re: "Having said this, understand that Oracle will license based on the core
count in the ESX host or hosts in a virtual machine cluster. They will not
bother with niceties about virtual machines being restricted to individual
nodes within a cluster, even if VMware says it will "back you up" on such a
restriction. If any VM within a cluster runs Oracle, then all of the cores in
the cluster will be licensed by Oracle. So, understanding this, it is
important to designate a hypervisor cluster entirely for Oracle use only if
concerned about maximizing Oracle licensing. Just my US$0.02..."
The VMware white paper is at
https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/whitepaper/solutions/oracle/understanding_oracle_certification_support_licensing_vmware_environments-white-paper.pdf
Understanding Oracle Certification, Support and Licensing
...<https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/whitepaper/solutions/oracle/understanding_oracle_certification_support_licensing_vmware_environments-white-paper.pdf>
www.vmware.com
understanding oracle certification, support and licensing for vmware
environments white paper may 2017
The germane sentence is "In particular, DRS Host Affinity rules can be used to
run Oracle on a subset of the hosts within a cluster. In many cases, customers
can use vSphere to achieve substantial licensing savings."
Another article worth reading is in the August 2017 issue of the NoCOUG Journal
http://nocoug.org/Journal/NoCOUG_Journal_201708.pdf#page=4 written by House of ;
Brick and an intellectual property attorney. The article is specifically about
cloud licensing but DRS host affinity rules are mentioned in passing,
Vol. 31, No. 3 · AUGUST 2017 -
NOCOUG<http://nocoug.org/Journal/NoCOUG_Journal_201708.pdf#page=4>
nocoug.org
Vol. 31, No. 3 · AUGUST 2017 Oracle Cloud Revealed Brian Hitchcock takes notes.
See page 8. Parallel RMAN Backups with Standard Edition Easy-Peasy says Norbert
Debes.
Here are some interesting quotes from that article:
“Somewhere in your agreement is the following definition of the term Processor:
Processor shall be defined as all processors where the Oracle programs are
installed and/or running. This is the most fundamental and important definition
in your agreement.”
“Installed is a past-tense activity that presently applies. Running is a
present-tense activity. There is nothing indicating a license requirement for
prospective activities (things that might happen in the future), no matter how
easy they may be to bring about.”
“The ... policy document is a non-contractual reference. It is excluded by the
Entire Agreement clause of your master agreement with Oracle.”
“The main point that I would like all NoCOUG readers to take from this
discussion is that your contract with Oracle is what matters. You do not have
to do something that is not in the best interest of your organization when it
is outside of the scope of your binding agreement with Oracle.”
Iggy Fernandez
Email: iggy_fernandez@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:iggy_fernandez@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cellphone: (925) 478 3161
Blog: Explaining the Explain
Plan<http://www.toadworld.com/members/iggy_5f00_fernandez/blogs>
Author of Beginning Oracle Database 12c
Administration<http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Oracle-Database-12c-Administration/dp/1484201949>
Editor of the NoCOUG
Journal<http://www.nocoug.org/Journal/NoCOUG_Journal_Latest.pdf>
________________________________
From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf
of Tim Gorman <tim.evdbt@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2017 12:27 PM
To: jprem@xxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: andrew.kerber@xxxxxxxxx; oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: oracle on VM or non-VM ?!!
Expanding on a few of Andrew's points, I can't believe that it has been almost
10 years now, but it has...
9 years ago, I was hired by our local rapid-transit agency specifically to
assist in deploying Oracle RAC and Oracle DataGuard. At that time, they had
also begun using VMWare ESX with HA, VMotion, and Storage VMotion for their
internal infrastructure.
Oracle RAC is a scalability option only -- it was not designed as an HA
solution and any HA capabilities it possesses are necessary for it to simply
exist. So, if more horsepower is needed, then scale up with hardware until the
limit for the chosen hardware platform is reached. Beyond that limit, use
Oracle RAC to continue to scale up across servers.
For database high-availability (HA), use Oracle DataGuard. Period. Full stop.
Long story short: none of their systems needed to scale beyond the hardware
limit of their chosen platform, so there was no need for Oracle RAC. Also,
database change rate was well within the capabilities of Storage VMotion, and
so with VMware HA, VMotion, and Storage VMotion, they had a more comprehensive
solution for HA than DataGuard, because VMware would move the entire
environment, not just the database as DataGuard would.
