oracle rat

By DUTPAL MAJI | Practice Consultant , Wipro Technologies |

Oracle Real Application Testing - A Must for Oracle Database Testing

July 2012

Database testing is an urgent need to conduct any infrastructure related change smoothly. Oracle Real Application Testing helps reduce unexpected production problems drastically, minimize testing cycle and develop more realistic database testing scenarios.

This white paper discusses how Oracle Real Application Testing can help organizations to achieve database testing need for any change on the infrastructure which impacts Oracle production database.


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Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................3

Oracle Real Application Testing ........................................................3

What is Real Application Testing .................................................................. 3

Pre Requisites ................................................................................................... 6

Benefits .............................................................................................................. 6

Challenges ......................................................................................................... 7

Assessment Study .................................................................................7

Wipro in Infrastructure Testing ..................................................................... 7

POC Report ....................................................................................................... 8

Assessment of other Testing Tool .................................................................. 8

Conclusion ..............................................................................................10

Appendix.................................................................................................10

Acronym............................................................................................................ 10

References ......................................................................................................... 11

About the Author ............................................................................................. 11


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Introduction

Change in the IT Infrastructure stack is a regular affair in any organization. Normally, any change in the infrastructure would have an impact on the production database.

Most of these impacts are smaller, in the line of database downtime, service

interruption or flood of incidents etc. However, changes like upgrades, migrations,

business growth or more to handle workload are the major worries for organizations

due to their profound impact on the production system.

Database testing is an urgent need to conduct any infrastructure related change

smoothly. One challenge that has come up in database testing is the inability to

simulate production like realistic load during testing for validating system change.

Customers are in greater need of best practices in database testing or suitable tool

which will help them minimize risks for production systems during system change

and also improve effectiveness of database testing.

Oracle Real Application Testing is one of such promising tools to conduct testing on

Oracle database for any infrastructure related change.

Oracle Real Application Testing

What is Real Application Testing

Oracle Real Application Testing (RAT) is a useful feature of Oracle11g which enables

organizations to perform real world testing of the database. RAT is a separately

licensed feature of the Oracle 11g database available only with Oracle Enterprise

edition. RAT can be used to capture, replay and analyze database transactions. RAT

can maintain the original transaction concurrency with time and dependencies during

replay.

Customer concerns -

Ø How can more realistic testing benefit our organization and lifecycle projects?

Ø How can we gain deeper insights into actual production workloads? Ø Solutions and techniques to improve effectiveness and efficiency of database testing? Ø How to develop a broad approach for test covering all aspects of the change?


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RAT consists of two components:

• Database Workload Replay: Captures the production workload and replays

the same workload on a test environment

• SQL Performance Analyzer: Identifies SQL execution plan changes and

performance regressions for the planned change

Database Workload Replay

Customers want to identify full impact of the change. Validation through exhaustive

testing is expensive and difficult to emulate. Moreover, testing success rate is low as

many issues go undetected during testing. Inability to simulate production like

realistic load is a major cause for low success rate of testing.

Database workload replay helps to conduct a complete realistic testing as it tests on

the real production load.

Fig 1: Oracle Real Application Testing: Database Workload Replay

SQL Performance Analyzer

SQL Performance Analyzer (SPA) tests the impact of change on SQL query

performance. SPA captures the SQL workload in production with statistics and bind

variables. SPA re-executes the same production SQL queries in the test environment.

SPA can predict the performance deviation of the queries and helps to tune the

application queries before actual change.

As Is Database To Be Database

Apply Patch

Capture

workload

Pre-process

Replay workload

Reporting & Analysis

ftp or rcp


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Fig 2: Oracle Real Application Testing: SQL Performance Analyzer

Oracle Real Application Testing can be accessed through Oracle Enterprise Manager

and API.

Salient features of Oracle’s Real Application Testing:

•RAT provides complete coverage for entire change lifecycle

•Comprehensive

•RAT is very easy to configure •DBA friendly

•RAT requires same effort for testing major, minor changes and for small, big database

•Scalable

•Using RAT we can foresee impact of any change •Predictable

•No need to simulate artificial load for RAT •Uses real workload

As Is Database To Be Database

Capture SQL

queries

Create mapping

table

Import mapping table

Load SQL queries to

STS

Create & Execute 11g

STS Analysis Task

Reporting & Analysis

Transport


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Pre Requisites

License Requirements

Use of SQL Performance Analyzer and Database Replay requires the Oracle Real

Application Testing licensing option.

