Cancelled my Unconference session…

I’ve decided to pull out of my unconference session. The main reason for this is I started to feel a little unwell last night. I got back to the hotel at 19:00, threw up and went straight to bed. I was hoping it was just because I was over-tired, but this morning I have a runny nose and dodgy throat. I’m now on Theraflu, which is similar to Lemsip, and I’m going to play it by ear today. If I feel rough I will head back to the hotel early.

The events, or lack of, last night meant I missed the OTN Night and InstallFest. I’m not sure if I will be up to this evenings stuff. I guess we’ll see.

I place the blame firmly on the recycled air in the aeroplane and the number of people I’ve shaken hands with. 🙂 I’m going to stop touching people… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle, Open Source and Virtualization…

Due to other commitments, I only made it to 2 presentations today…

Executive Panel: Oracle and Open Source:

The session was a seeded question and answer session to highlight Oracles commitment to “Free” software downloads, Open Source and Open Standards. If you follow the subject areas, I guess you know the score. The standout points for me were:

  • InnoDB and BerkeleyDB are have continued investment.
  • The linux kernel community is really happy with the work being done by Oracle. Oracle are not considered an evil empire by the inner circle.
  • The new Windows drivers for Oracle VM are currently in use within Oracle. No fixed release date, but they are on their way, so Windows performance under Oracle VM should improve when this is released. The were expected some time ago, but Microsoft have revised a bunch of APIs, so they had to be rewritten.
  • Oracle VM has supported Live Migration of VMs since it was released, but this is a manual process. Something similar to VMwares automated VMotion will be introduced at some point, but it will probably be under the control of Enterprise Manager/Grid Control, not part of the Oracle VM product itself. The impression I got was that this is a feature they want, not one that is in development, so don’t hold your breath.
  • Oracle are continuing to invest in a variety of Open Source products and Open Standards. Obviously they have their own interests at heart, but being open source means it is helping the Open Source community generally. If Linux get’s better, Oracle benefit, but so does everyone else.

Oracle Database in a server virtualization environment

A general run through current support/certification of virtualization by Oracle. Standout points include:

  • In addition to Oracle VM, Oracle support a variety of hardware partitioning and OS partioning methods provided by the big UNIX vendors. There was a URL of a certification matrix on OTN, but I can’t find it now. 🙁
  • Oracle support dynamic resource configuration in single instance databases. So you can alter the number of CPU’s and amount of memory allocated to a VM and Oracle will notice and work with it. Some of this was possible since 9i, but there were issues. It’s now solid for 10.2.0.4 (+ patches) and 11.1.0.7.
  • Oracle support RAC on Oracle VM, but the configuration is quite limited at the moment. The RAC must be 10.2.0.4 on OEL 5.1 or above and be running on OVM 2.1.2. In addiiton it must be paravirtualized and is only supported in static mode, so there are no dynamic changes to CPU or memory and no live migrations. I assume over time some of these restrictions will be lifted and 11g support will be added.

As far as best practices go, I guess most of it was pretty standard:

  • Don’t overcommit resources. You can’t expect good performance if you have 1 core running 5 VMs.
  • Standard CPU, memory, I/O and network sizing/thoughout considerations still apply.
  • RAC should use dedicated NICs, not shared ones.
  • NIC bonding best done at hypervisor level (Dom0), not at the VM level.
  • All VMs, especially RAC, need time synchronization (NTP).
  • Use native physical devices and multipath or NFS. This will perform much better than virtual disks.
  • Oracle still recommend consolidation of databases, rather than many small databases/instances. Only split things into multiple VMs, database or instances when it is necessary, otherwise you are wasting resources.
  • Expected performance will depend on platform, application type, workload type and resource allocation.

The licensing issue will no doubt catch many people out. Oracle doesn’t recognize software virtualizations ability to limit processing to specifc processors or cores, so by default you must license the Oracle software for all cores on the system when using software virtualization. Those platforms which support hard partitioning (big UNIX vendors) can use per-core licensing. If you plan on using a server just for VMs running the database, this is fine, but if you want to run half database and half app server you will be buying double the CPU licenses that you are using. Bummer. 🙁

Update: A talk this morning says pinning the VMs to specifc cores is within the spirit of the licensing agreement. Nice to see a consistent message… Not! 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

OpenWorld Unconference Session…

Update: I had to change the time slot… 🙂

I’ve signed up to do an Unconference session on Wednesday 10:00 in Overlook C. The session is called, “Virtualization: What is it and why should you care?”

It will be about 30 minutes presentation, then a discussion. It’s an overview session and not product-specific. Hopefully it will generate some interest. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle ACE Directors Meeting…

Today was the Oracle ACE Directors meeting from 10:00-16:00.

