FW: Anyone with experience with the Oracle Data Appliance/ODA?
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2016 17:05:02 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <5f60e398-3a68-4d44-aaad-83fe590d746f_at_default>
Sorry, must have done a Reply instead of a Reply All.
Pete
Pete Sharman
Database Architect, DBaaS / DBLM
Enterprise Manager Product Suite
33 Benson Crescent CALWELL ACT 2905 AUSTRALIA
Phone: HYPERLINK "tel:+61262924095"+61262924095 | | Mobile: +61414443449 Email: HYPERLINK "mailto:pete.sharman_at_oracle.com"pete.sharman_at_oracle.com Twitter: @SharmanPete LinkedIn: au.linkedin.com/in/petesharman Website: petewhodidnottweet.com
"Controlling developers is like herding cats."
Kevin Loney, Oracle DBA Handbook
"Oh no, it's not, it's much harder than that!"
Bruce Pihlamae, long term Oracle DBA
From: Peter Sharman
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 11:59 AM
To: iggy_fernandez_at_hotmail.com
Cc: Peter Sharman <pete.sharman_at_oracle.com>
Subject: RE: Anyone with experience with the Oracle Data Appliance/ODA?
Actually, I'd forgotten that (and I'm surprised Tammy Bednar, the ODA PM, hasn't already told me so!) ;)
Yes ODA has some snapshot capabilities as well. As always Oracle has multiple ways of doing things and which one you use often comes down to "It depends". The advantage that Snap Clone has over ODA snapshots and a bunch of other products is when you have that, you also have a lot more - all the lifecycle management capabilities and so forth. If what you want to do is just clone a single database, then ODA's snapshotting capabilities may be all you need (I believe, though I have never used it myself). If you want to manage 10's, 100's or even 1000's of databases (and yes we have customers with those larger numbers) then EM becomes much more important.
Pete
Pete Sharman
Database Architect, DBaaS / DBLM
Enterprise Manager Product Suite
33 Benson Crescent CALWELL ACT 2905 AUSTRALIA
Phone: HYPERLINK "tel:+61262924095"+61262924095 | | Mobile: +61414443449 Email: HYPERLINK "mailto:pete.sharman_at_oracle.com"pete.sharman_at_oracle.com Twitter: @SharmanPete LinkedIn: au.linkedin.com/in/petesharman Website: petewhodidnottweet.com
"Controlling developers is like herding cats."
Kevin Loney, Oracle DBA Handbook
"Oh no, it's not, it's much harder than that!"
Bruce Pihlamae, long term Oracle DBA
From: Iggy Fernandez [mailto:iggy_fernandez_at_hotmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 3, 2016 5:36 AM To: HYPERLINK "mailto:dedba_at_tpg.com.au"dedba_at_tpg.com.au; Peter Sharman <HYPERLINK "mailto:pete.sharman_at_oracle.com"pete.sharman_at_oracle.com>; Seth Miller <HYPERLINK "mailto:sethmiller.sm_at_gmail.com"sethmiller.sm_at_gmail.com> Cc: Oracle Discussion List <HYPERLINK "mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org"oracle-l_at_freelists.org> Subject: RE: Anyone with experience with the Oracle Data Appliance/ODA?
The ODA documentation implies that thin cloning functionality is available on the ODA.
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E22693_01/doc.12/e55580/dbadmin.htm#BAJIJABF
Creating Snapshot Databases
An Oracle snapshot database is created by taking a snapshot of the ACFS file system where the source datafiles reside. The source database can be single instance, Oracle RAC, or Oracle RAC One Node. Compared to other methods of creating copies of databases, snapshot databases require less time and storage space and involve no downtime of the source database. Additionally, you can create any database type and class from any other type and class. For example, you can create an Oracle RAC database from an Oracle RAC One Node database. Similarly, you can create a database that is different in size than the source database.
