Virtualization

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  • 1.  Oracle on windows virtualizing

    Posted Nov 13, 2010 05:38 PM

    Hello,

    I am new to oracle, One of my client has a requirment to virtualize oracle 11g database on windows 2008 R2. I am checking about this on the net and have got confused by the oracle licensing. I am not sure if it will work porperly if virtualize it. The server on which ESX will be installed is three Dell R710 with 2 quard core Xeon processors with 64GB Ram each.

    I need some guidence on how do i proceed with the licensing and the best installation practice so that the cost is minimised and the performance objective is also met. The client has around 20 users who will be using the database and the application.

    Is it possible to use the advantages like Storage Vmotion, Vmotion, DRS, HA , FT with oracle VM.

    Thanks

    DSRSAS



  • 2.  RE: Oracle on windows virtualizing

    Posted Nov 13, 2010 07:53 PM

    Licensing is a bit of a dark art and the vendors are a bit prone to making up the rules as they go along, but this is my understanding of oracle.

    1. Oracle only officially support Oracle virtualised on their own hypervisor.

    http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/virtualization/index.html

    2. Oracle licensing refers to hard and soft partitioning - hard partitioning is something that main frames can do to physically isolate CPU power. Soft partitioning is what hypervisors offer - vsphere, hyper-v xenserver ...etc type 1 and 2 hypervisors are in this category.

    3. If you virtualise a oracle server and you are using vsphere or any of the other hypervisors you must have oracle licenses for each physical server socket for each server that the VM could reside on - in efffect a license for each cpu socket for each server in the cluster - you cannot only license for the number of vCPU's you give the VM - so oracle becomes very expensive to virtualise.

    You may find this from vmware of interest.

    http://vmware.com/solutions/partners/alliances/oracle-vmware-support.html



  • 3.  RE: Oracle on windows virtualizing

    Posted Nov 16, 2010 07:52 AM

    Thanks for the information, But does oracle detects the physical CPU cores which are under the virtualization layer. What i understand is we install oracle in a Windows 2008 R2 virtual machine having a 2 vCPU's so how does the oracle comes to know about the physical cpu cores.

    Is there any workaround for this, like not installing VMware tools or disabling DRS.

    I am sure no one would like to virtualize oracle with such a high cost but still we see lot of people doing it. How?

    Regards

    DSRSAS



  • 4.  RE: Oracle on windows virtualizing

    Posted Nov 16, 2010 02:21 PM

    This is a software licensing issue - and Oracle just like Microsoft are determined to get their pound of flesh. I wonder how many customers that have virtualised oracle have incorrectly assumed they are licensed for the number of vCPu's they have rather than the physical CPU's in the hosts.

    I an not an oracle expert, i would advise you to speak to your oracle reseller and take their advice.



  • 5.  RE: Oracle on windows virtualizing

    Posted Nov 25, 2010 02:56 AM

    Virtualization.info has recently posted additional information on Oracle and Vmware licensing on their blog page.

    http://virtualization.info/en/news/2010/11/oracle-relaxes-not-support-for-vmware-gartner-still-unsatisfied.html

    www.phdvirtual.com, makers of PHD Virtual Backup for Vmware and Xen Server, formally esXpress



  • 6.  RE: Oracle on windows virtualizing

    Posted Nov 25, 2010 11:36 AM

    excellent article - just goes to show how confusing the situation is with Oracle.



  • 7.  RE: Oracle on windows virtualizing

    Posted Nov 26, 2010 06:58 PM

    Its not confusing. Oracle is scared shitless that people can use their stuff with lesser hardware assigned....but people want to use virtualization so they bought a hypervisor (xen variant) where you can assign licenses per virtual CPU.

    Someone should take them to court to be honest, its gotta be some kind of anti-trust thing that identical underlying kernels for a hypervisor (Citrix Xen vs OracleVM) require different licensing...



  • 8.  RE: Oracle on windows virtualizing

    Posted Nov 13, 2010 07:54 PM

    This is a paper on virtualizing Oracle 10G/11G on Vmware

    http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/partners/oracle/vmw-oracle-virtualizing-oracle-db10g11g-vmware-on-infrastructure.pdf

    From the VMware side as a virtual machine you should be able to take advantage of what vSphere offers.

    www.phdvirtual.com, makers of PHD Virtual Backup for Vmware and Xen Server, formally esXpress



  • 9.  RE: Oracle on windows virtualizing

    Posted Nov 26, 2010 09:38 PM

    Thanks for the helpful






    www.phdvirtual.com, makers of PHD Virtual Backup for Vmware and Xen Server, formally esXpress