Re: Logical Domains for Oracle RAC (Sun T5440)

Oracle has different rules for "hard" partitioning and "soft" partitioning. With "hard" partitioning, which is usually supported by hardware that provides (close to) electrical isolation between server partitions (and almost always prevents sharing of any physical resource other than maybe a power or IO bus between partitions), you only need to license Oracle for the CPUs (cores) within the partition running Oracle.

With "soft" partitioning (where, commonly, the *number* of processors serving a partition at a given moment is limited, but instructions on the partition can potentially run on *any* processor or core in the server at some time or other), you will need to license Oracle for every processor (core) in the server, regardless of how many or few processors are in partition(s) used for Oracle.

In all likelihood, you configuration will be what Oracle describes as "soft" partitioning, in which case you will need to license all cores. (I do not know that for certain, though, as I have never researched this particular question for Solaris "containers".) Be *certain* that you know the *correct * answer to this question before you commit to a cost-saving plan like this one -- you might otherwise be in for a nasty surprise otherwise. Do *not*accept the word of your local sales rep. Wherever you get an answer, try to
get a statement in writing, preferably with citations back to the appropriate part of the OLSA, the Oracle Licensing Manual, etc.

As for using "Logical Domains" with RAC, I expect you are going to find that this is unsupported in any event. Again, I may be mistaken here, but I believe I have read on Metalink (about a year ago) that this is indeed unsupported. Again, check this configuration carefully on with Oracle Suport before making any plans around it.

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Ravi Gaur <ravigaur1_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> We are trying to bring in some Sun T5440 (will run Oracle RAC) for a new
> application and are working with Oracle on some licensing issues.
> One idea that came up was to create a virtualized env (Logical Domains) in
> an effort to reduce the # of cores presented and still purchase the
> equipment (ultimately get the Oracle licensing cost within the budget). In
> an year or so, when the application load increases, we can then scale up the
> CPUs and buy the extra licenses at that time.
>
> Anyone has any experiences to share running RAC (10gR2 at this pt) in
> Solaris 10 LDom env? Any concerns/gotchas that we should be aware of?
>
> TIA,
>
> - Ravi Gaur
>

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Cheers,
-- Mark Brinsmead
  Senior DBA,
  The Pythian Group
  http://www.pythian.com/blogs

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