Top30RACInterviewQuestionsThatHelpedMe.

AreYou
Prepared?VitalSoftTech

GettingreadyforaRACinterview?MakesuretorefreshyourknowledgebyreviewingthislistofRACInterview
Questions.

Whatiscachefusion?

InaRACenvironment,itisthecombiningofdatablocks,whichareshippedacrosstheinterconnectfrom
remotedatabasecaches(SGA)tothelocalnode,inordertofulfilltherequirementsforatransaction(DML,
QueryofDataDictionary).

Whatissplitbrain?

Whendatabasenodesinaclusterareunabletocommunicatewitheachother,theymaycontinuetoprocess
andmodifythedatablocksindependently.Ifthe

sameblockismodifiedbymorethanoneinstance,synchronization/lockingofthedatablocksdoesnottake
placeandblocksmaybeoverwrittenbyothersinthecluster.Thisstateiscalledsplitbrain.

WhatisthedifferencebetweenCrashrecoveryandInstancerecovery?

Whenaninstancecrashesinasinglenodedatabaseonstartupacrashrecoverytakesplace.InaRAC
enviornmentthesamerecoveryforaninstanceisperformedbythesurvivingnodescalledInstancerecovery.

Whatistheinterconnectusedfor?

Itisaprivatenetworkwhichisusedtoshipdatablocksfromoneinstancetoanotherforcachefusion.The
physicaldatablocksaswellasdatadictionaryblocksaresharedacrossthisinterconnect.

HowdoyoudeterminewhatprotocolisbeingusedforInterconnecttraffic?

Oneofthewaysistolookatthedatabasealertlogforthetimeperiodwhenthedatabasewasstartedup.

Whatmethodsareavailabletokeepthetimesynchronizedonallnodesinthecluster?

EithertheNetworkTimeProtocol(NTP)canbeconfiguredorin11gr2,ClusterTimeSynchronizationService
(CTSS)canbeused.

WhatfilescomponentsinRACmustresideonsharedstorage?

Spfiles,ControlFiles,DatafilesandRedologfilesshouldbecreatedonsharedstorage.

WheredoestheClusterwarewritewhenthereisanetworkorStoragemissedheartbeat?

Thenetworkpingfailureiswrittenin$CRS_HOME/log

HowdoyoufindoutwhatOCRbackupsareavailable?
Theocrconfigshowbackupcanberuntofindouttheautomaticandmanuallyrunbackups.

IfyourOCRiscorruptedwhatoptionsdohavetoresolvethis?

YoucanuseeitherthelogicalorthephysicalOCRbackupcopytorestoretheRepository.

Howdoyoufindoutwhatobjecthasitsblocksbeingshippedacrosstheinstancethemost?

Youcanusethedba_hist_seg_stats.

WhatisaVIPinRACusefor?

TheVIPisanalternateVirtualIPaddressassignedtoeachnodeinacluster.DuringanodefailuretheVIPof
thefailednodemovestothesurvivingnodeandrelaystotheapplicationthatthenodehasgonedown.Without
VIP,theapplicationwillwaitforTCPtimeoutandthenfindoutthatthesessionisnolongerliveduetothe
failure.

HowdoweknowwhichdatabaseinstancesarepartofaRACcluster?

YoucanquerytheV$ACTIVE_INSTANCESviewtodeterminethememberinstancesoftheRACcluster.

WhatisOCLUMONusedforinaclusterenvironment?

TheClusterHealthMonitor(CHM)storesoperatingsystemmetricsintheCHMrepositoryforallnodesinaRAC
cluster.ItstoresinformationonCPU,memory,process,networkandotherOSdata,Thisinformationcanlater
beretrievedandusedtotroubleshootandidentifyanyclusterrelatedissues.Itisadefaultcomponentofthe
11gr2gridinstall.Thedataisstoredinthemasterrepositoryandreplicatedtoastandbyrepositoryona
differentnode.

Whatwouldbethepossibleperformanceimpactinaclusterifalesspowerfulnode(e.g.slowerCPUs)
isaddedtothecluster?

AllprocessingwillshowdowntotheCPUspeedoftheslowestserver.

WhatisthepurposeofOLR?

OracleLocalrepositorycontainsinformationthatallowstheclusterprocessestobestartedupwiththeOCR
beingintheASMstoragessytem.SincetheASMfilesystemisunavailableuntiltheGridprocessesarestarted
upalocalcopyofthecontentsoftheOCRisrequiredwhichisstoredintheOLR.

WhatisthedefaultmemoryallocationforASM?

In10gthedefaultSGAsizeis1Gin11gitissetto256Mandin12cASMitissetbackto1G.

HowdoyoubackupASMMetadata?

Youcanusemd_backuptorestoretheASMdiskgroupconfigurationincaseofASMdiskgroupstorageloss.

WhatfilescanbestoredintheASMdiskgroup?

In11gthefollowingfilescanbestoredinASMdiskgroups.
 Datafiles
Redologfiles
Spfiles

In12cthefilesbelowcanalsonewbestoredintheASMDiskgroup

Passwordfile

WhatittheASMPOWER_LIMIT?

ThisistheparameterwhichcontrolsthenumberofAllocationunitstheASMinstancewilltrytorebalanceatany
giventime.InASMversionslessthan11.2.0.3thedefaultvalueis11howeverithasbeenchangedtounlimited
inlaterversions.

Whatisarollingupgrade?

Apatchisconsideredarollingifitiscanbeappliedtotheclusterbinarieswithouthavingtoshuttingdownthe
databaseinaRACenvironment.Allnodesintheclusterarepatchedinarollingmanner,onebyone,withonly
thenodewhichisbeingpatchedunavailablewhileallotherinstanceopen.

WhataresomeoftheRACspecificparameters?

SomeoftheRACparametersare:

CLUSTER_DATABASE
CLUSTER_DATABASE_INSTANCE
INSTANCE_TYPE(RDBMSorASM)
ACTIVE_INSTANCE_COUNT
UNDO_MANAGEMENT

WhatisthefutureoftheOracleGrid?

TheGridsoftwareisbecomingmoreandmorecapableofnotjustsupportingHAforOracleDatabasesbutalso
otherapplicationsincludingOraclesapplications.With12ctherearemorefeaturesandfunctionalitybuiltinand
itiseasiertodeploytheseprebuiltsolutions,availableforcommonOracleapplications.

WhatcomponentsoftheGridshouldIbackup?

ThebackupsshouldincludeOLR,OCRandASMMetadata.

Isthereaneasywaytoverifytheinventoryforallremotenodes

Youcanruntheopatchlsinventoryall_nodescommandfromasinglenodetolookattheinventorydetailsfor
allnodesinthecluster.

AdditionalResources
OracleInterviewQuestions

ToprepareforyourOracleDBAinterviewherearesomeadditionalOraclequestionsfocusingonother
databaseareas.

AdditionalOracleQuestions?

IfyouhaveadditionalOraclequestions,feelfreetocommentandletusknow.Wewillansweryouquestions
hereorinanotherblog.

Note:ThisOracledocumentationwascreatedforreferenceforusebyVitalsofttechDBAs.Ifyouhaveany
questionspleasepostbyclickingontheASKAQUESTIONlinkabove.