This presentation discusses the current as well as planned support status of various virtualization technologies that can be used together with Oracle RAC. The virtualization technologies being discussed include, but are not limited to Oracle VM, VMware, Linux Containers, Docker as well as orchestration software such as OpenStack and Kubernetes, This presentation was first presented during Collaborate18 / #C18LV.

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Virtualized Oracle Real Application Clusters
(RAC) - Containers and VMs for RAC; Quick Tip
Markus Michalewicz – Senior Director of Product Management, Database HA & Scalability
April 25, 2018
Markus.Michalewicz@oracle.com
@OracleRACpm
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markusmichalewicz
http://www.slideshare.net/MarkusMichalewicz

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Safe Harbor Statement
The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for
information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a
commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon
in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or
functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.
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General rule:
The Oracle Database is certified on
OS-level, not on hardware-level.
4
General rule:
Storage that represents itself as
block storage to the OS
does not require certification.
File System support and virtual
storage are subject to “special
ruling” (e.g. MOS note 236826.1)
Support Basics for the Oracle Database
Note 1: Icon size is random.
Note 2: Not a complete list of supported OS.

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The Virtualization Matrix
is Oracle’s single source of truth for
“Supported Virtualization and
Partitioning Technologies for Oracle
Database and RAC Product Releases”
5
General rule:
Oracle’s Documentation is based on
the idea of a positive list!
I.E. a configuration that is not listed
is – if in doubt – not supported.
If the “Virtualization Matrix ” does not
cover a case (directly or indirectly),
check for “exceptions” and “special
rulings” in My Oracle Support (MOS)
Notes or request clarification via a
Service Request.
Support Basics for Virtualization Technologies

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http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/virtualizationmatrix-172995.html
The Virtualization Matrix
Covering
positive list
for future
versions.
RAC One Node
follows RAC
Certification

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Oracle VM and Vmware are treated as special ruling cases
• Oracle VM is the only fully supported and certified VM-
based virtualization solution for Oracle RAC.
• For more information, see:
• Oracle Real Application Clusters in Oracle VM Environments
• MOS note “Certified Software on Oracle VM (Doc ID 464754.1)”
• Vmware support is regulated in MOS note: “Support
Position for Oracle Products Running on VMWare
Virtualized Environments (Doc ID 249212.1)”:
• Note: Oracle has not certified any of its products on VMware.
For Oracle RAC, Oracle will only accept Service Requests as
described in this note on Oracle RAC 11.2.0.2 and later releases.
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Conclusion:
Generally, the Oracle Database & Oracle
RAC could be supported on a variety of
virtual platforms.
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Using a mainstream solution usually leads to smoother day-to-day operations
Tip: for High Availability Solutions Uniqueness Does Not Pay Off
Supported Configurations
Recommended Configuration

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Conclusion:
It is best to use a configuration that is
directly or indirectly (by use) declared
to be supported by Oracle, especially
when planning on using Oracle RAC.
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Supported Container and VM Solutions for Oracle RAC*
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• Oracle VM is the only certified VM solution for Oracle RAC for x86 environments.
– Best practices: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/products/clustering/oracle-rac-in-oracle-vm-environment-131948.pdf
• VMware is supported as documented in MOS note 249212.1
– Best Practices white paper provided by VMware
• Oracle VM on KVM is supported for Oracle RAC and used by ODA
– https://blogs.oracle.com/oda/kvm-on-oda / MOS note 417770.1
• Linux Containers are supported for Oracle RAC
• Solaris Containers are supported for Oracle RAC
– Best practices can be found in various My Oracle Support notes and the Oracle documentation.
• Docker Containers are supported for Oracle RAC for test & development environments
– https://github.com/oracle/docker-images/tree/master/OracleDatabase/RAC/OracleRealApplicationClusters
* List may not be comprehensive.

