NetApp Verified Architecture

NetApp for Oracle Database Brandon Hoang, Jim Lanson, Bill Heffelfinger, NetApp November 2011 | NVA-0002 | Version 1.0 | Status: Final

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1

NETAPP VERIFIED ARCHITECTURE .................................................................................................. 4

2

NETAPP FOR ORACLE DATABASE NVA OVERVIEW ...................................................................... 4

3

4

5

2.1

PROBLEM STATEMENT ........................................................................................................................................... 4

2.2

TARGET AUDIENCE ................................................................................................................................................. 4

2.3

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION ....................................................................................................................................... 5

2.4

USE CASE SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................................. 6

ARCHITECTURE USE CASE ................................................................................................................ 7 3.1

USE CASE 1: DATA REPLICATION IN A HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENT ..................................................... 7

3.2

USE CASE 2: DATA REPLICATION IN A HOMOGENEOUS ENVIRONMENT ......................................................... 9

3.3

USE CASE 3: CONVERSION OF PHYSICAL SERVERS TO VIRTUAL MACHINE IMAGES (P2V)........................ 10

3.4

USE CASE 4: RAPID CLONING OF VMWARE VIRTUAL MACHINES ................................................................... 11

3.5

USE CASE 5: CLONING OF ORACLE VM VIRTUAL MACHINES .......................................................................... 12

3.6

USE CASE 6: CLONING OF ORACLE DATABASES BETWEEN PHYSICAL SERVERS AND VIRTUAL MACHINES .............................................................................................................................................................. 14

3.7

USE CASE 7: APPLICATION OF STORAGE EFFICIENCY FEATURES ON VIRTUAL MACHINE DATASTORES AND ORACLE DATABASES .................................................................................................................................. 15

3.8

SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE DETAILS .................................................................................................................. 16

3.9

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS............................................................................................................................... 18

3.10

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS ............................................................................................................................... 19

3.11

SOLUTION SIZING AND PERFORMANCE CONSIDERATIONS ............................................................................ 21

3.12

NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE DETAILS ............................................................................................................. 22

3.13

STORAGE INFRASTRUCTURE DETAILS .............................................................................................................. 22

3.14

VIRTUAL INFRASTRUCTURE ................................................................................................................................ 23

3.15

SOLUTION MANAGEABILITY ................................................................................................................................ 24

3.16

BACKUP AND RESTORE ....................................................................................................................................... 24

OTHER USE CASES ........................................................................................................................... 24 4.1

USE CASE 8: OPERATIONAL BACKUP AND RESTORE...................................................................................... 24

4.2

CLUSTER-MODE .................................................................................................................................................... 25

4.3

USE CASE 9: STORAGE MIGRATION AND CONSOLIDATION ............................................................................ 25

4.4

USE CASE 10: DATABASE CONSOLIDATION ...................................................................................................... 26

4.5

USE CASE 11: DYNAMIC SCALABILITY WITH ONLINE SCALE-UP AND SCALE-OUT ...................................... 26

4.6

USE CASE 12: LIVE MIGRATION OF DATA VOLUMES ........................................................................................ 28

4.7

USE CASE 13: OPERATIONAL FLEXIBILITY ........................................................................................................ 28

DESIGN VALIDATION ......................................................................................................................... 29 5.1

6

2

SUCCESS STORIES ............................................................................................................................................... 29

CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................... 30

NetApp for Oracle Database

7

APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................................... 31 7.1

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS .................................................................................................................................. 31

LIST OF TABLES Table 1) Use cases. ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Table 2) Production hardware resources. ................................................................................................... 18 Table 3) Dev/test hardware resources. ....................................................................................................... 19 Table 4) Production software resources. .................................................................................................... 20 Table 5) Dev/test software resources. ........................................................................................................ 21 Table 6) Networks. ...................................................................................................................................... 22 Table 7) Storage. ........................................................................................................................................ 23 Table 8) Virtual infrastructure...................................................................................................................... 23

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1) Physical architecture of the solution. ............................................................................................. 6 Figure 2) Data replication in a heterogeneous environment using Oracle Data Guard. .............................. 8 Figure 3) Oracle RAC with Data Guard physical standby. ........................................................................... 8 Figure 4) Oracle RAC database replication with Oracle Data Guard. .......................................................... 9 Figure 5) Hot/online physical-to-virtual conversion using VMware vCenter converter. .............................. 11 Figure 6) Offline physical-to-virtual conversion using Oracle VM P2V. ...................................................... 11 Figure 7) Rapid cloning and provisioning of VMs. ...................................................................................... 12 Figure 8) OVM cloning using NetApp file and volume FlexClone............................................................... 13 Figure 9) Cloning of databases (on NFS and FCP/ASM) between physical servers and virtual platforms using SnapManager for Oracle. .................................................................................................................. 14 Figure 10) Cloning databases (residing on FCP/ASM) between physical servers and Oracle VM. ........... 15 Figure 11) Applying compression on source database volumes to minimize storage consumption on clones. ......................................................................................................................................................... 15 Figure 12) Minimize storage consumption on VM datastores with compression and deduplication. ......... 16 Figure 13) Logical architecture of the solution. ........................................................................................... 16 Figure 14) Oracle dev/test use cases. ........................................................................................................ 17 Figure 15) Network configuration of VMware environment. ....................................................................... 22 Figure 16) Migration diagram. ..................................................................................................................... 25 Figure 17) Database consolidation. ............................................................................................................ 26 Figure 18) Scaling up and out. .................................................................................................................... 27 Figure 19) Failover protection. .................................................................................................................... 27 Figure 20) Data volume migration. ............................................................................................................. 28

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1 NETAPP VERIFIED ARCHITECTURE ®

A NetApp Verified Architecture (NVA) is a new program that provides a seal of assurance for NetApp solutions. This seal of assurance represents the NetApp promise to provide customers with a thoroughly tested and prescriptive architecture of a NetApp solution that minimizes customers’ deployment risk and accelerates their time to results. The NetApp Verified Architecture program is governed by a group of NetApp technical experts who verify that each NVA: 

Consists of a pretested, preintegrated verified architecture that meets specific customer needs



Is backed up by prescriptive deployment, testing, and operational procedures



Has a proven design that is based on prescriptive best practices



Reduces the complexity of architecting and implementing NetApp technologies

2 NETAPP FOR ORACLE DATABASE NVA OVERVIEW ®

The NetApp for Oracle Database NVA enables companies to optimize and protect their Oracle Database infrastructures by providing advanced storage and data management capabilities. The NetApp industryleading storage solutions provide the features, scalability, flexibility, and availability necessary for a dynamic organization.

