MCSG and Oracle - Share Oracle binaries ???

[Henrique Silva_3]

Question that I have.

Have a fail over server on a HA environment. Have to come up with file systems setup for the SAN ( XP 512 ).

Should I share ALL Oracle files, including binaries ? ( the root FS is 32 GB large ) or should I install Oracle on both servers and only share the actuall datafiles for MCSG ? I think if I share everything, it will be easier to work the MCSG scripts, but I have tons of spcae on the root disk that I could use for /oratmp, /ora/app, etc !!

Thanks,

Henrique Silva

[Sanjay_6]

Hi Henrique,

If you are going to run seperate instances of oracle on each node, you should install oracle on each node. In Case you want to run oracle databases on only one node and the other node is just a standby node where everything will failover to the standby node in case of a problem on the primary node, then you need to install oracle on one node only (on the primary node) and then copy a couple of file from /usr/local/bin and /etc etc to the standby node.

In most of our configuration, we run seperate oracle instances on each node and therefore we have oracle installed on each node.

Hope this helps.

Regds

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

Have a look at this thread started and summarized by David Totsch:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xf8b2854994d9d4118fef0090279cd0f9,00.html

Insofar as using your 32GB vg00 for anything other than the operating system, in my opinion, *don't*.

By maintaining only the operating systems (OS) filesystems on vg00, future cold-installations or updates of the OS are easier to manage. The I/O performance of this volume group is also guaranteed to be better than one loaded with application code and/or data too.

Physical disk is relatively inexpensive these days.

Regards!

...JRF...

[John Poff]

Hello Henrique,

In our environment, we put the Oracle home directories into filesystems that are on shared volume groups on our external, shared disk storage and are part of the package. We run test/development instances on our failover boxes so that we can get the most out of our investment. By having Oracle binaries/homes as part of the package, we are guaranteed that the current Oracle home will go with the production package in case of a failover and we don't have to worry about keeping two separate homes sync'ed up. Also, it allows our DBAs to test Oracle patches, updates, etc. on the test/development box, and they don't have to worry about running a different version if there is a failover.

JP

[BFA6]

Hi,

We also have the Oracle home directories on the shared drive. Makes it easier, otherwise we would have to copy across any changes to the secondary box.

Regards,

Hilary

[Ashwani Kashyap]

Just a little note . The failover will be faster if you have separate binaries . FSCK will be faster and rolling upgrades will be easier .

[Wodisch]

Hi Henrique,

perhaps the most important point could be *support* - I do remember cases where the Oracle support told the customer "it's an HP problem", and the HP support had to say "it's an Oracle problem" (since both companies have/had a mutual agreement to not answer questions regarding the other's software...).
Check your contracts on that first, then decide (if there is something left to decide...).

Just my $0.02,
Wodisch

[Henrique Silva_3]

Reading this thread and the other one, most people share everything.

What do you do when an upgrade to Oracle is concerned ? Now, you have to fail over to your DRP box, upgrade Oracle, fail back, etc.

This is a 24x7 operation, and MUCH down time will be frowned upon !!!

So, given that, should I implement oracle binaries on both servers and take the hit on the MCSG setup then ?

Thanks,

Henrique Silva

[Deshpande Prashant]

HI
In our environment also we preferred oracle binaries on each machine.
Of course DBAs have to remember to sync up both servers for all changes, but gives flexibilities for upgrades/patches.

Thanks.
Prashant.

[Henrique Silva_3]

:-)))
You guys are getting me more and more confused :-)))

I am leaning towards NOT sharing the binaries now, because of the 24x7 need here. DB upgrades and patch installations will not require AS MUCH down time if they are not shared.

However, it will require more work to maintain oracle and to create the package. I will be running ONLY ONE instance here, as well.

for the people that have shared binaries, and run a 24x7 shop, how do you solve the upgrade/patch install problem without a lot of down time ? ( time for the switch here ).

Thanks,

Henrique Silva