emc tiered storage for oracle database 11g—data warehouse ...€¦ · emc tiered storage for...

EMC Tiered Storage for Oracle Database 11g—Data Warehouse

Enabled by EMC Symmetrix VMAX with FAST and EMC Ionix ControlCenter StorageScope

A Detailed Review

Abstract

This white paper discusses an EMC® tiered storage solution for information lifecycle management (ILM) in enterprise-class Oracle data warehouse environments. The solution is enabled by EMC Symmetrix® VMAX™ with FAST (Fully Automated Storage Tiering), EMC Ionix™ ControlCenter®, EMC Ionix ControlCenter StorageScope™, Symmetrix Performance Analyzer, and Oracle Database 11g features such as partitioning, to provide automated storage tiering and advanced storage reporting and analysis, including storage chargeback.

May 2010

EMC Tiered Storage for Oracle Database 11g—Data Warehouse Enabled by EMC Symmetrix VMAX with FAST and EMC Ionix ControlCenter StorageScope—A Detailed Review

2

Copyright © 2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” EMC CORPORATION MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

For the most up-to-date listing of EMC product names, see EMC Corporation Trademarks on EMC.com.

All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

Part number: H7068


3

Table of Contents

Executive summary ........................................................................................................................... 5 Business case ............................................................................................................................... 5 Key findings ................................................................................................................................... 6

Introduction........................................................................................................................................ 7 Purpose ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Scope ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Audience ....................................................................................................................................... 7 Terminology ................................................................................................................................... 8

Key concepts and components ......................................................................................................... 9 Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 9 ILM and storage tiering ................................................................................................................. 9 EMC Symmetrix VMAX ............................................................................................................... 10 EMC Virtual LUN technology ...................................................................................................... 11 EMC Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) ........................................................................... 11 EMC Ionix ControlCenter and StorageScope ............................................................................. 14 EMC Symmetrix Performance Analyzer...................................................................................... 14 EMC PowerPath .......................................................................................................................... 14 Oracle Database 11g R2 Enterprise Edition ............................................................................... 14 Storage tiering using FAST and Oracle Partitioning ................................................................... 15

Use case ......................................................................................................................................... 16 Use case reference architecture ................................................................................................. 16 Use case description ................................................................................................................... 16 Use case objectives .................................................................................................................... 17 Use case profile........................................................................................................................... 17 Virtual server environment .......................................................................................................... 18 Physical server environment ....................................................................................................... 18 Physical drive configuration ........................................................................................................ 19 Logical drive configuration .......................................................................................................... 19 Storage design considerations .................................................................................................... 19

Oracle database configuration ........................................................................................................ 20 Swingbench database schema ................................................................................................... 20 Oracle partitions .......................................................................................................................... 20 ASM disk groups ......................................................................................................................... 21 ASM disk group / tablespace mapping........................................................................................ 22 Automatic Cluster File System .................................................................................................... 23

EMC FAST configuration ................................................................................................................ 24 Overview of FAST configuration ................................................................................................. 24 Step 1: Create the Symmetrix tiers ............................................................................................. 24 Step 2: Create a storage group ................................................................................................... 25


4

Step 3: Profile application I/O using SPA .................................................................................... 26 Step 4: Create a FAST policy ...................................................................................................... 27 Step 5: Associate the FAST policy and storage group ............................................................... 28 Step 6: Set FAST control parameters ......................................................................................... 28

EMC Ionix ControlCenter and ControlCenter StorageScope reporting .......................................... 31 ControlCenter end-to-end device mapping ................................................................................. 31 Storage trending and chargeback reporting with StorageScope ................................................ 32 StorageScope Dashboard ........................................................................................................... 32 StorageScope built-in queries ..................................................................................................... 33 StorageScope scheduled reports ................................................................................................ 34

Managing and refining FAST policies ............................................................................................. 35 Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 35 Running and monitoring FAST .................................................................................................... 35 Reviewing FAST change plans ................................................................................................... 36 Approving and executing the FAST change plans ...................................................................... 37 Refining the FAST policy ............................................................................................................. 38

StorageScope chargeback reporting .............................................................................................. 39 Charging back using built-in StorageScope reports .................................................................... 39 Charging back using custom StorageScope queries .................................................................. 40

Conclusion....................................................................................................................................... 41 Key points .................................................................................................................................... 41

References ...................................................................................................................................... 42 White papers and technical notes ............................................................................................... 42 Product documentation ............................................................................................................... 42 Other documentation ................................................................................................................... 42


5

Executive summary

Business case The unrelenting growth of business information and increased regulatory

requirements for long-term storage present a key challenge for very large database (VLDB) environments, demanding storage systems that provide high availability and performance, end-to-end visibility, and ease of management, at minimum cost.

The business value of information changes over time, and availability and performance requirements change accordingly. Implementing an appropriate Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) strategy is key to reducing storage costs.

Challenge Solution Storing all data on high-performance, high-availability drives is expensive and inefficient.

Storage tiering is the process of moving data between storage tiers as it progresses through its lifecycle and as its business value changes. EMC® Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) proactively monitors I/O access patterns at the Symmetrix® device (LUN) level, identifying devices that would benefit from being moved to higher performing drives and also identifying devices that could be relocated to higher-capacity, more cost-effective storage, without altering performance. Importantly, FAST moves data automatically and nondisruptively between tiers, without interrupting business continuity and data availability.

Selecting an optimal storage platform for storage tiering in large data warehouse deployments.

EMC Symmetrix VMAX™ is an enterprise array that supports multiple drive technologies and the full range of RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) types, making it an ideal platform for storage tiering within the array.

With automated storage tiering, the ability to easily monitor, analyze, and report on storage utilization is of fundamental importance.

Symmetrix Performance Analyzer (SPA) provides real-time performance monitoring and trending. EMC Ionix™ ControlCenter® provides advanced storage reporting and analysis, with end-to-end mapping of application files to storage devices.

Maintaining the accountability necessary to address expanding storage needs.

EMC Ionix ControlCenter StorageScope™ provides capacity planning, reporting, trend analysis, and chargeback utilities for FAST environments.

An optimal ILM strategy, utilizing tiered storage, ensures that information is stored on the appropriate device, depending on its current availability and performance requirements, and automatically moves information between devices according to policies that reflect the value of the information to the business.

This white paper discusses an EMC solution that addresses this challenge for large Oracle 11g Release 2 data warehouse deployments, ensuring that the right data is placed on the right storage, at the right time.


6

Key findings The solution described in this paper provides the following benefits:

• Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by:

− placing the right data on the right tier at the right time, based on their usage patterns

− automatically tiering data according to predefined policies

− using fewer drives, and reducing energy consumption and storage footprint

− providing storage chargeback capabilities, whether for recovering storage costs or for assisting consumers to make appropriate decisions as regards their storage needs

• Optimization of storage resource utilization, performance, and availability.

• Improved Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance for business users by significantly reducing I/O wait time for the most critical applications.

• Nondisruptive movement of data to the most effective storage tier.

