Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) is a shared disk RDBMS. We present a high level overview of the main architectural issues of OPS and their evolution throughout the releases of the Oracle database. The Oracle relational database can be used either in exclusive or shared mode. In exclusive (the most traditional) mode only one Oracle instance can mount or open the database. The Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) option allows a database to be opened in shared mode. In shared mode multiple instances of Oracle can mount the same database. This allows concurrent direct read and write accessby multiple users from multiple instances to all the data in the database. This means that multiple computers can work with the same database. It is this approach which ensures that Oracle holds world records in the TPC benchmarks (more than 100,000 tpmC). Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributedfor direct commercial advantage, the ...
Roger Bamford, D. Butler, Boris Klots, N. MacNaugh