The document discusses best practices for running Oracle databases on VMware virtual machines. It recommends: 1) carefully sizing workloads based on physical constraints; 2) optimizing ESXi host settings like disabling unnecessary processes, using large memory pages, and matching vCPUs to sessions; 3) optimizing the guest operating system; 4) using dedicated storage like SSDs and aligning datastores; and 5) separating infrastructure and VM network traffic using features like NIC teaming.

1. © 2013 VMware Inc. All rights reserved
Oracle on vSphere Best Practices
Filip Verloy, Sr. SE

2. 2
Agenda
 Benefits of running Oracle on VMware
 Best practices for running Oracle on VMware
• ESXi host guidelines
• Storage guidelines
• Networking guidelines
 Troubleshooting performance issues

3. 3
Benefits of running Oracle on VMware
 Manageability and Agility
• vMotion without downtime to the Oracle database (HW
maintenance/upgrades)
 Consolidation
• Maximum use of physical resources
 Provisioning
• VM can be rapidly moved or duplicated
 High Availability
• Protection against unplanned downtime by restarting the VM on another host
 Fault Tolerance
• Continues availability (*1 vCPU only)
 Dynamic Resource Scheduling
• vSphere/Storage DRS provides load balancing across a cluster (meet SLA’s)

4. 4
Benefits of running Oracle on VMware cont'd
 Power Management
• Dynamic Power Management (DPM) allows for conservation of power
 Rapid Refresh
• Virtual environment can be rapidly refreshed for test/dev, training, and
QA/UAT.
 Network I/O Control
• Allows assignment of bandwidth or relative weighing between VM’s
 Storage I/O Control
• Allows a level of storage predictability and fairness to ensure Oracle databases
get what they are entitled too. (based on ‘fair’ access)

5. 5
Best practices for running Oracle on VMware
 Careful sizing and capacity planning for a given workload is still
highly recommended – same rules as the physical world still apply

6. 6
ESXi host guidelines
 The VMware ESXi host BIOS settings can be specifically adjusted
to maximize compute resources (such as disabling unnecessary
processes and peripherals) to Oracle databases
 Allow vSphere to choose the best VMM based on the CPU and
guest OS combination (Automatic CPU/MMU Virtualization)
 Use Hardware-Assisted Memory Management (EPT/RVI)
 Set memory reservations equal to the size of the Oracle SGA + 2
times Aggregate PGA Target + 500MB for the OS (assuming Linux)
 Use Large Memory Pages (linux hugepages)
 Do not use Oracle Automatic Memory Management (AMM)
 Do not disable balloon driver

7. 7
ESXI host guidelines cont’d
 Use as few virtual CPUs as possible
• Match the number of vCPU’s to the number of active foreground sessions in
the database.
 Use CPU reservations when over allocation resources
 Enable hyperthreading (Intel Core i7 processors and above)
 Disable NUMA at the virtual machine layer BUT leave enabled at the
physical host BIOS and guest OS levels
 Use Virtual SMP (with moderation)

8. 8
Guest OS guidelines
 Optimize the OS (patches, kernel settings)
• If possible use Oracle pre-install packages
• Oracle-validated RPM for OEL or Red Hat 5.x
• Oracle pre-install RPM for OEL or Red Hat 6.x
 Disable unnecessary foreground and background processes
 Install VMware Tools on all virtual machines
 Time keeping by using NTP

9. 9
Storage guidelines
 Enable jumbo frames for IP-based storage (iSCSI/NFS)
 Create dedicated datastores to service database workloads
 Leverage SSD for indexes, redo logs, and frequently used data
 Use VMFS for single instance Oracle database deployments
 Align VMFS properly
 RDM is recommended for large partitions and heavy I/O use
databases
 Use Oracle automatic storage management (ASM)
• ASM disk groups need to be created with equal disk types (performance of an
ASM disk group is as fast as it’s slowest member)
• Create ASM disk groups based on I/O behavior characteristics (random,
sequential, log files, …)

10. 10
Storage guidelines cont’d
 Use your storage vendor’s best practices documentation when
laying out the Oracle database
 Avoid silos when designing the storage architecture
 Use Paravirtualized SCSI adapters for Oracle data files with
demanding workloads
 Use multiple virtual SCSI controllers to increase parallelism for I/O
traffic inside the guest OS (separate redo log from data files)
 vSphere 5.5  vFRC (mainly read I/O benefits)

11. 11
Example layout

12. 12
Networking guidelines
 Use the VMXNET family of Paravirtualized network adapters
 Separate infrastructure traffic from virtual machine traffic for
security and isolation (performance)
 Use NIC teaming for availability and load balancing (passive
failover)
 Take advantage of NIOC to converge network and storage traffic
onto 10GbE
 RAC interconnects, NAS, Oracle Data Guard  jumbo frames
 Turn off Dynamic Coalescing on RAC interconnects
 Increase the interrupt rate (slight increase in CPU consumption)

13. 13
Troubleshooting performance issues