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Best Practices for Oracle Database 10g RAC
on Microsoft 64bit Windows
Anu Chawla
Philip Newlan
Program Manager – Oracle Alliance
Principal Product Manager - RAC
Anu.Chawla@microsoft.com
philip.newlan@oracle.com
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Microsoft / Oracle
Relationship
Commitment to Windows
• Oracle7 was the first database to ship on Windows
• in 1994
• Windows Server is a base development platform for
Oracle
• Windows Server is Tier 1
• fully supported platform for Oracle
• Focused Engineering and Product management
groups for Windows-specific integration projects
• Supported both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Server
2003 on day of O/S release
Partnership
• Oracle sponsors Microsoft events
• (TechEd 2004, 2005, 2006)
• Microsoft sponsors Oracle events
• OracleWorld, UKOUG 2006,2007
• Oracle RAC Training Sessions at MS Redmond campus
• Demos in the ETC
• Communication channels open at various levels in the
organizations
• Joint support contacts for customer escalations
• How we jointly solve problems
• Conference calls, briefings, etc.
Register at Microsoft Oracle Customer
Information Center: www.microsoft-oracle.com
• Best Practices on running
Oracle on Windows Server
• Replay and Presentations
of Oracle RAC on
Windows Server
Workshop
• Invitations to Global
Technical Workshops
hosted by Microsoft and
Oracle
• Certification information
for Oracle Applications
and technology on
Microsoft Platform
Oracle on Windows
Widely Deployed
Oracle Revenues by OS for new license sales
Other 2%
Unix 49%
Windows 29%
Linux 20%
Source: Gartner Research –
May 2005 ID G00127787
State Of The Market?
Microsoft Momentum
Linux
Growth
Slows
Windows
Growth at
x86 Pace
VAP/VAR
Preference
Improves
Industry Trends
•
•
•
Continuum of non-commercial software to commercial
integration
Broad interoperability movement
Competing at the workload level Windows #1 platform
for UNIX migrations
•
•
44% Windows versus 37% Linux
Virtualization and consolidation
State Of The Market?
Microsoft Momentum
Linux
Growth
Slows
Windows
Growth at
x86 Pace
VAP/VAR
Preference
Improves
Industry Trends
•
•
•
Continuum of non-commercial software to commercial
integration
Broad interoperability movement
Competing at the workload level Windows #1 platform
for UNIX migrations
•
•
44% Windows versus 37% Linux
Virtualization and consolidation
Oracle 10gR2 RAC User Load Test - Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64
vs. RHEL 4.0 x86_64
45000
40000
Transactions Per Minute
35000
RHEL AS 4.0
x86_64 Update2,
Kernel 2.6.922.0.1.EL.smp
30000
25000
20000
Windows Server
2003 x64
15000
10000
5000
0
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
# Users
3000
3500
4000
4500
Load Test
Windows 2003 v Red Hat 4.0 (64 bit)
• RAC Stress Test (150-250 users)
• Transactions Per Minute were up to 16% higher for MS Windows for 150 250 users.
• The response times for the “Order Products” test component were up to 50%
faster for MS Windows than Linux, and the response times for the “Order
Products” component increased substantially above 150 users.
• At 250 users, Linux performed over 30% of sorts on disk instead of sorts in
memory.
• For all of these tests, Linux used 17% - 40% more memory than MS
Windows Server.
• RAC User Load Tests (2500 – 4500 users)
• At 3500 users, the Transactions Per Minute for MS Windows were 18%
higher than the Linux Transactions Per Minute.
• At 4000 users, MS Windows Server TPM continued to increase while the
Linux test failed to complete.
• At 2500 users, component response times were 9% - 33% faster for MS
Windows Server; while at 3500 users Windows was faster by a wide margin.
• For all of these tests, Linux used 5% - 25% more memory than MS Windows
Server.
