*Previously on the Microsoft Tech Community Data Architecture Blog There are considerable focus areas to infrastructure that the IaaS DBA needs to be aware of, so Part I of this blog can be found here. Now that we’ve covered storage and VM series in Part I of this blog post on Infrastructure, we can go onto the detail areas for performance. Let’s start on performance gains with host caching. Cache it Out Right Host caching, by default, for premium SSD is turned off. This is a feature only available on certain VM series, (look for an ‘S’ in the D, E…
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*Previously on the Microsoft Tech Community Data Architecture blog Those responsible for data will tell you that no matter what they do, at the end of the day, they’re value is only seen when the customer can get to the data they want. As much as we want to say this has to do with the data architecture, the design, the platforming and the code, it also has to incorporate the backup, retention and recovery of said data, too. Oracle on Azure is a less known option for our beloved cloud and for our customers, we spend considerable time on…
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*Previously on the Microsoft Data Architecture Blog in the Tech Community An an Oracle SME at Microsoft, it’s always important to find new ways to make the few of us that specialize in Oracle scalable. One of those is to find ways to provide documentation, blog posts and tools available to others so they can do some of the work we’re commonly brought into. Infra vs. the RDBMS It’s a standard practice in a lift and shift to simply take the existing server and move it to the cloud. This is rarely the best approach with an Oracle database, but…
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*Updated 03/10/2022 This is a consistent question I receive often and although RAC isn’t supported in any third-party cloud by Oracle, it’s an important topic as more workloads lift and shift to Azure and there is absolutely a reason to have or not to have Real Applications Clusters, (RAC) as part of them. The only current option for RAC on Azure available is: Flashgrid using Azure VM Images in IaaS The goal of this post is to push past the idea that a lift and shift should always be a 1:1 move. It’s important when moving to the cloud to use…
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There are only a few Oracle on Azure SMEs out there. OK, let’s be honest, the majority of the brain power is living in one floating home in Portland, Oregon and that’s not a good thing in many ways. It’s always difficult to specialize in a non-native solution at any company, but Microsoft is such an awesome place to be employed and our work is so critical to the overall success to Azure migrations that I’m very happy to do what I do. To help scale, I blog whenever I can on the questions that I most commonly end up…
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When migrating an Oracle database to another platform, there are the common indicators and discussion topics around PL/SQL conversions, data types, application rewrites, etc., as being roadblocks to refactoring, but being successful also has to do with the SIZE of the workload coming from Oracle. I find this is often dismissed, even though this is one of the quickest ways to identify if an ENTIRE Oracle database, (not even by schema or a subset of the Oracle database) can run on a Platform as a Service, (PaaS) solution. The following post involves limits for each Azure PaaS solution and how…
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I’m about simplifying anything for customers as we bring over complex environments into Azure and Oracle databases running on Exadata is a big part of these challenges. Decoupling the database from the engineered features is a crucial part of my work and with Oracle 19c, having customers running on the terminal release isn’t the only reason to upgrade if the database is on an earlier release. As I’ve discussed in other posts, blogs and articles, I have numerous ways to address latency when losing cell node offloading, hybrid columnar compression (HCC), thin cloning with sparse clone, flash cache, flash logging,…
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It’s not uncommon for different recommended practices to arise in technical sizing and optimization practices. For many, it’s a compromise between most optimal data and ease of access vs. impact on production environments, which is no different from what we face when sizing Oracle on Azure. As we know it’s important to lift and shift the workload vs. moving the hardware, we must have as simple way to perform this task. The question comes up repeatedly as to our preferred method of working with a one-week Automatic Workload Repository, (AWR) report to do so. This post will be focused on…
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There’s so much I need to get written down these days, but there’s only so many hours in a day and days in a week and I’ve totally failed in this area. Well, I have a little time right now, so going to try to get something down. It only took me four times to get this published! 🙂 I’m often asked how I migrate an Oracle database to Azure and although each database is unique, there are some things that are pretty consistent that need to be identified and some that should be resolved before migrating to the cloud.…
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As the flood gates open up on Oracle for Azure IaaS, working in an efficient manner has become a necessity. We’re building out partners to help, but there are ways to empower our customers and those doing this work to make us all successful- hopefully this post will assist. After I posted the Estimate Tool for Sizing Oracle Workloads on Azure, I realized more guidance around AWR reports would be beneficial. These tips will provide help to any migration, not just one to Azure, so read and reap the rewards! Separate and Conquer A sizing estimate isn’t the same thing…
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A DBA is only as good as their last backup…or more so, their last recovery. To celebrate #WorldBackupDay on Twitter, I’m blogging on how to backup an Oracle database directly to Azure Blob storage. Yes, you could backup on a managed disk directly connected to the VM, then copy it off, but Azure Blob Storage is inexpensive and provides considerable speed and opportunity to create an NSF mount to use the backups with other Oracle hosts for cloning, recovery, etc. Configure Blob Storage in the Azure Portal In this example, we have an Oracle database running on an Azure IaaS…
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Use the following shell script to create your Oracle VM. I chose the following parameters to create mine: Using Azure Cloud Shell and with persistent storage, which are linked on the github page, I uploaded the mk_oravm.sh script and run it after changing the permissions. chmod 744 mk_oravm.sh Provision the VM Run the script: ./mk_oravm.sh Anwser the questions from the script: What is the name for the resource group to create the deployment in? Example: ORA_GRP Enter your Resource Group name: orabkup_grp Here's the installation version urns available, including Oracle and Oracle Linux Urn ----------------------------------------------------------- Oracle:Oracle-Database-Ee:18.3.0.0:18.3.20181213 Enter the urn you'd…
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In my last post, I discussed some of the unique challenges migrating Oracle workloads from Exadata to Azure posed. Engineered systems are not your everyday lift and shift and are rarely simple. Although I covered some focus areas for success, I’d like to get into the migration philosophical questions around cell offloading and IO. cell information is referred to in the average Oracle 12c AWR report almost 350 times. That’s a LOT of data to consider when migrating a workload to a server that won’t have cell nodes to OFFLOAD TO. If cell nodes are creating a ton of different…
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I know, I know- there’s a number of you out there thinking- I’m being brought in on more and more of these projects due to a recent change for some Exadata backup components many companies kept onsite, (parts that wear out more often, like PDUs and cell disks) which are no longer an option and that moving to Azure is a viable option for these workloads if you know what to identify and address before the move to the cloud. Engineered, Not Iron An Exadata is an engineered system- database nodes, secondary cell nodes, (also referred to as storage nodes/cell…
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I’ve been studying for over a week for my certs. It really is a challenge for my ADHD brain, as I learn by interacting and using a product, not be reading about it and guess what? Most of what the certs are on are not in my technical area. Yeah, this is not fun for me. I find that my brain hits a limit on what it can absorb before the activity levels in the temporal lobes diminish and I need to take a break, which is what I’m doing right now after a full day of Azure Synapse Analytics,…