Oracle Upgrade test with Aries

[Kenan Erdey]

Hi,

We have production database Oracle 9i running on two clustered rp8420 with HP-UX 11.11. We are planning to migrate to Oracle 10g on these servers soon.

We have another test servers, Itanium rx3600 running 11.31. I am thinking running Oracle 10g PARISC binaries with aries for the test operation.

My question is how much is it proper to use itanium servers with aries. let's say we didn't have any problem while test process, is it possible to meet problems after running oracle in production(pa-risc) servers ?

thanks.

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi:

If your testing yields satisfactory performance, then there should be no problem:

http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-60130/Aries.5.html

...in particular see the sections "ARIES SUPPORTED APPLICATIONS" and "ARIES LIMITATIONS"

Regards!

...JRF...

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

A real world test at my last employer with ARIES and and oracle server based application yielded a 70% performance hit. We then decided top recompile the application.

The application recompiled with no errors and ran at normal rates on Itanium.

Do not fear the recompile.

There is no reason not to install the Oracle binaries designed for Itanium and convert the data. Its work, but thats why they pay us. Well you anyway.

SEP

[Kenan Erdey]

Hi Sep,

oracle database will still bu running on pa-risc in production. we'll just use itanium for testing purpose.

and what about the patches of hp-ux ? do pathes prerequsitied for oracle make any problem ?

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

All right, I have a little better understanding here.

IMO using Itanium/ARIES combination for a test environment is not going to produce good results for a 10g/PA-RISC production environment.

Reasons:
1) The required Oracle OS patches for your new production environment (see metalink and itrc patch database for the list), can not be installed in the rx3600 server. So the test results will not be valid.

2) ARIES is an emulator, it is not present in your production environment and can effect test results.

New Plan:

1) See about obtaining or leasing an rp3440 system as a test environment.
2) Install your current binaries and data.
3) Test the install of new Oracle binaries.
4) Convert the data.
5) Run a full set of tests.
6) Repeat steps 2-6 in production.

SEP