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touimet
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Oracle RAC on Windows 2008, no support??

It looks like Oracle does not support setting up the RAC within a virtualized environment running on windows.  It must be Linux/Unix based.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/virtualizationmatrix-172995.html

Anyone successfully, in a production environment, running Oracle RAC 11.2.03 on Windows 2008?  Are you using shared RDM's or the "multi-writer" mode as described in KB 1034165?

The VMware RAC Deploy Guide (http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/partners/oracle/vmware-oracle-rac-deploy-guide.pdf) describes the configuration using the "multi-writer" mode KB 1034165 however the OS listed is only Oracle Linux.  No mention of Windows 2008.

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kjb007
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Immortal

Had this running in a prod env using Windows 2008.  Had many errors, was not very clean, ended up moving to Linux anyway.

It's been a while, so don't have too many details, but we were using RDMs from what I recall.

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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touimet
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We currently have Oracle RAC 11gR1 installed on several non-production Windows 2008 VM's using the RDM method.  We limited the number of nodes to two max.  The Oracle application folks have not complained yet but again they have not gone live either.  We are considering using the "multi-writer" method but would like to see support, documentation, case studies, personal experiences etc etc etc. on this.

Anyone?

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touimet
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Enthusiast

Take a look at the following documents for referenece:

- VMworld 2011 presentation BCA2320 titled "Vmware vSphere 5: Best Practices for Oracle RAC Virtualization"

- VMware Solution Readiness document titled " Oracle RAC on VMware vSphere Deployment Guide" July 2011

Reading through these documents you'll find the OS mentioned is Linux.  No mention of Windows as the base OS.  Anyone been successful with a VMware virtualized Oracle RAC on Windows 2008 VM's using the multi-writer method (kb 1034165) in a production environment?

Thank you! 

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hjnorris
Contributor
Contributor

We had issues running Oracle 10gR2 RAC on Windows 2003 Server.  Many unique "windows" issues caused problems until we found the right balance of Oracle CPU patches, Microsoft patches and windows tweaks.  We were not virtualized.    Linux was not an option at the time because the CIO believed that Windows had a lower TCO than Linux.

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touimet
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I would like to send out a huge thank you to Bob Goldsand and the VMware tech writing team for working with us to implement changes to the VMware documentation to include a support statement for Oracle RAC on Windows VM using the multiwriter flag.   The latest “December 2011” document titled “Oracle Databases on VMware RAC Deployment Guide” has a small but very important addition found on the top of page 20 of 46.  The note reads as follows:

“Note: This document is specific to Linux guest operating system. Oracle RAC 11.2.0.2 and above versions can be deployed and supported on the list of guest operation systems using VMware multi-writer flag (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1008027).”    

This statement clearly reflects VMware support for using the multiwriter flag with a Windows/Oracle RAC configuration.

The latest document can be found here:

http://blogs.vmware.com/apps/2011/04/yes-oracle-is-supported-on-vmware-.html

Bob Goldsand’s blog on Oracle RAC Virtualization:

http://blogs.vmware.com/alliances/2011/12/episode-ii-gmp.html

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