2.1

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Our customers encounter these primary business challenges when operating and protecting Oracle Databases: 

Operational backup and restore within shrinking operational windows and with shrinking budgets



Efficient data replication from a primary to a secondary environment



Provisioning of copies of the primary database environment for development, test, QA, and other purposes in physical and virtual environments



Data protection for DR purposes



Meeting service-level agreements within a constrained IT budget

Customers can leverage NetApp technology to meet these needs while saving precious resources. This NVA focuses on the NetApp for Oracle Database application development and test (dev/test) use case to demonstrate how NetApp products and solutions can help customers meet these business challenges. The majority of this NVA is structured around this main use case. The "Other Use Cases" section of this document covers use cases that fall outside of the application dev/test use case. Deploying the architecture referenced in this NVA will position customers to effectively meet the business challenges of optimizing and protecting their Oracle Database infrastructure.

2.2

TARGET AUDIENCE

This document is intended for: 

Development managers



IT staff



Technical directors, architects, and consultants



Technical sales and presales engineers

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2.3

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION

Customers who deploy Oracle application dev/test environments might face these typical challenges: 

Excessive time required to clone and provision a database environment



Increased storage capacity consumption required to support multiple copies of databases



Cost considerations of the dev/test environment

For customers who manage Oracle application dev/test environment databases on third-party storage, the simple process of cloning, creating, and restoring an Oracle Database can take hours, if not days. This can lead to excessively long dev/test cycles. A large number of dataset copies is also usually required in dev/test environments, presenting customers with the problem of significant and constant storage growth due to maintaining multiple environments. This growth places additional pressure on the power, space, and cooling capacity of data centers. Moreover, supporting Oracle application dev/test environments in a mixed infrastructure that has a combination of physical servers and virtual servers creates its own set of challenges. Cloning databases between physical servers and virtual machines (VMs) can be a labor-intensive and time-consuming task. Managing storage efficiency for virtualization platforms and the overall dev/test environments on traditional storage systems can be difficult, and the effort required might be significant. By leveraging NetApp storage systems featuring core technologies such as Snapshot™ technology, ® space-efficient FlexClone , and compression, customers can greatly reduce the time and storage capacity consumed in backup, replication, and provisioning operations. The architecture described in the application dev/test use case is designed to simulate a customer’s infrastructure, which normally consists of a production environment and a corresponding dev/test environment. Production data is assumed to be replicated to the dev/test environments and is subsequently duplicated and cloned to create copies for further dev/test purposes. This use case also incorporates a disaster recovery (DR) component, which is the "replicated" secondary site for production. This in itself delivers additional value because customers can use the dev/test infrastructure for its core purpose while leveraging it to create a DR framework for production, further improving data protection for the production environment. For customers who have existing DR infrastructures, these can be used as the source to be duplicated for dev/test environments. The architecture depicted in Figure 1 illustrates a production environment and its corresponding dev/test environment.

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Figure 1) Physical architecture of the solution.

In summary, the components of the solution combine to provide: 

Replication of production databases running on NetApp or third-party storage to dev/test running on NetApp storage



Cloning of databases to and from the following environments: 

Physical to physical



Physical to virtual



Virtual to virtual



Conversion of physical server images to VM images



Rapid cloning and provisioning of VMs



Application of thin provisioning, space-efficient cloning, deduplication, and compression

2.4

USE CASE SUMMARY

The use cases that compose application dev/test environments demonstrate the following features and functions: 

Replication of the production database to the dev/test environment using Oracle Data Guard in a heterogeneous environment (where production could be running on a different OS platform than that of the dev/test environment and/or production is residing on third-party storage).



Replication of production database volumes to the dev/test environment using NetApp SnapMirror where the production data resides on either NetApp FAS series or V-Series storage.



Replication of the production database using Oracle Data Guard is cross-protocol or same-protocol (the production database is on Fibre Channel Protocol [FCP]/Automatic Storage Management [ASM] and the Data Guard physical standby database is on Network File System [NFS] or FCP/ASM).



Configuration of Oracle Data Guard consisting of a physical standby database and a cascading physical standby database.



Mixed configuration of databases in which production is a multinode Oracle RAC and the Oracle Data Guard physical standby database is a single-instance RAC.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

®



Converting physical server images to VMware VM images and Oracle VM (OVM) images (known as P2V).



Cloning Oracle Databases between physical and virtual platforms using SnapManager for Oracle (physical to virtual, virtual to virtual, with VMware and OVM).



Cloning Oracle Database volumes between physical and Oracle VM platforms using Snap Creator™.



Cloning Oracle Databases between physical and OVM platforms by leveraging the NetApp Manageability Software Development Kit (NMSDK) and Perl scripting.



Thin-provisioning datastores in a VMware environment using the NetApp VSC plug-in for VMware.



Mass cloning and deploying of VMware VMs using NetApp VSC plug-in for VMware.



Mass cloning of Oracle VMs using NetApp file-level FlexClone.



Leveraging NetApp deduplication and compression technologies to reduce the storage footprint involved in maintaining clones/duplicates of databases and VMs.

®

®

3 ARCHITECTURE USE CASE Table 1 lists the use cases integrated into the solution. Table 1) Use cases.

Use Case 1: Data Replication in Heterogeneous Environment  Replicating production database—cross-platform, cross-protocol—using Oracle Data Guard physical standby  Replicating production database—cross-platform, same-protocol—using Oracle Data Guard cascading physical standby

Use Case 2: Data Replication in Homogeneous Environment  Replicating production database volumes using NetApp Volume SnapMirror Use Case 3: Conversion of Physical Servers to Virtual Machine Images (P2V)  Converting physical server images to VMware virtual machine images  Converting physical server images to Oracle VM virtual machine images Use Case 4: Rapid Cloning of VMware Virtual Machines  Cloning and provisioning VMware virtual machines using NetApp Virtual Storage Console plug-in Use Case 5: Cloning of Oracle VM Virtual Machines  Cloning OVM virtual machine images using NetApp File-level FlexClone Use Case 6: Cloning of Oracle Databases between Physical Servers and Virtual Machines  Cloning databases using SnapManager for Oracle  Cloning database volumes using Snap Creator  Cloning databases using Perl and NetApp Manageability SDK Use Case 7: Application of Storage Efficiency Features on Virtual Machine Datastores and Oracle Databases  Applying compression and deduplication to VMware and OVM datastores  Applying compression to Oracle databases and their clones

3.1

USE CASE 1: DATA REPLICATION IN A HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENT

This use case assumes that the environment is heterogeneous: Either the database server platform in production is different from the database server platform in dev/test, or the storage platform in production

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NetApp for Oracle Database

is different from the storage platform in dev/test. Therefore, Oracle Data Guard is used to provide database replication for heterogeneous platforms, as shown in Figure 2. This use case addresses two scenarios: 

Replication of the production database to the dev/test environment in which the production database is on Fibre Channel (FC)/ASM-based storage while the replicated (standby) database in dev/test is on NFS-based storage. This scenario is configured with the Oracle Data Guard physical standby database.



