Oracle Database Online Documentation 12c Release 1 (12.1)
Clustering
Clustering relieves users from concerns about where data resides and which computer processes their requests. Users request information or computation and have it delivered - as much as they want, whenever they want. For the DBA, the grid is about resource allocation, information sharing, and high availability. Oracle Database with Real Application Clusters and Oracle Clusterware provide the infrastructure for your database grid. Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) provides the infrastructure for a storage grid. Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control provides you with holistic management of your grid.Essentials
Supporting Documentation
Oracle Real Application Clusters
Oracle Real Application Clusters enables a single database to run across multiple clustered nodes in a grid, pooling the processing resources of several standard machines.Provides dynamic load balancing, failover, and centralized service management for a set of replicated databases that offer common services. The set of databases can include Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) and noncluster Oracle databases interconnected through Oracle Data Guard, or any other replication technology.