Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management

Transcription

1 Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Three Steps to Oracle Database Migration from UNIX to Linux An Oracle and OuterBay White Paper March 2004

2 Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Introduction... 3 Key Drivers for Migration from Unix to Linux... 4 Lower TCO... 4 Oracle s Commitment for Unbreakable Linux... 4 Oracle Real Application Clusters: Scalability, Flexibility, and High Availability... 5 OuterBay Application Data Management... 5 The Need to Manage Application Data Growth... 5 OuterBay ADM: Enabling Phased Migration to Linux... 6 Migration to Linux with OuterBay ADM... 6 Migration Roadmap... 7 Step 2: Test Migration to Linux with Subsets of the Production Database... 8 Step 3: Migrate the Production Database to Linux Ongoing Maintenance of Application Environment Summary Resources Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Page 2

3 Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management INTRODUCTION Advances such as Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) have made Linux-based systems highly scalable and fault tolerant. This has enabled many enterprises to take advantage of Linux s lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and architectural flexibility by migrating their mission-critical ERP and CRM application environments from expensive and proprietary Unix/RISC systems to Linux/Intel systems. Proper planning, thorough testing, expert services, and software tools can significantly reduce the length and complexity of migrating large application databases to low cost Linux-based systems. Oracle offers various resources to ensure such migration projects succeed, including technical support for Linux, migration utilities, and education services. This paper presents an additional resource from an Oracle Certified Solution Partner, OuterBay. OuterBay Application Data Management (ADM) provides a field-proven, three-step migration strategy that minimizes risks, complexity, and downtime involved with migrating Oracle databases: Step 1: Archive inactive application data out of the production database to Linux: OuterBay ADM relocates inactive application data from the production database to an online archive on Linux. This introduction of Linux enables IT organizations to build operational experience supporting Linux without disrupting the production environment. Step 2: Test migration to Linux with subsets of the production database: This step utilizes OuterBay ADM to create relationally-intact subsets of the production database, accelerating migration testing. Using subsets also makes it easier to test and implement the latest Oracle functionality. Step 3: Migrate the production database to Linux: Reducing the size of the production database through Step 1 provides a tremendous benefit to the migration process by reducing the overall downtime required. It also reduces database management complexity and optimizes application performance. Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Page 3

4 This three-step Linux adoption strategy enables IT organizations stage the migration of Oracle databases from Unix/RISC to Linux/Intel platforms. OuterBay ADM minimizes downtime, complexity, and risks associated with the migration while accelerating migration testing, improving application performance, and enhancing the application environment with the latest Oracle functionality. After the migration is completed, OuterBay ADM s archiving and subsetting capabilities continue to maintain application performance and reduce the TCO for the application environment. Together, Oracle and OuterBay enable enterprises to build robust, flexible, and scalable infrastructures by leveraging Linux and low cost servers and storage assets. KEY DRIVERS FOR MIGRATION FROM UNIX TO LINUX There are many reasons to deploy Oracle on Linux including Linux s flexibility, performance, non-proprietary characteristics and maturation. Some key drivers for adopting Oracle on Linux include the following: Lower TCO The need for cost containment and compelling price/performance advantages of Intel-based servers have been major factors for platform migration. The TCO for Linux/Intel platforms is 45% - 80% lower than that for legacy Unix/RISC systems. Linux also has given IT organizations a way to improve their negotiation strength and acquisition flexibility with hardware vendors. Oracle s Commitment for Unbreakable Linux Since releasing its database software on Linux in 1998, Oracle has been aggressively bringing mission-critical capabilities such as manageability and clustering to Linux. Partnering closely with major Linux distributors, Oracle has made several key enhancements to the Linux kernel. In addition to Oracle using Linux to run its own mission-critical systems (e.g., Oracle data center, Oracle systems, and Web sites), Oracle offers a single point of technical and code-level support for Linux distributions from Red Hat and SuSE. Oracle customers running with Red Hat Enterprise Linux or with SuSE Linux Enterprise Server can call Oracle Support for Linux issues. This level of operating system support from Oracle is only offered on Linux and is not available on any other platform. Oracle on Linux delivers unbeatable reliability, performance, scalability and security. Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Page 4