Replication of the production database to the dev/test environment in which the production database is on FC/ASM-based storage and the replicated (standby) database in dev/test is also on FC/ASMbased storage. This scenario is configured with Oracle Data Guard cascading a physical standby database.

Figure 2) Data replication in a heterogeneous environment using Oracle Data Guard.

Figure 3 shows the high-level architecture of the Oracle Database replication from primary database storage to dev/test storage using Oracle Data Guard. Figure 3) Oracle RAC with Data Guard physical standby.

This process includes the following steps:

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NetApp for Oracle Database

1. Prepare the primary database for DR. 2. Configure the standby environment. 3. Instantiate the standby copy. 4. Validate the redo transport and the standby database. ARCHITECTURE Figure 4 shows an example of a typical architecture of production and dev/test environments. In this example, the production site is on third-party storage where Data Guard is used to replicate data to the dev/test site, which resides on the physical server infrastructure. The production database is RAC, and the standby database is a single instance. Figure 4) Oracle RAC database replication with Oracle Data Guard.

3.2

USE CASE 2: DATA REPLICATION IN A HOMOGENEOUS ENVIRONMENT

Homogeneous implies that the production site uses the same database server platform as the dev/test environment and that the production database resides on NetApp storage systems. In this case, NetApp SnapMirror can be leveraged to replicate the production database volumes to the dev/test site. This use case demonstrates NetApp volume SnapMirror Async with network compression. In this mode, SnapMirror performs incremental, block-based replication as frequently as once per minute. The first and most important step in this mode involves the creation of a one-time baseline transfer of the entire dataset. This step is required before incremental updates can be performed. This operation proceeds as follows:

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NetApp for Oracle Database

1. The source storage system creates a Snapshot copy (a read-only, point-in-time image of the file system). This copy is called the baseline copy. 2. All data blocks referenced by this Snapshot copy and any previous copies are transferred by using volume SnapMirror and written to the destination file system. Qtree SnapMirror only copies the latest Snapshot copy. 3. After the initialization is complete, the source and destination file systems have at least one Snapshot copy in common. Scheduled or manually triggered updates can occur after the initialization is complete. Each update transfers only the new and changed blocks from the source to the destination file system. This operation proceeds as follows: 1. The source storage system creates a Snapshot copy. 2. The new copy is compared to the baseline copy to determine which blocks have changed. 3. The changed blocks are sent to the destination and written to the file system. 4. After the update is complete, both file systems have the new Snapshot copy, which becomes the baseline copy for the next update. The Snapshot copy that will be transferred must be a database-consistent image; therefore, the database should be placed in hot-backup mode when creating a Snapshot copy of the source volume. Asynchronous replication is periodic. Therefore, SnapMirror Async is able to consolidate the changed blocks and conserve network bandwidth with minimal impact on write throughput and write latency. SnapMirror Async can also take advantage of a feature known as compression. SnapMirror network compression enables data compression over the network for SnapMirror transfers. This native feature is ® built into SnapMirror software. SnapMirror network compression is not the same as WAFL (Write Anywhere File Layout) compression. SnapMirror network compression does not compress data at rest. However, it is very beneficial when used with database replication based on initial testing.

3.3

USE CASE 3: CONVERSION OF PHYSICAL SERVERS TO VIRTUAL MACHINE IMAGES (P2V)

To expedite the process of creating virtual environments in which the VMs are provisioned with the ® ® desired software configuration, existing (Linux and Windows ) physical servers can be duplicated and converted into VM images. For example, in the case of this dev/test solution, a physical Linux server was configured with a required set of software applications (such as Oracle RDBMS with ASMLIB, NetApp ® ® SnapDrive for UNIX , SnapManager for Oracle, Snap Creator Agent, Host Utilities Kit, and so on); it was then used as the source server in the physical-to-virtual conversion. Using this method, the resulting VM images (which are conversions of physical server images) contain the required applications and software. Therefore, it eliminates the need to install individual applications or software on the VM guest operating system (OS) after the VM has been created. This use case discusses the physical-to-virtual conversion process for both VMware and Oracle VM environments. The P2V conversion for VMware (Figure 5) can be an online process, whereas the P2V conversion for OVM (Figure 6) is a cold or offline conversion.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

Figure 5) Hot/online physical-to-virtual conversion using VMware vCenter converter.

Figure 6) Offline physical-to-virtual conversion using Oracle VM P2V.

3.4

USE CASE 4: RAPID CLONING OF VMWARE VIRTUAL MACHINES

Once the gold master VM image or template has been defined (created from either a P2V conversion or a fresh installation), the NetApp Virtual Storage Console (VSC) feature can be used to seamlessly clone the master image and template and mass deploy the VMs. Figure 7 shows this process for VMware. ®

®

The NetApp VSC 2.1 for VMware vSphere can be used to manage VMware ESX and VMware ESXi™ servers connected to NetApp storage systems. VSC 2.1 is a plug-in to VMware vCenter™ that is available to all vSphere clients that connect to the VMware vCenter server. VSC 2.1 provides: 

Storage configuration and monitoring using VSC 2.1 capability



Datastore provisioning



VM cloning using the provisioning and cloning capability



Backup and recovery of VMs and datastores using the backup and recovery capability

VSC 2.1 can be installed on the same system as the vCenter server or on another 32-bit or 64-bit Windows computer. For detailed installation instructions, refer to the "NetApp Virtual Storage Console 2.1 for VMware vSphere Installation and Administration Guide," available on the NetApp Support (formerly ® NOW ) site.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

3.5

USE CASE 5: CLONING OF ORACLE VM VIRTUAL MACHINES

Cloning of Oracle VM images can be simplified and streamlined by leveraging NetApp file-level FlexClone. The gold master VM image or template can be quickly cloned using file-level FlexClone and imported into Oracle VM Manager to create new VMs. Figure 7 outlines this process. Figure 7) Rapid cloning and provisioning of VMs.

