About This Course
Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) is the industry-leading technology for delivering continuous database availability, horizontal scalability, and fault tolerance across enterprise environments. By allowing multiple Oracle database instances to run simultaneously on a cluster of servers — all accessing a single shared database — RAC eliminates single points of failure and enables organisations to scale out without redesigning their applications. As enterprises across Africa and the Middle East expand their digital infrastructure and adopt cloud-hybrid architectures, the demand for skilled Oracle RAC administrators has never been greater.
This ten-day programme by TrainingComplex delivers a comprehensive, lab-driven learning experience that takes participants from foundational RAC concepts through to advanced administration and performance optimisation. The course covers Oracle Grid Infrastructure installation, Automatic Storage Management (ASM), Clusterware management, RAC instance tuning, workload management using services, and high-availability failover strategies. Delegates will work through realistic enterprise scenarios, gaining the practical confidence to design, deploy, and maintain RAC environments in production.
Whether you are an experienced Oracle DBA stepping into a RAC environment for the first time, or an existing RAC administrator looking to formalise and deepen your expertise, this course provides a structured, expert-led pathway. By the end of the programme, participants will be equipped to lead RAC deployments, respond to cluster incidents effectively, and contribute measurably to the reliability and performance of their organisation's database infrastructure.
Who Should Attend
- Oracle Database Administrators transitioning to or already managing RAC environments
- Senior DBAs responsible for high-availability and disaster-recovery database architecture
- Database infrastructure engineers supporting enterprise Oracle deployments
- IT architects designing scalable and resilient Oracle-based solutions
- Systems administrators working with Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Linux/Unix clusters
- Cloud and on-premise infrastructure engineers integrating Oracle RAC with virtualised environments
- Technical leads overseeing Oracle licensing, patching, and capacity planning
Learning Objectives
- Explain the architecture and core components of Oracle RAC and Oracle Grid Infrastructure
- Install and configure Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle RAC on a multi-node cluster
- Manage Automatic Storage Management (ASM) disk groups, failure groups, and replication
- Administer Oracle Clusterware resources, voting disks, and the Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR)
- Configure and manage Oracle RAC database services for workload routing and high availability
- Apply patching strategies including PSU and RU patching in rolling and non-rolling modes
- Monitor RAC-specific performance metrics using AWR, ADDM, ASH, and cluster wait events
- Diagnose and resolve common RAC issues including node eviction, split-brain, and interconnect bottlenecks
- Implement backup and recovery strategies tailored to RAC using RMAN
- Design and test failover scenarios including Transparent Application Failover (TAF) and Application Continuity
- Optimise RAC instance memory, redo, undo, and cache fusion for high-throughput workloads
- Convert a single-instance Oracle database to a RAC database using rconfig and DBCA
- Apply best practices for RAC security, auditing, and resource management plans
Course Modules
Module 1: Oracle RAC Architecture and High-Availability Concepts
- Overview of Oracle RAC and its role in enterprise high availability
- Key RAC components: instances, shared storage, and the private interconnect
- Cache Fusion and the Global Cache Service (GCS) and Global Enqueue Service (GES)
- Comparison of RAC with single-instance Oracle and Oracle Data Guard
- Oracle RAC use cases: OLTP, DSS, and mixed workload environments
- Licensing considerations and edition requirements for Oracle RAC
Module 2: Cluster Hardware and Network Prerequisites
- Physical and virtualised hardware requirements for an Oracle RAC cluster
- Network interface requirements: public, private interconnect, and virtual IP (VIP)
- Storage connectivity options: NFS, SAN, and direct-attached storage for shared disks
- Oracle-recommended network bandwidth and latency thresholds for the interconnect
- Operating system and kernel parameter configuration for Oracle RAC on Linux
- Pre-installation validation using Oracle's cluster verification utility (cluvfy)
Module 3: Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation and Configuration
- Understanding Oracle Grid Infrastructure and its relationship to Oracle Clusterware
- Preparing shared storage and configuring Oracle ASM for Grid Infrastructure
- Step-by-step Grid Infrastructure installation using the Oracle Universal Installer
- Post-installation verification of Clusterware stack health and resource status
- Configuring SCAN (Single Client Access Name) and SCAN listeners for client connectivity
- Common Grid Infrastructure installation errors and how to resolve them
Module 4: Automatic Storage Management (ASM) Administration
- ASM architecture: disk groups, failure groups, extents, and allocation units
- Creating and managing ASM disk groups with normal, high, and external redundancy
- ASM file types and the Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (ACFS)
- Rebalancing, resizing, and dropping disks within active ASM disk groups
