In Part 2, we discussed on the deployment of Oracle 11gr2 RAC databases on VMware vSphere. In Part 3, let us discuss on how to live migrate (VMware vMotion) Oracle 11gr2 RAC node virtual machine during user workload.
Oracle 11gr2 RAC Node VM vMotion
Oracle DBAs who have virtualized Oracle 11gr2 RAC on VMware vSphere using VMFS can vMotion RAC Node VM from one physical server to another when the physical server requires maintenance or firmware upgrade (In the physical RAC the entire node will be down during the maintenance window). See below the 4 node Oracle 11gr2 RAC Node VM vMotion configuration and testing steps.
|
ESX Host |
RAC Node VM |
# of vCPUs |
Memory (GB) |
Oracle SGA (GB) |
|
ESX1 – 12 Core, 192GB RAM |
VMORARAC1 |
8 |
64 |
40 |
|
ESX2 – 12 Core, 192GB RAM |
VMORARAC2 |
8 |
64 |
40 |
|
ESX3 – 12 Core, 192GB RAM |
VMORARAC3 |
8 |
64 |
40 |
|
ESX4 – 12 Core, 192GB RAM |
VMORARAC4 |
8 |
64 |
40 |
All four nodes are running with their respective ESX hosts. The SwingBench large scale order entry benchmark was run against all four nodes with 400 users logged in. CPU utilization on each node ~ 40-45% , ESX2 must be taken down for hardware maintenance (such as a firmware upgrade).
-
Migrate the Oracle RAC node VMORARAC2 from ESX2 (10.1.1.18) to ESX4 (10.1.1.20) so that ESX2 can be taken down for a firmware upgrade.
-
After the Hardware maintenance is completed on ESX2, move VMORARAC2 from ESX4 (10.1.1.20) back to ESX2 (10.1.1.18).
The following are the observations during the vMotion testing:
- CPU usage on all four ESX hosts was approximately 40-41%.
- After migration of VMORARAC2 (RAC node 2) from ESX2 to ESX4, ESX4 had a CPU usage of 80-81%. CPU of this host was not saturated which shows that it was able to handle the loads of both RAC nodes.
- Transactions per minute (TPM) are similar before and after vMotion migration.
- Oracle database logs and cluster logs did not have errors during vMotion migration.
The following vCenter chart shows the CPU utilization of both the ESX2 (10.1.1.18) and ESX4 (10.1.1.20) host during vMotion test. CPU utilization for ESX4 is approximately 80-81%, which is the sum of the two Oracle RAC nodes (VMORARAC2 – approximately 40% and VMORARAC4 – approximately 41%).
Check out the Oracle 11gr2 RAC vMotion Demo by clicking below.
This concludes our three blogs for Oracle Databases on VMware. We welcome your comments and thanks for your time.
