What a gigantic HEADACHE. I can see how it can be useful from an administrative standpoint and how it is tailored for RAC, but I am skeptical of the supposed "performance" increase. If it slightly increases performance, is it worth the headache it causes from a configuration and maintenance standpoint? To me, absolutely NOT. It takes a DAY or more to set it up and configure it correctly. This is BEFORE the DB software is installed/configured, and the database being built. Using regular SAN LUNS, I can partition, mount, and be ready to build the database in ~30 minutes. ASM is not worth the headache to me.
Why would I want a SECOND Oracle instance just to manage my DB storage disks? That's more CPU and memory being eaten up just for storage purposes.
Showing posts with label Oracle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oracle. Show all posts
Friday, August 6, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Mount a Windows share on a Linux machine as a local drive
This comes in handy at times. Create a folder on your linux machine:
mkdir /foldername
On the Windows Server, share your folder, giving your domain account full permissions.
On your linux server:
mount -t cifs \\\\windowsservername.domain.com\\sharename -o username=yourusername,password=yourpassword,domain=yournetbiosdomain /sharename
This mounts the remote share as /foldername, that you created earlier. Note: You must create the folder on your Linux machine first in order to mount the remote share to it.
I use this quite a bit on a linux-based Oracle DB server where I have a huge schema export to import, but lack the local disk space to copy it to and import it. I just mount the db export share to the linux DB server and import as usual.
This is even better than using a USB2.0 external hard drive, because Gigabit Ethernet provides much more bandwidth that USB2.0 can. Plus, having an optimized network utilizing jumbo frames will help even more.
Yes, I can't wait for 10GBase-T to drop in price. The CAT6A NIC's are running ~$700 each, but the 24-port switches (Summit X650 and Arista are the only players for now) are pricey. The 24-port Summit X650 runs ~$22k. The Arista runs ~$12k. I do like the Arista a bit better personally. It is a very nice datacenter/top-of-rack switch that is priced right. Now, Juniper Networks needs to pull their head out of the sand and realize that 10GBase-T DOES have a following and a lot of customers WANT IT. I for one, do not want to waste money on expensive optics nor buy from a vendor that I am unfamiliar with. My entire network is already Juniper-powered and I want to keep it that way. I want to use my existing CAT5E for 10G speeds. Yes, 10G is possible on CAT5E, for short runs of less than 55 meters if I am not mistaken. CAT6A is ideal, and doesn't cost a whole lot more than good quality CAT5E.
mkdir /foldername
On the Windows Server, share your folder, giving your domain account full permissions.
On your linux server:
mount -t cifs \\\\windowsservername.domain.com\\sharename -o username=yourusername,password=yourpassword,domain=yournetbiosdomain /sharename
This mounts the remote share as /foldername, that you created earlier. Note: You must create the folder on your Linux machine first in order to mount the remote share to it.
I use this quite a bit on a linux-based Oracle DB server where I have a huge schema export to import, but lack the local disk space to copy it to and import it. I just mount the db export share to the linux DB server and import as usual.
This is even better than using a USB2.0 external hard drive, because Gigabit Ethernet provides much more bandwidth that USB2.0 can. Plus, having an optimized network utilizing jumbo frames will help even more.
Yes, I can't wait for 10GBase-T to drop in price. The CAT6A NIC's are running ~$700 each, but the 24-port switches (Summit X650 and Arista are the only players for now) are pricey. The 24-port Summit X650 runs ~$22k. The Arista runs ~$12k. I do like the Arista a bit better personally. It is a very nice datacenter/top-of-rack switch that is priced right. Now, Juniper Networks needs to pull their head out of the sand and realize that 10GBase-T DOES have a following and a lot of customers WANT IT. I for one, do not want to waste money on expensive optics nor buy from a vendor that I am unfamiliar with. My entire network is already Juniper-powered and I want to keep it that way. I want to use my existing CAT5E for 10G speeds. Yes, 10G is possible on CAT5E, for short runs of less than 55 meters if I am not mistaken. CAT6A is ideal, and doesn't cost a whole lot more than good quality CAT5E.