Supported 32-bit Architectures
• For 32-bit x86 systems
• Well-suited for mainstream deployments where 64-bit applications
or drivers are unavailable
• Most common on servers with 1-4 processors
Supported 64-bit Architectures
• Gradually replaces 32-bit
Windows as mainstream
offering
• Intended for the most
demanding Database and
LOB deployments on 8-way+
• Suitable for all workloads
• Designed for pure 64-bit
software stacks
• Well-suited for combining 32bit and 64-bit software
32 bit Vs 64bit Memory Limits
General Memory Limits
32-bit
64-bit
4 GB
16 TB
2GB (3 GB if system
is booted with /3gb switch)
4GB if compiled with
/LARGEADDRESSAWARE 2GB
otherwise
Not applicable
8 TB
Paged Pool
470 MB
128 GB
Non-Paged Pool
256 MB
128 GB
1 GB
1 TB
32-bit
64-bit
Windows XP Professional
4 GB / 1-2 CPUs
32 GB / 1-2 CPUs
Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
4 GB / 1-4 CPUs
32 GB / 1-4 CPUs
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
64 GB / 1-8 CPUs
1 TB / 1-8 CPUs
Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition
64 GB / 1-32 CPUs
1 TB / 1-64 CPUs
Total Virtual Address Space
Virtual Address Space per 32-bit process
Virtual Address Space per 64-bit process
System Cache
Physical Memory and CPU Limits1
(1)
Product names listed are for general reference only and do not reflect actual product names. 64-bit
Windows Server Standard Edition will be available for x64 only.
Architecture – Thread and Memory Model
32bit Windows
Oracle process
SGA
2GB
Background and foreground threads
Code
SGA contains
db buffers,
log buffers
shared pool,
other memory
allocations
Each thread
consists of
PGA, stack,
other memory
allocations
Architecture – Thread and Memory Model
64bit Windows
Oracle process
SGA
8TB
Background and foreground threads
Code
SGA contains
db buffers,
log buffers
shared pool,
other memory
allocations
Each thread
consists of
PGA, stack,
other memory
allocations
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Oracle Support for MS Windows
Windows 32-bit Platform Support
OS
9iR2
10gR1
10gR2
Windows 2000
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows XP Professional
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Server 2003
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows 64-bit Platform Support
OS
9iR2
10gR1
10gR2
64-bit Windows Server 2003 for
Itanium
(64-bit DB)
Yes
Yes
Yes
64-bit Windows XP & Windows
Server 2003 on x64
(64-bit DB)
No
Dev Release Yes
(May 04)
64-bit Windows XP & Windows
Server 2003 on x64
(32-bit DB)
Yes
(client only)
Yes
(client only)
Yes
(client only)
32-bit Windows XP & Windows
Server 2003 on x64
(32-bit DB)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Windows Vista Support
•
Next Major Database Release
•
•
•
32-bit support
64-bit support ( for x64 systems)
10gR2
•
•
Plan to certify and support 32-bit Client and Server
Latest Patchset plus possible patches – exact requirements will
be documented when certification is completed and announced
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Oracle Architecture
Database Architecture
Process and Memory
• Thread model, not a straight port of Oracle’s process
architecture
• 3GB (32-bit) or 8TB (64-bit) maximum memory per
database instance. VLM support allows >3GB on 32-bit.
• Runs as a Windows service process
• No limits on memory, connections, resources except those
imposed by the operating system
• What does 8GB Process Address space give you ?
• Connections
• Datawarehousing improvements
Database Architecture
File I/O
• Oracle10g supports asynchronous I/O to all types
of files
• Logical and physical raw files and partitions are
fully supported (faster than NTFS)
• Full 64-bit file I/O internally
• No 2GB or 4GB limitations on database file
sizes.
• Maximum file size is 64GB
• Maximum database size is 4 petabytes
Dual Core and Hyperthreading
• Dual Core support
• Supported – Oracle uses the OS scheduler
• All versions of Oracle are supported in Hyperthreaded
environments.
