RAC Infiniband vs. Gig-E
Cluster Interconnects
The
Cluster Interconnect requires a high speed, low latency
infrastructure in order to be successful. When creating the Cluster
Interconnect, there are two choices widely in use in today's RAC
deployments. The two choices for the interconnect include Infiniband
(IB) and Gigabit Ethernet (Gig-E). The system architect should
decide the network platform that will be the backbone of the private
network.
Standard
network switches deployed in most data centers can provide the
Gigabit Ethernet networks infrastructure. Every network
administrator has experience with Gig-E switches. As such, using
Gig-E is an easy choice to make. The company already has experienced
staff on hand that will not require any additional training to
implement the Cluster Interconnect. The hardware is very low cost as
well. A sixteen-port Gig-E switch can be purchased for around $100.
Since the switch is used for the private network, the switch does
not need a large number of ports, as only the cluster nodes will be
plugged into the device. A low-cost device already familiar with the
current staff makes Gig-E switches the first choice for most RAC
private networks. By today's standards, gigabit switches may not be
fast enough. Oracle Corporation recommends 10-gigabit switches with
1- gigabit switches being the minimum. The cost of the 10-gigabit
switches has dropped dramatically over the years so these switches
are still a top choice.
When Gig-E
is not fast enough, the system architects often turn to Infiniband.
Infiniband can leverage bandwidths up to 25 Gbps, or 2.5x more than
10 Gbs Ethernet switches and that is in just one lane of traffic! If
twelve lanes are used, the Infiniband solution can enjoy 300 Gbps of
throughput.
Oracle
Corporation's fastest database machine, Oracle Exadata, is a
multi-node RAC cluster that uses Infiniband for the Cluster
Interconnect. When the Cluster Interconnect needs to perform better,
people turn to Infiniband with its higher speeds and lower latency.
However, faster speed comes at a cost, and Infiniband hardware has a
higher cost than Gig-E. In addition, many network administrators are
not familiar with Infiniband so they may need training and have to
overcome a learning curve. If you are implementing Infiniband, you
might consider employing Reliable Datagram Sockets (RDS) over
Infiniband. Oracle recommends RDS because it has lower latency and
uses less CPU than IP over Infiniband (IPoIB).
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