RAC VS GRID

Question

Dear all,
what's the difference between GRID and RAC if any?
I know that services in RAC is a key component of GRID but i need a broader definition
Thanks

Answer 1

Note that I said "RAC is Oracle's implementation of
grid computing for the database'.
Specifically meaning that there are other components
of grid, even in Oracle technology stack. However,
the database component of grid (that which uses
several disparate resources to provide compute power
to manipulate database) is called RAC. I did note what you wrote. That's why I wrote what I wrote in reply.
Are you saying that Resource Manager isn't a "database component". Or ASSM? Or ASM? Or ASMM? Or LMT?
I would say that they are all database components. They all "manipulate database". And they are thus all part of Oracle's implementation of grid computing for the database.
What you are saying is that RAC is Oracle's implementation of grid computing for the database. I'm saying, it's just one component of an entire database-specific set of technologies which, taken together, represent an implementation of grid computing for the database.
That's a clear difference between us and it doesn't help to blur it away by pretending I didn't read what you wrote closely enough.
Therefore I request you quote the entire phrase and
use it as intended ...Well, no. Because it's cumbersome. We're on an Oracle forum; discussing Oracle; and discussing Oracle's implementation of grid-like technologies. I think that's plenty enough context in which it is clear that 'grid computing' means 'grid computing as it relates to database use and administration'.
And yes, Resource Manager is one of the technologies
that may be used to CONTROL the resources in the RAC.
But it is not the multi-resource coordinating
piece.It is central to "grid computing for the database". It doesn't just "control" it. It makes the transparent operation of database computing power a reality: Just as everyone switching on their kettles at the ad break during a tv movie premier is the cause of extra powerstations starting up and handling the peak load transparently for the tea-brewer, so RM's ability to scale people down and scale them back up means the RAC (or the single instance) provides appropriate computing power for queries transparently.
And it can be used to good effect *without RAC*. That is the point, of course. You go around oversimplifying and claiming that RAC=GCFTD (no, I won't keep quoting the entire lumbrous phrase. It's why I simplified as I did) and I think you do people a grave disservice. You underplay what grid is, what Oracle's implementation of grid is, what it can do for people and the fact that gridness (in any context) is a spectrum of possibilities, not a black and white issue.
And the 'does not mean transparency to
administrators' is taken in the same way as in a
power grid - to the user of electricity, the source
of the electricity (which gen station) is completely
transparent, but to the administrator it is not [as]
transparent. Yes, I realise that. That's why I just said it's a spectrum of possibilities. Glad to discover that you agree with me. But my point is that it's a spectrum of possibilities for users AND administrators, no exceptions. That different groups will "feel" any given point on that spectrum in different ways is obvious, but that the spectrum applies to all should be equally obvious ...but didn't seem to be from your earlier comments.