• End-to-end visibility and control of storage resources, usage, and performance levels.


7

Introduction

Purpose This white paper illustrates an ILM solution that enables automated storage tiering

and chargeback reporting in an enterprise-class Oracle 11g R2 data warehouse environment.

The solution uses the following EMC information infrastructure hardware and software accelerators:

• EMC Symmetrix VMAX

• EMC FAST

• EMC Ionix ControlCenter

• EMC Ionix ControlCenter StorageScope

• EMC Symmetrix Performance Analyzer

The use case deployment uses the following Oracle technologies:

• Oracle 11g R2 Enterprise Edition

• Oracle RAC

• Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM)

• Oracle Partitioning

Scope The scope of this paper is to:

• Present an overview of the concepts and technologies involved in the solution

• Document the design, implementation, and testing of the use case described in the paper

• Present the business benefits of the solution

Audience This white paper is intended for Oracle database administrators, storage architects,

EMC customers, and field personnel who want to understand how EMC products and solutions can provide automated storage tiering and advanced management, monitoring, and reporting facilities for Oracle 11g R2 data warehouse deployments.


8

Terminology This paper includes the following terminology.

Term Description

ACFS Automatic Cluster File System

ASM Automatic Storage Management

AWR Automatic Workload Repository

ControlCenter EMC Ionix ControlCenter

DCP Data Collection Policy

DRV Dynamic Relocation Volume

DSS Decision Support System

EFD Enterprise Flash Drives

ETL Extract, transform, load

FAST Fully Automated Storage Tiering

FC Fibre Channel

ILM Information Lifecycle Management

RAC Real Application Clusters

RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks

RVA RAID Virtual Architecture

SATA Serial Advanced Technology Attachment

SMC Symmetrix Management Console

SPA Symmetrix Performance Analyzer

StorageScope EMC Ionix ControlCenter StorageScope

VLUN Virtual LUN


9

Key concepts and components

Overview This section identifies and describes the main concepts and components discussed

in the white paper.

• ILM and storage tiering

• EMC Symmetrix VMAX

• EMC Virtual LUN (VLUN)

• EMC Symmetrix FAST

• EMC Ionix ControlCenter (ControlCenter), and EMC Ionix ControlCenter StorageScope (StorageScope)

• EMC Symmetrix Performance Analyzer (SPA)

• EMC PowerPath®

• Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition R2 and Oracle Partitioning

ILM and storage tiering

ILM refers to the policies, practices, hardware, and software used to administer and store information throughout its lifetime.

Most business information follows a predictable lifecycle. At the start of its life, information is generally accessed and updated frequently. As it ages, its business value diminishes and access may be infrequent. At some point, the information may be retained solely for regulatory purposes.

The following graph illustrates the typical lifecycle of information and how its value to the business changes over time.


10

The storage requirements of information also change through its lifetime. Frequently accessed information with a high business value requires high-availability, high-performance storage. On the other hand, the volume of less active data usually grows over time and this data can be moved to higher-capacity, low-power drives.

A key benefit of ILM strategies is the cost savings that result from moving information between different storage device types as it progress through its lifecycle.

With large data warehouse databases, workloads tend to be directed to a relatively small subset of the data stored in the database. Storing all data on the same high-performance, high-availability drives is expensive and inefficient.

Alternatively, storage tiering assigns different categories of information to different storage types, based on considerations such as business value, performance requirements, frequency of use, and protection requirements. As information ages, or as its business value decreases, its category changes and it is moved to the appropriate storage tier.

The goal is to retain the most valuable or frequently-accessed information on high-availability, high-performance storage media such as Enterprise Flash Drives (EFDs), and, as its value to the business decreases, to move it to progressively lowercost media such as Fibre Channel (FC) or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drives. Moving even small volumes of highly-active data to EFD drives can improve performance by significant amounts (see EMC Symmetrix DMX-4 Flash Drives with Oracle Databases—White Paper).

EMC Symmetrix VMAX

The Symmetrix VMAX system is a high-end, enterprise storage array comprising a system bay and separate storage bays. The system scales from a single high-availability (HA) node configuration to eight-node configurations with up to 10 bays. Each VMAX Engine contains two Symmetrix VMAX directors with extensive CPU processing power, physical memory, front-end ports, and back-end ports.

Symmetrix VMAX systems deliver scalable performance that meets the most demanding access, protection, and distribution requirements. They provide three-tier storage within a single array. EFDs, FC drives, and SATA drives are all supported, as well as the full range of RAID types.

Symmetrix Management Console (SMC) is a powerful and intuitive GUI that configures and manages multiple Symmetrix arrays. It presents the functionality of the Symmetrix Solutions Enabler SYMCLI (command line interface) in a browser interface, simplifies storage administration tasks though the use of built-in wizards, and provides the ability to:

• Manage Symmetrix access controls, user accounts, and permission roles

• Discover Symmetrix arrays

• Perform configuration operations (create devices, map and mask devices, set Symmetrix system attributes, set device attributes, set port flags, create SAVE device pools)

• Manage devices (change device configuration, set device status, reserve devices, duplicate devices, create/dissolve metadevices)

• Perform and monitor replication operations


11

• Monitor alerts

• Monitor an application’s performance

• Configure and manage FAST and Symmetrix Optimizer

For more information see EMC Symmetrix VMAX Series Product Guide.

EMC Virtual LUN technology

EMC’s Virtual LUN (VLUN) technology is a built-in feature on Symmetrix VMAX arrays utilizing RAID Virtual Architecture (RVA). RVA is a new and optimized design implemented in Symmetrix VMAX arrays with EMC Enginuity™ OS 5874 and later. It provides Enginuity with a single code path to manage all Symmetrix RAID protections.

This design allows two distinct RAID groups, of different protection or on different storage tiers (or both), to be associated with a Symmetrix device for the purposes of migration. In this way, VLUN allows for the migration of data from one protection scheme to another (for example, RAID 5 to RAID 6) without interruption to the host or application accessing data on the Symmetrix device.

Prior to VLUN technology, most other LUN migration methods required an outage to the applications before or after the migration, to add the new target LUNs to the host or to point the application to the newly migrated LUNs. VLUN technology allows a user to migrate data on a per LUN basis within the array.

VLUN migration can be managed through SMC with the LUN migration wizard or with the Solutions Enabler symmigrate command set. For further information, see the EMC Solutions Enabler Symmetrix Array Controls CLI Version 7.1 Product Guide.

EMC Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST)

FAST represents the next generation of storage tiering, by automating tiered storage strategies and ensuring that the right data is placed on the right storage at the right time. It is a feature of the Symmetrix family, and, on the Symmetrix VMAX, uses VLUN technology to seamlessly migrate data between LUNs.

FAST uses intelligent algorithms to continuously analyze device activity and generate plans for moving/swapping devices in order to re-allocate application data across different tiers within a Symmetrix array.

