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White Paper

EMC Solutions

Abstract

This white paper describes managing workloads using VMAX3 service levels with Oracle Database 12c, and deploying Oracle Database 12c multitenant pluggable databases (PDBs) on VMAX3.

October, 2014

EMC VMAX3 WITH ORACLE DATABASE 12c With EMC VMAX3, EMC Unisphere, Oracle Database 12c

Powerful - VMAX3 with industry-leading performance and density for consolidated Oracle workloads

Trusted - Innovative Oracle backup and recovery Agile – VMAX3 Service Level Objective (SLO) enables one-click

provisioning and automated Oracle service levels

T

EMC VMAX3 with Oracle Database 12c White Paper

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Copyright © 2014 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.

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

Part Number H13425

3 EMC VMAX3 with Oracle Database 12c White Paper

Table of contents

Executive summary ............................................................................................................................... 5

Business case .................................................................................................................................. 5

Solution overview ............................................................................................................................ 5

Key results/ recommendations ........................................................................................................ 5

Introduction.......................................................................................................................................... 7

Purpose ........................................................................................................................................... 7

Scope .............................................................................................................................................. 7

Audience ......................................................................................................................................... 7

Terminology ..................................................................................................................................... 7

Key technology components ................................................................................................................ 8

Overview .......................................................................................................................................... 8

EMC VMAX3 ...................................................................................................................................... 8

EMC VMAX3 Storage core allocation ................................................................................................. 8

EMC HYPERMAX OS .......................................................................................................................... 9

EMC VMAX3 Service Level Objective ................................................................................................. 9

EMC FAST ......................................................................................................................................... 9

EMC Unisphere for VMAX ................................................................................................................. 9

Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition ........................................................................................... 9

Oracle Grid Infrastructure ............................................................................................................... 10

EMC VMAX3 solution features ............................................................................................................. 11

Introduction to EMC VMAX3 ............................................................................................................ 11

EMC FAST ....................................................................................................................................... 11

EMC VMAX3 SLO with Unisphere ..................................................................................................... 12

Deploying Oracle Database 12c on EMC VMAX3 .................................................................................. 14

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 14

Deployment architecture ................................................................................................................ 14

Hardware resources ....................................................................................................................... 16

Software resources ........................................................................................................................ 16

Storage provisioning with SLO ....................................................................................................... 17

Unisphere Oracle Database 12c database storage provisioning ..................................................... 17

Configuring RAC database .............................................................................................................. 20

VMAX3 features to improve operational efficiency .............................................................................. 22

EMC TimeFinder SnapVX ................................................................................................................ 22

EMC SRDF ...................................................................................................................................... 22

EMC ProtectPoint ........................................................................................................................... 23


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Backup Oracle Database 12c with ProtectPoint ......................................................................... 23

Recovering Oracle Database 12c with ProtectPoint .................................................................... 24

EMC ProtectPoint Benefits ......................................................................................................... 25

Database Storage Analyzer ............................................................................................................ 26

Dashboard tab .......................................................................................................................... 26

Performance tab ........................................................................................................................ 27

Analytics tab ............................................................................................................................. 28

Administration tab .................................................................................................................... 28

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 30

Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 30

Findings ......................................................................................................................................... 30

References.......................................................................................................................................... 31

Product documentation .................................................................................................................. 31

Other documentation ..................................................................................................................... 31


Executive summary

Oracle Database 12c customers face the following business challenges:

Performance tuning of Oracle Database 12c environments is complex, time-consuming and largely manual.

Consolidation of Oracle databases onto a common hardware platform is needed to reduce database sprawl and simplify management.

Full backups of Oracle databases are preferred over incremental backups for several reasons. One of these is space. Full backups require a lot more storage room than incremental backups do, at least on a traditional storage array. On the other hand, full backups also allow for a much simpler path to restoration/recovery, providing a reduced RTO/RPO. Incremental backups are more complex than full backups, but, again, space requirements for full backups can be quite large. Finally, incremental backups provide a shorter backup window, reducing CPU cost and performance impact.