In November 2007, Oracle introduced Oracle VM, Xen architecture-based server virtualization software that fully supports both Oracle applications and applications other than Oracle. Oracle VM offers scalable, highly efficient, and low-cost server virtualization. Consisting of open source server software and an integrated browser-based management console, Oracle VM provides an easy-to-use GUI for creating and managing virtual server pools running on x86- and x86 64-based systems across an enterprise. Oracle VM Server for x86 is a free, next-generation server virtualization and management solution from Oracle that makes enterprise applications easier to deploy, manage, and support. Users can create and manage VMs that exist on the same physical server but behave like independent physical servers. Each VM created with Oracle VM has its own virtual CPUs, network interfaces, storage, and OS. With Oracle VM, users have an easy-to-use, browser-based tool for creating, cloning, sharing, configuring, booting, and migrating VMs. The Oracle VM platform includes three components: 

Oracle VM Manager. A Web-based application that enables users to manage and administer VMs and Oracle VM environments.



Oracle VM Server. A self-contained virtualization environment that is based on an updated version of the underlying Xen hypervisor technology.



Oracle VM Agent. A component of Oracle VM Server that provides a set of Web services APIs and communicates with Oracle VM Manager for management of VMs, server pools, and resources.

For more information, visit the Oracle VM documentation Web page: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E15458_01/index.htm. Oracle VM supports two types of VMs:

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NetApp for Oracle Database



Hardware virtualized. The guest OS does not require modification. It is available only on Intel virtualization technology (VT) and AMD secure virtualization machine (SVM) CPUs.



Paravirtualized. The guest OS is recompiled for optimal performance in the virtual environment. A number of versions of Linux and Windows are supported as guest OSs on either 32-bit or 64-bit server platforms. Oracle VM uses native Linux device drivers so that users do not have to wait for the latest hardware to be supported by the virtualization solution layer.

®

For more information on Oracle VM Server technology, refer to http://download.oracle.com/docs. When VMs are deployed on Oracle VM repositories that reside on NetApp NFS volumes, individual VM system images can be quickly cloned using NetApp file-level FlexClone technology. The resulting clone system images then can be registered and managed with Oracle VM Manager as new VMs. The additional benefit of cloning Oracle VM images using NetApp file-level FlexClone technology is the immediate realization of storage savings. This technology avoids the duplication of blocks between the source file and the clone file, which results in minimal storage consumption when creating the clone file. Mass cloning of VMs can be accomplished rapidly by using NetApp volume FlexClone. An Oracle VM repository, which might contain many VMs, can be cloned by using volume FlexClone. For example, an Oracle VM repository might have 20 VMs; a single clone of the volume that hosts the Oracle VM repository instantly creates 20 more VMs. Large numbers of VM clones can be created by simply performing volume clones of the repository. Figure 8) OVM cloning using NetApp file and volume FlexClone.

GUIDELINES FOR ORACLE VM UTILIZATION Follow these guidelines for Oracle VM utilization: 

Create a VM template for each major version or configuration of the VMs (for example, templates for database VMs and for application VMs).



Create and maintain golden images. Similar to VM templates, golden images can represent major versions or configurations of VMs. However, golden images can be easily started, and their contents

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NetApp for Oracle Database

(such as OS drivers, configurations, applications, and so on) can be updated, whereas templates are read-only copies of VM images.

3.6

USE CASE 6: CLONING OF ORACLE DATABASES BETWEEN PHYSICAL SERVERS AND VIRTUAL MACHINES

This use case assumes a mixed infrastructure with the following requirements: 

Clone databases between physical servers and virtual environments



Clone databases between the different virtualization platforms

Figure 9 shows the cloning of databases between physical servers, VMware VMs, and Oracle VMs, for both FCP/ASM-based storage and NFS-based storage, using NetApp space-efficient FlexClone technology. Figure 9) Cloning of databases (on NFS and FCP/ASM) between physical servers and virtual platforms using SnapManager for Oracle.

For databases residing on NFS-based storage, SnapManager for Oracle can be used to clone databases between physical servers, VMware VMs, and Oracle VMs where the end OSs are the same. For databases residing on FCP/ASM-based storage (Figure 10), SnapManager for Oracle supports the cloning of databases from physical servers to VMware VMs (using RDM logical unit numbers [LUNs]). In the case of Oracle VM, the cloning of databases from physical servers can be achieved by using either Snap Creator or Perl with NetApp Manageability SDK.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

Figure 10) Cloning databases (residing on FCP/ASM) between physical servers and Oracle VM.

3.7

USE CASE 7: APPLICATION OF STORAGE EFFICIENCY FEATURES ON VIRTUAL MACHINE DATASTORES AND ORACLE DATABASES

In dev/test environments or in any environment in which many copies of VMs or databases must be maintained, rapidly growing storage consumption can be a challenge, especially using traditional cloning methods where each clone of VMs or databases usually requires the same storage capacity as the source image. This use case explores the application of multiple storage efficiency features offered by NetApp. In addition to thin provisioning volumes and space-efficient clones, compression (see Figure 11) and deduplication (see Figure 12) technologies can be applied to VM images and database clones, where appropriate, to greatly minimize overall storage consumption. Figure 11) Applying compression on source database volumes to minimize storage consumption on clones.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

Figure 12) Minimize storage consumption on VM datastores with compression and deduplication.

3.8

SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE DETAILS

The solution is designed to support real-world environments in which an IT infrastructure might consist of a mix of physical servers and different virtualization platforms. The solution architecture represents a typical customer scenario that has Oracle Databases running in a production environment where a DR site exists and can be leveraged to facilitate the creation of dev/test environments. In the absence of a DR site, the dev/test environment can be configured to replicate data from production, which then can act as a temporary DR site and at the same time serve as the master data source for dev/test clonings. At a high level, the solution is about creating and deploying an Oracle application dev/test environment in a mixed infrastructure by using the production environment as the data source, as shown in Figure 13. Within the solution itself, this can be viewed as integrating multiple use cases. Each use case delineated in Figure 14 represents a different functional area. Figure 13) Logical architecture of the solution.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

Figure 14) Oracle dev/test use cases.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT Characteristics of the Oracle production environment shown in Figure 1 include: 

A two-node Oracle Clusterware configuration that hosts a two-instance Oracle RAC production database.



