Dell 10g User's Manual

51296A00.fm Page 9 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 4:10 PM

Oracle 10g Storage Supplement for

Configuring Dell™ EqualLogic

®

PS

Series iSCSI Storage for Microsoft

®

Windows

®

- Version 4.1

EqualLogic Terminologies

EqualLogic PS series storage arrays include storage virtualization technology.

To better understand how these arrays operate, it is helpful to be familiar with some of the terminology used to describe these arrays and their functions:

• Member — a single PS series array is known as a member.

• Group — a set of one or more members that can be centrally managed.

Host servers access the data through a single group IP address.

• Pool — a RAID that can consist of the disks from one or more members.

• Volume — a LUN or virtual disk that represents a subset of the capacity of a pool.

Cabling EqualLogic iSCSI Storage System

You can attach the host servers to the Dell™ EqualLogic PS5000XV iSCSI array through an IP storage area network (SAN) industry-standard Gigabit Ethernet switch.

Figure 1 shows the recommended network configuration for a dual control

module PS5000XV array. This configuration includes two Dell PowerConnect

®

6200 Gigabit Ethernet switches to provide highest network availability and maximum network bandwidth. It is recommended that you use two Gigabit

Ethernet switches because if the switch fails in a single Ethernet switch environment, all hosts lose access to the storage until you physically replace the switch and restore the configuration. In such configuration, there should be

January 2009

51296A00.fm Page 10 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 4:10 PM multiple ports with link aggregation providing the inter-switch or trunk connection. Additionally, from each of the control modules, connect one Gigabit interface to one Ethernet switch and connect the other two Gigabit interfaces to the other Ethernet switch.

Figure 1.

Recommended Network Configuration

Figure 2 is an architecture overview of a sample Oracle™ RAC configuration

with 3 PS5000XV arrays. The blue colored cables denote the iSCSI SAN.

The gray colored cables denote the Oracle RAC private interconnect network.

The black colored cables denote the public network. The PS5000XV storage arrays provide the physical storage capacity for the Oracle RAC database.

51296A00.fm Page 11 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 4:10 PM

Figure 2.

Sample Oracle RAC Configuration with three PS5000XV arrays

As illustrated in Figure 2, the group named oracle-group includes

three PS5000XV members: oracle-member01, oracle-member02, and oracle-member03. When a member is initialized, it can be configured with

RAID 10, RAID 5, or RAID 50. For more information on how to initialize an EqualLogic array, see the Dell EqualLogic User's Guide.

A PS Series storage group can be segregated into multiple tiers or pools.

Tiered storage provides you with greater control over how disk resources are allocated. A member can be assigned to only one pool at any one time. You can easily assign a member to a pool or move a member between pools with no impact to data availability. You can organize pools according to different criteria, such as disk types or speeds, RAID levels, application types.

51296A00.fm Page 12 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 4:10 PM

In Figure 2, pools are organized by member RAID levels - one pool with the name

RAID-10 consists of RAID 10 members; one pool with the name RAID-5 consists of RAID 5 members.

Creating Volumes

You must configure the PS5000XV physical disks into usable components, known as volumes, before you store data. A volume represents a portion of the storage pool with a specific size, access controls, and other attributes. A volume can be spread across multiple disks and group members and is seen on the network as an iSCSI target. Volumes are assigned to a pool and can be easily moved between pools with no impact on data availability. Additionally, based on the overall workload of the storage hardware resources within the pool, automatic data placement and automatic load balancing occurs.

Table 1 shows a sample volume configuration.

Table 1.

Volumes for Oracle RAC Configuration

Volume

First Area

Volume

Second Area

Volume(s)

Third Area

Volume(s)

Minimum Size RAID Number of Partitions Used For

1024 MB 10 One extended partition with two logical drives - 50 MB for Voting Disk and

120 MB for OCR

Voting disk and

Oracle Cluster

Registry

(OCR)

OS Mapping

One extended partition with two logical drives:

1 x Voting Disk,

1 x OCR

Larger than the size of your database

10

Minimum twice the size of your second area volume(s)

5

One

One

Data

Flash Recovery

Area

ASM disk group

DATABASEDG

ASM disk group

FLASHBACKDG

Create volumes in PS5000XV array and create access list to allow all host iSCSI network interfaces to access the volumes.