For more information on the challenges faced by Oracle 12c Database customers, refer to the article IOUG 2014 Survey “Efficiency Isn’t Enough.”

The new EMC® VMAX3® is the first storage array that allows the Oracle DBA to tune storage-related database performance by assigning and adjusting service levels. Thus, the DBA can focus on the specific performance issue, rather than the specific implementation details required to address that issue. A simple, single-click adjustment to the service levels for a specific pluggable database (PDB) is all that is required to address storage-related performance concerns.

Another feature of the VMAX3 is the integration with EMC ProtectPoint™ and EMC Data Domain® to allow the Oracle DBA to create full backups with the same performance and capacity cost as incremental backups. This provides optimal RTO/RPO while also reducing backup complexity.

This white paper describes:

Workload management using VMAX3 service levels with Oracle Database 12c

Deploying PDBs using Oracle Database 12c multitenant option on VMAX3

Assignment of VMAX3 service levels to Oracle Database 12c PDBs to automatically adjust resources and improve performance

By implementing Oracle Database 12c on EMC VMAX3, the Oracle DBA is able to reduce the burden of performance tuning. This paper shows that the dynamic allocation of VMAX3 service levels to an Oracle Database 12c PDB can return that PDB to compliance with the defined service level objective (SLO).

VMAX3 uses Service Level Objectives (SLOs) which enable database policy recommendations for storage tiers and influences database policy for FAST VP environments, based upon a combination of the workload and the service level assigned to a PDB’s storage LUNs.

Business case

Solution overview

Key results/ recommendations

https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-37463


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Oracle Database 12c multitenant option is one available method to consolidate Oracle databases onto a common hardware platform, thus reducing database sprawl. VMAX3 fits neatly into the Oracle Database 12c environment by providing features that mesh perfectly with multitenancy.

VMAX3 can efficiently provide Oracle full backups when combined with ProtectPoint and Data Domain.1 Because the VMAX3 sends only changed blocks to Data Domain, a full backup is as space- and performance-efficient as an incremental backup. But since full backups (from the DBA perspective) are provided, this optimizes RTO/RPO, and eliminates the cost of incremental backups.

1 ProtectPoint provides script integration with Oracle 11g and 12c databases running on Unix (Solaris, AIX, HP-UX) and Linux.


Introduction

This paper describes a workload management solution for Oracle Database 12c environments using EMC VMAX3, the industry’s first enterprise service platform. This white paper also explores new features and enhancements to existing VMAX3 features such as local and remote technologies.

This white paper describes the following:

Deploying Oracle Database 12c on EMC VMAX3

EMC VMAX3 Service Level Objective (SLO) with Full Automated Storage Tiering (FAST)EMC VMAX3 and other new features such as TimeFinder SnapVX, SRDF, and ProtectPoint to improve operational efficiency

This white paper is primarily intended for database and system administrators, storage administrators, and system architects who are responsible for implementing, maintaining, and protecting robust databases and storage systems. Readers of this white paper should have some familiarity with Oracle database backup concepts and EMC software, and should be interested in achieving higher database availability and protection.

This white paper includes the following terminology.

Table 1. Terminology

Term Definition

CDB Container Database

DSA Database Storage Analyzer

FAST Fully Automated Storage Tiering

PDB Pluggable Database

SLO Service Level Objective

SRDF Symmetrix Remote Data Facility

SRP Storage Resource Pool

Purpose

Scope

Audience

Terminology


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Key technology components

The key technology components used in this white paper are as follows:

EMC VMAX3

EMC VMAX3 Storage core allocation

EMC HYPERMAX OS

EMC VMAX3 Service Level Objective

EMC Unisphere for VMAX3

Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition

The newest additions to the EMC VMAX family deliver the latest in Tier-1 scale-out multi-controller architecture with consolidation and efficiency for the enterprise. With completely redesigned hardware and software, the new VMAX 100K, 200K, and 400K arrays provide unprecedented performance and scale. Ranging from the single or dual engine VMAX 100K up to the 8-engine VMAX 400K, these new arrays offer dramatic increases in floor tile density with engines and high capacity disk enclosures for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives consolidated in the same system bay.