FAST proactively monitors workloads at the LUN level to identify “busy” devices that would benefit from being moved to higher-performing drives such as EFD. It also identifies less “busy” devices that could be relocated to higher-capacity, more cost-effective storage such as SATA without altering performance. Data movement is based on user-defined storage tiers and FAST policies.

FAST components FAST configuration involves three types of components: storage types (Symmetrix tiers), storage groups, and FAST policies.


12

The following diagram illustrates the relationship between these components.

• Symmetrix tier: A combination of a drive technology (for example, EFD, FC 15k rpm, or SATA) and a RAID protection type (for example, RAID 1, RAID 5 3+1, or RAID 6 6+2). When defined, a tier will contain one or more physical disk groups, of the same technology type, from the Symmetrix.

• Storage group: A storage group is a logical grouping of devices used for common management, typically including all of the devices used by one application or a set of functions of the application. A Symmetrix device can belong to more than one storage group. However, if a device belongs to multiple storage groups, it can be associated with only a single FAST policy.

Storage groups are used by both Auto-provisioning Groups and FAST, both of which require Enginuity 5874. For further information on storage groups and their use in Auto-provisioning, see Storage Provisioning With EMC Symmetrix Autoprovisioning Groups Technical Note.

• FAST policy: A set of tier usage rules that are applied to associated storage groups. A FAST policy lists up to three tiers and assigns an upper usage limit for each tier. The usage limit specifies the maximum percentage of the storage group that the FAST controller can allocate to a particular tier.

For more information on these FAST components, see the EMC FAST configuration section in this paper.

FAST control parameters The FAST controller is the intelligence of the FAST software. When configuring FAST, the following parameters specify how the controller manages its functions.

• FAST can be configured to operate in Automatic mode, where the system automatically executes data movements based on the defined policy. Alternatively, it can operate in User Approved mode, where all change plans recommended must be explicitly approved prior to being executed.

• Time windows are used by FAST to specify when data can be collected for performance analysis and when data movements can be executed. These time windows ensure that data is collected during active periods and that data movements are performed at times that minimize any possible adverse impact on the performance of other, more critical workloads.


13

• FAST can be configured to allow both moves and swaps to be performed or to allow only swaps.

Symmetrix Optimizer is Symmetrix software that provides automatic performance tuning. Data movement mode and time window parameters are shared with Optimizer and changes to these parameters affect both Optimizer and FAST.

FAST device migration Device migration is one of the most critical functions of FAST. The FAST controller has two methods to relocate devices—move or swap.

• A move occurs when there is sufficient unallocated space available in the target storage tier to accommodate the move. This is the preferred method of relocating a device. This process uses the VLUN migration feature to relocate the device to a different tier.

• A swap takes place when there is no unconfigured space in the target tier and a corresponding device of similar size is available. A swap involves three copy processes and uses a Dynamic Relocation Volume (DRV) device to preserve the data on the devices involved in the swap.

FAST algorithms FAST uses three algorithms to analyze data and identify the most appropriate storage tier for devices:

• EFD promotion/demotion: This algorithm is designed to maximize EFD utilization in the Symmetrix array. It models EFD performance for each device, and assigns the device an EFD performance score based on average reads per second and read/write ratios. The devices with the highest scores are considered good candidates for promotion to EFDs.

• Capacity-based: This algorithm enforces the percentages configured in the FAST Policy. If a storage group has a higher percentage of devices on a tier than the policy allows, a recommendation is made to move devices to a different tier in compliance with the FAST Policy.

• FC/SATA cross tier: This algorithm is used to balance utilization across FC and SATA drives.

The end result of FAST analysis is the creation of a configuration change plan that lists recommendations for device movement to more appropriate tiers. In Automatic data movement mode, device migrations occur during the next available data move window. In User Approved data movement mode, migrations occur during the next data movement window after the user has approved the change plan.

In addition to FAST algorithms, the traditional Optimizer algorithm can be used. If Optimizer is enabled, intra-disk group load balancing is executed to rebalance disk utilization within tiers. EMC recommends that customers use FAST in conjunction with the optional Optimizer data management solution to further enhance the load balancing capabilities across tiers. See EMC Symmetrix Optimizer—A Detailed Review for further information.

Note To use FAST, both Symmetrix Optimizer and FAST must be licensed and enabled.


14

EMC Ionix ControlCenter and StorageScope

EMC Ionix ControlCenter comprises a comprehensive family of storage resource management (SRM) and device management applications that automate management of networked storage environments. ControlCenter supports and automates common tasks such as reporting, planning, provisioning, and monitoring storage resources, and includes tracking and reporting support for Symmetrix FAST, through StorageScope.

StorageScope is a core component of ControlCenter, providing capacity planning, reporting, and trend analysis functions across Symmetrix FAST environments, including chargeback reporting.

For more detailed information, see the EMC Ionix ControlCenter and ControlCenter StorageScope reporting section in this paper.

EMC Symmetrix Performance Analyzer

SPA is a server-based application that provides a single tool to monitor the real-time workload activity for a number of Symmetrix arrays. It is integrated with SMC and shares SMC resources while providing diagnostic, performance, and planning information with easy-to-use graphical data representations.

EMC PowerPath

PowerPath is server-resident software that enhances performance and application availability. It works with the storage system to intelligently manage I/O paths, and supports multiple paths to a logical device.

PowerPath provides automatic failover in the event of a hardware failure by automatically detecting the path failure and redirecting I/O to another path.

Oracle Database 11g R2 Enterprise Edition

This white paper presents a storage solution for Oracle 11g R2 data warehouse environments. The solution takes advantage of many features of Oracle 11g R2, including Real Application Clusters (RAC), Automatic Storage Management (ASM), Automatic Cluster File System (ACFS), and Oracle Partitioning.

In Oracle 11g R2, Oracle ASM and Oracle Clusterware have been integrated into a single set of binaries and named the Oracle Grid Infrastructure. This now provides all the cluster and storage services required to run an Oracle RAC database. Oracle ASM has also been extended to include support for OCR and voting files to be placed within ASM disk groups.

A new feature—Oracle ACFS—extends ASM functionality to act as a general purpose cluster file system. Oracle database binaries can be placed on ACFS along with support files, such as trace and alert logs, and non-Oracle general purpose application files.


15

Storage tiering using FAST and Oracle Partitioning

For large Oracle data warehouse deployments, it can become extremely cost effective to analyze and identify I/O patterns within the Oracle database. FAST performs this analysis automatically.

Oracle Partitioning enables tables and indexes to be decomposed into smaller, more manageable pieces (partitions). Each partition has its own name and can have its own storage characteristics. Over time, performance requirements for Oracle partitions may change as data naturally ages out and is accessed less.

In this paper, all partitioned objects for the same period were held in a common Oracle ASM disk group. FAST was then used to identify devices with similar I/O patterns and, as partitioned data aged out, FAST automatically moved entire ASM disk groups to the most appropriate storage tier.

Oracle Partitioning is an additional licensing option for Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition.