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Single-Host environments in which all containers / VMs
hosting a database reside on a single physical server are
only supported for test and development environments
12
Multi-Host environments in which the containers / VMs
hosting a database reside on different physical servers
are supported for production environments
if the virtualization solution is supported for production.
Two Supported Configurations for any Solution

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Oracle RAC on Docker
• Single orchestration interface
• Rapid deployment & management
• Consolidation with lower overhead than VMs
– Share a single kernel and application libraries
– Still provide isolation between database instances
• Agility and portability of instances across physical hosts
• Fast prototyping
– Containers can be created and launched in a few seconds
– Patching, pre-build images, RAC rolling fashion for GI/RDBMS
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Why and how (use cases)

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Oracle RAC on Docker Available on GitHub

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Oracle RAC on Docker from Oracle
• Issues solved to support Docker for Oracle RAC
(for test and development environments):
– Non-privileged mode container
– Real Time Processes inside the container
– Shared storage (especially on single-host)
– Certain other capabilities such as:
• Memory
• CPU
• Kernel Parameters
• Network & Storage Architecture
• Support for production environments pending further
enhancements; e.g. support for Kubernetes
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Why only now?

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Ensures that only the container is restarted as a result of a RAC node fencing!
Non-Privileged Mode Container
Server/Storage
HOST
Bin/Libs
Docker
RAC
Node1
Cluster01
RAC
Node2
Cluster02
RAC
Node3
Cluster 03
RAC
Node N
Cluster0n

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Network & Storage Architecture
Docker HOST 1
OS
Docker Engine
Eth 3
Bond0
Eth 4
Eth 1
Eth 2
Bond1
GI/RAC
Container
1
Cluster01
Docker Images
GI/RAC
Container
2
Cluster02
GI/RAC
Container
1
Cluster03
Macvlan0 Bridge
172.15.1.0/24
Macvlan1 Bridge
192.168.16.0/24
GI/RAC
Container
2
Cluster04
E
t
h
0
E
t
h
1
E
t
h
0
E
t
h
1
E
t
h
0
E
t
h
1
E
t
h
0
E
t
h
1
Docker HOST 2
OS
Docker Engine
Eth 2
Bond1
Eth 1
Eth 4
Eth 3
Bond0
GI/RAC
Container
N
Cluster01
Docker Images
GI/RAC
Container
N
Cluster02
GI/RAC
Container
N
Cluster03
Macvlan0 Bridge
172.15.1.0/24
Macvlan1 Bridge
192.168.16.0/24
GI/RAC
Container
N
Cluster04
E
t
h
0
E
t
h
1
E
t
h
0
E
t
h
1
E
t
h
0
E
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h
1
E
t
h
0
E
t
h
1
Switch
DAS or NAS

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Speaking of Orchestration
• Most orchestration software assumes independent containers / VMs
• Containers / VMs running Oracle RAC have a “logical connection”
– Oracle RAC requires an interconnect as well as shared storage
• This connection needs to be maintained during deployment and rebalance
• Oracle RAC production environments also
require anti-affinity rules for containers / VMs
– Prevent that all instances of the same
production database are allocated on
the same physical host (to preserve HA)
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What is the orchestration challenge for containerized deployments running RAC?

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Deploying Oracle Database & Oracle RAC in OpenStack
• Fully supported Oracle RDBMS configuration in Oracle OpenStack R4
– Single instance Oracle Database 12c or Oracle RAC
– Hypervisor: Oracle VM Server via Nova libvirt-xen
– Network: several options via Neutron ML2 plugin
– Storage: ZFSSA via Cinder
• Nova multi-attach for Cinder block storage
– Required for Oracle RAC, supported in Oracle OpenStackR4
– API forward-compatible with ongoing Nova/Cinder cross project
• work-in-progress
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Murano Package for Oracle RDBMS
File System support and virtual
storage are subject to “special ruling”

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A stepping stone for future development
Containerized / Virtual Deployments & the Cloud
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Docker /OpenStack
On-premises
Docker /OpenStack

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