In addition, VMAX 100K, 200K, and 400K can be configured as either hybrid or all- flash arrays. All new VMAX3 models come fully pre-configured from the factory to significantly shorten the time from installation to first I/O.

The Dynamic Virtual Matrix Architecture enables IT departments to build storage systems that transcend the physical constraint of competing array architectures. The architecture allows scaling of system resources through common and fully redundant building blocks called VMAX3 engines. VMAX3 engines provide the complete foundation for high-availability storage arrays. Each engine contains two VMAX3 directors and redundant interfaces to the new Dynamic Virtual Matrix dual InfiniBand® fabric interconnect. Each director consolidates front-end, global memory, and back-end functions, enabling direct memory access to data for optimized I/O operations. Depending on the array chosen, up to eight VMAX3 engines can be interconnected via a set of active fabrics that provide scalable performance and high availability.

VMAX3 introduces the “Dynamic Virtual Matrix,” by using multiple CPU cores within the system. With the largest VMAX 400K system, there are 384 CPU cores which can be allocated to:

Front-end resources

Back-end resources

Data services

Systems ports are no longer mapped directly to CPU resources. CPU resources are allocated as needed from a pool (front-end, back-end, or data services pool) of CPU cores which can service all activity in the VMAX3 array. The allocation of cores can be

Overview

EMC VMAX3

EMC VMAX3 Storage core allocation


balanced, which is the default, or biased towards front-end or back-end. The allocation is configurable online by EMC support staff.

VMAX3 arrays introduce the industry’s first open storage and hypervisor-converged operating system, HYPERMAX OS. It combines industry-leading high availability, I/O management, quality of service, data integrity validation, storage tiering, and data security with an open application platform.

HYPERMAX OS features the first real-time, nondisruptive storage hypervisor that manages and protects embedded services by extending VMAX3 high availability to services that traditionally would have run external to the array. It also provides direct access to hardware resources to maximize performance. The hypervisor can be nondisruptively upgraded.

HYPERMAX OS runs on top of the Dynamic Virtual Matrix using its scale-out flexibility of cores, caches, and host interfaces. The embedded storage hypervisor reduces external hardware and networking requirements, while it delivers higher levels of availability and dramatically lower latency.

All storage in the VMAX3 array is virtually provisioned. All pools are created in containers called Service Level Objectives (SLO). The system will use the dynamic and intelligent capabilities of the VMAX3 to guarantee the required performance levels throughout the lifecycle of the application. As the system workloads change over time and other workloads are added to the array, the VMAX3 will continue to dynamically add resources in order to guarantee that you continue to get the required level of performance to match the defined SLO, provided those resources are available in the array.

VMAX3 service levels are tightly integrated with EMC FAST software to optimize agility and array performance across all drive types in the system. EMC Fully Automated Storage Tiering (FAST) technology improves your system performance while reducing cost by using Flash drives combined with cost-effective high-capacity drives.

EMC Unisphere® for VMAX is an intuitive management interface that allows IT managers to maximize human productivity by dramatically reducing the time required to provision, manage, and monitor VMAX3 storage assets. Unisphere delivers key requirements such as simplification, flexibility, and automation. The Unisphere Performance Viewer facilitates detailed VMAX3 system performance analysis available without the need for a live array connection. Representation State Transfer Application Programming Interfaces (REST APIs) simplify programmatic performance monitoring from cloud management and data center orchestration tools.

Oracle Database 12c introduces the Oracle multitenant architecture (for an extra cost), which simplifies the process of database consolidation. Oracle Database 12c delivers all the benefits of managing many databases as one, yet it retains the data isolation and resource prioritization of a separate database.

EMC HYPERMAX OS

EMC VMAX3 Service Level Objective

EMC FAST

EMC Unisphere for VMAX

Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition


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Beginning with Oracle Database 11gR2, Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and Oracle Clusterware are integrated into a single set of binaries and named Oracle Grid Infrastructure. This provides all the cluster and storage services required to run an Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) database.

Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.2) CREATE_FILE_DEST Clause of the CREATE PLUGGABLE DATABASE statement allows the DBA to specify the default file system directory or Oracle ASM diskgroup for the PDB's files. In this solution each PDB was created in its own ASM diskgroup.

Oracle Multitenant is fully interoperable with Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) where each RAC instance opens the CDB as a whole. Each SGA contains the data block and library cache for each of the PDBs contained in the CDB.

Oracle Grid Infrastructure


EMC VMAX3 solution features

EMC VMAX3 redefines high-end storage by delivering unprecedented power, scalability, and density. VMAX3 delivers the highest performance for mixed workload Oracle environments. Based on a newly updated hardware and software architecture, the VMAX3 storage array now delivers up to three times greater performance while also providing up to two times more capacity per floor tile over previous generation products. This provides the processing and bandwidth horsepower to meet the demands of even the largest Oracle and mixed workload application environments.

While VMAX3 continues to use updated FAST technology to dynamically move workloads to the appropriate tier of storage (for example, Flash or SAS), it now also uses Oracle-specific performance features. VMAX3 adds application awareness for Oracle databases, which monitors Oracle activity and then makes recommendations on how to increase performance based on predictive analytics. New in VMAX3 is the ability to quickly configure FAST using Service Level Objectives. Simply choose the level of service you want, such as Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, or optimized, and the VMAX3 configures FAST automatically to meet your service level requirements.

EMC FAST dynamically allocates workloads across storage technologies, nondisruptively moving workloads to meet stringent service level objectives. As illustrated in Figure 1, FAST technology moves the most active parts of your workloads (hot data) to high-performance flash drives and the least frequently accessed storage (cold data) to lower-cost hard drives, using the best performance and cost characteristics of each different drive type. FAST delivers higher performance using fewer drives to help reduce acquisition, power, cooling, and footprint costs.

Figure 1. FAST – workload based data placement

This promotion/demotion activity is based on policies that associate the storage group to multiple drive technologies using thin storage pools, as well as performance requirements of the application contained within a storage group. Data movement

Introduction to EMC VMAX3

EMC FAST


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executed during this activity is performed non-disruptively, without affecting business continuity and data availability.

The VMAX3 family delivers unmatched ease of storage provisioning for different service levels: diamond, platinum, gold, silver, bronze, and optimized as shown in Figure 2. All devices not explicitly associated with an SLO are managed by the system-optimized SLO by default.

Figure 2. Unisphere – Service Level Objectives

The compliance of the service level objectives for the Oracle Database storage groups can be verified in Unisphere, as shown in Figure 3. This ensures the correct response time target is assigned for a given workload. Unisphere shows only the SLOs for the storage available. For example, if no flash storage is available in the VMAX3 array, then the Diamond SLO option is not displayed.

EMC VMAX3 SLO with Unisphere


Figure 3. SLO compliance

For more information refer to the EMC VMAX 3 Family with HYPERMAX OS Product Guide.


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Deploying Oracle Database 12c on EMC VMAX3

This section explains how to deploy Oracle Database 12c RAC using the VMAX3 Service Level Objective (SLO) feature.

Oracle Database 12c supports the concept of a Container Database (CDB) and multiple pluggable databases (PDBs) which consolidates databases with different purposes into one master (container) database. We deployed the Oracle 12c CDB with four PDBs to demonstrate four levels of resource requirements, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Example of PDB names and SLO type

PDB name SLO

PDB1 Platinum

PDB2 Gold

PDB3 Silver

PDB4 Bronze

Using the new SLO feature provided by VMAX3, four different SLOs were assigned to the PDBs. VMAX3 provides a perfect solution to address the different service level requirements in the Oracle database environment.

We deployed a two-node Oracle RAC Database 12c multitenant database on the VMAX 200K, as shown in Figure 4.

