Vmware shared storage

Hello,
I have downloaded the Oracle/VMWare/SuSE and have exercised the databases, etc. However, I would now like to take this to the next step and create a 'sibling' virtual machine - which I would just make as a copy of the first and have the instances O10G1 and O10G2 on each of the two virtual machines, respectively. Finally, I would then like to create a shared storage device between the two virtual machines. I have had great difficulty doing this and have found disagreement on other forums whether this is even possible with vmware 4.5. The most promising post I found: ( http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?forumID=19&threadID=11257&messageID=109257#109257 ) references a document from Oracle Japan ( http://otndnld.oracle.co.jp/products/database/oracle10g/pdf/RAC_Config_VMWareLinux.pdf ). Is this document also on the Oracle USA site? It seems to have the answers I am seeking. If not, can you offer any guidance?
Thanks!
Brandon Moore

The kit provided is not ment to be used in this way, your request for help is outside the scope of this forum.
It's a bit complicated to do what you want. I would simply suggest you use NFS or iscsi on external storage that would eliminate any VMware issues with shared storage.
good luck.
Saar.

Similar Messages

Is there any doucment to install RAC 10G R2 with vmware shared storage?

Hello Guys,
Is there any documentation or how to available to install Oracle RAC 10G R2 on windows 2000 platform with 2 nodes and using vmware software for shared disk purpose.
Please let me know the link. I will be really greatful to you. There is a document available for windows 2003 but couldnt find any for windows 2000.
Regards,
Imran Baig

Hello Guys,
I was reading this article on link http://www.dizwell.com/prod/node/25 it says the following
"If you had a physical machine with two network cards installed and a second hard disk with absolutely nothing else on it, you could achieve a RAC using a physical machine"
I am in procesof installing 2 nodes RAC and have configure network requirements on each node. I am struck with shared disk storage... can i acheive a shared diak storage by adding an other hardrive to one of the nodes? Please help...
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How to change permissions on shared storage to install Oracle RAC on vmware

Hello:
- I am trying to install Oracle RAC using vmware.
- But when I try to change permissions for the shared storage,
the owner and group of the shared storage does not change.
- Has some else installed Oracle RAC onto vmware ?
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I have successfully installed RAC on vmware following this article, maybe you can give it a try,
Oracle 10g RAC On Linux Using VMware Server
http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/10g/OracleDB10gR2RACInstallationOnCentos4UsingVMware.php

Problem of using OCFS2 as shared storage to install RAC 10g on VMware

Hi, all
I am installing a RAC 10g cluster with two linux nodes on VMware. I created a shared 5G disk for the two nodes as shared storage partition. By using OCFS2 tools, i formatted this shared storage partition and successfully auto mounted it on both nodes.
Before installing, i use the command "runcluvfy.sh stage -pre crsinst -n node1,node2" to determine the installation prerequisites. Everything is ok except an error "Could not find a suitable set of interfaces for VIPs.". By searching the web, i found this error could be safely ignored.
The OCFS2 works well on both nodes, i formatted the shared partition as ocfs2 file system and configure o2bc to auto start ocfs service. I mounted the shared disk on both nodes at /ocfs directory. By adding an entry into both nodes' /etc/fstab, this partition can be auto mounted at system boots. I could access files in shared partition on both nodes.
My problem is that, when installing clusterware, at the stage "Specify Oracle Cluster Registry", I enter "/ocfs/OCRFILE" for Specify OCR Location and "/ocfs/OCRFILE_Mirror" for Specify OCR Mirror Location. But got an error as following:
----- Error Message ----
The location /ocfs/OCRFILE, entered for the Oracle Cluster Registry(OCR) is not shared across all the nodes in the cluster. Specify a shared raw partition or cluster file system that is visible by the same name on all nodes of the cluster.
------ Error Message ---
I don't know why the OUI can't recognize /ocfs as shared partition. On both nodes, using command "mounted.ocfs2 -f", i can get the result:
Device FS Nodes
/dev/sdb1 ocfs2 node1, node2
What's the possible wrong? Any help is appreciated!
Addition information:
1) uname -r
2.6.9-42.0.0.0.1.EL
2) Permission of shared partition
$ls -ld /ocfs/
drwxrwxr-x 6 oracle dba 4096 Aug 3 18:22 /ocfs/

