Oracle VM: Every cloud has a virtual lining

Christina Varga & Willem PoppParks Victoria

17/08/2010

The most comprehensive Oracle applications & technology content under one roof

Who are we?

Willem Popp• Enterprise Architect &

Applications Support Manager

Christina Varga• Business Systems Analyst &

Oracle DBA

What’s this Presentation about?• Free tickets!• Practice & Experience … maybe• Day out of the Office … not really.

• Real reason is that Oracle VM actually works!

• What was our experience with implementing Oracle VM

PV “Business Systems” – before • Finance• Accounts Payable (AP)• Accounts Receivable (AR)• Project Accounting (PA)• Fixed Assets (FA)• General Ledger (GL)• Purchasing (PO)• Oracle iProcurement• Cash Management

• HRMS• Payroll • Human Resources

• Reporting• Oracle Discoverer• Oracle BI PublisherOracle Modules

• ParkWeb• Ballot• FLEAT• Park Stay• Tenancy• TOMS• Centaman• Corporate Directory• Stakeholder Database• RMS• ParkView• EIS• MapInfo• PRIMS• TRIM• CMDB• HEAT

Vendor Solutions

• TRAPS• Timesheets• FRMS• ProTrack• Unknown 1• Unknown 2• Unknown 3• Unknown … n

In-house Developments

• InfoSys• InfoWeb• MYOB• ANZ Online• InMagic• Speed Legal• Methodware• FireWeb• CAD• Unknown 1• Unknown 2• Unknown 3• Unknown … nNon-BIS Software 42

PV “Business Systems” – after• Finance• Accounts Payable • Accounts Receivable • Cash Mgt• Fixed Assets• General Ledger• Purchasing• Tax• Project Billing• Project Costing• Project Resourcing• Project Mgt• iProcurement• iExpenses

• Hyperion • Planning Plus• Financial Data Mgt

FAP Finance & Budgeting

• HR• Human Resources• Payroll • Learning Mgt• Time & Labour• iRecruitment• ESS• MSS

• Reporting OBIEE• Financial Analytics• Procurement Analytics• Spend Analytics• Project Analytics• BI Publisher

FAP HR & Reporting

• ParkView• EIS• Oracle Spatial• AIS• Ballot• Centaman x 2• Corporate Directory• FLEAT• MapInfo• PRIMS• Tenancy• TOMS• Stakeholder DB• RMS x 4• ParkStay x 9• TRIM• ParkWeb• FME• Red Dot• Info Sys DB• Org Publisher

Vendor Solutions

• TRAPS x 2• Timesheets x 6• FRMS x 6• ProTrack x 6• Programming DB• DR DB• Validation DB• Maintenance DB• Risk Mgt DB• MYOB x 11• Unknown 1• Unknown 2• Unknown 3• Unknown … n

In-house Developments

• ANZ Online• CAD x 2• Cybertracker• FireWeb• InMagic• Methodware• Speed Legal• Amare (PPE)• Safety Mgt Sys• Info Safe• Micros POS• Unknown 1• Unknown 2• Unknown 3• Unknown … n

Non-BIS Software73

Parks Victoria• Park Management agency• “… custodian of a diverse estate of parks … and of the recreational

management of Port Phillip Bay, Western Port and the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers”

• 41 national parks • 13 marine national parks • 11 marine sanctuaries • 3 wilderness parks • 27 state parks • 31 metropolitan parks • 63 other parks (including regional and reservoir parks)

• 2,785 natural features reserves and conservation reserves • 8,400 Aboriginal Affairs Victoria registered Indigenous

cultural heritage sites/places • 2,500 (non-Indigenous) historic places

• 3.96 million hectares = 17% of Victoria • The dark green and blue sections

Our Team EA & Support Mgr

Business Systems Team Leader

DBA

Oracle Tech Analyst

Web Tech Analyst

Developer

Spatial Team Leader

Systems Coordinator

Systems Administrator

Mapping Officer

KM Team Leader

Records Officer

• 3rd-Level Support Team• 21 Oracle Modules• 60+ other systems

• GIS Team• Knowledge Management Team

• So how big is our Oracle team?

FaP Project• 21 Modules

– Fin • (AP, AR, GL, FA, Cash Mgt, Purch,Tax, Proj Billing, Proj Costing, Proj Rsc, Proj Mgt, iProcurement, iExpenses)

– HR• HR, Learning Mgt, OTL, iRecruitment, ESS, MSS

– Payroll– OBIEE

• Fin Analytics, Proc Analytics, Spend Analytics, Proj Analytics, BI Publisher

– Hyperion• Planning Plus, Financial Data Mgt

• Budget = $8M, 20+ staff over 2 yrs• 1300 users

Proposed Hardware

• 16 physical servers– What were the original specs?