5 Oracle Real Application Clusters: Scalability, Flexibility, and High Availability Oracle RAC is a key enabling technology that allows scalability, flexibility, and high availability of Oracle Databases on Linux. It enables clusters of small, commodity Intel servers to replace much larger, more expensive SMP systems. As demands for computing capacity increase, low cost Linux/Intel nodes can be added with no downtime. In December 2003, Oracle Database 10g RAC with Red Hat Linux on a cluster of HP Integrity servers hit a performance record, 1.18 million transactions per minute at $5.52/tpmC, demonstrating Oracle RAC s horizontal scalability and low price/performance 1. Compared to a similar SMP configuration, these results represent an 18% improvement in throughput and 34% reduction in price/performance. Oracle RAC allows optimal utilization of low cost Linux/Intel server resources, and provides a foundation for Grid Computing, the most flexible and cost-effective way to deliver software capacity on-demand. OUTERBAY APPLICATION DATA MANAGEMENT As an Oracle Certified Solution Partner, OuterBay enables leading organizations to better manage data growth for their Oracle E-Business Suite and custom application environments. OuterBay ADM has delivered measurable results up to 70% application performance improvement and several million dollars of annual savings in IT infrastructure costs to Global 2000 organizations such as POSCO, Sun Microsystems, Applied Materials, and Sony. The Need to Manage Application Data Growth Application environments grow larger and more complex as they retain more historical business transactions for longer periods. META Group projects the annual application data growth rate at 125% through 2007 and up to 80% of this application data is inactive. 2 This unmanaged data growth degrades application performance, reduces availability, and escalates IT infrastructure costs. Larger application databases take longer and are more complex to migrate from one platform to another or from one version of the application to the next. Repeatedly upgrading to bigger and more costly SMP servers or adding storage provides only temporary relief while propagating performance and infrastructure cost problems. 1 Transaction Processing Performance Council, Top Ten TPC-C by Performance (as of December 8, 2003) 2 Charlie Garry, Archiving: Databases on a Diet, META Delta, SIS 1046, 30 January, 2003 Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Page 5

6 OuterBay applies Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) concepts to application data and business transactions. ILM is a practical methodology for managing, storing, protecting, retaining, and disposing information based on its changing business value at each stage of its lifecycle. ILM leverages technologies such as tiered storage to meet performance, availability, accessibility, and retention requirements of information. ILM aligns IT infrastructure costs with business priorities. For example, as information access requirements decline over time, OuterBay ADM automatically relocates inactive application data to online archives on less expensive storage platforms. OuterBay ADM: Enabling Phased Migration to Linux OuterBay ADM integrates technologies critical to managing the application data lifecycle from the data s creation to disposal, based on its value to the business over time. The components of OuterBay ADM include: Application Resource Monitor analyzes and forecasts data growth as well as enables creating, modeling, and enforcing aggressive data retention policies. LiveArchive identifies and relocates inactive data out of the production environment to an easily accessible database based on specified data retention policies. LiveArchive leverages Oracle s Purge function to reduce the size of the production database but LiveArchive retains transparent, real-time access to historical, inactive data through the same application interfaces for reporting and compliance purposes. LiveArchive also ensures consistent application access even after applying Oracle Applications patches or upgrading to new Oracle Applications releases. By decreasing production database sizes, LiveArchive improves application performance, delivers substantial storage cost savings, and reduces application upgrade downtime. Encapsulated Archive is a self-contained, self-describing, open-standardsbased XML archive solution for survivable data archiving, independent of application, platform, database, or operating system. When some data retention regulations require storing data for 30 years or longer, historical application data must maintain relational integrity and ensure long-term online access even after the application has been retired. Encapsulated Archive retains online, real-time access through any XML query language application. Instance Generator creates smaller, relationally intact subsets of the production database. Enterprises manage multiple copies of the production environment for development, testing, staging, and training purposes, requiring considerable additional storage. By reducing development and test database sizes up to 85%, Instance Generator reduces the TCO for application environment and enables more effective utilization of storage assets. Developers Edition extends support to custom or customized applications and databases. MIGRATION TO LINUX WITH OUTERBAY ADM Proper planning and testing are critical in any migration project. Utilizing OuterBay ADM introduces Linux gradually, allowing your platform migration project to be completed in phases. Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Page 6

