Moving Oracle database to the cloud. 12.2 standalone to 19C RAC PDB.

I see more and more Oracle databases are moving to the public cloud or to a hybrid cloud solution. Depending on the platform, size and used options it could be a different path but the general approach boils down to three main options – Oracle RMAN backup and restore, Oracle Data Guard or Oracle Data Pump with or without transportable tablespaces. Here I want to share our approach for migration from 12.2 standalone database to 19c RAC container as PDB in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). 

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Oracle Zero Downtime Migration troubleshooting.

The Oracle Zero Downtime Migration (ZDM)  tool has been created to help with Oracle databases migrations. It saves time and automates many tasks. The saved effort is getting bigger and accumulates on scale when you need to move multiple databases. Behind the scenes it uses the very well known Oracle Data Guard. As a result you have good solid technology on the basis but at the same time limited to what the DataGuard can do and what it cannot. All details and documentation are available here.  The tool works fine when all prerequisites are met but when you hit an issue you need to dig in and troubleshoot. Here I will try to share some experience with the ZDM troubleshooting. Please note that the information in the blog is actual for the 19.2 version of ZDM and it is possible that the behaviour will be different in the future versions.

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Cloud and how it might help at difficult times.

The recent changes caused by the virus and economic meltdown affected almost everybody in the world. We are all now going through a difficult period of our history, and when many companies are struggling to survive, the other thrive and boost production. In such volatile environment, it becomes more and more important to be able to adapt the IT environment to immediate business needs quickly.

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Exadata Cloud at Customer – number of active CPUs and adding a new database.

Let’s imagine a typical working day, and you are getting a request to add a new database to your Exadata Cloud at Customer (ExaCC). If you are not familiar with the product, you can read about it in detail here. In short, it is an Exadata machine with a cloud interface, something like Oracle Exadata Cloud Service, but with the hardware installed in your datacenter. 

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Is Oracle cloud only for Oracle?

Several days ago, discussing public cloud solutions and competition between different providers, one of the people mentioned that Oracle Cloud is just for Oracle products. At the same time, AWS and Azure are more vendor agnostic. I was a bit surprised by that statement but it appeared that several other people shared the same view. I decided to write the blog and show what options Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) has for different workloads.

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Oracle OCI Database service storage allocation.

Today I would like to discuss the block storage allocation in a VM based Oracle DBCS system. Several times in different conversations it was mentioned that the block storage will be allocated with triple redundancy on the ASM level. Let’s check it out.

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Linux LVM for Oracle Database on OCI

Oracle Database as a service (DBCS) on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) had been traditionally built based on Oracle Grid Infrastructure with ASM as the main storage layer for the database, however Oracle recently has started to offer a Linux LVM as the storage alternative. Which option is the better alternative? Let’s review some of the differences between the two options.

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OOW 19 takeaways

It always takes some time to filter, sort and digest all the new information, updates and announcements after a big event. This year Oracle Open World brought us new products, changes in the existing lineup and a glimpse to what is coming next. I don’t plan to describe in a short post all what happened there. Here I will try to note what was the most interesting for me.

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Oracle OCI and Azure inter-cloud link. Good option for a hybrid cloud.

Not long time ago Oracle and Microsoft announced about new level of cooperation in the public cloud interlinking their clouds providing ability to use each of the cloud where they are the best. For example it allows to run application on Azure and use an Oracle database in the Oracle OCI. It was possible before for some regions but would involve multiple steps on both sides involving a 3d party network provider to interlink Oracle FastConnect and Azure ExpressRoute. Now it can be done using Azure and Oracle OCI interfaces only. The option so far exists only for US Washington DC area where you have OCI Ashburn and Azure Washington DC regions.  I tried it and found it working but not without some surprises. Continue reading “Oracle OCI and Azure inter-cloud link. Good option for a hybrid cloud.”

Keep money in check in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

With any cloud environment, it becomes easy to start a new resource whether it is a database or a compute instance. It is like walking to a giant department store with unlimited credit on your card. Too often we find that somebody has fired a new instance and left it forgotten to run over holidays or weekend. Sometimes it is left by purpose to run some tasks but in many cases, it is just forgotten. That ease of consumption of cloud resources can lead to unexpectedly high bills by the end of the month. It would be very much helpful to have some kind of visibility and control of our spendings there. In the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), we have some tools and ways how to be notified about the usage of the resources. In this post, I am going to talk about the budget tool and monitoring. Continue reading “Keep money in check in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.”