Introduction

Deployment architecture


Figure 4. Oracle deployment with VMAX3 SLO

As shown in Figure 4, four PDBs were created in the 2-node 12c RAC CDB with two PDBs running on each node. Each PDB was created in a dedicated ASM disk group, in which the LUNs are managed by a different SLO in VMAX3 according to the business requirement for each PDB.

For example, “PDB2” has an initial high priority, so we defined the LUNs it used with the Gold service level to ensure that the I/O requests from that PDB are processed quickly. If the importance of PDB2 changes, the SLO is adjusted accordingly.


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Table 3 describes the various hardware components used during the deployment.

Table 3. Hardware resources

Device Quantity Configuration Description

VMAX 200K 1 HYPERMAX OS

2 Engines

2 TB Cache( 1 TB Cache per engine)

222 x 15K 300 GB FC Drives

176 x 7.2K 1 TB drives

70 x 200 GB flash drives

VMAX3 storage

Servers 2 20 physical cores

512 GB memory

2 10 GbE network NICs

1 1 GbE network NICs

Database server

FC switch 2 Fiber Channel switch - 8 Gb/s FC

Ethernet switch 2 Ethernet switch – 1 GbE & 10 GbE

Table 4 describes the various software components of the solution.

Table 4. Software resources

Device Version Description

EMC Unisphere 8.0.0.21 Storage array management GUI

EMC PowerPath 5.7 SP4 Multipathing and load balancing software

Solutions Enabler 8.0.0 Storage array management (CLI)

Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.4 Operating system for database servers

Oracle Grid Infrastructure 12c

Enterprise Edition 12.1.0.2 Software support for ASM storage

Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition 12.1.0.2 Oracle Database software

Hardware resources

Software resources


We defined four different types of resource requirements for the database to reflect the real-world customer needs, which are listed below:

Platinum: This database requires the highest response levels, such as a production database to support the core business operations.

Gold: A production database to support the non-core business operations.

Silver: Appropriate for a test database to support UAT (User Acceptance Test) requirements.

Bronze: Appropriate for a development database.

Table 5 describes the SLOs utilized in this solution:

Table 5. Assigning SLO to database components (example)

Database component

SLO Workload Volumes Capacity (GB)

CRS Bronze Not Specified

3 16.10

CDB Platinum OLTP 4 16.10

PDB1 Platinum OLTP 4 201.21

PDB2 Gold OLTP 4 201.21

PDB3 Silver OLTP 4 201.21

PDB4 Bronze OLTP 4 201.21

Redo Platinum Not Specified

4 16.10

FRA Bronze Not Specified

10 2012.15

Note: The SLO policy being used by each PDB can be adjusted dynamically and non-disruptively according to the customer’s requirements. For example, if PDB1’s priority decreased, its SLO could be adjusted to use a lower SLO policy such as Silver.

Complete the Oracle Database 12c storage provisioning using Unisphere as follows:

1. Create a cascaded storage group with parent and child storage groups each with their own SLO and optional workload, as shown in Figure 5.

Storage provisioning with SLO

Unisphere Oracle Database 12c database storage provisioning


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Figure 5. Create Storage

2. Type a Storage Group Name. Storage group names must be unique from other storage groups on the storage system and cannot exceed 64 characters. Only alphanumeric characters, underscores ( _ ), and dashes (-) are allowed. Storage group names are not case-sensitive.

a. To select a Storage Resource Pool other than the default (DEFAULT_SRP), click Edit and select the pool. We used the default value.

b. Type the Storage Group name, matching it to the Database Component Name as defined in Table 5.

c. Select the SLO to set on the storage group. SLO specifies the characteristics of the provisioned storage, including maximum response time, workload type, and priority.

d. Refine the SLO by selecting the Workload Type to assign it. Available workload types are shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Workload types

e. Type the number of Volumes and select the Capacity of each volume.


f. To add another SLO, click Add Service Level , and click Next to continue.