Oracle Clusterware nodes using gigabit network and interfaces for the cluster interconnect.



In the heterogeneous use case, Oracle Data Guard is used to replicate the production database to the dev/test environment. In this case, the production servers can be either Solaris x64 or Linux, and the production storage can be either third-party or NetApp.



In the homogeneous use case, NetApp SnapMirror is used to replicate production data to the dev/test environment. In this case, the production servers must be on the same platform as that of the dev/test servers, and the production storage must be NetApp storage.



Storage connectivity between the servers and the storage systems is NFS and FC.



A pair of FC switches is used for FCP storage connectivity.



Gigabit switches are used for NFS storage connectivity.



Storage systems are in an HA configuration.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND TEST ENVIRONMENT Characteristics of the Oracle application dev/test environment shown in Figure 1 include: 

A two-node Oracle Clusterware configuration that hosts either Oracle Data Guard physical standby databases for production or SnapMirror replicated database images of the production database.



Oracle Clusterware nodes using gigabit network and interfaces for the cluster interconnect.



A physical server (Linux) that is a standalone database host.

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

Multiple VMware VMs running Linux guest OSs that are standalone database hosts.



Multiple Oracle VMs running Linux guest OSs that are standalone database hosts.



A VM with a Linux guest OS that hosts Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control and OVM Manager.



A VM with a Windows guest OS that hosts vSphere vCenter and vClient™ and the NetApp VSC plugin.



A VM with a Linux guest OS that hosts applications and client software such as Snap Creator server and Perl with NetApp Manageability SDK.



Storage connectivity between the database servers and the storage systems is NFS and FC.



Gigabit switches are used for NFS storage connectivity on the physical database servers, and the virtual infrastructure (VMware and OVM servers) is equipped with 10GbE for NFS storage connectivity.



Storage systems are in an HA configuration.

3.9

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

The physical infrastructure on which the solution was implemented consists of a production environment and a dev/test environment. PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT Table 2) Production hardware resources.

Resource

Specification

Description

Intel or AMD server with 8 cores, 32GB, 2 internal drives, 4GbE ports, dual-port HBA

Oracle Clusterware and RAC nodes

NetApp FAS31XX storage systems in HA configuration with disk shelves, GbE adapter cards, and FC HBAs

Storage systems (Note: Although NetApp storage systems are used to support the production environment in this architecture, the storage systems can be third-party in the use case of a heterogeneous environment in which Oracle Data Guard is the method of production replication.)

GbE network switches:  One for public/management  One for cluster interconnect

Public/management network Oracle Clusterware cluster interconnect network

2 x FC switches

4Gb FC switches

1 x GbE switch

GbE network switch

FCP storage connectivity network with dual paths to servers and storage systems NFS storage connectivity network

Servers 2 x x64 servers Storage 2 x NetApp storage systems

Network 2 x GbE switches

Storage Network

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DEVELOPMENT AND TEST ENVIRONMENT Table 3) Dev/test hardware resources.

Resource

Specification

Description

2 x x64 servers

Intel or AMD server with 8 cores, 32GB, 2 internal drives, 4GbE ports, dual-port HBA

Oracle Clusterware and RDBMS RAC nodes

1 x x64 server

Intel or AMD server with 8 cores, 24GB, 2 internal drives, 4GbE ports, dual-port HBA

Oracle RDBMS standalone database host

1 x x64 server

Intel or AMD server with 16 cores, 48GB, 2 VMware ESX Server internal drives, 4GbE ports, dual-port HBA, dual-port 10GbE adapter card

1 x x64 server

Intel or AMD server with 16 cores, 48GB, 2 Oracle VM Server internal drives, 4GbE ports, dual-port HBA, dual-port 10GbE adapter card

1 x x64 server

Intel or AMD server with 12 cores, 48GB, 2 VMware VMs for: internal drives, 2GbE ports  Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control and OVM Manager  vSphere vCenter and vClient and NetApp VSC  Application and client software (Snap Creator server, NetApp Manageability SDK, Swingbench)

Servers

Storage 2 x NetApp storage systems

NetApp FAS31XX storage systems in HA configuration with disk shelves, GbE adapter cards, 10GbE adapter cards, and FC HBAs

Storage systems

GbE network switches:  One for public/management  One for cluster interconnect

Public/management network Oracle Clusterware cluster interconnect network

2 x FC switches

4Gb FC switches

2 x 10GbE switches

10GbE network switches

1 x GbE switch

GbE network switch

FCP storage connectivity network with dual paths to servers and storage systems 10GbE NFS storage connectivity network GbE NFS storage connectivity network

Network 2 x GbE switches

Storage Network

3.10 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS OPERATING SYSTEM Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the primary OS used in the implementation and validation of the target solution. The physical hosts and virtual hosts that are designated as database servers are deployed with

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Within the use case of heterogeneous environment data replication, Solaris x64 is deployed in the simulated production environment to demonstrate Oracle Data Guard supporting heterogeneous platform replication. The Windows OS is used on the management host that supports vCenter Server, vSphere Client, and NetApp VSC plug-in. APPLICATION The primary application that this solution addresses is Oracle 11g RDBMS, also simply known as Oracle Databases. The types of databases supported in this solution are Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC), standalone (single-instance), and Data Guard physical standby. In addition to Oracle being the primary application, there are infrastructure software, management products, and manageability solutions from key vendors that together compose the solution. Some of the supporting applications are fundamental in enabling the core values of the solution. PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT Table 4 contains a list of the resources for the production software. Table 4) Production software resources.

Resource

Specification

Description

Oracle

Oracle 11.2.0.2.2 or 11.2.0.2.3 software stack:  Grid infrastructure  RDBMS  ASM  Data Guard  RMAN  Solaris 10U9 x64

11.2.0.2.2 or 11.2.0.2.3 Oracle Clusterware and database software (which includes ASM, Data Guard, and RMAN)

Red Hat

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 64-bit

Database server OS

NetApp

NetApp Data ONTAP® 8.0.1 operating in 7-Mode with FCP, NFS, Snapshot, SnapRestore®, FlexClone, and SnapMirror capabilities

Storage system software

DEVELOPMENT AND TEST ENVIRONMENT Table 5 contains a list of the resources for the dev/test software.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

Database server OS

Table 5) Dev/test software resources.