On Oracle Database Appliance, you can create snapshot databases from any Oracle Database stored on Oracle ASM Cluster File Systems (ACFS). Beginning with Oracle Database Appliance Release 12.1.2.0.0, this includes any Oracle Database Release 11.2.0.4 or later database created or upgraded on the system. Additional requirements for a database to be used as the source for a snapshot database include:
must not be a standby or container database
must not be running in read-only mode, or in restricted mode, or in online backup mode
must be in ARCHIVELOG mode
must have all defined datafiles available and online
Also, ensure that the system clocks on the two Oracle Database Appliance nodes are synchronized before creating a snapshot database. To create a snapshot database, use theoakcli create snapshotdb command, as shown in the following example, which creates a snapshot database named snapprod from the database named prod.
oakcli create snapshotdb -db snapprod -from prod
Before issuing the command, ensure that the system clocks on the two Oracle Database Appliance nodes are synchronized. If the clocks are sufficiently different, the command may fail.
Date: Tue, 2 Feb 2016 21:27:51 +1000
From: HYPERLINK "mailto:dedba_at_tpg.com.au"dedba_at_tpg.com.au
To: HYPERLINK "mailto:pete.sharman_at_oracle.com"pete.sharman_at_oracle.com; HYPERLINK "mailto:sethmiller.sm_at_gmail.com"sethmiller.sm_at_gmail.com
CC: HYPERLINK "mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org"oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: Re: Anyone with experience with the Oracle Data Appliance/ODA?
Thanks Pete.
I've now seen the ODA. The database is version 11.2.0.4. The data files are stored in ASM disk groups, not on ACFS mounts. I am not sure if it is still possible to create snapshots with oakcli in this situation?
Is the snap clone functionality in EM/Cloud Control licensed with any optional pack? It sounds promising.. there is not much disk space left on the array, so a thin clone is preferable ;-)
Cheers,
Tony
On 2/02/2016 12:45 pm, Peter Sharman wrote:
Tony
I don't think I saw anything about database versions in the thread, so there are a couple of other options you could use depending on the version:
. If the DB is 12c, there is snapshotting capability built into the database itself
. From DB 10g onwards you could look at using Enterprise Manager's Snap Clone functionality which uses copy on write technology to build thin clones, optionally including masking as well. This may make it easier for you to do the snapshotting as its built into the product, which makes it less error prone than a manual snapshotting process.
Let me know if you need any more details on that.
Pete
Pete Sharman
Database Architect, DBaaS / DBLM
Enterprise Manager Product Suite
33 Benson Crescent CALWELL ACT 2905 AUSTRALIA
Phone: +61262924095 | | Mobile: +61414443449 Email: HYPERLINK "mailto:pete.sharman_at_oracle.com"pete.sharman_at_oracle.com Twitter: @SharmanPete LinkedIn: au.linkedin.com/in/petesharman Website: petewhodidnottweet.com
"Controlling developers is like herding cats."
Kevin Loney, Oracle DBA Handbook
"Oh no, it's not, it's much harder than that!"
Bruce Pihlamae, long term Oracle DBA
From: De DBA [mailto:dedba_at_tpg.com.au]
Sent: Monday, February 1, 2016 10:32 AM
To: Seth Miller HYPERLINK "mailto:sethmiller.sm_at_gmail.com"<sethmiller.sm_at_gmail.com>
Cc: Oracle Discussion List HYPERLINK "mailto:oracle-l_at_freelists.org"<oracle-l_at_freelists.org>
Subject: Re: Anyone with experience with the Oracle Data Appliance/ODA?
Seth,
Thanks for that. I haven't got access to the systems yet, just reading up and preparing for the shock..
You will not find OCFS on the ODA. It uses ACFS for the cluster file system as well as the database files.
Ah, yes, of course, it's on ASM... I understand that oakcli will create & manage fs automatically, but I'm not going to have RAC. One node is supposed to be production, whereas the other node will run dev, test and UAT. I will need to refresh the dev & test databases from production, and wonder whether I can create a snapshot, do the masking etc. and then mount the copy on the other node where it will then be used as the gold copy for the refreshes.
get yourself a couple of excellent books.
HYPERLINK "http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Oracle-Database-Appliance-Curtis/dp/1430262656"Practical Oracle Database Appliance
HYPERLINK "http://www.amazon.com/Oracle-Database-Appliance-Hands--Guide/dp/0071827447"Oracle Database Appliance: A Hands-On Guide
I did look at the first one, which has some famous names amongst the authors. One of the reviews that I saw mentions that it is somewhat dated? Is it still worthwhile getting even if you work with the latest hard/software?