Hello
I am not sure how far this following solution is relevant to your problem (regardless when it was originally posted - may help someone who is reading this thread), here is what I faced and here is how I fixed it:
I was setting up RAC using VMWare. I prepared rac1 [installed OS, configured disks, users, etc] and the made a copy of it as rac2. So far so good. When, as per the guide I was following for RAC configuration, I started OCFS2 configuration, faced the following error on RAC2 when I tried to mount the /dev/adb1:
===================================================
[Root @ *rac2* ~] # mount - t ocfs2 - o datavolume, nointr / dev / sdb1 / ocfs
ocfs2_hb_ctl: OCFS2 DIRECTORY corrupted WHILE reading uuid ocfs2_hb_ctl: OCFS2 DIRECTORY corrupted WHILE reading uuid
mount.ocfs2: Error WHEN attempting TO run / sbin / ocfs2_hb_ctl: "Operation not permitted" mount.ocfs2: Error WHEN attempting TO run / sbin / ocfs2_hb_ctl: "Operation not permitted"
===================================================
After a lot of "googling around", I finally bumped into a page, the kind person who posted the solution said [in my words below and more detailed ]:
o shutdown both rac1 and rac2
o in VMWare, "edit virtual machine settings" for rac1
o remove the disk [make sure you drop the correct one]
o recreate it and select *"allocate all disk space now"* [with same name and in the same directory where it was before]
o start rac1 and login as *"root"* and *"fdisk /dev/sdb"* [or whichever is/was your disk where you r installing ocfs2]
Once done, repeat the steps for configuring OCFS2. I was successfully able to mount the disk on both machines.
All this problem was apparently caused by not choosing "allocate all disk space now" option while creating the disk to be used for OCFS2.
If you still have any questions or problem, email me at [email protected] and I'll try to get back to you at my earliest.
Good luck!
Muhammad Amer
[email protected]

Oracle rac raw device as shared storage

Hi,
i m new to oracle rac,
and i wish to instlall 11g r1 RAC on my laptop having linux 4 as platform (on vmware) ,
for that i prepare 4 partition for that (on node1)
/dev/sdb1 - for ocr
/dev/sdb2 - for voting disk
/dev/sdb3 - for asmdisk group
/dev/sda5 - fro asmdisk group
by assuming external redundacy for ocr and voting disk i kept only one disk
and i configured following in /etc/sysconfig/rawdevices
/dev/raw/raw1 /dev/sdb1 -- ocr
/dev/raw/raw2 /dev/sdb2 -- voting disk
/dev/raw/raw3 /dev/sdb3 -- asmdisk group
/dev/raw/raw4 /dev/sdb5 -- asmdisk group
and my question is how node2 can understat these raw device as shared storage?
thanks for any support

hi thanks for your suggestion ,
this may be ok for VMware , but what about for non-VMWare environment?
how can i make raw device as shared storage?
one more, all the docs that i followed on net , configured node1 partitions as shared storage.
please help me in this regards

How to implement RAC with no shared storage available...

Hello Guys,
I have installed, configured single node RAC R2 with 2 database instances on windows 2000 platform with the help of vmware software. Installation was successfull.
I just meet my boss to explain him my acheivements and to get permission to go for prodcution environment where we will be developing 3 nodes RAC on linux platform.
I asked him that we need a shared stroage system that can be achieved by SAN or NAS or firewire disks... but he refuses to buy any additioan hardware as we have already spend a lot on servers. He wants to me have another computer with a large size Hard Disk Drive to be used as shared storage.
I just want to know can we configure 3 nodes RAC using HDD of an other computer as sommon shared storage...
Please guide me. I really want to implement RAC in our production environment.
Regards,
Imran

Yeah, but would openfiler work? Has any one
implemented RAC using open filer or software
configured shared storage.
Any other better solution as i have to implement it
in production environment and have to seek better
backup facilities.Are you looking for a production environment, or an evaluation environment?
For an evaluation environment OpenFiler works. I occasionally teach RAC classes using that. It works but it is not as fast or as robust as I'd like in production.
For a production environment, plan to pay some money. The least expensive commercial shared stored I have found is from NetApp - any NetApp F8xx or FAS2xx files with iSCSI or even NFS license will do for RAC.
Message was edited by:
Hans Forbrich