Be multi-faceted
I always try to maintain an open mind. Since I primarily work with the Oracle RDMS, I always try to keep myself familiar with its competing products such as MySQL or Postgresql. Yes, I am better at some platforms than others, but if you lock yourself into one platform, then you can very possibly become obsolete over time. I used to be a Windows-only guy. Over time, I've experimented with Linux as an Oracle DBMS platform. Now that I am very comfortable managing Oracle on Linux, I find that it is my preferred platform by a large margin over Windows or Solaris. No, I don't run it on RHEL like a lot of shops. I run on CentOS for one simple reason: free updates, and no cost involved. Yes, Oracle doesn't support it, but it DOES run on it. CentOS is a binary equivalent of RHEL so much that Oracle identifies it so and installs just fine, and runs the same. I don't have to pay for maintenance & support or updates. My Oracle platforms are rock-solid as they would be on RHEL. A few people in the office are wary of this, but ultimately it comes down to me and I am the one supporting the environments. We have not had ANY issue that required an Oracle support request in the past 10+ years. If we did, I would setup a separate server with a trial of RHEL, install Oracle, and try to replicate the issue on the test environment. It has never come to that though. So, we get the rock solid platform we need, at ZERO cost.
To clarify before the flames begin: We are not a typical "production" Oracle shop. We are an ISV whose marketed applications run on an Oracle back-end. We develop our applications to utilize the Oracle RDBMS, and in-turn, we are a member of the Oracle Partner Network (OPN). We pay a few thousand a year for our OPN membership to use the Oracle RDBMS in a development environment. We pay extra for TAR support access as well, but rarely use it. If we had a live website using an Oracle back-end for order processing, etc, you can BET I'd be running on RHEL with RAC with full production licenses. But again, that's not in our solar system today.
The same thing goes for our virtualization platforms. I primarily use Hyper-V R2, but also use VMWare ESXi for server virtualization. Hyper-V costs almost nothing, and ESXi costs absolutely nothing. On the desktop virtualization front, we use VMWare Player for our QA and support teams. That costs nothing as well.
It's win-win in my eyes, as well as my boss who happens to be the CFO.
To clarify before the flames begin: We are not a typical "production" Oracle shop. We are an ISV whose marketed applications run on an Oracle back-end. We develop our applications to utilize the Oracle RDBMS, and in-turn, we are a member of the Oracle Partner Network (OPN). We pay a few thousand a year for our OPN membership to use the Oracle RDBMS in a development environment. We pay extra for TAR support access as well, but rarely use it. If we had a live website using an Oracle back-end for order processing, etc, you can BET I'd be running on RHEL with RAC with full production licenses. But again, that's not in our solar system today.
The same thing goes for our virtualization platforms. I primarily use Hyper-V R2, but also use VMWare ESXi for server virtualization. Hyper-V costs almost nothing, and ESXi costs absolutely nothing. On the desktop virtualization front, we use VMWare Player for our QA and support teams. That costs nothing as well.
It's win-win in my eyes, as well as my boss who happens to be the CFO.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
The Beginning....
Well, this is the beginning of something I have been thinking about doing for a long time. It's an attempt to publish my thoughts on managing the IT Operations of a small business. Small business IT is very different from big business IT. We don't have the large budgets, large staff, and corporate politics that is prevalent in a large organization's IT department. Many small business IT departments are a "one-man-show", or even one person who handles IT as a secondary or third role. That works for a lot of businesses, but when the business grows or changes, it is time to bring in outside help. Normally, that's where local IT Solutions providers come into play. They work great for the most part if you select a good one that doesn't have ulterior motives to "sell" you things that you don't really have to have or need, in order to "churn up" business and sales. That's where a lot of those IT Solutions providers make a mistake. When someone who "knows" what they are doing steps in, it often gets ugly. Sometimes, they aren't as responsive as you need them to be. That's where I got started at the company I presently work for over ten years ago.
My employer had been in business for 15 years as a different type of business serving a different market than we presently do. It was an accounting firm in the beginning that moved into the 401k record-keeping software business in the early 90's. The product ran off of the IBM AS400 platform. In the late 90's, the company transformed itself again into a financial-services software company. The applications ran on the Windows NT Server and Workstation platform with an Oracle back-end. Yes, some of the reason for the choice of Oracle as "our" DBMS was partly due to Oracle's reputation at the time. The large companies we were "wooing" already had the Oracle DBMS in place with the expertise to manage it. That made the choice somewhat easier. At the time, SQL Server wasn't even in the same solar system with Oracle.
