Infrastructure Software

Hi,

I should add that this is for a home learning project rather than a production or development environment, so performance and such issues are not a problem. I just want to get some practice/experience within an Oracle RAC enivonment.

Thanks.

Nick.

I have refered metalink document id 175465.1 for RAC, URL as follows,


http://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/plsql/ml2_documents.showDocument?p_database_id=NOT&p_id=175465.1

"<quote>2.7 Installing a Volume Manager

It is now necessary to install volume management software. Sun Cluster v3
supports two products:-

Sun's Solaris Volume Manager software (Solstice DiskSuite software) or VERITAS
Volume Manager (VxVM) software v3.0.4+ (32-bit RAC), v3.1.1+ (64-bit RAC) is
needed to provide shared disk access and distributed mirroring.
Although Sun's Solstice DiskSuite (SDS), integrated into Solaris Operating
System (SPARC) 9 onwards as Solaris Volume Manager (SVM), is supported by Sun
Cluster v3, neither SDS or SVM supports cluster wide volume management, it is
only for per node basis. Hence these products cannot be used for RAC."<quote>

My question is shall we use Sun's Solaris Volume Manager for RAC in two
node configuration? What is the difference between the above two volume
manager? Can you pls give some documentation or link for Sun Clusters?

Can any one tell me more about Cluster and volume manager?

With best regards
S.Darshan

Hi!

Does this mean we need to necessarily have a "Volume manager" even if we are going to use raw devices only? (and not GFS)

Sesha

Hi,

I now have my system up and running using the volume manager supplied with Solaris 9 using global file systems. SInce my system is only for home educational purposes, this will suit my needs.

If your system is for a production type environment you will need to use VxVM, as Oracle will not support anything else.

Clustered volume managment, allows the sharing of disk configuration information between multiple nodes, thus ensuring that both nodes access and use the volumes appropriately when they have control.

Regards.

Nick.

But, Sun Cluster document says otherwise. You don't need VxVM to configure RAC on Oracle 9i.

From web page,

http://docs.sun.com/db/doc/817-1535/6mh8rj8ef?a=view

"Decide which volume manager you will use�either VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM) or RAID Manager."

Also,

For Sun Cluster Support for Oracle Parallel Server/Real Application Clusters disks, use the following configurations.

*

VxVM with the cluster feature enabled
*

Hardware RAID support

Hi,

Have you checked that Oracle will support the configuration though. Everything I've seen from Oracle insists on VxVM, although I hadn't been looking for stuff on hardware raid.

Looking at the note you referenced, it appears as though the configuration is using Sun's global file system (using /dev/did/xxx devices), which Oracle do not support for Oracle 9iRAC. If you have access to Oracle's Metalink you can check there.

I have got 9iRAC up and running using global devices with Sun 711 Multpacks (i.e. no hardware raid) without issue. Performence isn't great, but then I' using an Ultra-5 and an Ultra-10 as the two nodes in the cluster.

Best Wishes.

Nick.

Hi

I am looking at running Oracle 9iRAC in production and the feed back I am getting is that the only supported cluster filesystem solution by Oracle on solaris is to use The Vertias Solution which obviously is not supported by Sun Cluster.

You have to move over the a Vertia Clustered solution

http://www.veritas.com/Products/www?c=product&refId=145

If any one knows when the Sun Clustered filesystem will be supported can they let me know

Why would you need a cluster file system?

Currently Sun Cluster and Oracle support raw devices using
hardware RAID (the simplest implementation) and Veritas VxVM
with cluster option.

What is confusing is that there also exist cluster file systems, but
the nomenclature isn't clear. For example, the Sun Cluster global
file system (GFS) is sometimes called a cluster file system (CFS)
but I would argue that it really isn't a file system at all. If you want
a distributed file system from Sun, then the product is called QFS.
QFS + Sun Cluster 3.x + Oracle RAC is a possible combination
and is being qualified, but I don't have the details or schedule.
IMHO, QFS is more similar to the Veritas Cluster File System than
Sun Cluster's GFS. But in the other thread here, you know my
preference: KISS.

-- richard

From what I've heard, (in a recent presentation) QFS will be available for SC 3.1 update 3 - which I think is currently scheduled for July or October release date.

According to Oracle all your problems are solved. As per the document, you DO NOT need any cluster software to implement 10g with RAC. Oracle's CRS (Cluster Ready Services) takes care of the work I believe. You might want to give it a try. Good luck.

Ssmuthu

As I noted in the other thread, the problem with CRS is that it is
too far removed from the underlying platform to provide the
highest availability. It might make sense if you are looking for
some scalability, but it won't perform as well if you are looking
for availability. Of course, the highly available platforms also
scale as well as the generic platforms. So you need to decide
what is most important and then do the cost/benefit analysis.

What I see is that the cost of Solaris and Sun Cluster is far
less than the cost of RAC. So adding the availability features
from Sun Cluster is usually a good decision.
-- richard

After knowing the Sun Cluster's features I understand that its a good idea to use the Clusterware regardless of Oracle's requirement. Thanks for sharing the information.

Regads

Ssmuthu

You may find further informations here:
<span style="text-decoration: none"><font color="#0000FF">www.oracle-gird.de</font></span></font></strong></span></p>
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