Re: vmware & Oracle

Matt Topper did a presentation and a good whitepaper covering VMWare uses in an Oracle environment. You can get it at http://www.matttopper.com/index.php?page_id=17

We also use VMWare internally for Oracle development systems, demos (we keep a "shelf" of demos that we can start up, demo, then shut down), and for additional desktops to support multiple VPN clients (since different VPNs don't necessarily like each other much on Windows). As was mentioned here, we wouldn't use it for production (and like Mark said--who really knows how to license it properly), but love it for development.

Dan

• Original Message ---- From: Matthew Zito <mzito_at_gridapp.com> To: Brandon.Allen_at_OneNeck.com; Sean.oneill_at_organon.ie; "List, Oracle-l Freelists" <oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 11:01:04 AM Subject: RE: vmware & Oracle

vmware & Oracle    

It is a fair point that it adds an extra layer, but they've invested a huge amount of effort in mitigating that. Also, it matters *what* VMWare you're running. Both workstation and server run their virtual machines as processes - so there is a huge userspace jump, and IO is definitely impacted.  

In VMWare ESX server, the OS of the physical machine is a customized version of Linux with a custom kernel, and the virtual machines have a much more direct IO path, as well as typically the VMWare filesystem on the physical machine, as opposed to a standard ext3 filesystem for vmware workstation, etc.  

So, if you look at IO impact statistics from someone, make sure they're comparing the version of VMWare you'd want to run.  

Matt      

  From: oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org
  [mailto:oracle-l-bounce_at_freelists.org] On Behalf Of Allen,   Brandon
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 12:52 PM
To:
  Sean.oneill_at_organon.ie; List, Oracle-l Freelists Subject: RE: vmware
  & Oracle   

  I have no experience with it, but this comment from the   list archives indicates that vmware slows down I/O by adding an extra   layer between Oracle and the disks: http://www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/01-2007/msg00094.html    

  I'd be curious to see specific numbers from someone   running a fixed set of Oracle I/Os (e.g. a large table   scan & a large index range scan) against the same hardware with and   without VMWare. Anyone on the list done anything like that to get   precise timings?    

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