Abdul, The answer is SERIALIZATION. Like someone (!) mentioned RAC is like a stereo amplifier. The outcome is dependent on the original music. If the original track has lots of noise, that will also be amplified and i guess that is what you are seeing. What is your SR#.? > Any suggestions on identifying root cause as to why the adding of any nodes > back to the picture slows things way down? We have an SR opened with > Oracle Support but nothing firm so far. -- Best Regards, K Gopalakrishnan Co-Author: Oracle Wait Interface, Oracle Press 2004 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/007222729X/ Author: Oracle Database 10g RAC Handbook, Oracle Press 2006 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/007146509X/ -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l