3. Select the Host Group and click Next as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. Select the Host Group

4. Select whether to use a new port group or an existing port group, and then whether to name a new port group or select an existing port group. Click Next, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Select Port Group

5. Type a name for the Masking View. Verify the rest of your selections. Click Add to Job List to add this task to the job list and choose Run Now to perform the operation immediately, as shown in Figure 9.


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Figure 9. Review

6. Select Run Now in Add to Job List to create the LUNs.

After installing Oracle 12c Grid Infrastructure and database software, create the required ASM disk groups as shown in Table 6.

Table 6. ASM diskgroup design for PDBs

ASM Diskgroup Name Used by CDB/PDB Storage Group

+CRS OCR file and voting disk CRS

+Data_CDB CDB, the undo tablespace is shared with all PDBs.

CDB

+PDB1_Data PDB1 PDB1




+Redo Shared by the CDB to all PDBs Redo

+FRA Shared by the CDB to all PDBs FRA

Note: Each PDB has its own temp tablespace which is stored with PDB’s datafiles.

Deploy the RAC CDB/PDBs by following these steps:

1. Create the CDB database using the +Data_CDB ASM Diskgroup.

2. Create four PDBs in the corresponding disk groups. For example, create the PDB named PDB1 with an ASM Diskgroup +PBD1_Data.

Configuring the RAC database


3. Open the PDBs in the different CDB instances according to the SLOs.

This completes the deployment of Oracle Database 12c RAC on EMC VMAX3. For more details on how to deploy Oracle Database 12c, refer to References.


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VMAX3 features to improve operational efficiency

The next generation TimeFinder family has been re-designed for VMAX3 with a focus on reducing infrastructure impact, increasing scale, and improving ease of use.

Among other new features, TimeFinder now:

Supports up to 256 snapshots per source volume (previously 32)

Uses considerably less storage

Uses user-defined naming

Can snap an entire storage group in a single command

VMAX3 adds a new feature called TimeFinder SnapVX, which provides “hybrid cloud scale” snapshots. Unlike previous VMAX snapshots, SnapVX snaps do not require the use of a dedicated snapshot reserve volume. SnapVX allows for up to 256 snaps per individual source, as shown in Figure 10. The new snapshots have negligible effect on performance. These new features provide Oracle environments with much more flexibility and scalability when it comes to replication, both locally and remotely.

Figure 10. Manage many data copies with ease using Timefinder SnapVX

EMC TimeFinder and EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF®) software are the most powerful and trusted applications for local and remote storage replication available in the industry. These storage applications enable local and remote snaps and clones for rapid in-array backup and restore, facilitate parallel processing activities like application testing and development, and guard against primary-site disasters and outages.

VMAX3 will continue to use a newly updated SRDF for multisite redundancy. Many of the world’s largest Oracle customers use SRDF to protect their most valuable data assets and ensure their mission-critical applications stay available. SRDF has been updated to continue to offer Oracle customers the most robust multisite redundant product in the industry.

EMC TimeFinder SnapVX

EMC SRDF


EMC ProtectPoint is an industry-first data protection offering that provides direct backup from primary storage to protection storage. ProtectPoint delivers the performance of snapshots with the functionality of backups, while eliminating the impact of backup on the application environment and ensuring consistent application performance.

ProtectPoint enables fast recovery and instant access to protected data for simplified granular recovery while removing the need for excess backup infrastructure, reducing overall cost and complexity. ProtectPoint also provides script integration for Oracle 11g and 12c databases running on Unix (Solaris, AIX, HP-UX) and Linux.

With EMC ProtectPoint, you can reduce the overall time, cost, and complexity of managing application backups, by eliminating the impact of backups on application servers with nonintrusive data protection, because no data flows through the application server. This ensures you will maintain consistent application performance, but still gain application-consistent backups for simple recovery.

Backup Oracle Database 12c with ProtectPoint

Figure 11 shows the high-level steps to perform a full backup using ProtectPoint:

Figure 11. Full backup with ProtectPoint

Note: With ProtectPoint, you perform a full Oracle backup every time, but primary storage only sends unique blocks, resulting in a full backup for the cost of an incremental backup.

