Virtualizing Oracle Databases on vSphere

The start-to-finish guide to virtualizing business-critical Oracle Software and Databases on VMware vSphere

Virtualizing large-scale Oracle software and databases on vSphere can deliver powerful scalability, availability, and performance benefits. Recognizing this opportunity, thousands of organizations are moving to virtualize Oracle. However, reliable best practices have been difficult to find, and database and virtualization professionals often bring incompatible perspectives to the challenge.

Virtualizing Oracle® Databases on vSphere® is the first authoritative, comprehensive, and best-practice guide to running Oracle on VMware platforms. Reflecting a deep understanding of both Oracle and vSphere, this guide is supported by extensive in-the-field experience with the full spectrum of database applications and environments. Both a detailed reference and a practical cookbook, it combines theory and practice, and offers up-to-date insights for the entire lifecycle, supported by case studies.

Kannan Mani and Don Sullivan fully address architecture, performance, design, sizing, and high availability. Focusing on current versions of Oracle and vSphere, they highlight the differences between ESX/ESXi 4.x and 5.x wherever relevant. To deliver even more value, they provide extensive online resources, including easy-to-adapt scripts and expert how-to videos.

Coverage includes:

• Understanding the DBA’s expanded role in virtualized environments, and the emergence of the vDBA, vRACDBA, and Cloud DBA
• Identifying your best opportunities to drive value from virtualizing Oracle
• Anticipating challenges associated with virtualizing Oracle-based Business Critical Applications on vSphere
• Using VMware to overcome ongoing database deployment and management problems
• Protecting your virtualized database environment with vSphere’s high-availability capabilities
• Designing databases to achieve scalability on demand, maximize availability, consolidate servers, and improve compliance
• Implementing best practices for memory, storage, and database layout
• Demystifying the impact of virtualization on Oracle support and licensing
• Using VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) to accelerate disaster recovery by seamlessly integrating VM and storage failover
• Streamlining provisioning and taking advantage of opportunities to automate

Kannan Mani (@kantwit) is currently a Staff Architect - Oracle Solutions for VMware. Kannan has been with VMware for more than 4 years, involved in developing and architecting business critical Oracle solutions on VMware platforms, and helping customers and partners successfully virtualize Oracle on VMware vSphere platform globally. Kannan was previously Reference Architecture Specialist at NetApp, where he architected and developed Oracle solutions on NetApp Storage. Prior to NetApp, Kannan was an Architecture Specialist at Unisys, where he led Oracle Center of Excellence. Kannan is the domain expert in Oracle technologies on various platforms (Storage and Virtualization) and published numerous customer-facing technical documents on Oracle and Database technologies. Kannan has over 17 years in the IT industry experience, and his expertise includes Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), Automatic Storage Management (ASM), clustering, customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), business intelligence, performance and scalable enterprise architectures, benchmark and performance, technical solutions marketing and management, virtualization, and Cloud solutions. Kannan is a regular speaker at IOUG, VMworld, VMware Partner Exchange, Oracle Open World, EMC World, NetApp Insight, SNIA, and he is also an evangelist of Oracle technologies. Kannan has been recognized by Oracle as an Oracle ACE, and by VMware as CTO Ambassador and vExpert. Kannan holds a Master’s degree in Computer Applications and a Master’s degree in Business Administration focused on technology.

Don Sullivan, an Oracle Certified Master, a vExpert, and a VMware CTO Ambassador joined VMware in June of 2010 as a Systems Engineer Database Specialist and Oracle Solution Architect for the entirety of the Americas. In that capacity, he has worked with numerous customers and partners focused on the proposition of running Oracle, SQL, and other high-workload systems on vSphere. Presently, the Product Line Marketing Manager for Business Critical Applications at VMware, Don is a frequent speaker at conferences focused on databases and virtualization. After finishing his Master’s thesis at Arizona State University in 1996, Don focused on logical database design with Sybase TxSql, and he moved to Denver to work as a contract DBA. Don subsequently worked for AT&T as a contract DBA with both Sybase and Oracle. In 1998, he joined Oracle and Oracle University and became a Senior Principal Instructor for Oracle University, focusing on server products. He taught all server-based classes for 6 years, which included all New Features classes, OPS/RAC, Backup & Recovery, Performance Tuning, SQL Tuning, Data Guard, and the Data Server Internals (DSI) classes from 7.3 through 10g. He is a co-author of the Oracle Certified Master Practicum, and he is an original Oracle Certified Master. He also co-authored a performance-tuning class text for MySQL. In 2004, he became a consultant with Oracle’s Advanced Technology Services (ATS) and spent the next 18 months involved in a number of proofs of concept (POCs) and other post-sales engagements. In 2005, Don joined Polyserve Corporation as the primary customer-facing Oracle Solution Architect. Although his role was primarily pre-sales, he was involved with all Polyserve customers who had Oracle implementations at every step of their implementation, both pre- and post-sales. In 2007, Polyserve was acquired by HP, and he stayed with HP. In that capacity, Don spent the majority of 2009 through 2013 delivering seminars and workshops to large customer groups focused on Oracle over Network File System (NFS). In 2010, Don joined VMware as a customer-facing Systems Engineer Database Specialist with both Sales and later PSO. In addition, Don is also a project manager for many projects to include cross-corporate functional stress tests. Finally, Don manages the virtualizing applications sub-track at VMworld and VMware’s series of select database workshops.

