A friend asked me a question that I could not answer. He is in the planning stages of an "extended RAC deployment" and is looking for confirmation that multicasting is optional. Help would be appreciated. Kindest regards, Iggy -- Iggy FernandezEmail: iggy_fernandez@hotmail.comCellphone: (925) 478 3161Blog: So Many Manuals So Little Time Author of Beginning Oracle Database 11g AdministrationEditor of the NoCOUG JournalLecturer at University of Washington Professional and Continuing Education Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 11:13:03 -0700 From: kulkarniravi@xxxxxxxxx Subject: Extended RAC and multicast To: iggy_fernandez@xxxxxxxxxxx I am looking to setup extended RAC for my client. The details are as following: The two data centers are separated by a distance of less than 20 miles. They are connected by a high speed dedicated connection. Operating System: RHEL 6 64 bit Database version: 11gR2 (11.2.0.3) Hardware: Four servers with 4x16 configuration All the documentation I have reviewed so far says multicast should be enabled on the private interconnect between all the nodes of a RAC database. However, my network resources tell me that multicasting is not enabled across the data centers and VLANs do not span across the data centers. The only reference I have seen to multicasting requirement is in this Oracle document: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E16655_01/install.121/e17888/networks.htm#CWLIN476 Specifically it makes the following assertion: "You do not need to enable multicast communications across routers" Does this mean, multicast is optional? Regards, Ravi Kulkarni