7 Migration Roadmap Step 1: Archive Inactive Application Data to Linux In this step, OuterBay ADM s database archiving capability introduces Linux and tiered storage infrastructure to your application environment without disrupting the production environment. Based on the administrator specified data retention policies, OuterBay ADM identifies and relocates inactive data from the production database to an online archive running on the Linux/Intel platform. The online archive can be a separate Oracle database using OuterBay LiveArchive, or an open XML-based archive using OuterBay Encapsulated Archive. This step does not require any migration procedures such as export/import. Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Page 7

8 Benefits of Archiving Inactive Application Data to Linux Immediately improve application performance for the current production environment. The archive process improves performance of the production environment using the existing server and storage infrastructure. It extends the life of the existing hardware until the entire migration project is completed. Increase stability and availability of the production environment. Less data in the production database also means less data to be replicated, backed up or restored, requiring smaller backup and maintenance windows. Build operational experience supporting the Linux/Intel environment. Hosting the online archive on Linux helps you understand the functionality and performance of the new server environment. This step provides you time to establish and test support mechanisms and escalation procedures. Because the service levels for the online archive are generally lower than those for the production system, this real world testing is performed in a low risk environment. Step 2: Test Migration to Linux with Subsets of the Production Database A platform migration project requires multiple testing activities such as performance analysis and tuning, backup and recovery procedure setup and verification, and disaster recovery planning. At the same time, the migration project provides you opportunities to address any limitations or deficiencies in your current application environment, such as database configurations, failing backups, or non-redundant storage connectivity. You can also test and implement the latest Oracle functionality such as Oracle RAC or Data Guard. Combining the platform migration with a database upgrade can save considerable time and testing effort versus separate, serial efforts. 3 Instead of using multiple copies of the full sized production database for these testing activities, OuterBay ADM s subsetting capability enables more cost-effective and streamlined test processes. As subsets of the production database, test databases can be as small as 15% of the production database. Migrating these smaller databases to Linux requires considerably less time and resources. Furthermore, export/import procedures to migrate these test databases serve as trial migrations for the production database. 3 B. Boese, Migrating from Unix to Oracle on Linux, An Oracle and Red Hat White Paper, September 2003 Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Page 8

9 Benefits of Testing Migration to Linux with Subsets of the Production Database Accelerate the testing process with less hardware resources. Migrating to Linux requires various testing activities server and storage hardware testing, performance tuning, backup and disaster recovery planning, etc. Using smaller test databases allows you to perform multiple test cycles in parallel using less hardware resources. Perform trial migrations. Migrating test databases to Linux allows you to rehearse migration procedures for the production database. This enables you to estimate the downtime required for the production database migration as well as avoid any surprises during the production migration. Migrate and enhance backup and recovery procedures. Since Linux is widely supported by third party backup tools, you can likely continue to use existing tools. For Oracle database backups, Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) is platform-independent. Therefore, your existing backup and recovery procedures may only need to be migrated and verified. However, with the smaller production database to be migrated to Linux, you have an opportunity to re-assess business requirements for recovery and enhance backup strategies such as more frequent backup schedules or the flash recovery area feature in Oracle 10g RMAN. Test and implement the latest Oracle functionality. The platform migration provides an opportunity to introduce enhanced functionality of Oracle and upgrade to the latest release of the Oracle Database. Oracle RAC. In this step, you can test horizontal scalability and database failover services of Oracle RAC. You also have an opportunity to size a new Linux/Intel cluster by characterizing the workload and application requirements for the short term (6 months to a year) and for the long term (3 to 5 years). 4 Keep in mind that online archiving reduces the production database size significantly, requiring less CPU resources. Coupled with absolute performance advantage of Intel servers, OuterBay ADM can enable smaller clusters of Linux/Intel systems to replace high-end SMP systems. Self Managing Database is a set of features that increase the ease of administration of Oracle databases. Automatic Undo Management allows for the Oracle server to manage and allocate rollback segments, eliminating the need for DBAs to consider the number and types of segments necessary for transactions. With Automatic Segment Space Management Oracle manages the free space in segments with the use of 4 I. Remedios, Best Practices for Consolidation of Oracle on Linux Deployments, Oracle Corporation, January 2004 Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Page 9