Configure shared storage (RAC setup in Windows)

Hi,
Can I use mapped drive instead of direct connect to the external drive while configuring the shared storage?
My problem is:
I have a LaCie Group SA LaCie Big Disk Extreme LUN 0 IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device (500g). It can only be directly attached to one node because there is only one FW400 port. When I use switch and tried to connect both nodes directly to the device by switch, only one node show it as a disk drive. On another node, the device is utomatically stopped by windows and unaccessible.
Then I tried to map it, but the shared storage test failed.
Any idea?
Thanks
Laura

Hi.
I struggled with this problem, but then I gave up and used VMware to solve the problem:
http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/10g/OracleDB10gR2RACInstallationOnWindows2003UsingVMware.php
http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/10g/OracleDB10gR2RACInstallationOnCentos4UsingVMware.php
Howard Rogers has some stuff that might give you a clue also:
http://www.dizwell.com/oracle/articles/laptop_rac.html
Cheers
Tim...

Shared storage setup for 'RAC' env

Hi All ;
Good Morning !
My vmware machine version is : 10.
Could you please share how do we configure shared storage setup in vmware ?

Did you even tried :https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=oracle%2Brac%2Bvmware%2Bworkstation+

When installing clusterware, shared storage trouble

I was trying to install clusterware. When I typed location of OCR, I got error below:
Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) is not shared across all the nodes in the cluster
Then, I found I can not mount ocfs2 on both nodes at the same time. But I can mount it on any one of nodes if it is umounted on the other one.
Can you anyone give me a hand?
Environment is as following:
- OS: Oracle Linux 5 (update 4)
- Openfiler 3 + ocfs2
- Oracle 10gR2

Hi;
Please see:
http://kr.forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=4254569
Oracle 10g RAC install- OPEN FAIL ON DEV
Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) is not shared across all the nodes . . .
After OCFS2 install/configure ~ Shared storage check check fails
Problem of using OCFS2 as shared storage to install RAC 10g on VMware
Regard
Helios

Shared storage check failed on nodes

hi friends,
I am installing rac 10g on vmware and os is OEL4.i completed all the prerequisites but when i run the below command
./runclufy stage -post hwos -n rac1,rac2, i am facing below error.
node connectivity check failed.
Checking shared storage accessibility...
WARNING:
Unable to determine the sharedness of /dev/sde on nodes:
rac2,rac2,rac2,rac2,rac2,rac1,rac1,rac1,rac1,rac1
Shared storage check failed on nodes "rac2,rac1"
please help me anyone ,it's urgent
Thanks,
poorna.
Edited by: 958010 on 3 Oct, 2012 9:47 PM

