Expert Oracle

Writings on Oracle Database, Applications & more

http://expertoracle.com

SCAN -Single Client Access Name

Author : Brijesh Gogia

Figure 1
SCAN is new Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) 11gR2 feature. It gives a single name for
clients to access oracle database running in a cluster.

Basics of SCAN

Single client access name (SCAN) is the virtual hostname to provide for all clients connecting
to the cluster (as opposed to the vip hostnames in 10g and 11gR1).
SCAN is a domain name registered to at least one and up to three IP addresses, either in the
domain name service (DNS) or the Grid Naming Service (GNS).

1/6

 By default, the name used as the SCAN is also the name of the cluster and must be globally
unique throughout your enterprise.
For installation to succeed, the SCAN must resolve to at least one address. There can be a
maximum of three ip addresses that can be used for the SCAN.
SCAN VIP addresses must be on the same subnet as virtual IP addresses and public IP
addresses.
SCAN VIPs can float in the cluster while Node VIPs as default run on specific nodes only.
SCAN Listeners are simply used for redirecting the request received from client, this is usually
considered a lightweight process when we compare it to the functioning of Node VIP Listeners
as these actually fork a new process to create database conenction.
SCAN IP address and SCAN listeners are managed as resources in Oracle Clusterware.
For high availability and scalability, Oracle recommends that you configure the SCAN to use
DNS Round Robin resolution to three addresses.
Benefits of SCAN

1) the SCAN makes it possible to add or remove nodes from the cluster without needing to
reconfigure clients (Because the SCAN is associated with the cluster as a whole, rather than to
a particular node). Before SCAN, if the cluster changed, then the client TNSNAMES.ORA files
(or other tns connect strings like Easy Connect strings) would need to change. So your DBA
can easily add or delete a node without changing the configuration files.
For example, connection to database 11g using SCAN would use this tnsnames entry:

11g =
(DESCRIPTION=
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=racscan.corp.to)(PORT=1521))
(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=11g))

While without SCAN we were using

11g_old =

(DESCRIPTION=

(ADDRESS_LIST=

(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(H

2/6

OST=rac1-vip.corp.to)(PORT=1521))
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=rac2vip.corp.to)(PORT=1521))
)
(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=11g))

2) It also adds location independence for the databases, so that client configuration does not
have to depend on which nodes are running a particular database.

Working
When a client submits a request, the SCAN listener listening on a SCAN IP address and the
SCAN port is contracted on a clients behalf. Because all services on the cluster are registered
with the SCAN listener, the SCAN listener replies with the address of the local listener on the
least-loaded node (Each scan listener keeps updated cluster load statistics) where the service is
currently being offered. Finally, the client establishes connection to the service through the
listener on the node where service is offered.All of these actions take place transparently to the
client without any explicit configuration required in the client.

Figure 2 ( taken from Oracle documentation)

3/6

Figure 2 above shows where SCAN and Local listeners fits into picture.

Connection flow in case of SCAN is :

1) Client sends connection to SCAN name and a SCAN IP address is provided in return if DNS
is used. SCAN IPs are returned in round-robin process. If GNS is used for SCAN ip
management then DNS delegates the request to GNS services and GNS services in turn return
a SCAN IP address ( again in round-robin fashion)
2) The TNS request is now forwarded to the SCAN Listeners (shown in Fig 2)
3) SCAN listeners in turn forward the request to local listeners ( least loaded one)
4) Local listeners take care of client request.

Setup
In order to successful install grid infrastructure you need to configure your DNS prior to
installing the grid infrastructure to resolve the name accordingly. Oracle requires at least
one IPs to be configured for the scan name.
You can have two options to define SCAN name
1) Define it in your DNS (Domain Name Service
2) Use GNS (Grid Naming Service)

Also after the setup is done, the remote_listener parameter is made to point to SCAN
tnsnames.ora entry and local_listener uses VIP Listener entry. The remote listeners which
points to SCAN listeners will do the load balancing and local listeners will take care of new
process spawning and connection to database. PMON registers with SCAN listener as defined
in parameter remote_listener setting and also with the node listener depending on the local
listener settings. On the basis of PMON provided details SCAN will choose the least loaded
node to forward the request received from client.

4/6

NAME
TYPE
VALUE
remote_listener
string
rac-scan.global.to:1521 NAME
TYPE
VALUE local_listener
s
tring
(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP) (HOST
=196.1.2.50)(PORT=1521))))

You need to provide SCAN related settings during installation of Grid infrastructure as shown
below.

Figure 3

5/6

Is it mandatory to use SCAN?

No but It is highly recommended to use SCAN unless theres strong business reason
preventing it from being used.

6/6
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)