EMC ProtectPoint


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Follow these steps to perform a full backup using ProtectPoint:

1. As shown in Figure 11, an application owner, such as the Oracle DBA using the new ProtectPoint script integration for Oracle, triggers a backup at an application-consistent checkpoint.

2. This triggers the primary storage, using new primary storage changed block tracking, to send only the changed blocks (since the last backup/initial copy) directly to Data Domain.

3. The Data Domain system will receive and deduplicate the changed blocks, using them to create an independent full backup in native format, which enables greatly simplified recovery.

Recovering Oracle Database 12c with ProtectPoint

A full recovery of an entire LUN is performed as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12. Full recovery with ProtectPoint

Follow these steps to perform a full recovery of an entire LUN with ProtectPoint:

1. As shown above, an application owner, such as the Oracle DBA using the new ProtectPoint script integration for Oracle, will trigger the recovery.

2. Then, the primary storage reads the full backup image from Data Domain.

3. The primary storage will then replace the production LUN with the recovered copy.

Figure 13 shows how to perform a granular recovery. For an Oracle database environment this might be recovering a specific database, table, or record as opposed to the entire LUN.


Figure 13. Granular recovery with ProtectPoint

Follow these steps to perform a granular recovery with ProtectPoint:

1. As shown in Figure 13, an application owner, such as the Oracle DBA using the new ProtectPoint script integration for Oracle, will trigger the recovery.

2. Primary storage connects to the backup image on the Data Domain system.

3. This gives the Oracle DBA instant access to their protected data, which will still be on the Data Domain, but it will appear as though it is on primary storage.

4. At this point, the DBA can use the LUN like a snapshot and, for example, perform normal steps to open a database and recover a specific object to the production database.

Summary of EMC ProtectPoint benefits

The benefits of EMC ProtectPoint include:

Significant time reduction for full backups

Virtually no impact to primary application

Less cost to achieve backup SLAs

Oracle admins are empowered for data protection

CLI based integration with Oracle

Full backups for the cost of incrementals

Deduplication storage reduction

Data Domain Managed File Replication for disaster recovery

Data Invulnerability Architecture protection

EMC ProtectPoint is simple and efficient, and requires no additional infrastructure other than your new VMAX3 and Data Domain appliance.


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Unisphere 8.0 for VMAX3 now includes a tool called Database Storage Analyzer (DSA). DSA enables DBAs and VMAX storage administrators to use the same tool to view performance analytics for databases and underlying storage by automatically correlating the database files all the way down to the Symmetrix devices. DBAs can have their own profiles within DSA, enabling them to log in and look at performance analytics on their own, at any time of the day or night. DSA uses four simple tabs to provide all the required performance analytics information – Dashboard, Performance, Analytics, and Administration.

Dashboard tab

The Dashboard tab (shown in Figure 14) provides a quick view of the IOPS and response times of top databases so that you can see if they are meeting the specified performance criteria. You can filter the database list based on the DB Name, DB Host, or Symmetrix ID. You can also see a Response Time Status heat map and detailed metrics such as Average Redo Write Response Time, Average IOPS, Average Throughput MB/s, R/W Ratios, VMAX ID and even the FAST Storage Group for a given database.

Figure 14. DSA - Dashboard tab

Database Storage Analyzer


Performance tab

The Performance tab (shown in Figure 15) provides a view of database and storage analytics in one page. You can use this page to quickly determine if the database or the storage is a bottleneck for any given time period, which dramatically reduces troubleshooting delays.

Figure 15. DSA - Performance tab

The Performance tab provides a correlation between database and storage. DSA shows Response time, IOPS, and throughput from both the database and the storage. The Performance charts are extremely useful for identifying gaps between the DB response time and the storage response time. You can view those statistics per reads or writes or redo writes.

Note: For the redo writes, DSA shows the redo stats from the DB as well as the redo stats for the redo devices only, so you can easily isolate any potential redo issues.