Years ago, I thought the choice of Oracle wasn't the best choice based on it's high cost. What I see now is that our clients databases have grown exponentially in size. Yes, it is a fact in my experience that Oracle scales far above the capabilities of SQL Server. It did then and still does now. However, the gap has been narrowed, but it's still there. No, I am not biased towards Oracle. I am open to all vendors and solutions. I believe that each solution fits a particular niche or need that they all can't meet equally. Yes, our applications probably could run on SQL Server, but when you have tables that are measured in the hundred-gigabyte plus size range along with indices in the fifty-gigabyte or larger size, yes, Oracle outshines SQL Server. Go ahead and post your flaming comments, but it won't sway my opinion whatsoever. I will just delete your comment and move on. I'm not here to "make friends". Again, I am here writing *MY* thoughts and ideas. I will say, SQL Server bests Oracle in certain situations, as does MySQL or Postgresql. Believe me, they all have their place. I say the same thing about the age-old argument of Windows vs. Mac OS vs. Linux. I use all three for different tasks. I don't favor one over the other.
I prefer Windows Server 2008 R2 for user management, file sharing, print sharing, and a few other things. When it comes to corporate email, nothing rivals Exchange Server 2010 in my mind. Small business that can't afford Exchange or don't want the complexity, will likely LOVE Google Apps for it's simplicity and cost-savings. I would LOVE to move our business over to Google Apps Premier. My reasons for not doing it is that their support plain SUCKS. The trial I did showed me that. The only support available was via e-mail, and that was trial of futility. Canned script email responses that basically said "RTFM". I did, but it didn't answer my questions. I decided to just flush the project entirely. I'm not going to pay thousands of dollars for something to be told "RTFM". At least with Exchange, if I get stuck, at worst I get Prakash in Bangalore that DOES know what he is doing.
Yes, a long winded post, but I think it will give you a bit better insight to what I do.
I don't want to "write a book" for my introductory post, so, I will leave it at that for now.
Stay tuned for the next post. I have a LOT of ideas to post about in the future.
-Me
My employer had been in business for 15 years as a different type of business serving a different market than we presently do. It was an accounting firm in the beginning that moved into the 401k record-keeping software business in the early 90's. The product ran off of the IBM AS400 platform. In the late 90's, the company transformed itself again into a financial-services software company. The applications ran on the Windows NT Server and Workstation platform with an Oracle back-end. Yes, some of the reason for the choice of Oracle as "our" DBMS was partly due to Oracle's reputation at the time. The large companies we were "wooing" already had the Oracle DBMS in place with the expertise to manage it. That made the choice somewhat easier. At the time, SQL Server wasn't even in the same solar system with Oracle.
Years ago, I thought the choice of Oracle wasn't the best choice based on it's high cost. What I see now is that our clients databases have grown exponentially in size. Yes, it is a fact in my experience that Oracle scales far above the capabilities of SQL Server. It did then and still does now. However, the gap has been narrowed, but it's still there. No, I am not biased towards Oracle. I am open to all vendors and solutions. I believe that each solution fits a particular niche or need that they all can't meet equally. Yes, our applications probably could run on SQL Server, but when you have tables that are measured in the hundred-gigabyte plus size range along with indices in the fifty-gigabyte or larger size, yes, Oracle outshines SQL Server. Go ahead and post your flaming comments, but it won't sway my opinion whatsoever. I will just delete your comment and move on. I'm not here to "make friends". Again, I am here writing *MY* thoughts and ideas. I will say, SQL Server bests Oracle in certain situations, as does MySQL or Postgresql. Believe me, they all have their place. I say the same thing about the age-old argument of Windows vs. Mac OS vs. Linux. I use all three for different tasks. I don't favor one over the other.
I prefer Windows Server 2008 R2 for user management, file sharing, print sharing, and a few other things. When it comes to corporate email, nothing rivals Exchange Server 2010 in my mind. Small business that can't afford Exchange or don't want the complexity, will likely LOVE Google Apps for it's simplicity and cost-savings. I would LOVE to move our business over to Google Apps Premier. My reasons for not doing it is that their support plain SUCKS. The trial I did showed me that. The only support available was via e-mail, and that was trial of futility. Canned script email responses that basically said "RTFM". I did, but it didn't answer my questions. I decided to just flush the project entirely. I'm not going to pay thousands of dollars for something to be told "RTFM". At least with Exchange, if I get stuck, at worst I get Prakash in Bangalore that DOES know what he is doing.
Yes, a long winded post, but I think it will give you a bit better insight to what I do.
I don't want to "write a book" for my introductory post, so, I will leave it at that for now.
Stay tuned for the next post. I have a LOT of ideas to post about in the future.
-Me
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