10 bitmaps and better manages the allocation of space in data blocks. Dynamic Memory Management allows for DBAs to dynamically resize memory areas in the Oracle database such as the shared pool and the buffer cache, without the downtime previously required to accomplish this task. You can easily take advantage of these features after upgrading to Oracle Database 10g. Oracle Data Guard. In addition to re-assessing backup and recovery requirements, you can improve disaster recovery/business continuity capabilities by implementing Oracle Data Guard. Oracle Data Guard protects against site failure by maintaining standby databases. It provides replication of atomic database changes to a remote site in conjunction with the primary site and has been further enhanced in Oracle Database 10g with real time apply for close synchronization of the standby with the production database. Step 3: Migrate the Production Database to Linux Reducing the size of the production databases provides a tremendous benefit to the migration process by reducing the overall downtime required to migrate. In Oracle9i, the primary supported mechanism for migrating Oracle databases across platforms involves exporting the current production database and importing it into a newly created empty production database on Linux. For migration of an Oracle E-Business Suite database, the standard supported procedure is documented on Metalink (Note ), Export/Import Process for Oracle Applications Release 11i Database Instances Using Oracle9i Enterprise Edition. With the release of Oracle 10g, there are new options available to assist in the migration of databases from legacy Unix/RISC platforms. All of these data migration options in Oracle9i and Oracle10g benefit from OuterBay s ability to reduce the size of production datasets. Cross Platform Transportable Tablespaces make transporting datafiles across platforms possible for the first time. This can drastically reduce the time required to migrate across platforms relative to existing export/import processes. DataPump. The export/import process has undergone significant enhancements in Oracle10g. The result is the DataPump engine which greatly reduces the time required for exporting and importing an Oracle database. Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Page 10

11 Benefits of Migrating the Production with OuterBay ADM Reduce downtime during migration. Downtime during migration is proportional to the size of the production database. OuterBay ADM decreases the production database size up to 60%. This significantly reduces the outage window. Optimize post-migration performance. Post-migration performance benefits from the smaller production database and higher performance of Intel-based servers. Ongoing Maintenance of Application Environment The migration project to Linux is now complete. However, the application data will continue to grow, requiring ongoing maintenance to manage application performance and contain infrastructure costs. OuterBay ADM allows you to establish, refine, and enforce archive policies for the production environment to maintain peak application performance levels. OuterBay ADM also extends the TCO advantages of Linux by utilizing aggressive archive and subsetting policies and tiered storage. In addition, OuterBay ADM enables compliance with data retention regulations, by setting and enforcing data retention policies for the production system and online archives. It provides an easy access to data as required by investigators or auditors and offers audit trails for any data changes. SUMMARY Oracle is committed to making Linux/Intel into a mission-critical computing platform, delivering a lower TCO, high performance, reliability, flexibility and scalability. To ease the migration from legacy Unix platforms to Linux on low cost Intel-based servers, Oracle offers many resources including software tools, services, and partnerships. As an Oracle Certified Solutions Partner, OuterBay provides a three-step migration strategy. This enables IT organizations to introduce Linux without disrupting the production environment and then to stage the migration of Oracle databases from Unix/RISC to Linux/Intel platforms. OuterBay minimizes downtime, complexity, and risks associated with the migration while accelerating migration testing, improving application performance, and enhancing the application environment with the latest Oracle functionality. RESOURCES Available on the Web: Oracle on Linux: Oracle Technology Network Linux Center: Technical white papers and documentation: Oracle Technology Network Migration Center: Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Page 11

12 Metalink: Oracle Support Online: Oracle E-Business Suite on Linux: OuterBay ADM Solution: OuterBay s compliance: OuterBay LiveArchive for Oracle: OuterBay customer white papers: Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management Page 12

13 Migrating Oracle Databases to Linux with OuterBay Application Data Management March 2004 Author: Rich Butterfield, OuterBay Technologies, Inc. Contributing Authors: Bill Boese, Oracle Corp. Oracle Corporation World Headquarters 500 Oracle Parkway Redwood Shores, CA U.S.A. Worldwide Inquiries: Phone: Fax: Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. Various product and service names referenced herein may be trademarks of Oracle Corporation. All other product and service names mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright 2004 Oracle Corporation All rights reserved.