Table of Contents

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

About the Author

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.