So I scotched the two reasons I was originally hired, and my 18-month
engagement was concluded in 4 weeks. I had talked my way out of a decent gig,
but as a taxpayer it was the responsible solution. While it is joyous and
wonderful to deploy the right tools on a job, it is excruciatingly painful and
downright frustrating to deploy the wrong tools for a job.
But, Oracle sales was very unhappy. Their response was to begin a campaign to
paint the customer's infrastructure team as incompetent, "incapable" of
understanding "advanced features" like RAC and DataGuard. Four years later,
after turnover in staff and management, they became an Exadata shop. So it
goes...
----
Having said this, understand that Oracle will license based on the core count
in the ESX host or hosts in a virtual machine cluster. They will not bother
with niceties about virtual machines being restricted to individual nodes
within a cluster, even if VMware says it will "back you up" on such a
restriction. If any VM within a cluster runs Oracle, then all of the cores in
the cluster will be licensed by Oracle. So, understanding this, it is
important to designate a hypervisor cluster entirely for Oracle use only if
concerned about maximizing Oracle licensing. Just my US$0.02...
----
Answering your questions directly...
1) Does Oracle on VM (type 1) have notable perf issues ?
A1) No. There are always issues in any configuration, but nothing
notable, inherent, or pervasive
2) Does license cost (or TCO) increase with VM/Oracle combination?
A2) No, TCO will decrease with VM/Oracle in some situations (see comments
above)
3) Is RAC on VM widely used ?
A3) I don't know
4) RAC on non-VM or single instance on VM - which is good from a HA perspective
?
A4) RAC is not an HA solution, so non-RAC on VM with either DataGuard or
VMware HA/VMotion/StorageVMotion
5) If VM is advisable, VMware or Oracle VM - which works best overall ?
A5) I don't know. Oracle VM is probably less expensive, but VMware
probably has better features
On 11/26/17 12:35, Andrew Kerber wrote:
My company, House of Brick technologies specializes in virtualizing oracle. I
am not a licensing expert, I specialize in Oracle, and moving from physical to
virtual.
I can say that rac works just fine on VMware, but with VMware HA, the need for
RAC is much reduced.
Most companies determine that VMware HA is sufficient for their needs, though
we have moved several from rac on physical to rac on virtual.
The performance difference between oracle on physical and Oracle on Virtual
Machines is basically nonexistent. There is a certain amount of tuning that
needs to be done to optimize performance on physical machines, but once tuned
the difference in performance is non-existent.
We have been around for about 20 years, so we have a lot of experience in this
area.
http://houseofbrick.com/expert-services/professional-services-consulting/<https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhouseofbrick.com%2Fexpert-services%2Fprofessional-services-consulting%2F&data=02%7C01%7Ciggy_fernandez%40hotmail.com%7Cd6c6126ad4374f8097dd08d5350c4791%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636473249208361186&sdata=3pdY7FvHI%2F%2BrlfgBl3fwEFgcd3l2y5VaNqcCBJPjakU%3D&reserved=0>
On Sun, Nov 26, 2017 at 1:32 AM, JP .
<jprem@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:jprem@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Friends,
we want to move all our existing prod oracle databases (around 20 instance, max
db size ~500G) from our old h/w (non-VM) to new ones. HA,easy manageability,
performance,cost being the key factors considered for the new machines , would
like to know if VM(type-1) would suit our needs.
I was looking for "VM or non-VM" kind of articles (from a license, HA ,
performance perspective). But could not come to a conclusion. It's a bit
confusing. Want to clarify with experts here.
1) Does Oracle on VM (type 1) have notable perf issues ?
2) Does license cost (or TCO) increase with VM/Oracle combination ?
3) Is RAC on VM widely used ?
4) RAC on non-VM or single instance on VM - which is good from a HA perspective
?
5) If VM is advisable, VMware or Oracle VM - which works best overall ?
Your advice and inputs would be very much helpful. Thanks in advance.
~ JP ~
--
Andrew W. Kerber
'If at first you dont succeed, dont take up skydiving.'
