50,000 Users on an Oracle8 Universal Server Database
Tirthankar Lahiri (Oracle Corporation)
Ashok Joshi (Oracle Corporation)
Amit Jasuja (Oracle Corporation)
Sumanta Chatterjee (Oracle Corporation)
In this paper, we describe the Oracle Large User Population
Demonstration and highlight the scalability mechanisms in the
Oracle8 Universal Data Server which make it possible to support
as many as 50,000 concurrent users on a single Oracle8
database without any middle-tier TP-monitor software. Supporting
such large user populations requires many mechanisms
for high concurrency and throughput. Algorithms in all areas
of the server ranging from process and buffer management to
SQL compilation and execution must be designed to be highly
scalable. Efficient resource sharing mechanisms are required to
prevent server-side resource requirements from growing
unboundedly with the number of users. Parallel execution
across multiple systems is necessary to allow user-population
and throughput to scale beyond the restrictions of a single system.
In addition to scalability, mechanisms for high availability,
ease-of-use, and rich functionality are necessary for supporting
complex user applications typical of realistic workloads. All
mechanisms must be portable to a wide variety of installations
ranging from desk-top systems to large scale enterprise servers
and to a wide variety of operating systems.