16

Use case

Use case reference architecture

A two-node Oracle 11g R2 ASM RAC environment was deployed on a Symmetrix VMAX array, with a storage layout that adheres to EMC best practices for Oracle databases in this environment (for further information see Oracle Databases on EMC Symmetrix Storage Systems).

EMC Ionix ControlCenter and StorageScope reside on the same virtual machine, and the Swingbench load generator resides on a separate virtual machine, in a two-node VMware ESX Server farm. SMC, Solutions Enabler, and SPA are hosted on a physical infrastructure management server.

The following diagram depicts the architecture of the solution.

Use case description

Four Symmetrix tiers were created for the use case. FAST was then configured with a single storage group and a FAST policy was associated with that storage group (see the EMC FAST configuration section of this paper for full details).

At the start of testing, all data resided on a single FC storage tier. The initial FAST policy configuration was then applied and FAST change plan recommendations were executed. After reviewing and analyzing the results of the initial FAST configuration, the FAST policy was refined to achieve the maximum usage and performance benefits.

Flash

FibreChannel

SATA

VMwareESX server farm

EMC Ionix ControlCenterEMC Ionix ControlCenter

StorageScope

VMs

SAN network switch

IP network switch

EMC Symmetrix VMAX with FAST

Oracle 11g R2RAC nodes

SAN network switch

Management host

4 Gb/s FibreChannel network

Public Gigabit Ethernet network

GEN-001345

Private Interconnect Gigabit Ethernet network

EMC SymmetrixManagement Console

EMC SymmetrixPerformance Analyzer

Swingbench load generator

Public Ethernet

VMs

Fibre ChannelPrivate Ethernet


17

Use case objectives

The objectives of the use case testing were as follows:

• Design an Oracle storage layout to facilitate a 7+TB Oracle data warehouse database, while adhering to EMC best practices for deploying Oracle databases on Symmetrix VMAX arrays (see Oracle Databases on EMC Symmetrix Storage Systems).

• Deploy and validate a two-node Oracle 11g RAC environment on a Symmetrix VMAX platform, create a database schema, and use Swingbench to generate a load against the database to validate the environment.

• Test and validate the automation of storage tiering using a combination of FAST technology and Oracle Partitioning.

• Use SPA to profile application I/O and use the statistics generated as a guide for tuning an appropriate FAST policy for the application.

• Use FAST to monitor and analyze disk activity and to recommend and move/swap data partitions (at the ASM disk group level) to the correct storage tier.

• Use ControlCenter to create end-to-end mapping views that enable database administrators to identify where each database component is physically located on the Symmetrix VMAX array.

• Run StorageScope reports to identify trends and usage of storage assets. This includes chargeback analysis of provisioned storage.

Use case profile

The following table presents the use case profile.

Item Quantity / type / size

Database characteristic Data warehouse

Benchmark profile Swingbench DSS Benchmark Load Generator tool

Oracle RAC 2 nodes

Size of database 7 TB

Number of databases 1


18

Virtual server environment

The infrastructure for the virtual environment was configured with the following hardware and software.

Equipment Quantity Configuration Hardware

VMware ESX Servers 2 Dell PowerEdge R710 with: • Quad CPU • 96 GB RAM • Dual 10 GB CNAs

Virtual machine

Swingbench 2.3 1 Win2k3

EMC Ionix ControlCenter 6.1 StorageScope 6.1

1 Win2k3

Physical server environment

The infrastructure for the physical server environment was configured with the following hardware and software.

Purpose Quantity Configuration

Infrastructure management host

1 Dell R710 with: • Quad CPU • 64 GB RAM

Windows 2003 SP2 Symmetrix Management Console 7.1 Symmetrix Performance Analyzer 2.0 Solutions Enabler 7.1.0

Oracle RAC database servers

2 Dell PowerEdge R900 with: • Quad CPU • 96 GB RAM

Oracle 11g Enterprise Edition Release R2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 Solutions Enabler 7.1.0 PowerPath 5.3 SP1

Storage arrays 2 Symmetrix VMAX with: • Enginuity 5874 Q409SR • 2 x VMAX 64 GB engines

FC switches 2 Brocade 5100 8 GB FC switches, 2 per site

Ethernet switches 2 Cisco Catalyst 3750 Gigabit Ethernet switches

Host bus adapters 10 Emulex LP11002 HBA, 2 per physical server


19

Physical drive configuration

The following table details the physical drives used in the use case test environment.

Drive type No. of drives Specifications RAID type Usable capacity

EFDs 8 200 GB EFD RAID 5 7+1 1.4 TB

FC drives 42 300 GB, 15k rpm RAID 1 6 TB

FC drives 56 300 GB, 15k rpm RAID 5 3+1 12.6 TB

SATA drives 22 1,000 GB, 7.5k rpm RAID 5 3+1 16.5 TB

Logical drive configuration

The following table details the logical drives used in the use case test environment.

ASM disk group No. of LUNS LUN size Technology Protection

DATA 72 80 GB FC RAID 5 3+1

Redo 15 5 GB FC RAID 1

TMP 5 80 GB FC RAID 5 3+1

FRA 4 80 GB FC RAID 5 3+1

CRS 5 5 GB FC RAID 1

Storage design considerations

When designing tiered storage for FAST environments, the following factors should be taken into consideration:

• Allow sufficient unconfigured storage on each tier for use by FAST move operations.

• Swaps are accomplished through a DRV. DRVs have protection level RAID 1 and can reside on any tier. However, the tier on which a DRV resides may effect the time taken to complete a swap.

• Plan for an adequate number of DRV devices when FAST is configured to allow for swap operations. The FAST Maximum Simultaneous Volume(s) Moved parameter should be set to match the number of DRVs.

• DRV devices should be the same size or larger than the devices that are being swapped.


20

Oracle database configuration

Swingbench database schema

The Swingbench load generator and benchmarking tool were used to stress test the Oracle database. The Swingbench profile for the use case was the Sales History workload. This workload models a data warehouse benchmark and is based on the Oracle sample schema Sales History.

The load was run with 10 virtual users cycling through six intensive and long-running Decision Support System (DSS) style select statements.

Swingbench Datagenerator was used to populate and load the database tables with semi-random data. Note that the size of the database created by Datagenerator can be scaled at both create time and at load time.

The use case database consists of the following tables.

Table name Partitioned

SALES Yes, Range

CUSTOMERS Yes, Hash

SUPPLEMENTARY_DEMOGRAPHICS No

COSTS Yes, Range

TIMES No

PROMOTIONS No

CHANNELS No

COUNTRIES No

PRODUCTS No

Oracle partitions

Data in the database is partitioned on a quarterly basis, with separate partitions for Quarter 1, Quarter 2, Quarter 3, and Quarter 4 of any given year. Each quarterly partition has a separate table and index tablespace residing on a dedicated ASM disk group. Partitioning the database in this way enables each quarter’s data to be managed as a unit.

In the use case, data is aged out after three years (12 quarterly partitions) and the disk groups recycled for new partitions.

