Oracle RAC Question

[AWSPro21]

A company has an Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) database on their on-premises data center which they want to migrate to AWS. The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) instructed the solutions architects to automate the patch management process of the operating system in which the database runs, as well as to set up scheduled backups to comply with the company’s disaster recovery plan.
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</div><div>Which of the following should the solutions architect implement to meet the company requirements with the least amount of effort?</div><div>
</div><div>A: Migrate the database to a cluster of EBS-backed Amazon EC2 instances across multiple AZs. Automate the creation of EBS snapshots from EBS volumes of the EC2 instance by using Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager. Install the SSM Agent to the EC2 instance and automate the patch management process using AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager.</div>

Although this is the only answer that makes sense, Oracle RAC is definitely NOT supported natively on EC2 and needs 3rd part solutions (like Flashgrid). I’ve been in countless OLA reviews for large MAP deals and this keeps coming up.

[Carlo-TutorialsDojo]

Hello AWSPro21,

Thanks for your feedback.

Firstly, it’s true that most default AMIs do not come with Flashgrid or Oracle pre-installed. However, it’s not accurate to say that an EC2 instance doesn’t natively support Oracle RAC. This is like saying you can’t run a web server on EC2 just because a specific ‘X service’ isn’t pre-installed on it. Flashgrid is simply a software that takes care of the networking and storage requirements of Oracle RAC. You can pretty much run Oracle RAC without it so long as you meet the set of configurations required by Oracle RAC. However, I understand that it’s almost impossible not to use it if you want to run Oracle RAC without headaches, just like any software solutions we depend on.

Secondly, in actual exams, third-party names may not necessarily be mentioned, as is the case with this question, unless they are highly relevant to the context of what’s being asked. To relate this to the question, FlashGrid still uses native AWS resources, such as EBS volumes and EC2 instances. Maintenance tasks, including backups and patching, remain your responsibility. Therefore, the use of DLM and SSM, as indicated in the correct answers, is still very applicable

Regards,
Carlo @ Tutorials Dojo

[AWSPro21]

Hello Carlo,

Oracle makes it very clear that they do not support RAC on AWS or any cloud provider. https://www.oracle.com/docs/tech/database/rac-cloud-support.pdf

Even if it were technically possible, this would never be used in a production environment. It might just be easier to remove RAC from the question to avoid confusion.

[Carlo-TutorialsDojo]

Hello AWSPro21,

The document you shared says nothing about RAC being impossible to run in a non-Oracle Cloud. I think it’s more about the limitations imposed on asking for technical assistance from Oracle support. Thanks for the suggestion, but we’ll retain Oracle RAC since it does appear in the actual SA Pro exams, and we want our materials to be relevant to the actual content and terminology used in the certification.

Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.

Regards,

Carlo @ Tutorials Dojo