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.

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The configuration method is different for different Oracle RAC versions:

If you are using Oracle 11g R2 with the SCAN feature, IBM® Business Process Manager does not need additional manual configuration if you specify the service name during profile creation or topology configuration. jdbc:oracle:thin:@//[SCAN_LISTENER_HOST][:SCAN_LISTENER_PORT]/SERVICE is the format of the JDBC URL generated during configuration and will work for Oracle RAC without any manual updates.
If you do not want to use the SCAN feature or are using an earlier version of Oracle that does not support the SCAN feature, you must use the following configuration steps to configure IBM Business Process Manager for use with Oracle RAC. For more information, see Mapping IBM Business Process Manager configuration parameters to Oracle setup parameters.
There are two scenarios to consider:
- If you are using a stand-alone profile, you must 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 must be configured using SID.
IBM Business Process Manager always creates the JDBC URL in the following format: jdbc:oracle:thin:@//[SCAN_LISTENER_HOST][:SCAN_LISTENER_PORT]/SERVICE, which can be edited to the following format to use Oracle RAC:
```
jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST= 
                  (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=rac-node1)(port=1521))
                  (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=rac-node2)(port=1521)))
                  (FAILOVER=on)(LOAD_BALANCE=on)
                  (CONNECT_DATA=(SERVER=DEDICATED)
                  (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 preceding formats.
Refer to Configuring a data source using the administrative console.

Run the updateBPMConfig command based on the following examples.

For a single-server environment, run the following commands:

$AdminTask updateBPMConfig {-nodeName Node_Name -serverName Server_Name 
-procsrvDBURL jdbc:oracle:thin:@Database_URL -procsrvDBUserID User_ID
 -procsrvDBPassword Password -perfDWDBURL jdbc:oracle:thin:@Database_URL
 -perfDWDBUserID User_ID -perfDWDBPassword Password}
$AdminConfig save

For a network deployment environment, run the following commands:

$AdminTask updateBPMConfig {-clusterName application_cluster_name -procsrvDBURL jdbc:oracle:thin:@
Database_URL -procsrvDBUserID User_ID -procsrvDBPassword Password
 -perfDWDBURL jdbc:oracle:thin:@Database_URL -perfDWDBUserID User_ID
 -perfDWDBPassword Password}
$AdminTask updateBPMConfig {-clusterName support_cluster_name -procsrvDBURL jdbc:oracle:thin:@
Database_URL -procsrvDBUserID User_ID -procsrvDBPassword Password
 -perfDWDBURL jdbc:oracle:thin:@Database_URL -perfDWDBUserID User_ID
 -perfDWDBPassword Password}
$AdminConfig save

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.

Mapping IBM Business Process Manager configuration parameters to Oracle setup parameters

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To understand how to specify the correct information during the Oracle RAC database configuration, review the following parameter mapping information to ensure that the JDBC URL is created correctly.

The format of the JDBC URL that is generated during configuration is

jdbc:oracle:thin:@//[SCAN_LISTENER_HOST][:SCAN_LISTENER_PORT]/SERVICE

where

SCAN_LISTENER_HOST represents the RAC SCAN name that is defined during the Oracle RAC setup. SCAN_LISTENER_HOST is specified in the IBM BPM profile configuration parameter Database server host name.
SCAN_LISTENER_PORT represents the RAC SCAN listener port that is defined during the Oracle RAC setup. SCAN_LISTENER_PORT is specified in the IBM BPM profile configuration parameter Server port.
SERVICE represents the RAC service that is configured during the Oracle RAC setup. SERVICE is specified in the IBM BPM profile configuration parameter Common database name.

For example, an Oracle RAC setup with a RAC scan name of rac1.mycompany.com, a SCAN port of 1521, and a cluster-managed database service of MYSERVICE is specified with the following JDBC URL: jdbc:oracle:thin:@//rac1.mycompany.com:1521/MYSERVICE.mycompany.com