Best setup for an oracle database on a virtual windows server
Hello,
in our company me made the decision to migrate all our oracle servers from Linux SLES to Windows Servers 2012. Since the product is certified on both platforms and with MSSQL running purely on windows this should be no big deal.
Here is our setup: We got a VMWare 5.1 cluster with 4 physical servers enabled with HA, DRS and an attached Netapp SAN so the chance of a single disk failure or sudden powerloss as on physical servers is reduced to minimum.
We are running Catalog Software (ex Syncsort) to backup all virtual machines agentless.
Important: we run Oracle Standard One to fit in the cost intensive oracle licensing schema on a vmware cluster, so no fast recovery is possible or licensed.
Still logical or user errors can happen, so we need a backup setup to reduce the amount of dataloss in any case to a minimum. The nightly full machine backup at worst only grants us a 23:59 hour dataloss that is ok for huge problems (plan C) but we can do better.
So I was thinking to run rman to backup the database and redo logs and put those files to some external file share. Full backup also at night to have a valid restore point and hourly redo logs backup to go down to one hour dataloss.
Additionally with a standard oracle one license we can have as many cores as we like as long as we stick to 2 CPUs (the physical servers are all 2 CPUs with 10 cores) What would be a proper setup for the productive environment and development environment, don't say it depends ;-) we can change the setup any time since we are pure virtual, what is best practice for 40 GB of data and 50 oracle user accounts?
Same with RAM, we can have 64GB per machine if needed but is this really necessary? I know when Oracle can have any amount of RAM it will cache data for faster access but how can I find out if oracle should have enough given a running database?
Apart from that when I use the GUI to setup the database instance should I have 2 locations for control file or redo log, maybe a fast recovery area, what is your default setup on such a virtual system (i.e. where there is no high speed LUN available for the redo logs) or the chances that a disk on the server can crash at 0.x%
Any suggestions on this please,
thank you,
Tolomir
in our company me made the decision to migrate all our oracle servers from Linux SLES to Windows Servers 2012. Since the product is certified on both platforms and with MSSQL running purely on windows this should be no big deal.
Here is our setup: We got a VMWare 5.1 cluster with 4 physical servers enabled with HA, DRS and an attached Netapp SAN so the chance of a single disk failure or sudden powerloss as on physical servers is reduced to minimum.
We are running Catalog Software (ex Syncsort) to backup all virtual machines agentless.
Important: we run Oracle Standard One to fit in the cost intensive oracle licensing schema on a vmware cluster, so no fast recovery is possible or licensed.
Still logical or user errors can happen, so we need a backup setup to reduce the amount of dataloss in any case to a minimum. The nightly full machine backup at worst only grants us a 23:59 hour dataloss that is ok for huge problems (plan C) but we can do better.
So I was thinking to run rman to backup the database and redo logs and put those files to some external file share. Full backup also at night to have a valid restore point and hourly redo logs backup to go down to one hour dataloss.
Additionally with a standard oracle one license we can have as many cores as we like as long as we stick to 2 CPUs (the physical servers are all 2 CPUs with 10 cores) What would be a proper setup for the productive environment and development environment, don't say it depends ;-) we can change the setup any time since we are pure virtual, what is best practice for 40 GB of data and 50 oracle user accounts?
Same with RAM, we can have 64GB per machine if needed but is this really necessary? I know when Oracle can have any amount of RAM it will cache data for faster access but how can I find out if oracle should have enough given a running database?
Apart from that when I use the GUI to setup the database instance should I have 2 locations for control file or redo log, maybe a fast recovery area, what is your default setup on such a virtual system (i.e. where there is no high speed LUN available for the redo logs) or the chances that a disk on the server can crash at 0.x%
Any suggestions on this please,
thank you,
Tolomir
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
As you have a NetApp SAN, have you thought about using NetApp SAN Snapshots to Snapshot the LUNs with the VMs, this can be schedule every hour, and give you hourly backups.
ASKER
Well I'm not sure I think we didn't went for any netapp backup technology. Apart from that an open database (same with exchange) cannot be snapshotted without taking a RAM snapshot at the same time.