Oracle partitions are assigned based on a partition key that comprises one or more columns. Using a partition key, each row is unambiguously assigned to a single partition and Oracle automatically directs operations (inserts, updates, deletes, etc.) to the correct partition.

The following Oracle partitioning methods were used for the use case:

• Range partitioning: Maps data to partitions based on ranges of values of the partitioning key. Commonly used with date ranges where tables are partitioned by day, week, month, quarter, or year.


21

• Hash partitioning: Evenly distributes data to partitions based on a hashing algorithm that Oracle applies to the partitioning key. This allows distribution of the data evenly over a fixed number of partitions of similar size.

The following table shows the configuration of the table and index partitions.

Table name Partition name Table tablespace Index tablespace SALES SALES_Q1_2008

……. SALES_Q4_2010

DATA_P1 ……. DATA_P12

INDEX_P1 ……. INDEX_P12

COSTS COSTS_Q1_2008 …….. COSTS_Q4_2010

DATA_P1 ……… DATA_P12

INDEX_P1 …….. INDEX_P12

CUSTOMERS SD_HASH_P1 ……. SD_HASH_P12

DATA_P1 ……. DATA_P12

INDEX_P1 ……. INDEX_P12

ASM disk groups

For the use case, the Oracle ASM Configuration Assistant was used to create the ASM disk groups.

• A disk group (CRS1) was created, with normal redundancy, for CRS and voting files, which, as of Oracle 11g R2, can be stored within an ASM disk group.

• Following EMC recommended best practice for ASM, standard disk groups were created, with external redundancy, as follows: DATA (datafiles and controlfiles), REDO (redo logs), and FRA (archived log files).

As this is a DSS database, with both index creation and select queries generating large amounts of temp data, a separate TEMP disk group was also created.

• The tablespaces for each Oracle partition were allocated their own ASM disk group and the names assigned to the disk groups were chosen to reflect the partition number—that is, DATA_P1, DATA_P2, DATA_P3, and so on. These were created with external redundancy.

• In total there were 12 partitions per table. Each date range (quarter) was assigned its own ASM disk group, which was common to all table and index partitions for that quarter.

• Oracle ASM has a limit of 63 disk groups per ASM instance. One disk group, CRS1, was used for Oracle Clusterware files and four disk groups were created to hold standard database files. Therefore, 58 disk groups were available to hold further database objects, partitioned or otherwise.


22

The following image shows the ASM disk groups created for the use case.

ASM disk group / tablespace mapping

The following table maps the Oracle ASM disk groups to the database tablespaces and files.

ASM disk group Tablespace +DATA SH_DATA

SH_INDEX

SYSAUX

SYSTEM

UNDOTBS1

UNDOTBS2

USERS

+TEMP TEMP1

+DATA_P1 ………… +DATA_P12

DATA_P1, INDEX_P1 ………… DATA_P12, INDEX_P12

+FRA As of Oracle 11g R2, FRA is known as the Fast Recovery Area (previously Flash Recovery Area). The use case archive logs were placed here. The database parameter db_recovery_file_dest was set to use the ASM disk group +FRA with a usable size of 300 GB.

+REDO Each database instance was configured with five online redo log groups, with individual members sized at 600 MB to match the workload and reduce waits due to log switching during data loads.


23

Automatic Cluster File System

For the use case, an ACFS file system was created and shared between the RAC nodes in order to enable periodic loading of fresh data into the database in parallel, via either or both instances. The asmcmd command line utility was used to create the ACFS file system.

Having prepared and created a disk group with external redundancy (CLUSTFS1), the steps outlined below were performed to configure ACFS.

1. Start asmcmd as the grid owner and create a 76 GB ACFS volume: volcreate -G CLUSTFS1 -s 76G --redundancy unprotected CLUSTFS1

2. Check the configuration: volinfo -G CLUSTFS1 CLUSTFS1

Sample output: Diskgroup Name: CLUSTFS1

Volume Name: CLUSTFS1 Volume Device: /dev/asm/clustfs1-105 State: ENABLED Size (MB): 76800 Resize Unit (MB): 256 Redundancy: UNPROT Stripe Columns: 4 Stripe Width (K): 128 Usage: ACFS Mountpath: /u01/app/oracle/loaddata

3. Enable the ACFS volume:

volenable -G CLUSTFS1 CLUSTFS1

4. As the Linux super user, on a single node, create a file system on the Volume Device identified above: /sbin/mkfs.acfs /dev/asm/clustfs1-105

5. On each node, as the Linux super user (root), run the following commands to register and mount the file system: /sbin/acfsutil registry -f -a /dev/asm/clustfs1-105 /u01/app/oracle/loaddata /bin/mount -t acfs /dev/asm/clustfs1-105 /u01/app/oracle/loaddata

The mount point will now be mounted automatically by the Cluster Ready Services.


24

EMC FAST configuration

Overview of FAST configuration

This section outlines the main steps for configuring FAST on a Symmetrix VMAX array. It follows the process used for configuring FAST for the use case in this paper.

1. Create a set of Symmetrix tiers (storage types). 2. Create a storage group for the Oracle 11g database.

3. Profile the application I/O using SPA. 4. Create a FAST policy to be applied to the storage group. 5. Associate the storage group with the FAST policy. 6. Set the FAST Controller parameters.

All steps are carried out using SMC. The various menu options used are accessed from the SMC tree view, where all available Symmetrix arrays are listed.

Other options for configuring FAST include the FAST Configuration Wizard and the Solutions Enabler Command Line interface (SYMCLI).

Step 1: Create the Symmetrix tiers

The use case defines four tiers on the Symmetrix VMAX array, as follows:

Symmetrix tier name Disk technology RAID protection

Platinum EFD STEC 200 GB RAID 5 (7+1)

Gold FC 15k rpm 300 GB RAID 1 (mirrored)

Silver FC 15k rpm 300 GB RAID 5 (3+1)

Bronze SATA 7.5k rpm 1 TB RAID 5 (3+1)

Note that the Gold tier was not included in the FAST policy, but is used as part of the chargeback mechanism.

The following image shows the definition of the Platinum tier.

When creating each tier, the following attributes must be specified:

• The tier name, which uniquely identifies the user-defined tier (maximum 32 characters).


25

• The disk technology (for example, EFD) on which the tier will reside. Disk groups available on the specified technology display in the lower portion of the dialog box when this option is defined.

• The RAID protection type for the tier—for example, RAID 5 7+1 or RAID 5 3+1.

• The tier selection type: Dynamic is the default selection type and creates a dynamic tier that includes all the disk groups of the selected drive technology and RAID level. Selecting the Manually select disk groups option instead creates a static tier. In this case, the dialog displays a list of the disk groups on the specified technology, and the user selects the disk groups to be included in the tier.

Step 2: Create a storage group

To create a storage group, the following attributes must be specified in the Storage Group Management – Create dialog box:

• The storage group name, which uniquely identifies the storage group.

• The device source type, which specifies the source of the devices to be added to the storage group.

The Symmetrix option allows the user to select specific devices from all those available on the array.