Cheers,
Tony
On 31/01/2016 2:45 pm, Seth Miller wrote:
Tony,
The ODAs apparently are each set up as two stand-alone servers with shared storage. I understand that one needs to use oakcli to create databases and that this tool hides pretty much all functionality that we are used to through dbca etc.
Yes, oakcli is the magic behind ODA but it does not preclude you from using DBCA. If you need to create a database that does not fall into one of the oakcli templates, feel free to use DBCA or any other classic method.
But what does it do exactly?
Oakcli is nothing more than a bunch of very well written perl and shell scripts that wrap the classic tools included with the Oracle database software. They are easy to find and read if you really want to know what they are doing.
How does one manage the OCFS?
You will not find OCFS on the ODA. It uses ACFS for the cluster file system as well as the database files.
Can a file system be mounted on both nodes, or just on one? Is this automatic?
Oakcli will take care of this for you.
Given a complete backup (... which is a problem all of its own...), how does one restore a database?
Use RMAN or Enterprise Manager for this. There will be little difference from a standard RAC database in how you backup and restore a database.
Don't use centralised wallets with TDE, otherwise problems will arise -- but what does that even mean?
This isn't specific to the ODA. There are a number of reasons to have local wallets in RAC -- one of the most important being that you can't have a local only autologin wallet if it is shared with multiple nodes.
You will find little argument that the documentation for ODA is mediocre at best. This is why a number of training companies (including the one I teach for) have developed their own content for the ODA. I think your best course of action, though, is to get yourself a couple of excellent books.
HYPERLINK "http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Oracle-Database-Appliance-Curtis/dp/1430262656"Practical Oracle Database Appliance
HYPERLINK "http://www.amazon.com/Oracle-Database-Appliance-Hands--Guide/dp/0071827447"Oracle Database Appliance: A Hands-On Guide
Seth Miller
On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 10:42 PM, De DBA <HYPERLINK "mailto:dedba_at_tpg.com.au"dedba_at_tpg.com.au> wrote:
I've just read through that documentation, as I will shortly get the responsibility for 2 ODA's. I would not classify the 3 software manuals and 2 hw manuals as good documentation. After reading all of it, I've got more questions than what I started out with...
The ODAs apparently are each set up as two stand-alone servers with shared storage. I understand that one needs to use oakcli to create databases and that this tool hides pretty much all functionality that we are used to through dbca etc. But what does it do exactly? How does one manage the OCFS? Can a file system be mounted on both nodes, or just on one? Is this automatic? Given a complete backup (... which is a problem all of its own...), how does one restore a database? Don't use centralised wallets with TDE, otherwise problems will arise -- but what does that even mean? Questions...
Pointers to more complete documentation/blogs/etc. regarding managing and patching the ODA are very welcome!
Cheers,
Tony
On 30/01/2016 6:38 am, Hans Forbrich wrote:
Yes, lack of documentation was a problem at one time.
That has significantly improved. See http://docs.oracle.com/en/engineered-systems/
/Hans
On 29/01/2016 12:54 PM, Andrew Kerber wrote:
I have run into problem with a lack of good documentation on its use.
Sent from my iPad
On Jan 29, 2016, at 1:49 PM, <HYPERLINK "mailto:Jay.Miller_at_tdameritrade.com"Jay.Miller_at_tdameritrade.com> <HYPERLINK "mailto:Jay.Miller_at_tdameritrade.com"Jay.Miller_at_tdameritrade.com> wrote:
Hi
We just attended an ODA presentation and it looks very promising as a solution for our non-prod testing environment as it would allow us to clone multiple instances of the gold copy test databases easily (without needing to coordinate with other departments as we do now) and apply patches for those environments quickly and easily as well.
Any real life pros or cons that anyone has experienced with the appliance? We'd keep our production and performance testing environments off it at least for now.
Jay Miller
Sr. Oracle DBA
201.369.8355
-- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-lReceived on Thu Feb 04 2016 - 02:05:02 CET