How the DBMS operates in a Cluster enviroment?

[Smashy]

Hi,

I have been reading and studying Database Management Systems (Oracle) and was wondering how it's operations differ when in a cluster environment.

Is there still a single Filesystem when using multiple machines? also what differences are made for query optimisation?

Any information on this subject is most appreciated!

Thanks.

[qwidjib0]

Hi Smashy,

Are you referring to DBMS's in general, or a specific version of Oracle you're working with?

From experience with MySQL clustering (which is unfortunately all I have to share here), not too much is different; queries are run from one system and kept in sync by the software across the nodes. Some features are missing a typical MySQL system in those cases, but not many (ie. indexes on fulltext columns). All of the concepts of good database design and optimization (normalization, etc.) still hold true.