• Hyperthreading
• Circuitry added to Intel CPUs resulting in single CPU
functioning as 2 CPUs
• All versions of Oracle are supported in Hyperthreaded
environments.
• Customer 10 node RAC
• 4 Dual cores with hyperthreading turned on
• 16 CPU’s visible in taskmanager on each of 10 nodes
• 32GB RAM per node - 200TB database

?
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Best Practices for 64 bit
Windows
Oracle on 64-bit Windows
• Long history of supporting 64-bit databases on other
platforms
• Interoperability between 32-bit clients and 64-bit servers and
vice versa
• Improved performance, availability and scalability
• Why do customers choose to migrate to 64bit Windows ?
64-Bit Best Practices
• Run correct 64-Bit version of Oracle for the
architecture
• 64-Bit Oracle for X64 (AMD or EM64T)
• 64-Bit Oracle for Itanium.
• 32-Bit Oracle Server not supported on 64-Bit
platforms
• Enable Large Pages
New for Windows Server 2003 SP1
• Large Page support

• For instances with large memory requirements, large page support
can improve performance
• 32 bit – 4kb default – 2MB max
• 64 bit – 8kb default – 2MB on x64 -16 MB on IA64
• NUMA support for memory/scheduling
• Database intelligently allocates memory and schedules threads
based on node configuration
• Best Practice: For NUMA on AMD patch to a minimum 10.2.0.2 P5
64-bit: Migration
• 32-bit to 64-bit upgrade process is simple
• 32-bit data files are compatible with 64-bit DB
• No need to recreate the database
• Full export and import not required
• Database Upgrade Assistant automates process
• Transparent migration for end-user applications
• No changes required to existing client applications when running against 64bit database
File System Best Practices
• Use ASM – whether single-instance or RAC – use
10.1.0.4 or higher
 Provisioning storage when you need it… and save
money

•
•


No need to move datafiles around
No need to take tablespaces offline
Allocate what you need, when you need it
Simple to add or remove
• Add disks with no downtime
 Save time and money
ASM Disk Group
% utilization
Ctrl file, redo log, data 1,…data n
Where do I locate my datafiles ?
• 10g Windows RAC tracked customers
42.9%
2.3%
54.8%
ASM
OCFS
RAW
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Management & Diagnostics
tools
Grid Control
Out of the Box Database Control
• No client install required
• Fully functional after
database creation
• Discovery, Configuration
& Monitoring
• Listener
• ASM
• RAC database
Diagnostic Tools - Performance Monitor
Process Explorer
Tools
• OS Tools
• MS Tools
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
diskpart
poolmon
memsnap
tasklist, taskkill
tlist (with -c)
Driverquery - with /V
sc (sc query state= all)
• Sysinternals
• regmon, filemon,
procexp, tcpview
• Windows Services for Unix
• Oracle Tools
• srvctl
• crsctl
• ocrdump
• crs_stat
• cluvfy
CPU Tuning
• Oracle uses all processors available through the OS
• ORACLE_AFFINITY registry value can be set to tell
Oracle which threads to run on which processors
(same setting for all instances)
• Thread priorities can be set in the registry using the
ORACLE_PRIORITY variable
CPU Tuning – Diagnosing High CPU
• Process Explorer
• drill down to threads
• Get thread id of high CPU thread
• Use following to map OS Thread Id to Oracle
Background Process
SELECT a.spid, b.username
FROM v$process a, v$session b
WHERE a.addr= b.paddr
AND a.spid = <thread number>
Networking Best Practices
• The default queue-size for Windows Server is 50 –
increase using QUEUESIZE parameter in
LISTENER.ORA – prevents errors during login storms
• Use multiple listeners for increased throughput
• Increase SDU_SIZE in SQLNET.ORA or
TNSNAMES.ORA
• Controls SQL*Net packet size
• Set to larger SDU size for apps with bulk data transfer (LOBS,
Dataguard etc). Perhaps 32k
Networking Best Practices
• SQLNET.AUTHENTICATION_SERVICES=(NTS)
This is a default value in SQLNET.ORA for a reason – it
should be left at default. – Required for RAC

• In 10.2.x, SQLNET.INBOUND_CONNECT_TIMEOUT
defaults to 60 – this may need to be set to 0 in some
situations
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Installation and Patching
Best Practices and Support’s
Top Issues
Installation Pre-reqs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hardware is set up correctly
Use the Cluster Verification Utility (CVU).
