What is appropriate (RDM or VMDK) using oracle databse

[Wajeeh]

Dear All,

We are using vSphere 5.0 and having a new requirement. I need to understand for oracle database what is more appropriate

- use a vmdk or RDM

- if on vmdk and other other virtual windows machines will be accessing this vmdk , since it have oracle DB, this will be ok ? even if the virtual machines are on two Esxi hosts

We are looking for feedback and experience of other people here to reach to a point. If before responding me , you need some more details, please let me know.

thanks,

[HannuBalk]

Hi Wajeeh,

We are running virtualized Oracle database and we prefer vmdk mode. In my opinion there is no performance penalty and seems that VMware has same opinion (vSphere 5.1 - VMDK versus RDM | VMware vSphere Blog - VMware Blogs). Instead if using RDM we would lose some of the benefits of virtualized environment. We have dedicated VMFS datastore to only Oracle and other VM's have different datastore. In my opinion this makes performance troubleshooting bit easier and if not using. Also I recommend that you use Storage IOC if using same datastore with Oracle and other VMs.

What are your thoughts on sizing on Oracle VM? Is that VMware host "dedicated" to Oracle or are you going to run also other VM's on it?

We have been running virtualized Oracle now about an year and we have been very satisfied with performance so far so I definitely recommend virtualizing Oracle.

Hannu

[memaad]

Hello ,

You have to go by best practice recommendation for virtualizing Oracle

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/partners/oracle/Oracle_Databases_on_VMware_-_Best_Practices_Guide.pd...

VMware: Oracle Virtualization: Run Oracle on a Virtual Machine | United States