Database:

As far as the database was concerned, I was hoping we would get a sneak preview of the much hailed “Big Announcement” planned for Larry Ellison’s keynote speech on Wednesday. Unfortunately all attempts to draw something out of Mark Townsend resulted in phrases like, “Wait until Wednesday!”

This is certainly increasing the intensity of speculation. I just hope it lives up to the hype. At least it’s hype about the database I suppose. 🙂

There wasn’t much on a technical level I’ve not already covered as part of my 11g OCP notes, but there were a few things that helped me understand the bigger picture of what Oracle 11g is trying to achieve. It just puts things into context a bit, rather than thinking of things as individual features.

Other snippets include:

  • The 11.1.0.7 patchset comes with a little something extra. The Graphical Explain Plan Monitor from Grid Control is now part of Enterprise Manager. Mark did a demo of this feature and it looks really neat.
  • The 11gR2 beta program is just about to start. I was kinda expecting an announcement about 11gR2 during the conference, but it seems this is a little way off yet.
  • There were a multitude of, “we may or may not be announcing this feature this week”, statements. I’m not sure what can be published, so I’ll just point you to Lewis Cunningham, who has already listed some of them. 🙂

Middleware and Apps

As far as the middleware and applications were concerned, I’ve come away feeling more confused than when I went in. The recent aquisitions mean there are a whole bunch of overlapping products and it is not always clear which you should pick. All products will eventually have a smooth transition to 11g Fusion Middleware, but that is some way off. Currently, it feels safer to keep your head in the sand and wait for 11g Fusion Middleware. That said, I think what they will end up with will be a killer app server… probably…

I’m feeling relatively in the swing of the SF timezone, which is a big improvement from last year. So it’s out to meet the bloggers later. A couple of years ago this was a small affair. It seems like this year half the conference will turn up. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

I made it to San Francisco!

After watching my name bounce from 3rd, to 2nd, to 1st, then back to 2nd in the standby list I finally got on the plane. Talk about relief!

Well I’m in San Francisco at the Serrano hotel, just across from the Hilton. I smell of long haul plane, but I’m going straight out to register and have a look round.

I’ve got a pig of a headache now, but I’m happy I finally made it.

Big thanks to the ladies and gentlemen at Oracle Travel and to Lillian for organizing everything for me at this end. Also, big thanks for the messages from everyone on my last post. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

More Frankfurt News…

I was told about 23:00 last night I would be on a flight at 9:45 this morning. I’ve been standing in a queue for an hour to be told I’m not on the flight. I’m currently 2nd on the standby list for a flight that has been overbooked by about 50 people. I really don’t think I’m getting out of here today…

I’m struggling to keep calm…

Cheers

Tim…

PS. Mom. Please don’t phone or text me to ask me how I am. You will not like the reply.

Frankfurt Update…

It’s now 21:45 German time and I have no news about what is going on. It looks like a straight flight to SF will cost and extra $4,400 and someone has got to decide who is going to pay it. Oracle Travel are being really cool, unfortunately this is a three-way conversation between Oracle Travel, Lufthansa and United, and I guess none of them want to pay. From what I’ve seen so far, the blame lies firmly at the feet of United, but who knows what will come out with the wash.

Some time tonight I’m expecting a call to tell me when I’m going to fly. Alternatively, I’m thinking about applying for residency. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Stuck in Frankfurt…

I’ve not made my connection to San Franciso. 🙁

What seems to have happened is when Oracle Travel booked the flight with Star Alliance, they booked the first leg with Lufthansa and the second leg with United via Lufthansa. Lufthansa had me on list of passengers, but United didn’t. It was a United plane and I wasn’t on the list so they wouldn’t let me on and it went without me. I’m now sitting in Frankfurt airport waiting for Oracle Travel and United to work out what happens next. I was told by one of the booking desk guys that the flights tomorrow are already fully booked, so I might be here for a couple of days… 🙁

If you were expecting to meet up with me at OpenWorld, don’t hold your breath…

Cheers

Tim…

I’m leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again…

Actually I do know when I will be back, but I wanted to carry on with the line from the song. 🙂

Just thought I would write to say article production and forum duties will probably be very limited over the next couple of months as I’m doing a bunch of conferences. Sorry if this inconveniences anyone, but you get what you pay for… 🙂

My family will be reading the blog to check I’m still alive, so there will be lots of, “I’m still alive”, type posts. I’m sure most of you out there are used to my off-topic ramblings by now anyway. 🙂

So it’s off to OpenWorld first…

Cheers

Tim…

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