Key Advantages of Oracle ZFS Storage Appliances for Development and Test

Environments • Provide full system operation

on cloned data while preserving the 10% to 50% space savings offered by Oracle's Hybrid Columnar Compression

• Automatically replicate databases to remote locations and simultaneously replicate to multiple target Oracle ZFS Storage Appliances

• Pinpoint bottlenecks and optimize storage performance and capacity usage with DTrace Analytics

• Automatically synchronize test databases with the production database via Oracle Data Guard

• Initiate database snapshots from the DBA console with Oracle Snap Management Utility

• Single vendor support

Selecting the Right Storage for Oracle Database Development and Test Environments

A common challenge for database administrators is to duplicate their mission-critical databases to support the many demands for application development, testing, and QA, and to ensure that changes to the production environment can be rolled out safely. Being able to replicate the database rapidly, and without requiring the interaction of numerous infrastructure administrators, can help reduce overhead costs and accelerate the release of new IT services or production system upgrades.

One of the key factors in enhancing efficiency for Oracle Database replication is the storage system. When reviewing your options to select the best storage system for your Oracle Database development and test environment, the following sections present some critical questions for you to consider.

Storage Efficiency Since there can be many development and test databases, storage capacity comes at a premium. This makes storage efficiency a key consideration for selecting a storage platform. Here are some important questions you can ask to find out how efficient a storage solution will be for Oracle Database development and test environments.

Does the solution preserve space efficiencies in snapshots and clones for development and test environments?

Only Oracle storage systems (both Oracle ZFS Storage Appliances and Pillar Axiom storage systems) support full system operation on cloned data while preserving the space savings provided by Oracle's Hybrid Columnar Compression. Snapshots of compressed tables can be cloned without decompression overhead, and then used in the compressed format for development, test, quality assurance, reporting, etc. Oracle ZFS Storage Appliances support secondary processing of Hybrid Columnar Compression data, meaning that users have full access to the data without the need to decompress it. By contrast, storage systems from other vendors require that these database tables be decompressed before use by development, test, or QA personnel. This increases the storage capacity requirement for such tables by 10x to 50x — a significant additional cost when this secondary processing of data is required.

Hybrid Columnar Compression can also be used in combination with the clonedb feature of Oracle Direct NFS Client (dNFS) to create ultra-thin copies of Oracle Database suitable for development, test, and quality assurance (QA). The clonedb process uses copy-on-write technology so that only changed data file blocks need to be stored separately. Unmodified data is referenced directly from the backup files.

Selecting the Right Storage for Oracle Database Development and Test Environments

DTrace Analytics

DTrace Analytics provides the industry’s first comprehensive and intuitive analytics environment for storage systems. Graphical displays of performance and utilization statistics can be used to pinpoint bottlenecks and optimize storage performance and capacity usage — all while systems continue running in production.

Can your storage system support multi-system and multi-location replication?

Replicating a database onto another storage system provides greater flexibility for IT resources. It can help drive efficiency for software development and testing processes by enabling organizations to quickly move data to where it is needed. In many organizations, the development and test functions are geographically separated from production and QA resources. With the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Replication feature, Oracle Database can be automatically replicated to a remote location to support disaster recovery. Such replication also enables development and test teams to quickly and easily share data across multiple sites. The cutover from QA to production, when housed in the same geographic location, can also be accomplished using either the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Clone or Local Replication feature.

Another common scenario is that software or database development projects are divided into segments and assigned to distributed teams of developers, testers, or QA personnel. The Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Clone and Replication features enable databases to be simultaneously replicated to multiple target Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance platforms, giving each of the distributed teams a dedicated copy of the database to support their part of the project. Automated replication to multiple target platforms not only saves time for administrators and DBAs but also helps accelerate delivery of software projects through rapid provisioning of cloned databases so developers are not kept waiting.

Performance

Multiple copies (or clones) are often required for each production database in order to support the many development and test activities associated with large production systems. It is important that the cloning process and any downstream use of the data have zero impact on the production system. Administrators need the appropriate tools to verify that performance of the production system is not hindered by other uses of the production data.

How much insight do you have into performance impact?

When a database or storage administrator creates clones for development, test, or QA, DTrace Analytics can be used to monitor storage, files, and databases in real-time to ensure that production processing is unaffected by other tasks that may be taking place on the same resources. Even if multiple Oracle ZFS Storage Appliances are employed to support the effort, DTrace Analytics makes it easy to monitor the I/O traffic created by the various applications using the storage resources.