Hello,
It seems that your storage is not accessible from both the nodes. If you want you can follow these steps to configure 10g RAC on VMware.
Steps to configure Two Node 10 RAC on RHEL-4
Remark-1: H/W requirement for RAC
a) 4 Machines
1. Node1
2. Node2
3. storage
4. Grid Control
b) 2 switchs
c) 6 straight cables
Remark-2: S/W requirement for RAC
a) 10g cluserware
b) 10g database
Both must have the same version like (10.2.0.1.0)
Remark-3: RPMs requirement for RAC
a) all 10g rpms (Better to use RHEL-4 and choose everything option to install all the rpms)
b) 4 new rpms are required for installations
1. compat-gcc-7.3-2.96.128.i386.rpm
2. compat-gcc-c++-7.3-2.96.128.i386.rpm
3. compat-libstdc++-7.3-2.96.128.i386.rpm
4. compat-libstdc++-devel-7.3-2.96.128.i386.rpm
------------ Start Machine Preparation --------------------
1. Prepare 3 machines
i. node1.oracle.com
etho (192.9.201.183) - for public network
eht1 (10.0.0.1) - for private n/w
gateway (192.9.201.1)
subnet (255.255.255.0)
ii. node2.oracle.com
etho (192.9.201.187) - for public network
eht1 (10.0.0.2) - for private n/w
gateway (192.9.201.1)
subnet (255.255.255.0)
iii. openfiler.oracle.com
etho (192.9.201.182) - for public network
gateway (192.9.201.1)
subnet (255.255.255.0)
NOTE:-
-- Here eth0 of all the nodes should be connected by Public N/W using SWITCH-1
-- eth1 of all the nodes should be connected by Private N/W using SWITCH-2
2. network Configuration
#vim /etc/host
192.9.201.183 node1.oracle.com node1
192.9.201.187 node2.oracle.com node2
192.9.201.182 openfiler.oracle.com openfiler
10.0.0.1 node1-priv.oracle.com node1
10.0.0.2 node2-priv.oracle.com node2-priv
192.9.201.184 node1-vip.oracle.com node1-vip
192.9.201.188 node2-vip.oracle.com node2-vip
2. Prepare Both the nodes for installation
a. Set Kernel Parameters (/etc/sysctl.conf)
kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 2147483648
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
fs.file-max = 65536
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65000
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 262144
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 262144
b. Configure /etc/security/limits.conf file
oracle soft nproc 2047
oracle hard nproc 16384
oracle soft nofile 1024
oracle hard nofile 65536
c. Configure /etc/pam.d/login file
session required /lib/security/pam_limits.so
d. Create user and groups on both nodes
# groupadd oinstall
# groupadd dba
# groupadd oper
# useradd -g oinstall -G dba oracle
# passwd oracle
e. Create required directories and set the ownership and permission.
# mkdir –p /u01/crs1020
# mkdir –p /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/asm
# mkdir –p /u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1
# chown –R oracle:oinstall /u01/
# chmod –R 755 /u01/
f. Set the environment variables
$ vi .bash_profile
ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle/; export ORACLE_BASE
ORA_CRS_HOME=/u01/crs1020; export ORA_CRS_HOME
#LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.19; export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL
#LANG=”en_US”; export LANG
3. storage configuration
PART-A Open-filer Set-up
Install openfiler on a machine (Leave 60GB free space on the hdd)
a) Login to root user
b) Start iSCSI target service
# service iscsi-target start
# chkconfig –level 345 iscsi-target on
PART –B Configuring Storage on openfiler
a) From any client machine open the browser and access openfiler console (446 ports).
https://192.9.201.182:446/
b) Open system tab and update the local N/W configuration for both nodes with netmask (255.255.255.255).
c) From the Volume tab click "create a new physical volume group".
d) From "block Device managemrnt" click on "(/dev/sda)" option under 'edit disk' option.
e) Under "Create a partition in /dev/sda" section create physical Volume with full size and then click on 'CREATE'.
f) Then go to the "Volume Section" on the right hand side tab and then click on "Volume groups"
g) Then under the "Create a new Volume Group" specify the name of the volume group (ex- racvgrp) and click on the check box and then click on "Add Volume Group".
h) Then go to the "Volume Section" on the right hand side tab and then click on "Add Volumes" and then specify the Volume name (ex- racvol1) and use all space and specify the "Filesytem/Volume type" as ISCSI and then click on CREATE.
i) Then go to the "Volume Section" on the right hand side tab and then click on "iSCSI Targets" and then click on ADD button to add your Target IQN.
