talking in terms of availability and performance.


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A SAN and a RAC are two totally different things. So, one cannot say one is better than the other. RAC is Real Application Clusters. RAC is Oracle's product which allows you to cluster one database on multiple servers. A SAN is a Storage Area Network which allows multiple servers to see the same disk storage. Typical RAC configurations use SAN's for storage, but RAC can also use other shared storage technology. So a RAC does not necessarily require a SAN, and a presence of a SAN does not always mean RAC is used.




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