User Accounts
Remote Desktop Client.
Environment Variables
Networking
Disk Layout
Enable Automount
Stop ‘troublesome’ Services.
Time Sync
Install - Remote Desktop Client
• If you must use the remote desktop client
• Invoke the client with the /console command line
parameter
Cluster Verification Utility - CVU
• CVU checks and reports on varies configuration items at
various steps during the install
• Does not fix anything !
• Get the latest version from OTN
• http://otn.oracle.com/rac - Right Hand Side - CVU
• Two steps to run prior to starting install
• runcluvfy stage -post hwos -n iwinrca01,iwinrca02
• runcluvfy stage -pre crsinst -n iwinrca01,iwinrca02
• Other steps as required
Cluster Verification Utility
-pre dbcfg
Configures
RAC DB
-pre dbinst
Installs
RAC
-pre crsinst
Installs
Oracle
Clusterware
-pre cfs
-post crsinst
Sets up OCFS
( OPT )
-post cfs
User sets up the
Hardware,
network & storage
-post hwos
Most Common Support Issues
• Oracle can be installed (and patches applied) over a
remote connection.
• Try installing on the server console directly, to
determine if the problem is with the remote
connection utility.
• Logging into Windows as a user account, with Admin
privs, is not identical as to logging in as the Local
Administrator account. If there are problems
installing, try using the Local Administrator account.
Most Common Support Issues
• Files in use errors:
•
•
•
Must stop ALL Oracle Services.
Stop the DTC (Distributed Transaction Coordinator) service.
Use Process Explorer to find the process using the Oracle files.
• Problems running catpatch.sql or catcpu.sql:
•
•
Verify there are NO invalid objects in the Database, prior to
applying a patch.
Verify the Shared_Pool_size and Java_Pool_Size are set to a
minimum of 150MB each.
• Don’t set ORACLE_HOME in environment – Oracle gets its
environment via the Registry. Oracle.key file in OH\bin points to
correct registry key.
Patching Best Practices
• For existing installs, make plans to test and apply
future patchsets
• Don’t wait until you are forced to apply patch on a
production system without sufficient testing
• Apply patches within 6 months of release
• At minimum, CPU (Critical Patch Update) patches
are released quarterly
• Fifth-digit patches provided on Windows platforms
which bundle one-off patches
• For fixing new issues, applying latest patchset and
fifth-digit patches available will help in eliminating
known bugs
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High Availability Solutions on
Windows
High Availability Solutions
• HA becomes essential as databases are critical
component of business
• HA Goals: Minimize downtime to your company and
your customers
• Solutions for Windows Environments
•
•
•
•
•
Real Application Clusters (RAC)
Oracle Fail Safe
Data Guard (DG)
Maximum Availability Architecture (MAA)
Oracle Clusterware for Single Instance
• Provides MSCS – without MSCS
• See http://www.oracleracsig.org this Thursday 16th
More Information
• Windows Server Technology Center
• http://otn.oracle.com/windows
• Oracle RAC
• http://otn.oracle.com/rac
• http://otn.oracle.com/asm
• Microsoft – Oracle
• http://ww.microsoft-oracle.com
• Oracle RAC SIG
• http://www.oracleracsig.org
• For more questions
anu.chawla@microsoft.com
philip.newlan@oracle.com
The preceding is intended to outline our general
product direction. It is intended for information
purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any
contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any
material, code, or functionality, and should not be
relied upon in making purchasing decisions.
The development, release, and timing of any
features or functionality described for Oracle’s
products remain at the sole discretion of Oracle.