Re: yipeee!

From: Daniel Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu>
Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2004 11:29:34 -0800
Message-ID: <1075922919.778573@yasure>

Buck Nuggets wrote:

> Mike <mikee_at_mikee.ath.cx> wrote in message news:<10220krn5h7jh4a_at_corp.supernews.com>...
>

>>Just recieved a 'thought experiment' assignment from my boss.
>>Does it make sense, and how would it be accomplised, to move
>>the databases from the mainframe (small VSE 390?) to AIX?
>>I mentioned that we should then look at possible programs from
>>IBM to convert the mainframe database (VSAM?) files into DB2/AIX,
>>or Oracle databases. And that I thought Oracle had some facility
>>such that we could cluster and load-balance two+ nodes running
>>something like Parallel Oracle so that should a node need booting
>>or modifying off-line the application is still running (at
>>reduced capacity) for the users.

>
>
> Is HA a real requirement, or just a nice-to-have? Because if you can
> live with something like 99.9% availability then perhaps log-shipping
> would suffice and you might be able to set up a db2 udb prototype in a
> single afternoon. If it's one of those rare applications that really
> needs 99.999% well then you've got some real work ahead - regardless
> of the product chosen.
>
> Oracle has more functionality and capability here but it's more
> expensive, more complex/error-prone to use, and while i'm not sure of
> RAC, OPS was a manageability nightmare. Still, for many situations it
> is great.
>
> However - one more thing: I find that my database choices usually
> hinge more on the strategic direction of the company - rather than on
> the specific needs of the application. If you go
> application-by-application you'll end up with a half-dozen different
> databases, and the skillset problem that results is typically more
> challenging than the minor technical differences between commercial
> databases.

True you may pay more to Oracle ... but you'll pay far less for hardware, operating system, and clusterware provided you think in terms of 2x4 boxes (2 cpus and 4GB RAM) with Linux.

-- 
Daniel Morgan
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/oad/oad_crs.asp
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/aoa/aoa_crs.asp
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with a 'u' to reply)

Received on Wed Feb 04 2004 - 13:29:34 CST