Re: Justifying A Copy Of Production Environment

Robert Perry wrote:
>
> I am in the process of writing a document that will justify having a
> test environment(not QA) that mirror's production. Just like many
> companies today, our management severely scrutinizes IT budget and
> expect miracles to be performed when a crises occur. In response to
> this behavior, I am putting together a document that outlines the
> pros/cons of having a test environment that mirrors production in
> order to troubleshoot problems when they occur, test production
> upgrades, etc.
>
> I am using my 10 years + of Oracle experience as a DBA and the Oracle
> 24X7 book as my primary sources. Can anyone point me to additional
> books or documents to consider? Documentation that includes REAL
> WORLD examples of how executive management shot themselves in the foot
> by not mirroring their production environment would be a PLUS.
>
> Thanks

Get management to commit to a 'cost per "unit of time" downtime'. If possible, grab an equivalent for 25%, 50% and 75% availability (ie. degradation while not being down). Then you have a $ value to wrap against.

Now show that a mirror can be used as a standby and that it can be used to performance tune - a hypothetical performance improvement can be tied back to management's numbers.

If you can't get management to commit to numbers first then, based on experience, you are fighting an uphill, and likely losing, battle.

/Hans Received on Wed Dec 31 2003 - 21:11:44 CST