j) then goto the 'LUN Mapping" and click on "MAP".
k) then goto the "Network ACL" and allow both node from there and click on UPDATE.
Note:- To create multiple volumes with openfiler we need to use Multipathing that is quite complex that’s why here we are going for a single volume. Edit the property of each volume and change access to allow.
f) install iscsi-initiator rpm on both nodes to acces iscsi disk
#rpm -ivh iscsi-initiator-utils-----------
g) Make entry in iscsi.conf file about openfiler on both nodes.
#vim /etc/iscsi.conf (in RHEL-4)
and in this file you will get a line "#DiscoveryAddress=192.168.1.2" remove comment and specify your storage ip address here.
OR
#vim /etc/iscsi/iscsi.conf (in RHEL-5)
and in this file you will get a line "#ins.address = 192.168.1.2" remove comment and specify your storage ip address here.
g) #service iscsi restart (on both nodes)
h) From both Nodes fire this command to access volume of openfiler-
# iscsiadm -m discovery -t sendtargets -p 192.2.201.182
i) #service iscsi restart (on both nodes)
j) #chkconfig –level 345 iscsi on (on both nodes)
k) make the partition 3 primary and 1 extended and within extended make 11 logical partition
A. Prepare partitions
1. #fdisk /dev/sdb
:e (extended)
Part No. 1
First Cylinder:
Last Cylinder:
:p
:n
:l
First Cylinder:
Last Cylinder: +1024M
2. Note the /dev/sdb* names.
3. #partprobe
4. Login as root user on node2 and run partprobe
B. On node1 login as root user and create following raw devices
# raw /dev/raw/raw5 /dev/sdb5
#raw /dev/raw/taw6 /dev/sdb6
# raw /dev/raw/raw12 /dev/sdb12
Run ls –l /dev/sdb* and ls –l /dev/raw/raw* to confirm the above
-Repeat the same thing on node2
C. On node1 as root user
# vi .etc/sysconfig/rawdevices
/dev/raw/raw5 /dev/sdb5
/dev/raw/raw6 /dev/sdb6
/dev/raw/raw7 /dev/sdb7
/dev/raw/raw8 /dev/sdb8
/dev/raw/raw9 /dev/sdb9
/dev/raw/raw10 /dev/sdb10
/dev/raw/raw11 /dev/sdb11
/dev/raw/raw12 /dev/sdb12
/dev/raw/raw13 /dev/sdb13
/dev/raw/raw14 /dev/sdb14
/dev/raw/raw15 /dev/sdb15
D. Restart the raw service (# service rawdevices restart)
#service rawdevices restart
Assigning devices:
/dev/raw/raw5 --> /dev/sdb5
/dev/raw/raw5: bound to major 8, minor 21
/dev/raw/raw6 --> /dev/sdb6
/dev/raw/raw6: bound to major 8, minor 22
/dev/raw/raw7 --> /dev/sdb7
/dev/raw/raw7: bound to major 8, minor 23
/dev/raw/raw8 --> /dev/sdb8
/dev/raw/raw8: bound to major 8, minor 24
/dev/raw/raw9 --> /dev/sdb9
/dev/raw/raw9: bound to major 8, minor 25
/dev/raw/raw10 --> /dev/sdb10
/dev/raw/raw10: bound to major 8, minor 26
/dev/raw/raw11 --> /dev/sdb11
/dev/raw/raw11: bound to major 8, minor 27
/dev/raw/raw12 --> /dev/sdb12
/dev/raw/raw12: bound to major 8, minor 28
/dev/raw/raw13 --> /dev/sdb13
/dev/raw/raw13: bound to major 8, minor 29
/dev/raw/raw14 --> /dev/sdb14
/dev/raw/raw14: bound to major 8, minor 30
/dev/raw/raw15 --> /dev/sdb15
/dev/raw/raw15: bound to major 8, minor 31
done
E. Repeat the same thing on node2 also
F. To make these partitions accessible to oracle user fire these commands from both Nodes.
# chown –R oracle:oinstall /dev/raw/raw*
# chmod –R 755 /dev/raw/raw*
F. To make these partitions accessible after restart make these entry on both nodes
# vi /etc/rc.local
Chown –R oracle:oinstall /dev/raw/raw*
Chmod –R 755 /dev/raw/raw*
4. SSH configuration (User quivalence)
On node1:- $ssh-keygen –t rsa
$ssh-keygen –t dsa
On node2:- $ssh-keygen –t rsa
$ssh-keygen –t dsa
On node1:- $cd .ssh
$cat *.pub>>node1
On node2:- $cd .ssh
$cat *.pub>>node2
On node1:- $scp node1 node2:/home/oracle/.ssh
On node2:- $scp node2 node2:/home/oracle/.ssh
On node1:- $cat node*>>authowized_keys
On node2:- $cat node*>>authowized_keys
Now test the ssh configuration from both nodes
$ vim a.sh
ssh node1 hostname
ssh node2 hostname
ssh node1-priv hostname
ssh node2-priv hostname
$ chmod +x a.sh
$./a.sh
first time you'll have to give the password then it never ask for password
5. To run cluster verifier
On node1 :-$cd /…/stage…/cluster…/cluvfy
$./runcluvfy stage –pre crsinst –n node1,node2
First time it will ask for four New RPMs but remember install these rpms by double clicking because of dependancy. So better to install these rpms in this order (rpm-3, rpm-4, rpm-1, rpm-2)
1. compat-gcc-7.3-2.96.128.i386.rpm
2. compat-gcc-c++-7.3-2.96.128.i386.rpm
3. compat-libstdc++-7.3-2.96.128.i386.rpm
4. compat-libstdc++-devel-7.3-2.96.128.i386.rpm
And again run cluvfy and check that "It should given a clean cheat" then start clusterware installation.