Resource

Specification

Description

Oracle

Oracle 11.2.0.2.2 or 11.2.0.2.3 software stack:  Grid infrastructure  RDBMS  ASM  Data Guard  RMAN  Oracle VM Server 2.2.1  Oracle VM Manager 2.2.0  Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control 11.1.0.1

11.2.0.2.2 or 11.2.0.2.3 Oracle Clusterware and database software (which includes ASM, Data Guard, and RMAN)

VMware

vSphere ESX 4.1 vCenter Server and vClient 4.1 VMware Converter 4.2.1

VMware ESX hypervisor vCenter and vClient P2V converter

Red Hat

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 64-bit

Database servers and VM guests’ OS

Microsoft

Windows Server® 2008

VM guests’ OS

NetApp

 Data ONTAP 8.0.1 operating in 7-Mode with FCP, NFS, Snapshot, SnapRestore, FlexClone, SnapMirror, dedupe, and compression capabilities  Host Utilities Kit for Linux 5.3  Host Utilities Kit for ESX 5.2.1  VSC 2.1 with Provisioning and Cloning module and Backup and Recovery module  SnapDrive for UNIX 4.2  SnapManager for Oracle 3.1  Snap Creator 3.3.0  NetApp Manageability SDK 4.0

Storage system and manageability software

Oracle VM hypervisor and hypervisor manager Oracle Enterprise Manager

3.11 SOLUTION SIZING AND PERFORMANCE CONSIDERATIONS As with all Oracle Database deployments, NetApp recommends that customers work with their NetApp account teams to gather appropriate data to conduct a thorough sizing exercise. NetApp maintains an Oracle Database sizing tool to help the account team determine a recommended hardware configuration to meet the customer’s current and future needs (based on data currently available). Performance is a topic that stimulates discussion. NetApp supports all protocols equally well. Performance and protocol decisions typically come down to the customer’s needs and, on occasion, preferences. This use case demonstrated both file and block protocols. To help decide which protocol might best meet business needs, refer to the following technical reports: 

TR-3932: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Protocol Performance Comparison with Oracle Database 11g Release 2



TR-3961: Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Performance Using Data ONTAP 8.1 Operating in ClusterMode

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NetApp for Oracle Database

3.12 NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE DETAILS The solution infrastructure employs multiple types of networks, as shown in Table 6. Most of these networks are based on industry standard Gigabit Ethernets. The storage network has both NFS-based and FC-based connectivity. The physical networks that support the NFS storage connectivity for the virtual environments (VMware and Oracle VM) are built on 10GbE components. Figure 15 shows the network configuration of the VMware environment. Table 6) Networks.

Type of Network

Specification

Public and management

Gigabit

Oracle Clusterware: SCAN/VIP

Gigabit

Oracle Clusterware: cluster interconnect

Gigabit

NFS storage connectivity

Gigabit

FC storage connectivity

Fibre

NFS storage connectivity for virtual environments

10GbE

Figure 15) Network configuration of VMware environment.

3.13 STORAGE INFRASTRUCTURE DETAILS In the use case of heterogeneous environment data replication support, the production environment can run on either third-party or NetApp storage. If NetApp storage is used, the storage infrastructure is usually configured as a high-availability (HA) pair (also referred to as cluster failover [CFO]) for extra protection. In the use case of homogeneous environment data replication support, production storage must be

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NetApp storage, and the database server’s OS platform must be the same for both the production and development/test environments. The storage for the dev/test environment is NetApp, which can be in an HA or non-HA configuration. NetApp recommends using the HA configuration if the dev/test environment is also being leveraged to serve as the DR infrastructure for protecting the production environment. Table 7) Storage.

Production Storage

Development and Test Storage

Heterogeneous environment data replication Third-party or NetApp

NetApp with dedupe and compression; HA configuration is optional

Homogeneous environment data replication NetApp in HA configuration with SnapMirror

NetApp in HA configuration with SnapMirror, dedupe, and compression

3.14 VIRTUAL INFRASTRUCTURE The infrastructure used to implement the solution consists of physical platforms and virtual platforms, where the virtual platforms are based on both VMware and Oracle VM virtualization technologies. VM guests that are dedicated as database hosts have multiple database instances per guest. The database instances on these guests are primarily the clones of the DR site’s database. Each guest supports databases residing on NFS-based storage and block-based storage (raw device FC LUNs). Table 8) Virtual infrastructure.

Virtualization Platform

Components in Virtual Environment

Components in VM Guest

VMware

    

Oracle:  RDBMS  ASM NetApp:  SnapDrive for UNIX  SnapManager for Oracle  Snap Creator  Host Utilities Kit for Linux  Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS

Oracle VM

 Oracle VM Server  Oracle VM Manager  NetApp Host Utilities Kit for Linux

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NetApp for Oracle Database

vSphere ESX Server vCenter Server vSphere Client NetApp VSC NetApp Host Utilities Kit for ESX

Oracle:  RDBMS  ASM NetApp:  SnapDrive for UNIX  SnapManager for Oracle  Snap Creator  Host Utilities Kit for Linux  Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS

3.15 SOLUTION MANAGEABILITY The management framework in the solution is made up of management components from Oracle and VMware, specifically Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control, Oracle VM Manager, and VMware vCenter and vClient. Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control is an integrated solution that enables customers to manage Oracle technology components as well as some third-party products. Within the solution, Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control is used to manage and monitor Oracle Clusterware, ASM, databases, and OSs. Oracle VM Manager is dedicated to managing and provisioning the Oracle VM environment. VMware vCenter Server and Client constitute a comprehensive management solution for managing the entire VMware virtualization infrastructure.

3.16 BACKUP AND RESTORE Although the solution concentrates on the cloning and provisioning of databases and virtual infrastructure to enable rapid deployment of dev/test environments, to some extent the solution does embed a component of DR and of backup and restore. 

Disaster recovery. This is demonstrated through the methods of database replication and storage volume replication. Database replication is the key function behind the use case of heterogeneous environment data replication, which relies on Oracle Data Guard to provide the replication mechanism. Storage volume replication is achieved by using NetApp volume SnapMirror, which is associated with the use case of homogeneous environment data replication.



Backup and restore. The database cloning process essentially encapsulates the backup and recovery components within itself. The database image is first backed up (using Snapshot technology), and the backup image (Snapshot copy) is subsequently cloned and used to create a new, cloned database.

4 OTHER USE CASES NetApp Snapshot technology is the foundation for NetApp FlexClone technology in the application dev/test use case. A fundamental use case that is not covered explicitly in the application dev/test use case is the use of NetApp Snapshot and SnapRestore technology for fast, space-efficient operational backup and restore activities.

