Looking for info

[Zigor Buruaga]

Hi experts,

In the near future I will be responsible of a new box running Oracle 9i. I've never used Oracle so I'm a little bit concerned. Probably we will purchase a L2000 to do that job, since we have other L2000 available to act as backup machine.
The only specifications I have for the moment are:
Memory 1-4GB
Disk: Applications will use approx. 20GB

As far as I know we will be also responsible of the data migration ( SQL 6.5 to Oracle 9i ).
My questions:

- How many memory I need ( choose between 1-4 GB range )?
- How many disk space ( we will use MirrorUX ) for data ?
- How many disk space for SO ( space for /usr, /var, /opt and swap)?
- What about the SO, HP-UX 11.0 or 11i? ( our L2000 backup box runs 11.0 ).
- Kernel tunable parameters? what I need to change to install Oracle 9i?
- I assume that Oracle product will "inform" about what patches are needed. If not, any advise?
- Since I have no experience with Oracle, could you provide me any good link to start my learning ( installation, maintenance, etc )?
- I know that probably this is not the correct forum to ask this but anyway, any recommendation about how to migrate data from M$ SQL 6.5 to Oracle 9i?

Thanks in advance to all for sharing your experience and knowledge. Points in a few days.

Kind regards,
Zigor

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Memory: 2-4 GB. 2 is considered the minimum for 11i with Oracle. 11i is better, faster, slightly larger resource appetite.

If you use mirror/ux with 1 mirror copy, that means a 10 GB database will consume 20 GB.

The standard disk space for /usr/ /var /opt will be fine after a cold install. If you have heavy print spooling, increase /var Oracle likes to install into a fs called /oracle, based on standard oracle techniques. Reserver 2.5 GB just for the binaries, twice that if you ever plan to upgrade in place.

Attaching valid kernel parms for a L2000 box.

Oracle will not tell you what patches you need, you will have to get that information at metalink.oracle.com

You should consider 11i on both boxes. The database will compile itself differently and possbily hit you with quirks.

otn.oracle.com
metalink.oracle.com

Both have good info and install guides. You will need a software service contract for metalink access. You need that to survive oracle without experience.

Patches:

HP-UX 11.0(64 bit) Operating System Patches:
Sept 2001 Quality Pack
PHCO_23792 s/b PHCO_26960
PHCO_24148 s/b PHCO_25707 s/b PHCO_27608
PHKL_24268 s/b PHKL_27178
PHKL_24729
PHKL_25475 s/b PHKL_27510
PHKL_25525 s/b PHKL_27364
PHNE_24715 s/b PHNE_26771
PHSS_23670 s/b PHSS_26138
PHSS_24301 s/b PHSS_26273
PHSS_24303 s/b PHSS_26559
PHSS_24627
PHSS_22868

HP-UX 11i (64 Bit) Operating System Patches:
Support Plus Bundle 'December 2002 SP-0212' or later
JDK 1.3.1.02
PHNE_27745
PHNE_28568
PHKL_25506
PHSS_26560
PHSS_26946
PHSS_28849
PHSS_26946
PHSS_26560
PHCO_28427
PHCO_24402

HP-UX 11.22 (IA64) Operating System Patches:
PHSS_27284
PHSS_27285
PHSS_27286
PHSS_27287
PHSS_27288
PHSS_27289
PHSS_27290
PHSS_27291
PHSS_27292
PHSS_27293
PHKL_28465

Whew, I hope this everything.

Hope I helped.

SEP

[Zigor Buruaga]

Hi again,

SEP, thanks for your very good answers, you have helped a lot.
About the backup machine, let me explain better. That L2000 ( ux 11.0 ) acts as backup box also for other L2000 boxes, so I'm afraid I can't upgrade it to 11i. When a server crash, we take all the disks from the crashed server and put them in the backup box. In fact, we will recommend to buy an L2000 because we already have one backup box to conmutate ( my english is not very good, hope I'm making myself clear ).
Please share your ideas about the better backup procedure.

Thanks again for your time.
Kind regards,
Zigor

[Brian Markus]

I have three L2000's running Oracle. Oracle is a memory hog, the more the better. (Minimum of 4Gigs) Oracle throws off tons of logs (rollback) you will need to have a plan for that. I have a backup that kicks off every few hours then has a post-exec function to remove the files after they have been backed up.

As far as the kernel parms goes, check out Stephen Ciullo's tuning guide. It is by far the best out in my opinion.

http://docs.hp.com/cgi-bin/otsearch/getfile?id=/hpux/onlinedocs/os/11.0/tuningwp.html&searchterms=Ciullo&queryid=20020311-145835


Good luck!

-Brian.

[Cheryl Griffin]

You can create a login to the Oracle OTN site. Documentation is available from http://otn.oracle.com/documentation/index.html Under the Database tab, select the 9i version you plan to install, then look for a section "Documentation for HP 9000 Series HP-UX" Select the Release Notes and read the Installation guide.

Within the both of these documents you will see system requirements which include disk space, memory, patches, etc.

[Zigor Buruaga]

Hi,

Thanks to all for the info, it's a good starting point at the moment.
Now your points.

Thanks again and kind regards,
Zigor

[Thierry Poels_1]

Hi,

- memory : the more the merrier, Oracle really needs lots of memory if you want high performance.
- disks : depends, but try to get at least a few disks so you can spread your datafiles over your disks. 72GB disks are nice, but may become your primary bottleneck.
- system diskspace : 25GB will give you more than enough room to play around
- Kernel : see installation guide
- patches : install the latest patch bundle + see installation guide
- learning : start with the Administrator course (1 week), you will need this basic knowlegde
- migration : not sure, but I think Oracle offers migration tool for SQL server.

good luck,
Thierry.

[Thierry Poels_1]

sorry skipped a question :(

HPUX : go for 11i. HP-UX 11.0 is about to be removed from HP's price list. And anyway 11i is better ;)


(just check Metalink: Oracle indeed as a Migration Workbench for MS SQL Server.)

Thierry.