Configuring Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) for use with IBM Business Process Manager

Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) is an option of an Oracle database that brings together two or more computers to form a clustered database that behaves as a single system. In a RAC database, Oracle processes that are running in separate nodes access the same data from a shared disk storage.

About this task

During the initial installation and configuration of IBM® Business Process Manager it is not possible to use Oracle RAC as the target database. You must specify the SID of the single instance of the Oracle database during configuration. The JDBC URL that is automatically generated and supported for accessing the Oracle database is jdbc:oracle:thin:@<hostname>:<port number>:<DBName>. The JDBC URL must be edited as a post configuration step to use Oracle RAC.

There are two scenarios to consider:

If you are using a Standalone profile you need to create the profile using SID as the value for the database name.
If you are setting up a Network Deployment environment, the profiles and the clusters need to be configured using SID.

IBM Business Process Manager always creates the JDBC URL in the following format: jdbc:oracle:thin:@[HOST][:PORT]:SID. The format can be edited to one of the following to use Oracle RAC.

```
jdbc:oracle:thin:@//[HOST][:PORT]/SERVICE
```
Where SERVICE is the Oracle service name.

Note: This new syntax can be used with the SCAN feature available on Oracle 11g R2 and can not be used without the SCAN feature.

General format to specify a URL for an Oracle RAC:

jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=
(LOAD_BALANCE=on)   
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=host1)(PORT=1521))
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=host2)(PORT=1521)) 
(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=service_name)))

If a Oracle RAC node failover occurs, IBM Business Process Manager stops processing and you might need to restart all of the IBM Business Process Manager nodes. If you experience process-recovery issues, refer to Process recovery issues in certain situations in IBM Business Process Manager V7.5.

Procedure

Specify the RAC URL as the Oracle URL when defining the relevant Oracle JDBC data sources.
1. In the administrative console, select Resources > JDBC > Data sources.
2. Edit all of the data sources using Oracle with the JDBC URL to use one of the formats above.
Refer to Configuring a data source using the administrative console.
Update the Authentication Alias Configuration page and run the administrative task to update the URL to use the Oracle RAC. For more information, see Modifying authentication aliases.
In a network deployment environment, you must synchronize the nodes that contain Process Center, Process Server, or Performance Data Warehouse cluster members.
1. In the administrative console, click System administration > Nodes.
2. Select all of the nodes and click Full Resynchronize.
3. Stop and restart all of the clusters and servers.