Foreword xv

Introduction xix

About the Authors xxiii

Acknowledgments xxv

About the Reviewers xxix

Chapter 1 Introduction to Oracle Databases on Virtual Infrastructure 1

    Virtualization with ESXi and vSphere and the Software-Defi ned Datacenter 3

    Virtualizing Oracle Databases on vSphere: Benefi ts and Examples 7

    Oracle Databases and DBA Fundamentals 8

    Understanding Oracle Database Architectures 11

    Summary 12

Chapter 2 Virtualization and High-Performance Oracle Workloads 15

    Virtualized Oracle Environments on vSphere Key Benefi ts 15

        Consolidating Platforms to Reduce Datacenter Costs 17

        Enhancing Database Availability and Cost-Effective Disaster Recovery 19

        Provisioning Rapid and New Database Server Environments 21

        Reducing Planned Downtime with Migration of Live Oracle Database Servers 22

        Guaranteeing Resources in a Shared Environment 23

        Achieving IT Compliance 24

    Zeroing In on Key Trigger Events 24

    Solving Oracle Database Deployment and Management Issues Using VMware 25

        Implementing Dynamic Oracle Datacenter Resource Management 26

        Minimizing Server Sprawl 27

        Meeting SLA Demands for Database Performance, Availability, and Disaster Recovery 27

        Supporting a Dynamic Business Environment 27

        Minimizing License Costs 28

        Maximizing Oracle Workloads and Sizing 28

        Option 1: Sizing the Oracle DB Workload 30

        Option 2: Sizing the Oracle DB Application Vendor Recommendations 32

        Option 3: Sizing Oracle DB Server Vendor Guidelines 35

    Testing the Limits: Performance Studies and Stress Tests 36

    Summary 36

Chapter 3 Oracle Databases and Applications in Virtual Infrastructure: Architectural Concepts 37

