Re: ODA - VM question (Windows)
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 11:35:42 -0700
Message-ID: <CAKsxbLp8y4TR5j-GUbOsdax735JEa114+gxAg5zzODyQeedpCg_at_mail.gmail.com>
Hi Mark,
Actually I am not worried about the cost. You are right it is pretty cheap. I think 60k for the ODA with 2 shelves, compared to if we are going to replace our current 4 Dell servers, that would cost about 45k. So for only an extra 15k we can get a full engineered system does make sense. I love your toast analogy! You make a lot of sense. I am going to start another thread here and layout our current situation and I would love your input.
Jeff
On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 9:58 AM, MARK BRINSMEAD <mark.brinsmead_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> Why are you worried about the cost of the hardware?
>
> ODA hardware is CHEAP. Dirt cheap, really, when you compare it to the
> cost of database licenses.
>
> If you are running Oracle EE with RAC, Partitioning, Diagnostics Pack, and
> Tuning Pack, the software licenses can cost over $3million at list price.
> That's with all the cores enabled, of course.
>
> With only 4 cores enabled, though, you are still looking at about $200,000
> for the software licenses. *So what* if the hardware is not "fully
> utilized"? It only costs about $50,000. And its specialized hardware,
> anyway, specifically meant for running Oracle databases.
>
> Why would you choose to put Windows inside your ODA, just for the sake of
> saving maybe 2 U's of rack space and perhaps a couple thousand dollars
> (about 1% of the money you paid for your database licenses.)
>
> "ODA" stands for "Oracle Database Appliance". Its meant to be like a
> toaster. You plug it in, and make toast. Sure, you could probably make
> french fries in that toaster (and maybe even milkshakes, if you are really
> inventive), but ultimately, it is only meant to make toast. Why would you
> do anything else?
>
> If it were my choice, I would put in the ODA (it really is a compelling
> little solution) and use it exclusively to run databases. The ability to
> enable / license fractional portions of the machine is a huge strength, but
> so far as I can see, the "unused" portions serve only one practical
> purpose: to allow for future growth of your database environment.
>
> Sure, you probably *can* do other stuff with it. But if you do, you are
> probably missing the point of buying an "appliance".
>
> On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Jeff Chirco <backseatdba_at_gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the feedback so far.
>> Yes Seth you are correct I was not referring to running a DB over
>> Windows. However, David we are currently in the same boat as you. We run
>> 10 databases all on Windows with a couple 400gb and a DW at 3tb however it
>> doesn't get used that much. We used to run AIX and then it was a decision
>> against my recommendation to move to Windows, basically we lost our Unix
>> admin and didn't want to hire another. But surprisingly the DB runs well
>> with 11g R2 Win 2008 NOT virtual. The issues we have are more related to
>> the lack of support from Oracle for Windows. There are always bugs that
>> don't exist in Linux or if they do they wont have a patch fix for it and
>> will instead force you to upgrade to next patch set version.
>>
>> We are just in the very early stages of considering an ODA. We are due
>> for a hardware refresh and we are now more open to the idea of moving to
>> Linux but not a ton of in house Linux experts. So the ODA sounds
>> intriguing because they say it is pretty much self managed and
>> pre-configured by Oracle. It just might be overkill for our database
>> environment unless we can find some other uses for the hardware, like
>> spinning up a Windows VM inside it to use for some application. And the
>> price isn't that bad considering the price to refreshing 4 Dell servers.
>> But then we would be moving off our NetApp SAN which has been nice. I may
>> start another thread with additional questions.
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 10:08 PM, Seth Miller <sethmiller.sm_at_gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> *"You have to be careful when you request Oracle support because they
>>> will tell you that they don't certificate the DB over a virtualized
>>> environment -at least not 11g R2 and not over Windows-"*
>>>
>>> David, perhaps you had a side conversation with Jeff that the rest of us
>>> didn't see but I don't think he mentioned anything about running a database
>>> in Windows on a VM.
>>>
>>> Jeff, to answer your question, the ODA Virtualized Platform (ODAVP) will
>>> run and support any VM support by Oracle Virtual Machine since that is the
>>> hypervisor being used. OVM is built over Xen which runs Windows quite well
>>> and yes, Windows is fully supported for most products on OVM. Take a look
>>> at MOS note 464754.1 for specifics.
>>>
>>> *"Going forward every product running on Linux and Windows released by
>>> Oracle is certified and supported on Oracle VM. For specific information on
>>> the earliest product versions supported on Oracle VM, refer to the product
>>> specific information below."*
>>>
>>> Seth Miller
>>>
>>> On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 4:15 PM, David Ramírez Reyes <
>>> dramirezr_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have never liked MS Products (with the exception of Office, I have to
>>>> say), but here in the company we have 8 DB's running over Windows (it was
>>>> CIO decision, don't ask).
>>>>
>>>> These are small databases (120 GB the biggest) but very critical for
>>>> the business as they are in use 24x7x365 and I have to say that the
>>>> performance and stability is surprisingly good (11g R2 with Win Server 2008
>>>> -virtualized over VMWare).
>>>>
>>>> You have to be careful when you request Oracle support because they
>>>> will tell you that they don't certificate the DB over a virtualized
>>>> environment -at least not 11g R2 and not over Windows- and they will use
>>>> that to explain any possible bad behavior on the DB, even if it's not
>>>> related.
>>>>
>>>> Of course am still against this use, as I know all the features and
>>>> possibilities Oracle DB has over Linux/Unix environments and are not
>>>> available for Windows, but I would lie if I say that everything is a mess.
>>>>
>>>> Here's a a good like that I would suggest you to check before starting
>>>> working over Windows (specially if you are used to work with Linux/Unix for
>>>> the DB server, which was my case), this is very good beginning:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.rampant-books.com/art_oracle_on_windows_unix_users.htm
>>>>
>>>> Good luck...
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>>
>>>> David Ramírez Reyes
>>>> Profesión: Padre de Familia
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 26 March 2015 at 15:03, Jeff Chirco <backseatdba_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I don't have an appliance, just in the early stages of figuring out if
>>>>> it will be worth it for use. We would use maybe 4 cpu's of it for our
>>>>> databases, with the rest being a waste. So I was thinking if Windows runs
>>>>> on there then that would be more useful for us. And our databases don't
>>>>> have large growth where we would need to expand much in the future.
>>>>>
>>>>> Jeff
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 12:54 PM, George <georgelza_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Please do tell,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Also bout to deploy this.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> G
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 9:44 PM, Jeff Chirco <backseatdba_at_gmail.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Anybody run Oracle Database Appliance with the VM option and run a
>>>>>>> Windows VM for example as an application server? Just wondering how well
>>>>>>> Windows OS runs on it.
>>>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Jeff
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> You have the obligation to inform one honestly of the risk, and as a
>>>>>> person
>>>>>> you are committed to educate yourself to the total risk in any
>>>>>> activity!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Once informed & totally aware of the risk,
>>>>>> every fool has the right to kill or injure themselves as they see fit!
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
-- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-lReceived on Fri Mar 27 2015 - 19:35:42 CET