4.1

USE CASE 8: OPERATIONAL BACKUP AND RESTORE

Snapshot technology provides a point-in-time copy of the database volumes in seconds without incurring any performance penalty. A video that covers the details and benefits of the NetApp Snapshot technology can be viewed on the NetApp Web site. As demonstrated in the video, NetApp Snapshot technology is very space and time efficient. It is also the key underpinning to many of our technology solutions. Being able to leverage Snapshot copies to create operational backups of production databases in seconds or minutes without consuming additional space allows our customers to leverage their capex while meeting demands placed on them to meet increasingly narrow backup windows. NetApp SnapRestore technology uses Snapshot copies to enable users to recover anything from a single file to a multiterabyte volume in mere seconds. Think of it as being a Snapshot copy in reverse. To resume operations based on a Snapshot copy corresponding to a specific point in time, simply select the corresponding Snapshot copy and perform a SnapRestore recovery from that copy. The recovery occurs within seconds or minutes.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

4.2

CLUSTER-MODE

The following use cases are identified as those that are key to leveraging the primary benefits of operating Oracle Database products in a NetApp Data ONTAP environment operating in Cluster-Mode. Database and storage consolidation can be achieved by integrating Oracle RAC or RAC One Node with NetApp Data ONTAP 8.1 operating in Cluster-Mode, a scale-out and dynamic storage platform. The Oracle Data Guard solution enables organizations to nondisruptively migrate their data from Data ONTAP 7G, Data ONTAP 8.0 operating in 7-Mode, or even another vendor’s storage to NetApp Data ONTAP 8.1 operating in Cluster-Mode. With Cluster-Mode, scaling up is achieved by adding disk arrays to existing controllers to increase IOPS and capacity. Additional and larger storage systems can be added to the existing storage cluster to meet scaling-out demand. The online nondisruptive storage expansion and reconfiguration capability of Cluster-Mode make it the industry-leading scale-out storage platform. The features described in the following use cases cover the last of the business challenges identified in the problem statement section: meeting service-level agreements within a constrained IT budget.

4.3

USE CASE 9: STORAGE MIGRATION AND CONSOLIDATION

As companies grow, multiple Oracle Database and application environments can develop within the organization. Each has management, availability, and growth needs. With the advent of virtualization, many organizations are undertaking consolidation projects to reduce the cost and complexity, and increase the efficiency, of the IT infrastructure. This consolidation has resulted in increased service level and growth demands. Clustering including Oracle RACs has addressed the availability and scalability needs at the server and application levels. The same consolidation needs to take place at the storage layer for the same reasons as those previously mentioned. NetApp clustered storage systems provide the flexibility, efficiency, and scalability to meet and exceed those needs. These consolidation projects have stimulated interest in NetApp storage clusters that use Data ONTAP 8.1 operating in Cluster-Mode. These projects include those organizations that have storage from vendors other than NetApp or NetApp Data ONTAP 7G or 8.0 operating in 7-Mode. The organizations need a way to safely migrate their Oracle data in a nondisruptive fashion. This solution shown in Figure 16 meets all of those challenges by consolidating the disparate Oracle data storage environments into a single, scalable, resilient storage cluster. Figure 16) Migration diagram.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

4.4

USE CASE 10: DATABASE CONSOLIDATION

As shown in Figure 17, NetApp Cluster-Mode technologies can combine with Oracle RAC and/or Oracle RAC One Node to provide a scalable, resilient environment into which databases can be consolidated. Figure 17) Database consolidation.

Instance caging and node affinity can be used to control resource boundaries at the server and database levels for different databases as they are consolidated into a single Oracle Grid cluster. Storage resource isolation can also be accomplished by defining different vServers to store data files for different databases.

4.5

USE CASE 11: DYNAMIC SCALABILITY WITH ONLINE SCALE-UP AND SCALE-OUT

A result of storage consolidation is that the availability and resiliency of that central cluster become even more vital. Many departments and applications are relying on the availability of their resources; therefore, the ability to scale storage up and out is not only desirable but required. With Cluster-Mode, scaling up is achieved by adding disk arrays to existing controllers to increase IOPS and capacity. Additional and larger storage systems can be added to the existing storage cluster to meet the scaling-out demand. The online nondisruptive storage expansion and reconfiguration capability of Cluster-Mode makes it the industry-leading scale-out storage platform. Although not part of this use case, Flash Cache cards can also be applied for better read performance with most random access workloads, a large percentage of which are read operations. Figure 18 shows the scale-up and scale-out process.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

Figure 18) Scaling up and out.

Storage failover protection is a core attribute of Cluster-Mode. HA pairs of controllers are the building blocks that together form the storage cluster. This architecture enables transparent controller clustering and failover capability in which a failed storage controller causes its partner node to take over its disk arrays, volumes, and running services to provide continuous operation. Figure 19) Failover protection.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

4.6

USE CASE 12: LIVE MIGRATION OF DATA VOLUMES

Cluster-Mode is equipped with NetApp DataMotion™ for Volumes software, which is a nondisruptive transparent volume move feature. Volumes can be transparently moved between storage systems within the storage pool without requiring coordination between applications or application downtime. This single feature has many benefits, including: 

Eliminates application outages



Provides always-on data access



Enables load and resource tiering



Improves resource utilization



Facilitates dynamic scaling



Provides phased upgrades (tech refresh)

The DataMotion for Volumes feature of Cluster-Mode can also be used to facilitate online load balancing, adjust to the service-level demand, and manipulate resource utilization. The logical interface migration capability of Data ONTAP 8.1 allows the IP address to be moved with the volume, enabling continued primary local access of the data. Figure 20 shows the data volume migration process. Figure 20) Data volume migration.

4.7

USE CASE 13: OPERATIONAL FLEXIBILITY

DataMotion for Volumes in Cluster-Mode provides the following: 

Volumes can be selectively moved and redesignated to different aggregates and controllers within the cluster to drive a better average utilization across the storage pool.



Increased demand in input/output (I/O) can be met by relocating volumes to aggregates made up of a higher number of disks or faster drive types.

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NetApp for Oracle Database



Performance and capacity gains to meet new service levels can be achieved by relocating volumes to higher performance aggregates or controllers. The controllers can be of a different class, have higher specifications, or be equipped with SSD and Flash Cache.



Some storage systems might suffer from sustained high load, or certain volumes might be specifically hard hit, which could result in significant hot spots and unsatisfactory levels of service to applications. Moving the subject volumes to different storage nodes could alleviate the problems.

