Capabilities of Global Data Services

Oracle Global Data Services (GDS) enables dynamic load balancing, intelligent routing, automated failover, centralized management, and role-based services to optimize database operations.

Oracle Global Data Services (GDS) technology provides the following principal capabilities:

Dynamic Load Balancing ensures optimal distribution of workload across available database instances.
Connect-time load balancing: Global service managers use the load statistics from all databases in the GDS pool, inter-region network latency, and the configured connect-time load balancing goal to route the incoming connections to the best database in a GDS pool. This prevents any single database from becoming a bottleneck.
- Runtime load balancing: GDS enables runtime load balancing across replicated databases by publishing a real-time load balancing advisory for connection pool-based clients (for example, OCI, JDBC, ODP.NET, WebLogic, and so on.). The connection pool-based clients subscribe to this load-balancing advisory and route database requests in real time across already-established connections.
  With GDS's runtime connection load balancing feature, application client work requests are dynamically routed to the database that offers the best performance. Through a process called Gravitation, GDS dynamically adjusts connections between databases in response to changing load conditions, ensuring even workload distribution as demands fluctuate.
Intelligent Workload Routing routes incoming workload based on established criteria.
Region-based workload routing: Allows you to configure client connections to be routed among a set of replicated databases in a local region. This capability allows you to maximize application performance (avoiding the network latency overhead of accessing databases in remote areas).
Lag-based workload routing: "With Oracle Active Data Guard, standby databases can lag behind the primary database. A global service allows you to choose the acceptable lag tolerance for a given application. GDS routes requests to a standby database whose lag is below the limit. If the lag exceeds the lag limit, the service is relocated to another available standby database that lags below the threshold. New requests are routed to a standby database that satisfies the lag limit. The global service is shut down if there is no available database. When the lag is resolved or comes within the limit, GDS automatically brings up the service.
Inter-Database Service Failover provides uninterrupted availability.
In the event of a database failure, GDS automatically and transparently fails over services to a healthy replica. This automated and transparent response capability eliminates human error and delayed action.
Connection pools are instantly notified, ensuring minimal disruption for applications and end-users. This significantly reduces downtime and ensures business continuity.
Role-based Global Services provide tailored service placement based on business needs.
GDS enables you to configure services based on database roles, such as primary, physical standby, logical standby, and snapshot standby.
This allows you to enforce specific service placement policies and optimize resource utilization.
GDS supports RAFT Replication, Oracle Distributed Database and Oracle True Cache.
Centralized Service Management provided by GDS allows more straightforward configuration and management of the replicated databases' resources located anywhere with a single unified framework.
Create, configure, and manage services across multiple databases from a single interface using the GDSCTL command line utility or through the graphical interface provided by Oracle Enterprise Manager.
These GDS tools simplify administration, eliminate the need for manual interventions on individual databases, and accelerate service provisioning and adjustments.

Parent topic: Introduction to Oracle AI Database Global Data Services