Once the source type has been specified, one or more of the available devices can then be selected for inclusion in the storage group.

The following image shows the definition of the storage group for the use case.

The use case defines a single storage group for the Oracle 11g RAC database. This storage group encompasses all the devices to be monitored by FAST. All devices presented to the RAC cluster (except Redo and CRS devices) were included.


26

Due to the pattern of access to Redo logs, there may be high periods of inactivity on these devices, except during data loads. As reasonably high response times are required from the devices, they are excluded from the FAST storage group to prevent them being moved between tiers during long periods of inactivity. The CRS devices are excluded as their nature dictates that they should reside on high-availability mirrored devices. These devices reside on the Gold tier, which is not included in the use case FAST policy, so they will not be moved/swapped by FAST.

Note The FAST storage group should always include all the devices in any ASM disk group that is under FAST control.

Step 3: Profile application I/O using SPA

EMC recommends that SPA is used to profile application I/O before a FAST policy is created. The statistics generated can then be used as a guide for configuring an appropriate FAST policy for the application.

• Use the SPA Snapshot Hit/Miss Distribution view to determine applicable workloads and to target Symmetrix tiers for FAST. For example, the following image shows a significant amount of average read miss activity for a storage group. In this case, the group may be better placed partly on the EFD tier and the FAST policy can be configured accordingly.

• Use the SPA storage group Diagnostic view to produce graphs of application I/O spread. For example, the following Host IOs/sec graph of the use case storage group (Oracle11gRAC) shows that there is a skew in the workload for the devices in this storage group. This skew reflects the load that was generated against the different ASM disk groups by Swingbench.

Possible candidates for SATA

Possible candidates for EFD


27

Approximately 15% of the devices are being hit harder with I/O than the others. The devices related to this 15% of the storage group may be suitable candidates for up-tiering from FC to EFD.

Step 4: Create a FAST policy

The use case defines a single FAST policy for use with the Oracle11gRAC storage group. The policy specifies the maximum percentage of the storage group that the FAST controller can allocate to each defined Symmetrix tier.

When creating the policy, the following attributes must be specified in the FAST Policy Management – Create FAST Policy dialog box:

• The policy name, which uniquely identifies the policy.

• The name of each tier to be added to the policy—these are selected from a list of previously defined tiers.

• The storage group capacity for each tier—that is, the maximum amount (%) of the storage group that can be allocated to the tier. This value must be from 1 to 100, and the total percentage for a FAST policy must add up to 100% or more.

The following image shows the definition of the FAST policy.

The policy allows for up to 100% of the associated storage group to reside on FC disks, up to 15% to reside on EFD, and up to 100% to reside on SATA disks. With this configuration, FAST will recommend data movements based on its performance-based algorithms rather than its capacity-based algorithm.

The SPA Diagnostic View of the test database shows approximately 75% of the devices with very little I/O, suggesting that they can be down-tiered to SATA if required. By specifying a 100% value for the Bronze tier (SATA Raid 5 3+1), the FAST policy can accommodate not just the 75% of devices identified in SPA but also additional devices that may become available to move to SATA drives without negatively affecting overall performance of the application.

Since users are mostly concerned with usage of premium tiers, the most flexibility is achieved by configuring the least performing tier with a tier allocation of 100% and limiting the tier allocation of the premium tiers. This enables sharing of the limited, high-performance storage by multiple applications as their needs change over time.


28

Step 5: Associate the FAST policy and storage group

When the FAST policy has been defined, it can then be associated with one or more storage groups. The Create FAST Policy dialog box presents an option for opening the Storage Group Association dialog box. This lists all available storage groups, with options for adding one or more storage groups to the current policy.

The following image shows the association of the Oracle11gR2_FAST_Policy with the Oracle11gRAC storage group.

Step 6: Set FAST control parameters

The parameters for specifying how FAST manages data analysis and movement are set in the FAST – Settings dialog box. The following image shows the parameter values for the use case.

• Data Movement Mode: Specifies whether to move data automatically or to wait for user approval. User Approved mode is recommended for new installs and for users unfamiliar with FAST.

• Maximum Number of Volume(s) Moved Per Day: Specifies the maximum number of moves to perform in a 24-hour period.


29

• Maximum Simultaneous Volume(s) Moved: Specifies the maximum number of moves/swaps that can be performed simultaneously. Due to the size of the database in the test environment, this parameter is set to 16 for the use case, double the default value of eight. Having more DRV devices available, and increasing the number of simultaneous swaps permitted, reduces the number of swap windows needed to rebalance the storage through FAST.

• Workload Analysis Period: Specifies the amount of workload sampling to maintain for sample analysis, in units of hours, days, or weeks.

• Initial Period: Specifies the minimum amount of workload sampling to be completed before analyzing the samples for the first time. The default value of one week allows sufficient time to establish a good characterization of the typical workload.

• Migration Restriction: Specifies whether the FAST controller can do swaps and moves, or only swaps. The use case allows both swaps and moves.

• Time Windows: These specify when performance samples can be taken for analysis and when moves/swaps can be performed. There are three types of time window:

− Performance Time Window (Inclusive): This specifies the period of time during which performance is to be monitored—for example, Monday to Friday, 09:00 hrs to 17:30 hrs.

− Performance Time Window (Exclusive): This can be set to exclude periods from statistics collection. For example, it may be appropriate to exclude periods of low activity or periods when unusual activity is taking place.

− Swap Time Window: This specifies when moves/swaps swaps can be performed—for example, Saturday and Sunday, 09:00 hrs to 17:00 hrs.

The following image shows an example of a Performance Time Window.


30

Best practice for setting time windows is to use the SPA workload Trend Views to help identify the ideal FAST performance and move time windows based on the sampled I/O activity of FAST monitored volumes.

FAST performance windows should ideally coincide with periods of maximum workload; FAST move/swap windows should ideally occur during periods of comparatively lower activity, so as to minimize the possible impact on the performance of other, more critical workloads.

Note FAST device move and swap operations may result in a short-term impact to disk response time for a very limited period (see FAST Theory and Best Practices for Planning and Performance Technical Note). To circumvent any performance impact during the swap/move window a Quality of Service (QoS) value can be set on the devices using either Solutions Enabler or SMC.

For further information, see Solutions Enabler Symmetrix Array Controls CLI Product Guide.

http://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1/en_US/Offering_Technical/Technical_Documentation/300-002-940_a07.pdf?mtcs=ZXZlbnRUeXBlPUttQ2xpY2tTZWFyY2hSZXN1bHRzRXZlbnQsZG9jdW1lbnRJZD0wOTAxNDA2NjgwNDhmZTQ5LGRhdGFTb3VyY2U9RENUTV9lbl9VU18w�

http://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1/en_US/Offering_Technical/Technical_Documentation/300-002-940_a07.pdf?mtcs=ZXZlbnRUeXBlPUttQ2xpY2tTZWFyY2hSZXN1bHRzRXZlbnQsZG9jdW1lbnRJZD0wOTAxNDA2NjgwNDhmZTQ5LGRhdGFTb3VyY2U9RENUTV9lbl9VU18w�


31

EMC Ionix ControlCenter and ControlCenter StorageScope reporting

ControlCenter end-to-end device mapping

Using ControlCenter, storage administrators can now easily work out end-to-end mapping of ASM devices to storage devices. To retrieve the mapping information from the host without using ControlCenter involves the use of multiple host and database commands. With ControlCenter, however, a few mouse clicks displays the relevant information.

