Re: Logical Domains for Oracle RAC (Sun T5440)
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:59:21 -0600
Message-ID: <289232290911190459y1642e194i7878559c2a4143c9_at_mail.gmail.com>
Thanks Mark,
We haven't received the final word from Oracle on the licensing part, but I was able to find this document that does indicate that the hard partition option licensing using logical domains is a "no" from Oracle. It is however RAC supported.
*
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/clustering/certify/db_virtualization_support.pdf
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- Ravi
On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 9:32 PM, Mark Brinsmead <pythianbrinsmead_at_gmail.com>wrote:
> Check very carefully on this proposed configuration.
>
> Oracle has different rules for "hard" partitioning and "soft"
> partitioning. With "hard" partitioning, which is usually supported by
> hardware that provides (close to) electrical isolation between server
> partitions (and almost always prevents sharing of any physical resource
> other than maybe a power or IO bus between partitions), you only need to
> license Oracle for the CPUs (cores) within the partition running Oracle.
>
> With "soft" partitioning (where, commonly, the *number* of processors
> serving a partition at a given moment is limited, but instructions on the
> partition can potentially run on *any* processor or core in the server at
> some time or other), you will need to license Oracle for every processor
> (core) in the server, regardless of how many or few processors are in
> partition(s) used for Oracle.
>
> In all likelihood, you configuration will be what Oracle describes as
> "soft" partitioning, in which case you will need to license all cores. (I
> do not know that for certain, though, as I have never researched this
> particular question for Solaris "containers".) Be *certain* that you know
> the *correct* answer to this question before you commit to a cost-saving
> plan like this one -- you might otherwise be in for a nasty surprise
> otherwise. Do *not* accept the word of your local sales rep. Wherever
> you get an answer, try to get a statement in writing, preferably with
> citations back to the appropriate part of the OLSA, the Oracle Licensing
> Manual, etc.
>
> As for using "Logical Domains" with RAC, I expect you are going to find
> that this is unsupported in any event. Again, I may be mistaken here, but I
> believe I have read on Metalink (about a year ago) that this is indeed
> unsupported. Again, check this configuration carefully on with Oracle
> Suport before making any plans around it.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Ravi Gaur <ravigaur1_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> We are trying to bring in some Sun T5440 (will run Oracle RAC) for a new
>> application and are working with Oracle on some licensing issues.
>> One idea that came up was to create a virtualized env (Logical Domains) in
>> an effort to reduce the # of cores presented and still purchase the
>> equipment (ultimately get the Oracle licensing cost within the budget). In
>> an year or so, when the application load increases, we can then scale up the
>> CPUs and buy the extra licenses at that time.
>>
>> Anyone has any experiences to share running RAC (10gR2 at this pt) in
>> Solaris 10 LDom env? Any concerns/gotchas that we should be aware of?
>>
>> TIA,
>>
>> - Ravi Gaur
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Cheers,
> -- Mark Brinsmead
> Senior DBA,
> The Pythian Group
> http://www.pythian.com/blogs
>
-- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-lReceived on Thu Nov 19 2009 - 06:59:21 CST