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ziyexilin's avatar
ziyexilin
Level 2
12 years ago

Configure SFRAC on Windows

Hi,

I am trying to configure SFRAC on Windows 2008 R2. I didn't find a solution of SFRAC for windows. I know that SFWHA is active/passive. But SFRAC is active/active, and it uses CVM rather than VxVm. I wonder if there is anyway can make the Oracle DB and shared disks active/active on Windows? Thanks a lot.

 

business continuity
Installing
Oracle RAC
Storage Foundation for Windows
Windows
  • mikebounds's avatar
    mikebounds
    12 years ago

    I don't think this is possible.  According to post https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/multiple-luns-disk-group the last comment by jdangelo_symc says 

    Support for Multinode Disk Group Access was added to SFW 6.0.  This could be categorized as CVM for Windows (Not CFS however). 

    However, looking at SFW release notes this says:

     

    A new mode, Deported Read-Only, is added to the existing dynamic disk group
    entity. In this mode, a disk group is imported in a Read-Only mode on all the
    passive nodes. The disk group configuration on the active node is automatically
    reflected on the passive nodes. During failover, instead of a complete disk
    group deport and Read/Write import, only a mode change occurs on the passive
    node.
    So this is not quite CVM as it does not allow you to write simultaneously from multiple nodes which is what RAC requires.  But anyway, one of the main points of putting RAC on SF is that you get raw like performance using files, but Windows does not suport vxfs, so this is not possible even if you had "real" CVM on windows.
    On UNIX, the same Oracle agent is used to start Oracle in failover Oracle and RAC, so you MAY be able to put RAC under VCS control in Windows, but not SF control.
     
    Mike

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  • mikebounds's avatar
    mikebounds
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    I don't think this is possible.  According to post https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/multiple-luns-disk-group the last comment by jdangelo_symc says 

    Support for Multinode Disk Group Access was added to SFW 6.0.  This could be categorized as CVM for Windows (Not CFS however). 

    However, looking at SFW release notes this says:

     

    A new mode, Deported Read-Only, is added to the existing dynamic disk group
    entity. In this mode, a disk group is imported in a Read-Only mode on all the
    passive nodes. The disk group configuration on the active node is automatically
    reflected on the passive nodes. During failover, instead of a complete disk
    group deport and Read/Write import, only a mode change occurs on the passive
    node.
    So this is not quite CVM as it does not allow you to write simultaneously from multiple nodes which is what RAC requires.  But anyway, one of the main points of putting RAC on SF is that you get raw like performance using files, but Windows does not suport vxfs, so this is not possible even if you had "real" CVM on windows.
    On UNIX, the same Oracle agent is used to start Oracle in failover Oracle and RAC, so you MAY be able to put RAC under VCS control in Windows, but not SF control.
     
    Mike
  • ziyexilin's avatar
    ziyexilin
    Level 2
    12 years ago

    Thanks, Mike. As I know, VCS is also active-passive. If I put RAC under VCS control in Windows, could it become active-active?

    I thought VCS and SFW are almost the same, becuase configuring VCS for windows is a part of SFW configuration. What is difference between VCS control and SF control?

  • mikebounds's avatar
    mikebounds
    Level 6
    12 years ago

    VCS can be active-active - this is called a parallel service group and this is no problem in Windows.  

    VCS provides redundancy of servers so fails services to a different server if server or processes die and SFW provides redundancy of storage with host based mirroring and dynamic multipathing.  SFW also provides other features such as extending filesystem online and snapshots.  Unlike UNIX SFW does not provide a filesystem (vxfs in UNIX) - just volume Management (VxVM).

    SFW and VCS are independent and each can be used without the other.

    Mike