• Problems– Problem 1: Space in Server room– Problem 2: Air Conditioning in 30+ year old building – Problem 3: Cost

• All the classic problems faced by growing IT dept with limited spaces

The BRIGHT Idea aka the “Cloud” that darkened our day

• “Virtualisation”– One of the CIO’s bright ideas

• (blame IBRS analyst Kevin McIsaacs!)

• Problems, problems, problems… – CRP on project already started– No SAN storage available– Six weeks to implement– Due Dilligence

• “Feasibility Study” w. Cost/Benefit Analysis … ASAP!!!

VM Hardware• Server pool comprising 4 physical servers

– 2 DELL PowerEdge servers • 8CPU with 64GB RAM one upgraded to 256GB

– 2 DELL PowerEdge servers • 16CPU with 64GB RAM

• Storage– DELL/EMC

• 10 x RAID 10 LUNs • 3 x RAID 5 LUNs up to 8TB in total

• Databases– 11g ASM– DB VMs on one physical host

• 8CPU with 256 GB RAM

Har

dwar

e S

chem

atic

DOM 0

PRD TST

DEV

PREPRD

E-Biz

16 Cores64GB Memory

DOM 0

PRD TST

DEV

PREPRD

Database

16 Cores64GB Memory

DOM 0

PRD

DEV

TST

OBIEE

8 Cores32GB Memory

DOM 0

PRD

DEV

TST

Hyperion

8 Cores32 GB Memory

Hypervisor Hypervisor

HypervisorHypervisor

SAN

All disk located on the SAN

/boot / /boot /

/boot / /boot /

/OVSVirtual Disk

Virtual Disk

Virtual Disk

Virtual Disk

Virtual Disk

Virtual Disk

Virtual Disk

Virtual Disk

Mngmnt server

Schematic detailsModule Type Environment No VM’s

eBusiness Environment

5 x 2-node Dev, Test, Pre-Prod, Prod (plus Sandbox)

10 VMs

OBIEE 3 x 3-node Dev, Pre-Prod, Prod 9 VMs

Hyperion 3 x 2-node Dev, Pre-Prod, Prod 6 VMs

DBs

Oracle Spatial(Dev & Prod?)

3 x single node Dev, Pre-Prod, Prod 3 VMs

HP QC Single node 1 VM

Print Server Single node 1 VM

Apps Express 1 VM

Total 31 VMs

VM Software

• OEL v4 – for Informatica• OEL v5 – All other Oracle software is

certified for this version

VM Benefits: The silver lining

• “Sales Pitch”– Smaller Footprint

• Fewer physical servers

– Lower H/W licence cost• Now properly licensed

– Lower Energy Use

VM Benefits: The silver lining• ... beyond the Sales Pitch

– Time savings• Built 33 servers in less than 1 month

– Scalability• Applied the technology to different applications

– e.g. EBS, Oracle Data Warehouse (OBIEE), Informatica, Essbase, Oracle Spatial with few issues

– Ease of Management• Same hardware to run VM with different O/S• Efficient use of system resources by quickly migrating guests in busy times• Networking changes during working hours

– by migrating guests to other hosts and schedule downtime on one host at a time. (e.g. undertook NIC reconfiguration during work hours with considerable cost saving on consultancy)

VM Implementation Timeline

• Prototype within 2 days from consultant walking in the door! – Dev & Test environments on legacy box

• Full set up = 2 weeks on new H/W– Dev, Test, Pre-Prod, Prod– Includes training for key staff (of 1!)

• Longest delay was ordering hardware = 6 weeks

VM Implementation Issues

• SAN Connectivity– Default DELL/EMC connectivity is PowerPath,

but not certified with OEL– Took 4 weeks to resolve because of

• Needed to multi-path

• Server RAM

KPIs• What made it work… so well?

– Really, really good advice• Expert advice from Oracle ACS• Expert Technical DBA

– Real People (not just resources!)• “Team Fit”

– Three key resources worked well as a “Black Box” unit

– Management who listened• If you don’t know better, trust your staff.

– I didn’t (know better) so I did (trust my staff)!

VM Implementation Effort• Over 1 month (ball park)

– Internal• 1 x DBA = 1 month• Management Support = 1 week

– Infrastructure• 2 x Hardware Resources = 2 weeks

– Install storage, LUN, etc

– External • Technical DBA = 2 weeks• Consultant with Oracle ACS = 2 weeks• Linux Consultants = 1 weeks

VM Ongoing Support Structure

• Internal– 1 x DBA - 50%– 1 x Technical Analyst - 10%– 0.5 x Team Leader - 5%

• External– Tech DBA 1 day/month– Consultant with Oracle ACS if required

Future Plans

• Move our VM Ware across– Client Server applications

• Legacy systems running SQL Server & Windows

• Application Express

• Migrate legacy data from 11i environments

Tell us what you think…

• http://feedback.insync10.com.au

• wpopp@parks.vic.gov.au