Cheap shared storage for test RAC

Hi All,
Is there cheap shared storage device is available to create test environment RAC. I used to create RAC with vmware but environment is not much stable.
Regards

Two options:
The Oracle VM templates can be used to build clusters of any number of nodes using Oracle Database 11g Release 2, which includes Oracle 11g Rel. 2 Clusterware, Oracle 11g Rel. 2 Database, and Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) 11g Rel. 2, patched to the latest, recommended patches.
This is supported for Production.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/vm/rac-template-11grel2-166623.html
Learn how to set up and configure an Oracle RAC 11g Release 2 development cluster on Oracle Linux for less than US$2,700.
The information in this guide below is not validated by Oracle, is not supported by Oracle, and should only be used at your own risk; it is for educational purposes only.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/hunter-rac11gr2-iscsi-088677.html
Regards,
Levi Pereira
Edited by: Levi Pereira on Dec 10, 2012 10:59 AM

Considering shared storage for Oracle RAC 10g

Hi, guys!
My Oracle RAC will be run on VMware ESXI 5.5. So, both 2 nodes and shared storage are on VM. Don't blame for this, I dont have another choice.
I am choosing shared storage for Oracle RAC. I am choosing between NFS and ISCSI server, both can be done in RedHat linux or FreeNAS.
Can u, guys, help me to do the choise?
RedHat or FreeNAS
ISCSI or NFS
Any help will be appreciated.

JohnWatson написал(а):
NFS is really easy. Create your zero-filled files, set the ownership and access modes, and point your asm_diskstring at them. Much simpler than configuring an iSCSI target and initiators, and then messing about with ASMlib or udev.
I recorded a public lecture that (if I remember correctly) describes it here, Oracle ASM Free Tutorial
I will be using OCFS2 as cluster FS. Does it make any difference for NFS vs ISCSI?

My wife an I share one iTunes account but have separate Apple id for our devices - prior to 8.1 we shared storage on iCloud now we can't and when I try to buy more storage on her phone instead of accessing the shared iTunes account it try's to sign

MMy wife an I share one iTunes account but have separate Apple id for our devices - prior to 8.1 we shared storage on iCloud now we can't and when I try to buy more storage on her phone instead of accessing the shared iTunes account it try's to sign in to iTunes using her Apple id - I checked the iTunes id and password on both devices - can anyone help

Have a look here...
http://macmost.com/setting-up-multiple-ios-devices-for-messages-and-facetime.htm l

In the old Mobile me storage I had shared storage for my family and all of our devices. How do I breakup the 55GB across my apple accounts now that iCloud is by device by user?

In the old Mobile me storage I had shared storage for my family and all of our devices. How do I breakup the 55GB across my apple accounts now that iCloud is by device by user? Anyone else have this issue. I am also in need of correcting the storage from my work where I do not have Safari or I can not down load iCould to my desk top.

That storage moves to master account. Since there are no accounts like that in Icloud, people in your family will enjoy complimentary 5 gigs from Apple and they will let you know if they need anymore. You will not be able to manage storage from windows desktop

Is Shared storage provided by VirtualBox better or as good as Openfiler ?

