Re: database resource usage

Chris,

I think I misread your initial post. I thought that you only had 2 databases. Reading your initial post again, it looks like you have 4 databases on a single box (2 prods, 1 test, 1 development).

Solaris Zones can still handle this situation. You can create 4 zones and put a database on each zone. CPU resource management will still work because CPU resources are defined in fractions of a CPU (granularity is 1% of a CPU resource, if I'm not mistaken). So it is possible to assign 50% of a CPU to dev, another 50% of a CPU to test and the other CPU goes to the 2 production databases.

The other thing I failed to mention is that if the CPUs are not being used, a Zone can use *all* the CPU resources that are available. The CPU cap can be looked at as some sort of guarantee of resources. For example, if all your databases are busy with the CPUs, each of the Zones are guaranteed to have their defined share. If only one Zone is busy, it can use the 2 CPUs.

I hope that clarifies it a little bit.

James

James Foronda wrote:
> Chris,
>
> > Currently our production/test/development databases all reside on the
> > same 2 cpu RH4 machine. Our database environment is growing at a
> > steady pace. Over the last month we have encountered several
> > situations where a developer doing OLAP development in the dev
> > database has kicked something off that completely saturates the cpu's
> > and brings our 2 production database to it's knees.
>
> > I'm looking to gather ammunition for a change in our server
> > architecture.
>
> I know that you are presently using RH4 but let me present you with an
> alternative.
>
> Solaris 10 has a virtualization feature called Zones. One of the main
> objectives of Zones is *isolation*. Oracle is certified to run on
> Solaris Zones.
>
> In the situation you are describing above, the 2 databases can be placed
> in two separate Zones. Then, using Solaris resource management (OS
> level, obviously), the resources that a zone can use can be CAPPED. For
> example, you can cap the development zone to use only one CPU if the
> production server is running. That way, it will never hog all the CPU
> of that entire box.
>
> In all likelihood, Solaris 10 will run on your machine running Redhat
> right now.
>
> I'm planning to make a few blog posts about Solaris Zones but I have not
> gotten to it yet. In the meantime, there are some pointers here:
>
> http://jforonda.vintarinian.com/?p=23
>
> James
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> http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>
>

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