    VMware ESXi Hypervisor 38

    Designing Databases on VMware 41

        Designing for Scalability on Demand 42

        Designing for High Availability 44

        Maintaining Compliance 48

        Consolidating Database Servers 48

        Virtualizing Oracle RAC 51

    Identifying Key Stakeholders 53

    Summary 54

Chapter 4 Oracle on vSphere Best Practices 55

    Implementing ESX Host Best Practices 57

        Maximizing Performance Using BIOS Settings 58

        Operating System Processes 59

        Upgrading the Version of ESX/ESXi and vSphere 60

        Maximizing Support for a Hardware-Assisted Memory Management Unit 61

    Implementing Memory-Related Best Practices 61

        Supporting Large Pages 64

        Implementing Compute (vCPU)-Related Best Practices 65

    Confi guring Storage-Related Best Practices 68

        Categorizing Storage Virtualization Technologies 71

        Understanding Storage Protocol Capabilities 71

        Understanding Database Layout Considerations 73

        Comparing VMFS to RDM: Performance and Functionality 76

    Networking Guidelines 78

    Monitoring Performance on vSphere 79

    Timekeeping in Virtual Machines 81

    Summary 82

Chapter 5 Oracle Database High Availability: Planned and Unplanned Downtime 83

    Protecting the Virtualized Environment with vSphere High Availability 84

    Protecting Applications with vSphere and Symantec AppHA 86

    Understanding Oracle RAC in Virtual Machines 88

        Implementing Oracle RAC One Node 88

        Implementing Multinode RAC 90

    Deploying Oracle RAC on vSphere 92

    Protecting Oracle Databases Against Downtime 98

    Transitioning RAC Nodes Between Hosts Using VMware vMotion 100

    To RAC or Not to RAC 103

    Summary 104

Chapter 6 Performance Workload and Functional Stress Test Studies 105

    Oracle Single-Instance Workload Study 106

        Test Methodology 106

        Test Result Details 109

    Oracle RAC Workload Characterization Study 121

        vMotion and VMware HA 121

        Large-Scale Order Entry Benchmark Kit (Swingbench) 122

        Architecture 123

        Network Confi guration 125

        Oracle RAC Installation Overview 130

        24-Hour Workload Test 131

        Oracle RAC Node vMotion Test 132

        Mega vMotion-RAC Functional Stress Test 135

    Summary 139

Chapter 7 Support and Licensing 141

    Contemplating Oracle Software Support and Licensing 141

    Understanding Oracle Certifi cation and Support for VMware Environments 143

        Certifi cation of Oracle on VMware vSphere 144

    Licensing Oracle 147

        Advising VMware Customers 149

    Summary 154

Chapter 8 Performance Management and Monitoring 155

    Performance Management Terminology 157

    The Role of the DBA in Performance Management 158

    Processing Power: CPU or vCPU 159

        CPU Ready Time (%RDY) 162

    Memory 164

        System Huge Pages 167

        Transparent Page Sharing 172

    Non-Uniform Memory Access 172

    Networking 175

        Network Load Testing 176

        Dropped Packets 177

    Storage Confi guration and Utilization 181

        SCSI Queues 182

        NFS Storage 185

        Storage Access Latency 187

        Spindle Busy Average 190

    Understanding SCSI Queue Depth on an ESX/ESXi Host and Virtual Machine 191

        Storage Path Throughput 192

        Storage Benchmarking VMDK 193

        Benchmarking and Ongoing Maintenance 197

        Iometer 198

        Oracle ORION 203

    Comparing Storage Types 219

        Block Alignment 220

        Using pvSCSI and LSI Controllers 222

        ASM Is Comparable to an LVM 225

    Understanding the Oracle Enterprise Manager vCOPS Adapter 228

        Using Oracle Database Server Metrics 230

        Installing Oracle Enterprise Manager Adapter 232

        Validating the OEM Adapter 233

        Creating Oracle Database Custom Dashboard 233

        Confi guring a Metric Graph (Rollover View) Widget 235

        Confi guring a Generic Scoreboard Widget 235

        Finalizing the Oracle Database Dashboard 236

    Summary 239

Chapter 9 Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery 241

    VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 243

        vSphere Replication 245

        Storage Array-Based Replication 247

        Storage Replication Adapters 247

        Application-Based Replication 248

        Oracle Data Guard 248

        Repairing Logical Data Block Corruption with Oracle Data Guard 249

    Combining vSphere Replication and Data Guard 250

        Testing SRM vSphere Replication 251

    Using Storage Array-Based Replication with vSphere 253

    Virtual Provisioning for Oracle ASM Disk Groups 255

    Solution Findings 256

    Creating a Disaster Recovery Plan 257

        Confi gure Connections 257

        Break the Connection 257

        Export System Logs 257

        Using Array-Based Replication 258

    Summary 264

Chapter 10 Backup and Recovery 267

    Backup and Recovery Principles 269

        Backing Up Data Using In-Guest Software Solutions 270

    Oracle Database Backup Methods 270

        Classic Oracle Database Backups 270

        Listing of Storage Vendor Backup Tools 272

        Other Backup Tools 273

        Storage Vendor Backup Solutions 273

        Working with NetApp Backup Solutions 274

    NetApp Backup and Restore Solution Overview 274

        Integrating NetApp with vSphere 274

        Working with NetApp Snapshot 275

        Backing Up a Virtualized Oracle Database with NetApp Snapshot 275

        Tools Available for Backups of Oracle Using NetApp 276

        Step-by-Step Solution for Backing Up a Virtualized Oracle Database with NetApp Storage and NFS Datastores 277

        Restoring a Database Using NetApp Snapshot 277

        Backup and Restore Use Case with Snap Creator 278

    EMC Avamar Backup and Restore Solution Overview 279

        Backing Up the Oracle Database 280

        Restoring the Oracle Database 281

        VMware Data Protection Advanced 281

    Comparing VMFS and RDM 282

        Backups 283

        Understand the Functionality of VMFS Versus RDMs 283

        Oracle Data Guard for Backup 284

        Oracle Database Backup Strategy Matrix 286

    Summary 286

Chapter 11 Provisioning and Automation 289

    Migrating Oracle Database from a Physical to Virtual Environment 291

    Viewing Oracle Migration from a Physical to Virtual Solution 293

        Facilitating Deployments 294

        Understanding the Business Scenario 294

        Lab Architecture 295

        Migrating Oracle Database from Physical to Virtual 296

        Confi guring Application Blueprints Using vCAC 302

    Building a Database-as-a-Service Platform 311

        Listing the Benefi ts of DBaaS 312

        Allocating Storage as Part of the DBaaS Paradigm 313

        Choosing the Components of a DBaaS Architecture 313

    Summary 314

Chapter 12 Case Studies 317

    Indiana University 318

    American Tire Distributors 320

    EMC Information Technology 321

    Green Mountain Power 323

    The Idaho Supreme Court 324

    The University of British Columbia 326

    VMware Information Technologies 327

    So Many Others 330

    Working with Events 330

    Summary 332

    Book Conclusion 332

TOC, 9780133570182, 9/26/2014

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