ControlCenter 6.1 Update Bundle 7 provides this added support for Oracle ASM. The ControlCenter Database Agent for Oracle is installed on a host in the environment and enables discovery, monitoring, and viewing of configuration and allocation information for all ASM instances on the agent host and on any machines that can communicate with the agent host.

The following image shows information collected by ControlCenter for the Oracle database and ASM devices in the use case scenario, as well as the properties for the associated PowerPath devices.

The view shows that the ASM disk group DATA is made up of four PowerPath devices (emcpowerce, emcpowercf, emcpowercg, and emcpowerch). These are pseudo devices for Symmetrix logical volumes 7A-7D. The ASM device names match the names of the PowerPath pseudo device names.

ASM disk group–ASM disk mapping

Oracle file mapping in ASM DATA disk group

ASM disk–PowerPath

device mapping

PowerPath device–Symmetrix logical volume mapping


32

This approach provides customers with a best practice for easily retrieving mapping information from ControlCenter.

For further information on Agent installation and setup, see the EMC Ionix ControlCenter 6.1 Planning and Installation Guide.

Storage trending and chargeback reporting with StorageScope

StorageScope provides a variety of features (snapshots, views, built-in and custom reports, built-in and custom database queries) to help users to:

• View configuration, status, and usage information for individual objects, user-defined groups, or the entire enterprise in order to assess the current storage environment.

• Determine future storage needs based on historical usage and trending reports.

• Reclaim storage resources by identifying unused or underutilized storage, as well as duplicate, rarely accessed, or non-business files.

• Facilitate billing and chargeback operations by location, line of business, or application.

• View point-in-time charts and tables (snapshots) of high-importance areas of the storage environment on StorageScope’s customizable Dashboard.

• Generate custom database queries unique to the enterprise.

StorageScope snapshots, views, reports, and queries use data collected by ControlCenter agents. To obtain complete reporting of the specific resources in an environment, the appropriate ControlCenter agents must be deployed.

The StorageScope Repository is populated through an extract, transform, load (ETL) process that organizes and prepares data retrieved from the ControlCenter Repository for reporting in StorageScope. The ETL process can be scheduled to occur at a specific time each day, and also runs on demand through the StorageScope user interface.

Note For StorageScope reports to be accurate, the ControlCenter Data Collection Policy (DCP) and the StorageScope ETL must first be completed.

StorageScope Dashboard

The Dashboard is the initial screen displayed when users log in to StorageScope. It is fully customizable and runs both built-in and custom snapshots (queries).

On the customized Dashboard for the use case, the user is presented with information on the storage consumption of the 10 largest database tablespaces and the 10 largest database instances in the environment.

A custom query is also included: Tier Usage and Cost. This is a chargeback query that has been modified to show the cost breakdown of storing the test database (TCE-FAST) across multiple tiers.


33

The following image shows an extract from the customized Dashboard.

For further details on chargeback reporting, see the StorageScope chargeback reporting section in this paper.

StorageScope built-in queries

StorageScope’s built-in queries provide a wide range of usage, capacity planning, and chargeback reports. Examples include Database Tablespace Usage, Weekly Database Usage, Array Storage by Service Level, and Host Storage by Service Level. These reports can be tailored to meet customer requirements.

The Host Storage By Service Level query provides information on host storage allocation for use in chargeback capacity reporting. The sample output in the following image shows the current storage allocation for host TCE-FAST01, with all storage for the host residing on the Gold and Silver tiers.

Custom snapshot created with SQL statement

Built in snapshots


34

StorageScope scheduled reports

StorageScope’s built-in query scheduler enables automation of both built-in and custom report generation. Report output can be automatically e-mailed to specified e-mail addresses or distribution lists. The output can then be imported to a spreadsheet application for use in chargeback or simply viewed as a PDF file for comparison.

The following image shows the query scheduler set up to e-mail report output in CSV format for import to a spreadsheet.

Data can be output in XML, PDF, or CSV format and e-mailed for input to chargeback reports


35

Managing and refining FAST policies

Overview As described earlier, four Symmetrix tiers were created for the Symmetrix VMAX

array. FAST was configured with a single storage group (Oracle11gRAC), and a FAST policy (Oracle11gR2_FAST_Policy) was associated with that storage group.

The FAST policy was set up to use three of the Symmetrix tiers (Platinum, Silver, and Bronze). It initially allowed for 100% of the storage group to reside on the Silver tier, 100% on the Bronze tier, and 15% on the Platinum tier.

For the purpose of testing, FAST was set up in User Approved mode, so all swaps/moves needed to be approved and scheduled before being executed. Performance windows were also set up to monitor the storage group, as shown in the following image.

Running and monitoring FAST

Once FAST was configured, I/O was generated against the database for the duration of the performance monitoring time window. Swingbench was used to do this, applying the same I/O pattern that was used to profile the database for configuring the FAST Policy.

With User Approved mode enabled, FAST generates a configuration change plan every hour, based on its analysis of the performance metrics. At the end of the performance window the most recent plan was reviewed and approved for execution.

Note When FAST is in Automatic mode, a plan is created at the start of each configured move window. At this time, FAST selects and executes one of its algorithms. If execution of the plan completes before the end of the current move window, another algorithm is selected and executed.


36

Reviewing FAST change plans

The image below shows the result from the first performance window—a number of devices were recommended for up-tiering by the EFD promotion/demotion algorithm.

Examination of the Oracle Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) report generated for the period revealed that tablespaces DATA_P8 and DATA_P9, and their corresponding disk groups, were experiencing the majority of I/O in the database.

The following image, extracted from the AWR report, shows the percentage of I/Os experienced by these tablespaces and their underlying devices.

Using ControlCenter, it was confirmed that these Oracle tablespaces mapped to the devices that FAST recommended for promotion to EFD.

Plan is based on performance based algorithms

FAST is recommending move to FLASH drives on Platinum tier


37

Approving and executing the FAST change plans

Once the FAST recommendations had been reviewed, they were approved and scheduled for execution using the FAST > FAST Control Parameters > Approve Swap/Move menu option.

FAST then executed the approved plan during the scheduled execution window. The resulting moves can be viewed in the Properties view of the FAST policy for the storage group, as shown in the following image.

With each FAST monitored time window, swap/move lists were generated, approved and executed, and the ASM disk groups gradually spread across the defined tiers. A number of move types were suggested by the FAST algorithms and Optimizer also recommended some moves for balancing disk utilization with intra-tier swaps.

