Hello there,

My company is planning to go ahead with aquiring a new application
which sits on top of Oracle9i.
The management is moving towards RAC on Windows.
Please let me have any opinions/experiences with RAC on Windows.
How about on Unix, AIX.
Can you please direct me to any resources on the net which might shed
some light on this version

Thanks

Demetris wrote:

> Hello there,
>
> My company is planning to go ahead with aquiring a new application
> which sits on top of Oracle9i.
> The management is moving towards RAC on Windows.
> Please let me have any opinions/experiences with RAC on Windows.
> How about on Unix, AIX.
> Can you please direct me to any resources on the net which might shed
> some light on this version
>
> Thanks

Lots of experience and would be happy to answer specific questions.
As your question is general the following is a general answer.

1. Make sure Oracle is sitting at the table with the hardware people
when making the decision on networking, hardware, and operating
systems.

2. Make sure that your own network admin, sys admin, and DBA are also
at the table when the decision is made.

A lot of money is wasted getting the wrong hardware and/or configuring
it incorrectly. Which leads to the point that all vendors must certify,
in writing, that every single component down to the NIC cards is RAC
compatible ... most hardware is not and Oracle certifies to the O/S not
to the hardware.

My preference would be Dell or HP 2CPU x 4GB RAM with RedHat 3.0 patch 1.

3. Make the app vendor certify, in writing, that they have tested
their app on RAC (specifying version) and guarantee that they
will compensate your company for all costs if their application
doesn't fail-over and/or doesn't scale properly.

RAC has a very impressive ability to spotlight bad designs and bad
coding practices.

If you have specific questions ... ask them too.
--
Daniel Morgan
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/e...ad/oad_crs.asp
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/e...oa/aoa_crs.asp
damorgan@x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with a 'u' to reply)

Daniel, i would like to thank you for your response!
Let me be a bit more specific!
I have several oracle system (8.0.4.0.0 on WinNT4, 8.1.7.0.0 Win2K,
8.1.7.4.0 AIX5, 8.1.7.4.1 Win2k, 9.2.0.1.0 WinNT4)
The system above are OLTP systems.
I have another system coming that will be sitting (that is the plan)
on ORacle9i RAC. Windows here is the preferred platform so far.

Now, i need someplace to start and see based on the above how can I
proceed with consolidating the several oracle platforms.
Have in mind here that ORACLE can be upgraded (the old versions) to
Oracle9i except the one on AIX.

The aim is to reduce the servers (thus the cost), have better
administration, and high availability of the systems. Currently none
of the systems are high available.

thanks

Daniel Morgan <damorgan@x.washington.edu> wrote in message news:<1084285179.213085@yasure>...
> Demetris wrote:
>
> > Hello there,
> >
> > My company is planning to go ahead with aquiring a new application
> > which sits on top of Oracle9i.
> > The management is moving towards RAC on Windows.
> > Please let me have any opinions/experiences with RAC on Windows.
> > How about on Unix, AIX.
> > Can you please direct me to any resources on the net which might shed
> > some light on this version
> >
> > Thanks
>
> Lots of experience and would be happy to answer specific questions.
> As your question is general the following is a general answer.
>
> 1. Make sure Oracle is sitting at the table with the hardware people
> when making the decision on networking, hardware, and operating
> systems.
>
> 2. Make sure that your own network admin, sys admin, and DBA are also
> at the table when the decision is made.
>
> A lot of money is wasted getting the wrong hardware and/or configuring
> it incorrectly. Which leads to the point that all vendors must certify,
> in writing, that every single component down to the NIC cards is RAC
> compatible ... most hardware is not and Oracle certifies to the O/S not
> to the hardware.
>
> My preference would be Dell or HP 2CPU x 4GB RAM with RedHat 3.0 patch 1.
>
> 3. Make the app vendor certify, in writing, that they have tested
> their app on RAC (specifying version) and guarantee that they
> will compensate your company for all costs if their application
> doesn't fail-over and/or doesn't scale properly.
>
> RAC has a very impressive ability to spotlight bad designs and bad
> coding practices.
>
> If you have specific questions ... ask them too.

Demetris wrote:

> Daniel, i would like to thank you for your response!
> Let me be a bit more specific!
> I have several oracle system (8.0.4.0.0 on WinNT4, 8.1.7.0.0 Win2K,
> 8.1.7.4.0 AIX5, 8.1.7.4.1 Win2k, 9.2.0.1.0 WinNT4)
> The system above are OLTP systems.
> I have another system coming that will be sitting (that is the plan)
> on ORacle9i RAC. Windows here is the preferred platform so far.
>
> Now, i need someplace to start and see based on the above how can I
> proceed with consolidating the several oracle platforms.
> Have in mind here that ORACLE can be upgraded (the old versions) to
> Oracle9i except the one on AIX.
>
> The aim is to reduce the servers (thus the cost), have better
> administration, and high availability of the systems. Currently none
> of the systems are high available.
>
> thanks

I think you are trying too many things at once. Upgrade your existing
systems to 9.2.0.4. Then consolidate. Then bring in the new software.

Not everything is well written. Not everything will fail over. And
definitely, some things get horribly slower on RAC due to bad design.
Don't mix these things up.

If you are looking for a hands-on class with RAC contact me off-line.
--
Daniel Morgan
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/e...ad/oad_crs.asp
http://www.outreach.washington.edu/e...oa/aoa_crs.asp
damorgan@x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with a 'u' to reply)