Using Oracle RAC and Microsoft Windows 64-bit as the Foundation For a Database Grid

Why 64 bit ?

• Why 64 Bit?
  • 4 GB per process limitation was constraining our growth
    • Used /3GB switch to maximize available memory
  • Large number of connections was number one issue
  • Running multiple concurrent instances on a 32-Bit platform would have been very challenging
  • Performance improvements

Lessons Learned

• Do NOT modify migration recipe after you have completed testing
• Make sure you understand how sequences are used in your applications and the caching options available
• Determining root cause a RAC node failure can be very challenging if the Oracle Fence driver evicts the node
  • Fence driver will cause a windows ‘Blue Screen’ failure if it needs to evict a node
  • Debugging can require using of Windows Crash Dumps
• Check and double check device driver versions and parameter settings are correct and consistent
  • Automated comparison against gold setup is the ideal solution
• All updates to OS and device drivers must be well understood to avoid unintended consequences
• Insure you have stress tested all high volume areas of your application as CBO changes can have a big impact
  • If at all possible review all execution plans
• Insure any consulting resources understand:
  • RAC concepts
  • RAC on Windows
  • ASM principles
  • RAC – Cache Fusion and Failure recovery
• Make sure your team receives adequate training on RAC and Grid Control
• Tape backup licensing – Our vendor requires licenses for all RAC nodes even if you are only performing backups / restores using a subset of nodes.
• Insure proper setup of parallel operations
  • By default any database operation that can use parallel operations will use all instances of the database in a cluster
  • Improper setup can result in overloading the Cache Fusion Network and all nodes in the RAC environment failing
    • If you are using parallel operations make absolutely sure you have tested your scenarios
    • Diagnosing this problem is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT with current tools
  • Our solution
    • Set the parallel_max_servers parameter
      • Recommended value is 2 * # processors (cores) per server
      • Our case: 2 * 4 processors * 2 cores/processor = 16
    • Use the parallel_instance_group parameter to define instance groupings that can be used for parallel operations. In init.ora specify:
      • sss1.instance_groups = ‘node1’, ‘2-nodes’
      • sss2.instance_groups = ‘node2’,‘2-nodes’
    • For the query select /*+ full(sss_employee) */ max (last_signon_date_time) from sss_employee
      • If NO alter session parallel_instance_group is performed – All nodes supporting the SSS database are used
      • If alter session set parallel_instance_group = ‘node1’ is performed only the node with the sss1 instance is used
      • If alter session set parallel_instance_group = ‘2-nodes’ is performed only the nodes with the sss1 and sss2 instances are used
    • To prevent the default of using all instances. In the spfile for each database, specify a default parallel_instance_group session parameter for each node.
      • For sss1 we have a default session parameter node1.parallel_instance_group = ‘node1’
      • For sss2 we have a default session parameter node2.parallel_instance_group = ‘node2’

© 2011, www.oracledatabase12g.com. 版权所有.文章允许转载,但必须以链接方式注明源地址,否则追究法律责任.

相关文章 | Related posts:

1. Grid Control 11g WLS installation On 32bit Microsoft Windows Platforms
2. Step By Step guide for installing Oracle RAC 11gR2 on Windows (2003 and 2008)
3. Step By Step guide for installing Oracle RAC 10gR2 on Windows (2003 and 2008)
4. Step By Step guide for installing Oracle RAC 11gR1 on Windows (2003 and 2008)
5. Oracle Database 10g RAC Best Practices: RAC on Linux
6. Oracle in 32-bit / 64-bit Kernel Mode on AIX 5L
7. Discover How To Leverage The Power Of The Grid
8. Upgrade to Oracle Database 11g:Single Instance to RAC & ASM
9. Oracle RAC Templates for Oracle Virtual Machine
10. Competing Against Microsoft SQL Server 2008 with Oracle Database 11g