DSA also provides back-end statistics for devices associated with the database. This view provides insight into how the storage component places data in various tiers. You can identify which tier serves most of the database I/Os and how many I/Os are being served by the back-end as opposed to the storage cache.


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Analytics tab

The Analytics tab (shown in 0) allows you to drill down into individual database objects such as tables, indexes, and partitions for Oracle and VMAX devices to see even greater detail. DSA comes with extensive filtering options that enable you to focus on mission-critical processes running in the database (for example, filter by program name, and DB user)

One of the most powerful views provided by the Analytics tab is the Symmetrix devices report, which allows you to view all devices associated with the database and determine how much time users are waiting for I/O for each device. If the I/O is not balanced across all devices, or if there is an issue with a specific device, the DBA can quickly identify that and communicate it to the storage administrator for further investigation.

Figure 16. Analytics tab

Administration tab

The Administration tab (shown in Figure 17) allows you to perform DSA management actions such as Refresh, Add, Start, Stop, and more. Use the Administration tab to


set performance thresholds which DSA will monitor, configure data retention times and intervals, and define other key settings.

Figure 17. DSA –Administration tab

DSA helps to accelerate the troubleshooting process, providing a comprehensive and correlative view of the database and the storage at any point in time. It also provides detailed analysis of top wait events, storage devices, objects, indexes, and partitions for Oracle. DSA provides an insight on how the database is performing while running on top of FAST VP. The analysis from DSA is used by DBAs and storage administrators.


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Conclusion

By implementing Oracle Database 12c on EMC VMAX3, the Oracle DBA can reduce the burden of performance tuning. This paper shows that the dynamic allocation of VMAX3 service levels to an Oracle Database 12c can return that database to compliance with the defined service level objective (SLO). VMAX3 uses EMC FAST technology to shift storage resources dynamically, based on a combination of the workload and the service level assigned to the PDB’s storage LUNs.

The Oracle Database 12c multitenant option provides one method to consolidate Oracle databases onto a common hardware platform, thus reducing database sprawl. VMAX3 fits neatly into the Oracle Database 12c environment by providing features which mesh perfectly with Multitenancy.

Oracle full backups can be provided efficiently by VMAX3 when combined with ProtectPoint and Data Domain. Because the VMAX3 sends only changed blocks to Data Domain, an Oracle full backup is as space and performance efficient as an incremental Oracle backup. But since full backups (from the DBA perspective) are provided, this optimizes RTO/RPO, and eliminates the cost of incremental backups.

Implementing Oracle Database 12c on EMC VMAX3 yields the following benefits:

Oracle Database 12c PDBs can be consolidated onto an EMC VMAX3 while providing service levels to allow for the varying performance requirements of the PDBs.

VMAX3 SLOs combined with EMC FAST technology can dynamically allocate resources to Oracle Database 12c PDBs to meet performance challenges.

VMAX3 combined with EMC ProtectPoint and Data Domain allows the Oracle DBA to create Oracle full backups for the same storage and performance cost as incremental Oracle backups.

Summary

Findings


References

The following documents, available on the EMC.com website, provide additional and relevant information. If you do not have access to a document, contact your EMC representative.

EMC VMAX3

EMC ProtectPoint

EMC VMAX 3 Family with HYPERMAX OS Product Guide

Everything VMAX 3, specifically:

Top Reasons Why Customers Deploy VMAX 3 for Oracle

EMC VMAX 3 Family – VMAX 100K, 200K, 400K Specification Sheet

What Differentiates VMAX 3 Handout

EMC VMAX 3 Family Data Sheet

EMC VMAX 3 Family Software Suites Data Sheet

For additional information, see the documents listed below.

Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation Guide 12c for Linux and Unix

Oracle Database Administrator's Guide 12c Release 1 (12.1)

Product documentation

Other documentation

http://www.emc.com/search.htm

http://www.emc.com/storage/vmax/vmax3.htm



http://www.emc.com/data-protection/protectpoint/index.htm

http://www.emc.com/data-protection/protectpoint/index.htm

https://inside.emc.com/docs/DOC-109875

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