Oracle Design Question

[doubleH]

Howdy,

We will be implementing a new GIS application that will store all it's data in an Oracle 10R2 spatial database. Database server will be running Windows 2003 R2. There will be 10 users using the application with future growth increasing it to 25. I've read many posts about Oracle licensing and supportability and I am comfortable with this aspect. My questions revolve around design and hoping you guys can offer some suggestions.

Current Hardware

ESX Hosts (2)

Model: HP DL385 G2

CPU: (2) AMD Opteron 2218-Dual Core

RAM: 22GB

HBA: QLogic 4052c

NIC: NC360T (Dual Port)

SAN

EqualLogic PS100E, Raid50

I will be ordering a new PS100E and it will be configured for RAID 10 to ensure that the SAN is configured for optimal disk access. This SAN will also be used for future databases such as Exchange (100 users) in the future.

The OS will reside in a VMDK, but I'm not sure if I should be using VMDKs or RDMs for the database disk. Or should I create a LUN, install the MS iSCSI initiator in the guest and connect directly to the LUN. I've read that this is best option for performance and is recommended by EqualLogic.

How do the above guest configurations affect VMotion/HA/DRS?

http://www.equallogic.com/news/release_display.aspx?id=462

[djflux]

According to what I've read and heard, Oracle only provides limited support for running the Oracle Stack inside a VMware Virtual Machine. You may want to check with your Oracle reseller or contact Oracle support to verify what kind of support you are going to receive before you move forward.

Some references (which may or may not be up-to-date):

http://basklaassen.blogspot.com/2006/11/support-status-oracle-on-vmware.html

http://www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/09-2007/msg00323.html

[doubleH]

djflux - thank you for your response, but you didn't read my original paragraph..."I've read many posts about Oracle licensing and supportability and I am comfortable with this aspect. My questions revolve around design and hoping you guys can offer some suggestions. "

can someone offer any suggestions with regard to my technical questions?

[doubleH]

bump

[gorto]

Try Oracle VM

However,

" .... not sure if I should be using VMDKs or RDMs for the database disk." - RDM is considered better

" Or should I create a LUN, install the MS iSCSI initiator in the guest and connect directly to the LUN." - the guest access to raw hardware is restricted

[petedr]

In the Oracle environment I used to run we had everything as vmdks. The operating was one vmdk, the Oracle install (Oracle_Home, etc) was a seperate vmdk and the database was on a third vmdk. Everything was all Raid 10. We had about 500 users ( 150 - 200 concurrent ) and didn't have any issues in this setup. My environment was a 9i database so I don't know if requirements and best practices has changed with 10.

[doubleH]

I've found a few new Oracle/VMware resources that I will share. Funny how they seem to appear after Oracle announces Oracle VM...

http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/general/oracle

[petedr]

I also recently found this one in the vmware community blog section talking about Oracle performance and vmware.

http://blogs.vmware.com/performance/2007/11/ten-reasons-why.html

[clifsey-hcps]

when you created your separate vmdks for the OS, the Install, and the DB, were they on the same raid 10 set inside the smae vmfs partition, or were they separate vmfs raid 10 luns? So you see what i'm trying to ask?

[petedr]

I get what you asking, I believe they were all on the same vmfs, just seperate vmdks. I don't have access to that environment anymore so can't double check to be sure.

[petedr]

I doubled checked with a former colleague on our Oracle environment and I was mistaked in my previous post.

They actually were on seperate Raid 10 vmfs partitions. One other thing we also did was keep a copy of the control file on each disk.

[clifsey-hcps]

Thank you for following up. that would make a huge difference in my required disks. The next question may or may not label me an ESX rookie but..... Is the "Control File" and Oracle thing or a VMware thing? I have not run into this yet.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

The control file is an Oracle file that stores information about the database. It will include info about the data files, tablespaces, archive mode, redo log ifle, etc. Without it, the database can't be started. As noted in the previous post, it's a good idea to have multiple copies ideally on seperate physical disks (or arrays).

[petedr]

thanks Dave for relpying on the control file,

For the vmdk partitions putting them on a seperate vmfs partitions is just one approach. You could try on a single /vmfs with multiple vmdks, it may work fine for you.