Oracle Workloads – Where Eagles Dare !!!

In the world of Business-Critical Applications, especially IO intensive Oracle workloads, there is always a need for storage migration, based on the ever-demanding workload profile. For example,

• Migrate storage from one Tier to another Tier within a storage array
• Migrate storage from one array to another array (within a datacenter and even between datacenters as part of DC relocation)

This approach is independent of whether those workloads are virtualized or not. The end goal is to ensure that the underlying storage architecture can provide and sustain the demanding needs of the Application.

This article describes how storage migration can be performed for Oracle database running on VMware vSphere, for any types of underlying storage.  The migration is done using a combination of two key technologies depending on the database deployment model

• VMware Storage vMotion
• Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM).

Before describing this technique, we first review some key ideas, including the deployment model of Oracle on vSphere and the fundamentals of Storage vMotion.

This blog focuses on Storage vMotion of Oracle Non-RAC workloads within the same vSphere Cluster.

The previous blog On Demand Scaling up resources for Oracle production workloads – Hot Add CPU and Hot Add Memory focused on how to stop hoarding much needed infrastructure resources and live wisely ever after by scaling up as needed effectively.

This blog focuses on the Hot Remove CPU and Memory aspect of Oracle Workloads and the current limitations associated with these technologies.

Join us at VMworld 2021 to learn how Business Critical Apps benefit from our latest platforms  

VMworld 2021 will be a global online event starting October 5-7, 2021, While the program will be adapted to fit the new digital format, VMworld will still be the place to learn about innovative new technology solutions, hear perspectives from VMware executives, dive into educational and technical content, and engage with experts across the industry ecosystem.

At VMworld 2021 you can immerse yourself in learning about Workload/Business Critical Applications (BCA) with a rich line up of Breakout Sessions, Expert Round tables and Demos.  Discover how fast and efficient it is to expand to a hybrid cloud to offer flexibility across many workloads diverse as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Active Directory, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence featured in the session lineup.

Checkout the must-see sessions, expert round tables and demos below for Workloads/BCA:

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Breakout Sessions
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Oracle

• MCL1089 Streamlining Oracle Workloads from On Premises to the VMware Hybrid Multi-Clouds

Microsoft

• 1318 – Virtualizing Microsoft SQL Server on vSphere – Stories from the Trenches
• 1198 – Virtualizing Active Directory – Doing it Right!

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Expert Round tables
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Oracle

• MCL1144 Architecting Oracle Workloads on VMware Hybrid Cloud with Best Practices

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vBrownbag
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Oracle

• Streamlining Oracle Workloads from on-premises to the VMware Hybrid Cloud
• Accelerating Oracle workloads on VMware Hybrid Clouds

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Demos
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The previous blog No downtime Storage vMotion of Oracle RAC Cluster using shared vmdk’s with multi-writer attribute from one vSAN to another vSAN Cluster using VMware HCI Mesh demonstrated how we can achieve Storage vMotion of Oracle RAC Cluster using shared vmdk’s with multi-writer attribute ONLINE , with NO downtime, from one vSAN to another vSAN Cluster using VMware HCI Mesh.

The previous blog also touched on briefly a very important use case for Oracle workloads on any architecture, Oracle Licensing.

With vSAN HCI Mesh introduced in vSAN 7 Update 1 capability, one could seamlessly and transparently

• move Oracle compute into smaller density (Physical sockets / cores) servers in a different vSAN cluster, thereby significantly reducing their Oracle Licensing costs
• move the Storage for Oracle workloads into a different vSAN cluster, if needed, where excess storage capacity is available

With vSAN 7 Update 2, VMware introduces a significant new capability to vSAN HCI Mesh where traditional vSphere clusters can now mount a remote vSAN datastore.

Yes, we have a winner

This blog demonstrates how we can provision separate Compute and Storage resources for Oracle workloads on vSAN 7 Update 2 Cluster, disaggregating Compute and Storage, with Compute on traditional vSphere Clusters / vSAN Clusters and Storage on vSAN Storage , with a focus on reducing Oracle licensing using HCI Mesh Compute Clusters.