So I have to run datapump or rman anyway to create a valid restore point, with several databases up and running we did deploy a backup server that provides storage LUNs and the backup scripts are run by a crontab.
So I have to run datapump or rman anyway to create a valid restore point, with several databases up and running we did deploy a backup server that provides storage LUNs and the backup scripts are run by a crontab.
We actually use NetApp SAN Snapshots sicne 2004, with no issues, they work for us, and we find them crash consistent.
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ASKER
ok, I will consider this.
Apart from that I'm rather interested in the setup of the database on windows in the mentioned environment.
Apart from that I'm rather interested in the setup of the database on windows in the mentioned environment.
I would never run Oracle in production on VMware because of Oracle Support.
Support Position for Oracle Products Running on VMWare Virtualized Environments (Doc ID 249212.1)
In a nutshell:
In VMware you will only get support from Oracle if it is a known bug or the issue can be reproduced on a physical (or supported virtual) server.
Since you are moving to a Windows 2012 setup, I would run Hyper-V. Oracle recently announced support for that.
Support Position for Oracle Products Running on VMWare Virtualized Environments (Doc ID 249212.1)
In a nutshell:
In VMware you will only get support from Oracle if it is a known bug or the issue can be reproduced on a physical (or supported virtual) server.
Since you are moving to a Windows 2012 setup, I would run Hyper-V. Oracle recently announced support for that.
vmware will cache disk data outside VMs, so having extra cache 1 memcopy closer to processing is waste of RAM
what about oracle direct nfs so that data is not stored on vmware-driven disk?
what about oracle direct nfs so that data is not stored on vmware-driven disk?
ASKER
@slightwv, thank you for the heads-up - Well I'm not in the position to scrap our investment in vmware, it is all paid, installed and up and running.
We did run oracle before in vmware having no issues and we know that oracle (company) urges their customers to buy their virtualization product.
Plan B would be to drop sles and oracle and start with mssql on windows 2012, but since I know how to run oracle as DBA and I barely know mssql that would be a step I prefer to avoid.
@gheist - How can I do this under a virtual windows system?
Something like this?
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/how-do-i/how-do-i-install-configure-and-use-microsofts-iscsi-initiator/
Since our esxi servers come with plenty of RAM ( 120 GB+) there has to be be a huge benefit, to think about it.
We did run oracle before in vmware having no issues and we know that oracle (company) urges their customers to buy their virtualization product.
Plan B would be to drop sles and oracle and start with mssql on windows 2012, but since I know how to run oracle as DBA and I barely know mssql that would be a step I prefer to avoid.
@gheist - How can I do this under a virtual windows system?
Something like this?
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/how-do-i/how-do-i-install-configure-and-use-microsofts-iscsi-initiator/
Since our esxi servers come with plenty of RAM ( 120 GB+) there has to be be a huge benefit, to think about it.
No - i mean to use oranfstab like here http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E28223_01/html/E27586/configexorssc.html - oracle fine tunes to storage path and thats it.
NFS you can resize with a click of mouse, iscsi - with some gray hair... vmware vmfs - with more gray hair...
NFS you can resize with a click of mouse, iscsi - with some gray hair... vmware vmfs - with more gray hair...
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OK I think the backup part is covert, that you for the suggestions. Yesterday I've heard we did disable LUN snapshots because we use catalog software (prior named syncsort) to do the job for us.
How about the controlfile and and archive log locations, is it really needed to have 2 locations to write them down, or is one sufficiant, given the fact that it is highly unusual for a virtual disk to cancel operation.
How about the controlfile and and archive log locations, is it really needed to have 2 locations to write them down, or is one sufficiant, given the fact that it is highly unusual for a virtual disk to cancel operation.
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Ok, since I needed more advise on oracle than on the proper backup method, I think the point distribution is fair.
Next week we get an oracle expert for a few days to help us with oracle on windows. I guess I can complete my knowledge in that matter by then.
Thank you all,
Tolomir
Next week we get an oracle expert for a few days to help us with oracle on windows. I guess I can complete my knowledge in that matter by then.
Thank you all,
Tolomir