Grid version : 11.2.0.3
Guest OS           : Solaris 10 (64-bit )
Host OS           : Windows 7 (64-bit )
Hypervisor : Virtual Box 4.1.18
In the past , I have created 2-node RAC in virtual environment (11.2.0.2) in which the shared storage was hosted in OpenFiler.
Now that VirtualBox supports shared LUNs. I want to try it out. If VirtualBox's shared storage is as good as Openfiler , I would definitely go for VirtualBox as Openfiler requires a third VM (Linux) to be created just for hosting storage .
For pre-RAC testing, I created a VirtualBox VM and created a Stand alone DB in it. Below test is done in VirtualBox's LOCAL storage (I am yet to learn how to create Shared LUNs in Virtual Box )
I know that a datafile creation is not a definite test to determine I/O throughput. But i did a quick Test by creating a 6gb tablespace.
Is the duration of 2 minutes and 42 seconds acceptable for a 6gb datafile ?
SQL> set timing on
SQL> create tablespace MHDATA datafile '/u01/app/hldat1/oradata/hcmbuat/mhdata01.dbf' SIZE 6G AUTOEXTEND off ;
Tablespace created.
Elapsed: 00:02:42.47
SQL> exit
Disconnected from Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.3.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options
$
$ du -sh /u01/app/hldat1/oradata/hcmbuat/mhdata01.dbf
6.0G   /u01/app/hldat1/oradata/hcmbuat/mhdata01.dbf
$ df -h /u01/app/hldat1/oradata/hcmbuat
Filesystem             size   used avail capacity Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s6       14G    12G   2.0G    86%    /u01

well once i experimented with Openfiler and built a 2-node 11.2 RAC on Oracle Linux 5 using iSCSI storage (3 VirtualBox VMs in total, all 3 on a desktop PC: Intel i7 2600K, 16GB memory)
CPU/memory wasnt a problem, but as all the 3 VMs were on a single HDD, performance was awful
didnt really run any benchmarks, but a compressed full database backup with RMAN for an empty database (<1 GB) took like 15 minutes...
2 VMs + VirtualBox shared disk on the same single HDD provided much better performance, still using this kind of setup for my sandbox RAC databases
edit: 6 GB in 2'42" is about 37 MB/sec
with the above setup using Openfiler, it was nowhere near this
edit2: made a little test
host: Windows 7
guest:2 x Oracle Linux 6.3, 11.2.0.3
hypervisor is VirtualBox 4.2
PC is the same as above
2 virtual cores + 4GB memory for each VM
2 VMs + VirtualBox shared storage (single file) on a single HDD (Seagate Barracuda 3TB ST3000DM001)
created a 4 GB datafile (not enough space for 6 GB):
{code}SQL> create tablespace test datafile '+DATA' size 4G;
Tablespace created.
Elapsed: 00:00:31.88
{code}
{code}RMAN> backup as compressed backupset database format '+DATA';
Starting backup at 02-OCT-12
using target database control file instead of recovery catalog
allocated channel: ORA_DISK_1
channel ORA_DISK_1: SID=22 instance=RDB1 device type=DISK
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
input datafile file number=00001 name=+DATA/rdb/datafile/system.262.790034147
input datafile file number=00002 name=+DATA/rdb/datafile/sysaux.263.790034149
input datafile file number=00003 name=+DATA/rdb/datafile/undotbs1.264.790034151
input datafile file number=00004 name=+DATA/rdb/datafile/undotbs2.266.790034163
input datafile file number=00005 name=+DATA/rdb/datafile/users.267.790034163
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 02-OCT-12
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 02-OCT-12
piece handle=+DATA/rdb/backupset/2012_10_02/nnndf0_tag20121002t192133_0.389.795640895 tag=TAG20121002T192133 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:25
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting compressed full datafile backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: specifying datafile(s) in backup set
including current control file in backup set
including current SPFILE in backup set
channel ORA_DISK_1: starting piece 1 at 02-OCT-12
channel ORA_DISK_1: finished piece 1 at 02-OCT-12
piece handle=+DATA/rdb/backupset/2012_10_02/ncsnf0_tag20121002t192133_0.388.795640919 tag=TAG20121002T192133 comment=NONE
channel ORA_DISK_1: backup set complete, elapsed time: 00:00:01
Finished backup at 02-OCT-12
{code}
Now i dont know much about Openfiler, maybe i messed up something, but i think its quite good, so i wouldnt use a 3rd VM just for the storage.

Vmware shared storage

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