Dirty Cache - An IT infrastructure perspective on optimizing business applications

Save money by virtualizing Oracle

Bart Sjerps 2011-11-09 Oracle, Virtualization 5 Comments

Approved

I wrote an internal EMC memo on licensing issues with Oracle on VMware as I get a lot of questions on this topic. But I’d like to expand the question a bit. After all, my blog is named “Dirty Cache” which could also be substituted with “Dirty Cash” – and as said, my mission is to lower cost and drive up service levels for my customers…

Here my internal memo (slightly edited for the blog and updated with a few corrections). Again, I want to make it clear that these are my own opinions based on (limited) customer experiences, I might be completely wrong and that’s why my blog has a disclaimer 😉

Use this information at your own risk – don’t shoot the messenger.

Original question:

How should we license Oracle database on VMware?

Beefed up question:

How can we save money on licensing and other expenses by virtualizing Oracle?

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Performance – The I/O stack

Bart Sjerps 2011-11-07 Oracle, Performance 2 Comments

Concorde Mach Indicator

In my last post, I gave a highly simplified representation of “The I/O stack” of a database. In reality, it’s much more complex.

I found an old picture where the whole I/O stack of a database was described and I decided to brush it off and include some additional layers (application and middleware) and show how the I/O flows if you run on a virtual server with a hypervisor.

Also, the storage network can provide virtualization which in turn adds a layer of complexity.

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The missing link in application performance tuning

Bart Sjerps 2011-10-29 Performance No Comments

When dealing with application performance problems, the quick and easy solution is often to throw hardware at the problem. Typically this is one out of processing power (CPU), memory, or more I/O resources. With a bit of luck, the bottleneck is removed and shifts somewhere else (but now the total stack is – hopefully – capable of handling more workload).

Missing Link

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POC: Piece Of Cake or Point Of Contradiction?

Bart Sjerps 2011-10-13 General, Oracle, Performance 5 Comments

Every now and then I get involved in Customer Proof of Concepts. A Proof of Concept (POC) is, according to Wikipedia, something like a demonstration of feasibility of a certain idea, concept or theory.

Concept Performance Aircraft — Concept Aircraft

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Oracle Stretched Cluster with VPLEX (update)

Bart Sjerps 2011-09-30 Innovation, VPLEX 2 Comments

One request I got back after my series on Oracle RAC stretched clusters is if I could summarize again why anybody would choose VPLEX for storage replication over other solutions. My attempt was to describe the principles of VPLEX in enough detail for techies to understand it. For non-geeks, I will try to explain it as brief as possible.
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