Oracle ASM attempts to balance I/O load across all members in an ASM disk group, so the members will all have similar performance metrics. As a result, the swap / move plans generated by FAST ensure that the entire disk group will reside on a single tier.

To enable this, the percentages defined in the FAST policy should allow space for one or more entire ASM disk groups per tier and sufficient physical storage should exist to accommodate this.

Devices now reside on the Platinum tier


38

Refining the FAST policy

Once satisfied that the implemented FAST swap/move plans did not have any adverse impact on the performance of the data warehouse, the FAST policy was refined in order to force FAST to implement a more aggressive approach to down-tiering of less active devices.

The silver tier allocation was lowered to 50%, a performance monitoring window was configured, and Swingbench was used to drive load against the database. At the end of the performance window the FAST swap plan was reviewed. A section of the move plan is shown in the following image.

By changing the policy configuration, capacity-based algorithms were triggered to force down-tiering of less active data to the Bronze tier (SATA).

The policy was approved and FAST automatically moved the volumes to the new configuration on SATA drives using VLUN migration. The Oracle database remained operational for the entire move process, with zero downtime and no reconfiguration was necessary on the host or the database.

The net effect of this refined policy was to lower the TCO by storing the same quantity of data, at similar performance, and at reduced cost, while freeing up high-performing FC drives (Silver tier) for use elsewhere in the environment.

The change in the assignment of devices can be seen from the StorageScope reports and the custom query on the StorageScope Dashboard. The following image shows an extract from the Host Storage by Service Level report.

The reduction in the amount of storage that now resides on the Silver tier can be translated into a real-world saving by charging back to application owners.

Move is based on FAST capacity-based algorithms

FAST recommends moving to Bronze Tier

Reduced from pre-FAST value of 6301.61 GB


39

StorageScope chargeback reporting

Charging back using built-in StorageScope reports

As previously stated, it is possible to schedule StorageScope reports and distribute them by e-mail in CSV format. The information can then be transformed for chargeback purposes by using a simple spreadsheet.

The following tables were generated from StorageScope’s Host Storage by Service Level report and show the potential savings achievable by applying the refined FAST policy.

Before FAST policy applied

Host name Service level name

Charge per GB

Accessible capacity GB Cost

TCE-FAST01 Gold 35 98.47 $3,446.45

TCE-FAST01 Silver 20 6301.61 $126,032.20

Total Cost $129,478.65 After FAST policy applied

Host name Service level name

Charge per GB

Accessible capacity (GB) Cost

TCE-FAST01 Platinum 50 945.24 $47,262.00

TCE-FAST01 Bronze 10 3150.81 $31,508.10

TCE-FAST01 Gold 35 98.47 $3,446.45

TCE-FAST01 Silver 20 2205.56 $44,111.20

Total Cost $126,327.75 The key benefits of applying the FAST policy, as shown by the StorageScope reports, include:

• Four TB of chargeable storage released on the Silver tier was made available for provisioning elsewhere.

• Cost reductions were achieved by down-tiering less active Oracle partitions to the cheaper Bronze tier.

• Improved performance was achieved by the continued up-tiering of the busy ASM disk groups to EFD devices in the Platinum tier.

Note Values used for the chargeback examples are test values and do not reflect real-world charges. Actual savings will vary depending on the values applied.


40

Charging back using custom StorageScope queries

StorageScope custom queries can also be used to facilitate chargeback.

The following image shows output from the Tier Usage and Cost query, which was developed for the use case using standard SQL.

The query demonstrates chargeback for a storage group using actual storage figures, nominal charges, and a percentage breakdown of storage and cost.

37% of the total cost for the storage group relates to Platinum tier storage


41

Conclusion

Key points This white paper highlights the ease of use, efficiency, and cost savings realized in

an Oracle 11g R2 data warehouse by utilizing the FAST capabilities of the Symmetrix VMAX storage system.

The functionality, testing, and observations documented in this white paper demonstrate how the following components improve asset utilization in the data center:

• FAST technology can monitor and improve database and storage performance over time, while reducing the overall cost of provisioned storage. It provides:

− Reduced TCO by placing the right data on the right tier at the right time.

− Nondisruptive movement of data to the most effective storage tier.

− Optimization of storage resource utilization, performance, and availability.

− Reduced administration costs by automatically tiering data according to predefined policies.

− Reduced operating costs by using fewer drives, and lowering energy consumption and storage footprint.

• EMC’s suite of storage management, monitoring, and reporting applications provides unified management of an Oracle 11g R2 data warehouse environment on the Symmetrix VMAX platform, as follows:

− End-to-end mapping of Oracle ASM disk groups to Symmetrix logical volumes (EMC Ionix Control Center).

− Performance statistics that assist the process of designing and monitoring FAST policies (Symmetrix Performance Analyzer (SPA)).

− Built-in and custom reporting for trend analysis and chargeback across Symmetrix FAST environments (StorageScope).

• When combined with FAST, Oracle Partitioning is an enabler for ILM. Partitioned data is automatically migrated to the correct storage tier without impacting existing performance or service levels.


42

References

White papers and technical notes

For additional information, see the papers listed below.

• FAST Theory and Best Practices for Planning and Performance Technical Notes

• Implementing Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) for EMC Symmetrix VMAX Series Arrays Technical Note

• Storage Provisioning With EMC Symmetrix Autoprovisioning Groups Technical Note

• FAST and Virtual LUN for Oracle Database and EMC Symmetrix VMAX with Enginuity 5874—Applied Technology

• Oracle Databases on EMC Symmetrix Storage Systems TechBook

• EMC Symmetrix DMX-4 Flash Drives with Oracle Databases—Applied Technology

• EMC Symmetrix Optimizer—A Detailed Review

Product documentation

For additional information, see the product documents listed below.

• EMC Symmetrix VMAX Series Product Guide

• EMC Solutions Enabler Symmetrix Array Controls CLI Version 7.1 Product Guide

• Symmetrix Performance Analyzer Online Help 2.0 A02

• EMC Symmetrix Management Console Online Help 7.1 A06

• EMC Ionix ControlCenter 6.1 Planning and Installation Guide

Other documentation

For additional information, see the documents listed below.

• Oracle Database VLDB and Partitioning Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2)

• Oracle Grid Infrastructure Installation Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2) for Linux

• Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2) for Linux and UNIX

• Oracle Database Installation Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2) for Linux

• Oracle Database Storage Administrator's Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2)

• Oracle Real Application Clusters Administration and Deployment Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2)

• Oracle Clusterware Administration and Deployment Guide 11g Release 2 (11.2)

http://powerlink.emc.com/km/live1/en_US/Offering_Technical/Technical_Documentation/300-003-944_a06.htm?mtcs=ZXZlbnRUeXBlPUttQ2xpY2tDb250ZW50RXZlbnQsZG9jdW1lbnRJZD0wOTAxNDA2NjgwNDhmZGY1LG5hdmVOb2RlPVNvZndhcmVEb3dubG9hZHMtNQ__�

emc tiered storage for oracle database 11g—data warehouse ...€¦ · emc tiered storage for...

Documents