oracle 11i mid tier??

[Mark Grossman]

hello,
2 questions:
1) We have an N4000, 8 cpu, 8gb memory, 470gb disk. Running 2 50gb Oracle 8i instances (production mode) for up to 190 concurrent users.
What are your opinions regarding running Oracle 11i apps server? Would this N box be able to handle the apps server for these 2 instances for that amount of users
- or would seperate middle tier box be better?

2)If a middle tier is used, has anyone come across specific kernel tuning parameters for use with this application server tier. Theres lots of kernel recommendations for 8i databases out on the forums (which are great)but none i can find specific to an 11i mid tier apps server?

thanks all,
Mark

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

Hi Mark,

For 2 instances that size your N-box work even break a sweat. In fact, a L-box would probably handle the load quite well. I am assuming you don't have zillions of very small, poorly indexed rows which make you these databases.

Since this is a production environment, you might consider a pair of L-boxs running MC/ServiceGuard. One could be the primary server for one instance and the other would be the primary server for the second instance.
Then in the first box failed, both instances would then be running on the second and the IP address associated with the first instance would also shift. The clients connected to Oracle would never be aware of which box(es) they are really running on. If high-availabilty is crucial, this would be my way to go.

As for tuning, other than setting shared memory, semaphores, and message queues to the Oracle installation suggestions, you need to
reduce dbc_max_pct to no more than 10% or so OR
kill that dynamic buffer cache stuff altogether
by setting bufpages to somewhere around 300MB (and that is generous).


My 2 cents, Clay

[John Poff]

Mark,

We are running Oracle 11i on an L2000-44 with 2 CPUs and 2 Gb of RAM. We also have the middle tier on that box, and it seems to be pushing it. Our DBAs say that with their testing the middle tier won't be able to live on the same box. But running on a nice N-class box should give you plenty of horsepower.

I haven't heard of any kernel tuning to do for the middle tier. You probably have all the bases covered with your tuning for the database side.

JP

[Mark Grossman]

thanks clay and john,

john - just curious - can u tell me how many databases are on that L box and how big they are?

I didnt mention that we also have all our test and dev on an L2000 with 4 cpu and 4gb mem and wonderd what we could safely push on that for app server too.

thanks again - Mark

[John Poff]

Mark,

We are running two databases. The main one is about 195 Gb and is the one they are testing with. The second one is about 2 Gb, and is just used for some miscellaneous stuff.

JP