In a Nutshell

Administering the Oracle RAC database is similar to managing a single-instance Oracle database. Because more than one instance is accessing the same set of database objects, a little caution is required while you are managing the Oracle RAC database.

Managing the initialization parameter file (SPFILE) requires some special handling in Oracle RAC databases because the parameters have a database-wide effect. A few database parameters should be set the same across Oracle RAC instances, and instance-specific parameters can be set to different values for Oracle RAC instances. Using a common SPFILE is highly recommended with SID-prefixed instance-specific parameters. This is the best practice in managing the parameter file.

The server control utility (SRVCTL) helps manage the Oracle RAC database efficiently and can be used as a central management tool to manage the Oracle RAC instances. An Oracle RAC instance depends on the Oracle Cluster Ready Services, and we will discuss the administration of Oracle Clusterware in the next chapter.