- Monitoring ASM performance and diagnosing imbalances using V$ views and asmcmd
- ASM backup strategies and recovering a failed ASM disk group
Module 5: Oracle Clusterware Resource Management
- Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) — purpose, backup, and recovery procedures
- Voting disks: quorum mechanism, configuration, and resilience requirements
- Managing cluster resources with crsctl and srvctl command-line utilities
- Clusterware resource dependencies, start-up profiles, and server pools
- Adding, relocating, and removing nodes from a running Oracle RAC cluster
- Diagnosing Clusterware failures using the Cluster Health Monitor and ADR
Module 6: Oracle RAC Database Installation and Creation
- Creating a RAC database using the Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA)
- Manual RAC database creation using scripts for advanced customisation
- Converting a single-instance Oracle database to RAC using rconfig
- Configuring redo log groups, undo tablespaces, and temp files in a RAC environment
- Managing RAC-specific initialisation parameters across multiple instances
- Verifying inter-instance communication and shared memory configuration post-creation
Module 7: Oracle RAC Services and Workload Management
- Understanding Oracle services and their role in RAC workload distribution
- Creating and managing services with DBCA, srvctl, and DBMS_SERVICE
- Configuring preferred and available instance assignments for service failover
- Load balancing advisory (LBA) and connection load balancing with SCAN listeners
- Oracle Resource Manager integration with RAC for consumer group prioritisation
- Monitoring service performance and response-time thresholds using Enterprise Manager
Module 8: Performance Monitoring and Tuning in Oracle RAC
- RAC-specific wait events: gc buffer busy, gc cr request, and library cache lock
- Using AWR and ADDM in a RAC environment: cluster-level and instance-level reports
- Analysing Active Session History (ASH) for inter-instance contention patterns
- Tuning the private interconnect: kernel UDP parameters and OS-level optimisations
- Cache Fusion tuning: identifying hot blocks and reducing cross-instance transfers
- Optimising redo, undo, and PGA allocation across multiple RAC instances
Module 9: Patching Oracle RAC with Minimal Downtime
- Overview of Oracle patch types: PSU, BP, RU, and one-off patches in a RAC context
- Rolling patch application using OPatch and opatchauto on multi-node clusters
- Patching Oracle Grid Infrastructure and the database home independently
- Out-of-place patching strategy for Grid Infrastructure upgrades
- Validating patch application success and rolling back failed patches
- Maintaining a patching runbook and change-management documentation for RAC environments
Module 10: Backup and Recovery in Oracle RAC Using RMAN
- RMAN configuration for RAC: catalogues, channels, and parallelism across nodes
- Backup strategies for RAC: full, incremental, and image copy backups to shared and local storage
- Recovering from media failure, block corruption, and accidental data loss in RAC
- Point-in-time recovery and flashback technologies in a RAC environment
- RMAN duplication of a RAC database for test and development environments
- Integrating RMAN backups with Oracle Secure Backup and third-party media managers
Module 11: High Availability, TAF, and Application Continuity
- Transparent Application Failover (TAF): types, configuration, and limitations
- Application Continuity: architecture, supported drivers, and replay guarantees
- Fast Application Notification (FAN) and Oracle Notification Service (ONS) configuration
- Oracle Connection Manager (CMAN) for connection concentration and access control
- Designing and testing failover scenarios: instance failure, node eviction, and service relocation
- Best practices for application-tier configuration to maximise RAC high-availability benefits
Module 12: RAC Security, Auditing, and Compliance
- Securing the Oracle RAC interconnect and ASM storage from unauthorised access
- User authentication and privilege management across multiple RAC instances
- Oracle Unified Auditing configuration and policy management in a RAC environment
- Encrypting RAC database data at rest using Oracle Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
- Network encryption for client connections to RAC using Oracle Native Network Encryption
- Compliance reporting and audit trail management for regulated industries
Module 13: Troubleshooting, Diagnostics, and RAC Best Practices
- Systematic approach to RAC incident diagnosis: log files, trace files, and ADR
- Using the Cluster Health Advisor and Hang Manager for proactive issue detection
- Diagnosing and resolving node eviction events and their root causes
- Interpreting clusterware alert logs, CSS logs, and network socket errors
- Capacity planning for RAC growth: CPU, memory, storage, and interconnect headroom
- Establishing operational best practices: monitoring schedules, health checks, and documentation standards
Requirements & Prerequisites
Participants should have solid working experience as an Oracle Database Administrator, including proficiency with Oracle SQL, PL/SQL, and core DBA tasks such as instance management, backup and recovery, and performance monitoring. Familiarity with Linux or Unix command-line administration is essential, as all lab exercises are conducted on Linux-based cluster nodes. Prior exposure to Oracle 19c or 21c is recommended; experience with ASM or previous RAC environments is helpful but not required.
