Re: Would you recommend having multiple instances on the same box?

From: Paul Drake <drak0nian_at_yahoo.com>
Date: 23 Apr 2003 00:14:56 -0700
Message-ID: <1ac7c7b3.0304222314.76bd7b2c@posting.google.com>

"John Guthrie" <john_at_guthrie.co.za> wrote in message news:<b7luoq$1uot5$1_at_ID-156817.news.dfncis.de>...
> I know it is possible to have multiple instances running on the same box
> but:
>
> Can someone tell me if their is an official line that says Oracle does NOT
> recommend running multiple instances on the same box.
>
> AND
>
> Can someone tell me if running multiple instances on the same box is ever
> used in 'the real world'?
>
> The reason for the questions above is that we have made a request to run 2
> instances on the same box and this request was denied saying that Oracle do
> not recommend running more than 1 instance on the same box and that this is
> not done in 'the real world'. (the box which we will be using is more than
> capable of handling 2 instances - spec in this case is not the issue.)

assumption:
db_name = oracle_sid = instance_name

Real world:

- oracle server licenses costs are non-zero.
- physical server hardware costs are non-zero.
- 36 GB hard drives mean having lots more space than is required to

support the number of I/Os per second ... - dba time is cheap - they'll stay late to work on a project if you ask them - sometimes even if you don't.

<starting down the win32 track as I often do ...> if security between databases is a primary concern, separate the ownership of the databases under different service accounts. In this manner, the oracle software is owned by one account (and read/list permissions granted to ORA_OPER, ORA_SID1_DBA, ORA_SID2_DBA ...) service account for the database whose SID=SID1 owns the files under <vol>\oracle\oradata\<SID1> and %ORACLE_BASE%\admin\<SID1> service account for the database whose SID=SID2 owns the files under <vol>\oracle\oradata\<SID2>

.
.
.

the service account for SID1 belongs to the local group ORA_SID1_DBA. the service account for SID2 belongs to the local group ORA_SID2_DBA.

(this stuff is all in the concepts manual and platform-specific docs).

In this manner, one can have OS accounts that can connect "/ as sysdba" to their intended target database (instance) without being able to connect to the other databases on the host - while sharing exec privs on the binaries.

Sandbox.

so bulk up on the memory, leverage your oracle server license investment and go for it - multiple databases on a host.

btw:
how many databases could be housed on an EMC DMX storage unit? how many instances could be supported on a Sun E10000?

inquiring minds want to know.

Pd Received on Wed Apr 23 2003 - 02:14:56 CDT