Selecting the Right Storage for Oracle Database Development and Test Environments

Real-time Dashboard

The Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance real-time dashboard acts as an administrative home page from which all administration tasks can be initiated.

Mobile Device Access for Remote Management

Remote management access via iPhone and iPad devices helps simplify the task of monitoring and troubleshooting a global storage infrastructure.

Does the solution preserve the performance efficiencies of compressed data for secondary processing of snapshots and clones?

Because Oracle ZFS Storage Appliances support full read and write access to database tables that are compressed with Hybrid Columnar Compression, there is a performance advantage versus competitive storage systems when users access this data from a snaphsot or clone. Third party storage systems require decompressing such database tables before user access whereas Oracle ZFS Storage Appliances enable access directly in the compressed format. This means that database tables using Hybrid Columnar Compression flow through the system and across the network in compressed format. The result is a 10x to 50x reduction in I/O traffic for these tables, enabling Oracle storage systems to provide significantly better performance due to the reduced I/O traffic.

Operational Efficiency

Every IT department is looking for ways to stretch administrative resources. Here are some things to consider about how your storage solution can impact operational efficiency when it comes to supporting development, test, and QA environments.

What level of management visibility does your storage system provide?

Oracle’s acclaimed DTrace Analytics provides insight to system and I/O activity from the disks all the way to the clients, including activity within specific virtual machines and across virtualized network paths. Database application activity can be viewed all the way to the individual database file level. Developers can now create code and see how their code changes affect the storage system in real-time.

Does your storage system have an easy-to-use administrative dashboard?

The Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance real-time dashboard affords the storage administrator a quick and comprehensive view of performance, capacity, and utilization across workloads. The dashboard provides continuous monitoring of key performance metrics as well as a real-time feed of relevant alerts. Administrators can use the dashboard for at-a-glance usage statistics or to initiate any administrative task. For example, the dashboard can provide an entry point for initiating advanced DTrace Analytics that show detailed usage statistics.

Does your storage management environment support remote access via mobile devices?

Oracle ZFS Storage Appliances offer remote access to administrative features via commonly used mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone and iPad. Administrators can use the Oracle ZFS Appliance Monitor app to view detailed metrics such as pool capacity and usage, active problems, faults, and component status. Mobile access simplifies the task of monitoring and troubleshooting a global storage infrastructure.

Does your storage infrastructure easily fit with Oracle Data Guard disaster recovery infrastructure?

Oracle Data Guard enables development, test, or QA sites to maintain a complete standby database that is transactionally consistent with the production database. With Oracle Data Guard, the standby database is synchronized with the production database on a continuous basis, resulting in an exact replica of the production environment that developers can use to troubleshoot production issues. This standby database on the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance can also be cloned as many times as

Selecting the Right Storage for Oracle Database Development and Test Environments

needed for development and test environments. The cloning feature of the appliance stores only changed data, thus allowing developers to use their own copy of the latest production database without requiring much physical storage space.

Do your database administrators (DBAs) have an efficient method for initiating database snapshots from their DBA console?

The Oracle Snap Management Utility for Oracle Database is a standalone management tool specifically engineered to work with Oracle ZFS Storage Appliances. It provides a simple, fast, efficient way to create and manage snapshot-based copies and clones of Oracle Database instances that are stored on Oracle ZFS Storage Appliances — all through the DBA console. With the Snap Management Utility, DBAs no longer need to depend on IT personnel to backup, restore, recover, or clone databases, enabling DBAs and storage administrators to focus on their specialties while unburdening IT of time-consuming tasks.

When issues arise, how many vendors are required to troubleshoot and fix your production, development, test, and QA environments?

Oracle is the single point of contact for support across Oracle Database and the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance family, saving you time and money and boosting efficiency while avoiding the inevitable vendor finger-pointing when performance or availability issues occur. In fact, Oracle supports the entire stack from Oracle Applications to the database, server hardware, and storage environment. This translates to reduced risk for your business and can help streamline your IT operations by eliminating the need to trace issues to a specific system before calling Oracle for support.

CONTACT US

For more information about Oracle ZFS Storage Appliances, visit oracle.com or call +1.800.ORACLE1 to speak to an Oracle representative.

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