Training Methodology
- Hands-on cluster lab exercises on a multi-node Oracle RAC environment configured specifically for this course
- Step-by-step guided installation workshops covering Grid Infrastructure and RAC database creation
- Real-world fault injection scenarios where participants diagnose and recover from node evictions and interconnect failures
- Performance analysis workshops using AWR, ASH, and ADDM reports drawn from realistic high-load cluster workloads
- Group-based architectural design sessions where teams plan a RAC deployment for a given enterprise use case
- Comparative demonstrations contrasting single-instance versus RAC behaviour for key operations
- Peer review of patching runbooks and backup strategies prepared by participants during the programme
- Administrator's toolkit walkthroughs covering crsctl, srvctl, asmcmd, and ocrconfig command-line utilities
- End-of-module knowledge checks and practical mini-assessments tied to each major topic area
- A capstone project in which participants plan, implement, and validate a complete RAC environment from scratch
Organisational Benefits
- Increased database uptime and resilience through properly administered RAC clusters
- Reduced risk of prolonged outages caused by single-node failures or misconfigured Clusterware
- Improved application performance through expert tuning of cache fusion and interconnect resources
- Capability to implement rolling upgrades and patches with zero planned downtime
- Stronger internal expertise that reduces dependency on expensive external Oracle consultants
- Faster incident resolution by DBAs who can interpret RAC-specific diagnostic data and cluster logs
- Alignment of database infrastructure with enterprise high-availability and disaster-recovery policies
- Enhanced capacity planning and workload balancing through RAC services and resource management
Where Is Oracle RAC (Real Application Cluster) Training Offered?
This course runs in-person across: Pretoria, Nairobi, Abuja, Nakuru, Zanzibar, Addis Ababa, Dubai, Kisumu, Arusha, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos, Riyadh, Kigali, Accra, Naivasha, Kampala, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, plus Live Virtual (online) cohorts. Browse live dates for your city below.
Upcoming Schedules
| Location | Format | Dates | Price |
|---|
| Live Virtual |
Online |
24 Oct 2026 – 13 Dec 2026 |
KES 160,000 |
| Pretoria, South Africa |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026 |
USD 6,600 |
| Nairobi, Kenya |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026 |
KES 230,000 |
| Abuja, Nigeria |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026 |
USD 5,600 |
| Nakuru, Kenya |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026 |
KES 240,000 |
| Zanzibar, Tanzania |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026 |
USD 5,000 |
| Live Virtual |
Online |
26 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026 |
KES 160,000 |
| Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026 |
USD 4,800 |
| Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026 |
USD 8,200 |
| Kisumu, Kenya |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026 |
KES 240,000 |
| Arusha, Tanzania |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 4 Nov 2026 |
USD 4,200 |
| Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
In-Person |
2 Nov 2026 – 13 Nov 2026 |
USD 8,200 |
| Nairobi, Kenya |
In-Person |
2 Nov 2026 – 13 Nov 2026 |
KES 230,000 |
| Nakuru, Kenya |
In-Person |
2 Nov 2026 – 11 Nov 2026 |
KES 240,000 |
| Johannesburg, South Africa |
In-Person |
2 Nov 2026 – 13 Nov 2026 |
USD 7,000 |
+229 more dates — view live schedule →
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need prior Oracle RAC experience to attend this course?
No prior RAC experience is required, but participants should be practising Oracle DBAs comfortable with SQL, PL/SQL, and core database administration tasks on Linux or Unix. The course begins with RAC fundamentals before progressing to advanced administration, making it accessible to experienced DBAs new to RAC.
What Oracle version is used in the lab environments?
All lab exercises are conducted on Oracle Database 19c running on Oracle Linux, as this is the current Long-Term Support (LTS) release widely deployed in enterprise environments. Concepts and most procedures are directly applicable to Oracle 21c as well, and instructors highlight version differences where relevant.
Will I receive a certificate upon completing the course?
Yes. Participants who attend and complete the full ten-day programme receive a TrainingComplex Certificate of Completion in Oracle RAC Administration. This certificate serves as evidence of professional development and can support preparation for Oracle's own certification examinations such as the Oracle Database Administrator Certified Professional.
Is this course relevant if my organisation uses Oracle RAC on cloud infrastructure?
Absolutely. The course covers Oracle RAC principles that apply across on-premise, private cloud, and hybrid deployments, including Oracle Cloud VMware Solution and Oracle Exadata configurations. Cloud-specific considerations such as storage networking and virtualised interconnects are discussed where they affect RAC administration practice.
What should I bring or prepare before attending?
Participants should bring a laptop capable of connecting to the training lab environment via SSH and a standard web browser. No special software installation is required in advance, as all Oracle software and cluster nodes are pre-provisioned in the TrainingComplex lab infrastructure. Reviewing Oracle's RAC installation documentation beforehand is recommended but not mandatory.