Required Patch Sets

Following patch sets need to be applied on -

· Source Database (Oracle 10.2.0.5) – one-off patch 9373986

· Target Database (Oracle 11.2.0.2) - one-off patch 11870615 or 13947480.

For other version of source and target, please follow the Oracle Metalink document

ID 560977.1 (Real Application Testing Now Available for Earlier Releases).

Note:

If OEM Grid control is used for SQL Performance Analyzer with 11.2.0.2.0 database, it

is recommended to apply patch number 10402264 for Database 11.2.0.2.0.

Data Requirement

Both the source and target database should have the identical data as of the capture

time. AS IS database needs to be restored to the test environment after data masking

as on the capture time. Data can be restored through user managed backup or RMAN

backup or snapshot standby or export and import.

Benefits

Oracle RAT provides a host of benefits for database testing for any planed change.

With Oracle Real Application Testing, customer can derive the following benefits:

ü Improved Testing Quality: Database Workload Replay allows testing impact of a

system change by replaying real world workload on the test environment before

the change goes live.

ü Provides Crystal Clear View of Performance Demarcation: RAT provides a clear

demarcation of performance before and after the change. PoC clearly shows the

performance difference between Oracle10g & Oracle11g.

ü Reduced Testing Cost: RAT helps reduce the testing efforts significantly.

Compared to LoadRunner, total testing time was reduced to one forth.


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ü Faster Technology Adoption: Oracle RAT demonstrates the real change in

database behaviour. RAT enhances customers’ confidence for technology refresh,

upgrade, migration etc.

ü Tune Changes before Implementation: RAT helps in fine tuning the change. Database Replay can be used to fine tune the expected change and test again

using Database Replay.

ü Lower Risks: Risks for any change which impacts the database is reduced as RAT

can clearly shows the real database performance of AS IS (before change) and TO

BE (after change) database.

Challenges

Oracle Real Application Testing comes with a few challenges like:

· Can be applicable for the change if the target database version is Oracle11g only

· Need test database with similar system configuration (CPU, memory, number of nodes, storage configuration)

· System performance (OS, network, storage and application) cannot be measured as the capability of RAT is limited to database only.

However, the challenges are very less compared to its benefits.

Assessment Study

Wipro in Infrastructure Testing

Wipro is a leading market player in IT infrastructure management and global IT

infrastructure outsourcing. Wipro ensures guaranteed benefits to customers in terms

of quality, service excellence, innovation and cost transformation.

Being an industry expert, Wipro also offers infrastructure testing services to its

customers to ensure smooth execution of any infrastructure related change.

Wipro’s infrastructure testing team has conducted a proof of concept (POC) on the

feasibility of using Oracle RAT as a database testing tool. A proof of concept is a realization of a certain method or idea(s) to demonstrate its feasibility or a

demonstration in principle, whose purpose is to verify that some concept or theory

has the potential of being used.


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POC Report

Environment

The environments used for the proof of concept were:

Environment Production (Source) Test Database (Target)

OS Version Red Hat Linux 4 Red Hat Linux 4

Database Version Oracle 10.2.0.5 RAC Oracle 11.2.0.2 RAC

Approach

The approach followed for the proof of concept which was conducted within a period

of 6 weeks consisted of the following steps:

· Workload was captured in the production database

· The same workload was replayed in a test database

· Reports were generated for both Capture and Replay

· All the reports were verified by the Wipro infrastructure testing team

· After analysis, the observations and recommendations on the proof of concept were documented

Result

Through the proof of concept on Oracle Real Application Testing, it became crystal

clear that the performance of the database was better in Oracle11g compared to

Oracle10g. The PoC results show more performance benefits of the production

database in Oracle11g (TO BE) compared to Oracle10g (AS IS). RAT is beneficial for

testing the database if the target version of change is Oracle11g.

Assessment of other Testing Tool

Many other tools are also available in the market for Oracle database testing. Oracle

RAT was compared with other tools from leading vendors for Oracle database

testing. Some of these tools are:

· IBM InfoSphere Optim

· Solix EDMS

· HP LoadRunner


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All these tools mentioned above can be used for Oracle Database testing. A

comparative study of these tools with Oracle RAT is shown below.