If Oracle Clusterware and RAC need to be migrated to a new storage system, DataMotion for Volumes can be used to move not only the database volumes but also the crucial Clusterware volumes that store OCR and voting disks, without any disruption to the operation of Oracle Clusterware and RAC databases. When the value described in use cases 9 through 13 is used in combination, the net result is a consolidated, highly flexible, vastly scalable, nonstop operational environment that helps NetApp customers meet ever more demanding service-level agreements.

5 DESIGN VALIDATION The design used for the dev/test use case has been tested and validated by the NetApp Enterprise Applications Solution Team. Several NetApp customers are running this configuration with great success. The Snapshot and SnapRestore use case identified in the "Other Use Cases" section is technology that almost all of our Oracle Database customers leverage. We consider this technology as the core on which all other use cases are based. Oracle Database operating in Data ONTAP 8.1 Cluster-Mode is a relatively new entry in the NetApp for Oracle Database solution offering. Currently, we do not have quotable customer success stories for this use case, but this information will be provided in 2012 as the solution gains mainstream traction. Updates to this NVA will highlight those success stories as well as expand on the use cases specifically applicable to Oracle Database operating in Data ONTAP Cluster-Mode.

5.1

SUCCESS STORIES

NETAPP SNAPSHOT AND SNAPRESTORE Siemens IT Solutions and Services is a European-based premium player providing state-of-the-art IT solutions and delivering outsourcing services with global reach. Within the IT service chain, the portfolio of Siemens IT Solutions and Services ranges from consulting, software deployment and system integration to the comprehensive management of IT infrastructures. Through profound industry know-how and beneficial innovations, the business technologists at Siemens IT Solutions and Services enable customers to transform their business processes on an ongoing basis. With a workforce of more than 32,000 employees, Siemens IT Solutions and Services achieved revenues of some €4.2 billion in fiscal 2010, which ended on September 30, 2011. Over 75% of these revenues came from outside of Siemens. “The combination of granular Snapshot backup and shared volumes has its benefits. With the NetApp Snapshot copies, we can back up and restore quickly and reliably, save resources, and offer our customers optimum conditions.” Dr. Thomas Hartl Manager Database Non-SAP, Siemens IT Solutions and Services

1

1

For more information on this success story, refer to http://media.netapp.com/documents/siemens-itsolutions-and-services.pdf.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

NETAPP FOR ORACLE DATABASE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT AND TEST Vantage Media is one of the largest performance search marketing firms in the United States. Its online marketing offerings deliver qualified customer prospects on a performance basis, helping clients drive revenues and profits by identifying motivated consumers and increasing the rate at which these browsers become buyers. “Constraints on our ability to create dev/test environments meant we had to reject some promising development ideas early on because we just didn’t have the resources to explore them. With NetApp FlexClone, we don’t have to make as many hard decisions: We can work on about six projects at once, twice as many as before.” Sergey Sundukovskiy VP of Engineering, Vantage Media, LLC

2

6 CONCLUSION The NetApp for Oracle Database solution provides simple, fast, space-efficient backups and restores; dev/test processes; data protection and DR; and always-on operations. This solution accelerates deployment time at drastically lower costs. With access to database clones in a mixed infrastructure environment, development teams can engage in parallel processes and reduce dev/test cycle durations. This solution offers clear advantages in the areas of VM cloning and mass deployment, database cloning and data replication, and storage efficiency. It significantly improves the savings in time and cycles associated with the process of cloning VMs and databases and delivers significant savings in storage consumption when compared to traditional storage and cloning methods. The benefits of using the NetApp Oracle application dev/test solution are faster application deployments, increased revenues, and a competitive advantage over industry. The ability to manage multiple physical storage systems as a single storage entity is a true benefit of Cluster-Mode. Any object or resource (such as disks, aggregates, volumes, networks, I/O ports, and services) within the storage cluster can be managed, administered, and monitored from a single point of management. Resources can be accessed and shared clusterwide. Secure virtual containers called vServers consisting of storage resources can be created per application where volumes and data access are isolated and restricted to the virtual containers. NetApp support for multiple protocols provides customers with the flexibility necessary for a dynamic environment. Customers rely on NetApp in the implementation planning stages to support multiple protocols and to provide data on how these protocols might perform in their environment in various situations (for example, moving a volume, failover). The NetApp for Oracle Database solution delivers true business value to organizations regardless of their storage requirements.

2

For more information on this success story, refer to http://media.netapp.com/documents/siemens-itsolutions-and-services.pdf.

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NetApp for Oracle Database

7 APPENDIX 7.1

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

Refer to the following documents for more information on this solution: 

NetApp Technical Report 3979, “Oracle on NetApp Cluster-Mode Solution Guide” (this report will be published in November 2011)



TR-3932: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Protocol Performance Comparison with Oracle Database 11g Release 2



TR-3961: Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Performance Using Data ONTAP 8.1 Operating in ClusterMode



TR-3749: NetApp and VMware vSphere Storage Best Practices



NetApp Data ONTAP 8.1 Software Setup Guide



NetApp Data ONTAP 8.1 System Administration Guide



NetApp Data ONTAP 8.1 Storage and Data Protection Guide



NetApp Data ONTAP 8.1 Network and File Access Management Guide



NetApp Snap Creator Installation and Administration Guide

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NetApp for Oracle Database

NetApp provides no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, reliability, or serviceability of any information or recommendations provided in this publication, or with respect to any results that may be obtained by the use of the information or observance of any recommendations provided herein. The information in this document is distributed AS IS, and the use of this information or the implementation of any recommendations or techniques herein is a customer’s responsibility and depends on the customer’s ability to evaluate and integrate them into the customer’s operational environment. This document and the information contained herein may be used solely in connection with the NetApp products discussed in this document.

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© 2011 NetApp, Inc. All rights reserved. No portions of this document may be reproduced without prior written consent of NetApp, Inc. Specifications are subject to change without notice. NetApp, the NetApp logo, Go further, faster, Data ONTAP, DataMotion, FlexClone, FlexVol, NOW, Snap Creator, SnapDrive, SnapManager, SnapMirror, Snapshot, SnapRestore, and WAFL are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. ESX, VMware, and vSphere are registered trademarks and vCenter, and vClient are trademarks of VMware, Inc. Windows and Windows Server are registered trademarks of Microsoft NetApp for OracleESXi, Database Corporation. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such. NVA-0002-1111