Disclaimer: This document is not a replacement for any ORACLE document or whitepaper. This is merely meant for understanding certain fundamental aspects of Oracle 11gR2 Real Application Cluster( RAC) and it's core components.
SINGLE CLIENT ACCESS NAME (SCAN)
Single Client Access Name (SCAN) is a new Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 11g Release 2 feature that provides a single name for clients to access Oracle Databases running in a cluster.
The benefit is that the client’s connect information does not need to change if you add or remove nodes in the cluster. Having a single name to access the cluster allows clients to use the EZConnect client and the simple JDBC thin URL to access any database running in the cluster, independently of which server(s) in the cluster the database is active. SCAN provides load balancing and failover for client connections to the database. The SCAN works as a cluster alias for databases in the cluster.
NETWORK REQUIREMENTS FOR USING SCAN
The SCAN is configured during the installation of Oracle Grid Infrastructure that is distributed with Oracle Database 11g Release2. Oracle Grid Infrastructure is a single Oracle Home that contains Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Automatic Storage Management. You must install Oracle Grid Infrastructure first in order to use Oracle RAC 11g Release 2. During the interview phase of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation, you will be prompted to provide a SCAN name. There are 2 options for defining the SCAN:
1. Define the SCAN in your corporate DNS (Domain Name Service)
2. Use the Grid Naming Service (GNS)
USING OPTION 1 - DEFINE THE SCAN IN YOUR CORPORATE DNS
If you choose Option 1, you must ask your network administrator to create a single name that resolves to 3 IP addresses using a round-robin algorithm. Three IP addresses are recommended considering load balancing and high availability requirements regardless of the number of servers in the cluster. The IP addresses must be on the same subnet as your public network in the cluster. The name must be 15 characters or less in length, not including the domain, and must be resolvable without the domain suffix (for example: “sanrac-scan’ must be resolvable as opposed to “sanrac-scan.xyz.com”). The IPs must not be assigned to a network interface (on the cluster), since Oracle Clusterware will take care of it.
You can check the SCAN configuration in DNS using “nslookup”. If your DNS is set up to provide round-robin access to the IPs resolved by the SCAN entry, then run the “nslookup” command at least twice to see the round-robin algorithm work. The result should be that each time, the “nslookup” would return a set of 3 IPs in a different order.
EZconnet sqlplus system/manager@ sanrac-scan:1521/oltp
JDBC connect jdbc:oracle:thin:@ sanrac-scan:1521/oltp
sanrac-scan.xyz.com IN A 150.1.1.34 IN A 150.1.1.33
IN A 150.1.1.32
Note: If your DNS server does not return a set of 3 IPs OR does not round-robin, ask your network administrator to enable such a setup. DNS using a round-robin algorithm on its own does not ensure failover of connections. However, the Oracle Client typically handles this. It is therefore recommended that the minimum version of the client used is the Oracle Database 11g Release 2 client.
USING OPTION 2 - THE GRID NAMING SERVICE (GNS)
If you choose option 2, you only need to enter the SCAN during the interview. During the cluster configuration, three IP addresses will be acquired from a DHCP service (using GNS assumes you have a DHCP service available on your public network) to create the SCAN and name resolution for the SCAN will be provided by the GNS.
SINGLE CLIENT ACCESS NAME (SCAN)
Single Client Access Name (SCAN) is a new Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 11g Release 2 feature that provides a single name for clients to access Oracle Databases running in a cluster.
The benefit is that the client’s connect information does not need to change if you add or remove nodes in the cluster. Having a single name to access the cluster allows clients to use the EZConnect client and the simple JDBC thin URL to access any database running in the cluster, independently of which server(s) in the cluster the database is active. SCAN provides load balancing and failover for client connections to the database. The SCAN works as a cluster alias for databases in the cluster.
The SCAN is configured during the installation of Oracle Grid Infrastructure that is distributed with Oracle Database 11g Release2. Oracle Grid Infrastructure is a single Oracle Home that contains Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Automatic Storage Management. You must install Oracle Grid Infrastructure first in order to use Oracle RAC 11g Release 2. During the interview phase of the Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation, you will be prompted to provide a SCAN name. There are 2 options for defining the SCAN:
1. Define the SCAN in your corporate DNS (Domain Name Service)
2. Use the Grid Naming Service (GNS)
USING OPTION 1 - DEFINE THE SCAN IN YOUR CORPORATE DNS
If you choose Option 1, you must ask your network administrator to create a single name that resolves to 3 IP addresses using a round-robin algorithm. Three IP addresses are recommended considering load balancing and high availability requirements regardless of the number of servers in the cluster. The IP addresses must be on the same subnet as your public network in the cluster. The name must be 15 characters or less in length, not including the domain, and must be resolvable without the domain suffix (for example: “sanrac-scan’ must be resolvable as opposed to “sanrac-scan.xyz.com”). The IPs must not be assigned to a network interface (on the cluster), since Oracle Clusterware will take care of it.
You can check the SCAN configuration in DNS using “nslookup”. If your DNS is set up to provide round-robin access to the IPs resolved by the SCAN entry, then run the “nslookup” command at least twice to see the round-robin algorithm work. The result should be that each time, the “nslookup” would return a set of 3 IPs in a different order.
EZconnet sqlplus system/manager@ sanrac-scan:1521/oltp
JDBC connect jdbc:oracle:thin:@ sanrac-scan:1521/oltp
sanrac-scan.xyz.com IN A 150.1.1.34 IN A 150.1.1.33
IN A 150.1.1.32
Note: If your DNS server does not return a set of 3 IPs OR does not round-robin, ask your network administrator to enable such a setup. DNS using a round-robin algorithm on its own does not ensure failover of connections. However, the Oracle Client typically handles this. It is therefore recommended that the minimum version of the client used is the Oracle Database 11g Release 2 client.
USING OPTION 2 - THE GRID NAMING SERVICE (GNS)
If you choose option 2, you only need to enter the SCAN during the interview. During the cluster configuration, three IP addresses will be acquired from a DHCP service (using GNS assumes you have a DHCP service available on your public network) to create the SCAN and name resolution for the SCAN will be provided by the GNS.
HOW CONNECTION LOAD BALANCING WORKS USING SCAN
For clients connecting using Oracle SQL*Net 11g Release 2, three IP addresses will be received by the client by resolving the SCAN name through DNS as discussed. The client will then go through the list it receives from the DNS and try connecting through one of the IPs received. If the client receives an error, it will try the other addresses before returning an error to the user or application. This is similar to how client connection failover works in previous releases when an address list is provided in the client connection string.
When a SCAN Listener receives a connection request, the SCAN Listener will check for the least loaded instance providing the requested service. It will then re-direct the connection request to the local listener on the node where the least loaded instance is running. Subsequently, the client will be given the address of the local listener. The local listener will finally create the connection to the database instance.
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