Analysis of Oracle Database Testing Tools

Tools

Measurement Criteria Oracle RAT IBM Optim Solix EDMS

HP LoadRunner

Workload Replay Matured Just Released NA NA

Performance Analyzer Matured NA NA Matured

Test Data Management NA Matured Matured NA

Data Masking NA Matured Matured NA

Merit

Shows performance

comparison using

real database

workload and

queries.

Good for DB2

database testing.

Useful for

workload replay,

test data

management and

data masking.

Good for Sub-

setting & Masking

the Test Data.

Good for

individual query

performance

comparison and

application

performance

testing.

De-Merit

Can be used only if

target version for

change is Oracle11g

Complex

configuration,

beginner in

Database Replay

Does not have

workload replay

and performance

analyzer option

Time consuming

(required effort is

almost 4 times

more than RAT)

Need to procure License Yes Yes Yes Yes

IBM - InfoSphere Optim

•IBM built tool designed primarily for DB2 database testing

•Good for test data management.

•Database workload replay has just included in its portfolio

Solix - Enterprise Data Management Solutions

(EDMS)

•Beneficial for database archiving, test data management and test data masking

•Does not provide database replay and performance analyser options

HP - LoadRunner

•Good for application performance testing to simulate load through identification of key transactions and establishing transaction concurrency

•Takes long time to understand application usage, identify key transactions and generate workload


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Here the field ‘Matured’ indicates an efficient tool for that specific requirement.

Maturity is defined based on the cost, ease of usage, scalability, reliability,

documentation, vendor support.

Conclusion

After a thorough analysis of a couple of relevant tools for database testing, RAT was identified as a potential tool for testing Oracle database for any change. The proof of

concept has validated the expectation on usage of RAT as an efficient testing tool for

Oracle database.

Oracle RAT can be recommended as an efficient database testing tools for conducting

any infrastructure related change which impacts Oracle database. RAT can clearly

calibrate the performance demarcation of AS IS and TO BE databases.

Overall, the Wipro infrastructure testing team has the opinion that the Oracle RAT is

an effective testing tool for Oracle database with a bouquet of useful features. It is an

ideal tool for enterprise wide Oracle database testing.

Appendix

Acronym

Acronym Description

API Application Programming Interfaces

CPU Central Processing Unit

DBA Database Administrator

EDMS Enterprise Data Management Solutions

IT Information Technology

ITS Infrastructure Testing Services

OS Operating System


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PoC Proof of Concept

RAC Real Application Cluster

RAT Real Application Testing

SPA SQL Performance Analyzer

TIS Technology Infrastructure Services

References

· Oracle:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B28359_01/server.111/e12253/dbr_capture.htm#CACICAAC

· IBM: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/optim/

· Solix: http://www.solix.com/solix_enterprise_data_management_suite.htm

· HP: http://www8.hp.com/in/en/software-solutions/software.html?compURI=1175451

· Real Application Testing Now Available for Earlier Releases [Oracle Metalink Document ID

560977.1]

· Using the workload capture and replay in 11G [Oracle Metalink Document ID 445116.1]

About the Author

Utpal Maji is a Practice Consultant working in the Global Infrastructure Services in

Wipro. He is responsible for building and designing testing services for database

solutions, consultancy and providing solutions. Utpal has 13 years of experience in IT

Infrastructure Management spanning across administration and consultancy.


About Wipro Technologies

Wipro is the first PCMM Level 5 and SEI CMMi Level 5 certified IT Services Company globally. Wipro

provides comprehensive IT solutions and services (including Systems Integration, IS Outsourcing,

Package Implementation, Software Application Development and Maintenance) and Research &

Development Services (hardware and software design, development and implementation) to

corporations globally.

Wipro’s unique value proposition is further delivered through our pioneering offshore Outsourcing

Model and stringent quality processes of SEI and Six Sigma.

Wipro in Infrastructure Management Services

Wipro’s infrastructure management services division (GIS) with its strong domain capabilities and

specialized offerings such as IT 360™ and Cloud Services helps businesses across the globe to

transform their vision to reality. GIS is spread over the segments of Data Centre, End User Computing,

Network, Cloud, Managed Security, Business Advisory & Consulting as well as System Integration

with a host of offering such as Remote Infrastructure Management, Virtualization, Unified

Communication, Device Management etc.

© Copyright 2012. Wipro Technologies. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced,

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recording, or otherwise, without express written permission from Wipro Technologies. Specifications subject without notice. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

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