51296A00.fm Page 13 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 4:10 PM

Configuring iSCSI Networks

It is recommended that you configure the host network interfaces for iSCSI traffic to use Flow Control and Jumbo frames for optimal performance.

To set Flow Control and Jumbo frame, perform the following steps:

1 Click Start→ Settings→ Network Connections.

2 Right click on the iSCSI network interface and click Properties.

3 Click the Configure button.

4 Click Advanced.

5 Highlight Jumbo Packet and set its value to 9014 Bytes.

6 Highlight Performance Options and click Properties. This opens the

Performance Options window.

7 In this window, highlight Flow Control and set its value to Rx & Tx Enabled.

8 Repeat step 2 to step 7 for all other network interfaces used for iSCSI traffic.

Configuring Host Access to Volumes

Installing and Configuring Dell EqualLogic Host Integration Tool (HIT) Kit

1 Download the HIT tool kit version 3.1.2 on your database server.

2 Double click Setup64.exe to launch the installation window.

3 In the Welcome to the Host Integration Tools 3.1.2 update program window, click Next.

4 In the License Agreements window, select I accept the terms of all the license agreements, and click Next.

5 In the Installation Type window, click Next.

6 In the Ready to install the components window, click Install.

7 The Installation Status window and the Software Update Installation Wizard window appear.

8 In the Installation Complete window, click Finish.

51296A00.fm Page 14 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 4:10 PM

9 In the System Restart Required window, select Yes, I want to restart my computer now, and click OK.

10 Once the server is up, a Remote Setup Wizard window appears.

11 Select Configure MPIO settings for this computer, then click Next.

12 Move the iSCSI network subnets under Subnets included for MPIO. Move all other network subnets under Subnets excluded from MPIO. Check the box beside Load balance across paths. Click Finish.

13 Repeat step 1 to step 12 on all other hosts in the cluster.

Installing Microsoft

®

iSCSI Initiator

1 Start Add or Remove Programs.

2 Select Microsoft iSCSI Initiator, click Remove. This is to remove the initiator 2.0.7 which is packaged with the current HIT 3.1.2.

3 In the Software Update Removal Wizard window, click Next and then click

Finish.

4 Once the server is up, download the Microsoft iSCSI initiator 2.0.8 on your database server.

5 Double click Initiator-2.08-build3825-x64fre.exe to launch the installation window.

6 In the Software Update Installation Wizard, click Next.

7 In the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Installation window, select Initiator Service,

Software Initiator, and Microsoft MPIO Multipathing Support for iSCSI.

Click Next.

8 In the License Agreement window, click I Agree, and click Next.

9 In the Completing the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Installation Wizard window, click Finish. This will restart the server.

10 Repeat step 1 to step 9 on all other hosts in the cluster.

51296A00.fm Page 15 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 4:10 PM

Configuring Microsoft iSCSI Initiator

1 Double click the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator icon on the desktop.

The iSCSI Initiator Properties window appears.

2 On the Discovery tab, the IP address of the EqualLogic group address should already be populated by the HIT tool kit.

3 On the Targets tab, click on one volume that was created for the Oracle database and click Log On.

4 In the Log On to Target window, check the two boxes by Automatically restore this connection when the system boots, and Enable multi-path.

Click Advanced.

The Advanced Settings window appears.

5 On the General tab, perform the following configurations: a Choose Microsoft iSCSI Initiator in the Local adapter pull down menu.

b c d

Choose an iSCSI initiator IP address in the Source IP pull down menu.

Choose EqualLogic group IP address in the Target Portal pull down menu.

Check the CHAP logon information checkbox.

f e Enter the CHAP user name, defined in EqualLogic storage, in the

User name box.

Enter the CHAP password, defined in EqualLogic storage, in the

Target secret box.

g Click OK.

6 In the Log On to Target window, click OK.

7 In the iSCSI Initiator Properties window→ Targets tab, the status of the logged on volume should be Connected.

8 Repeat step 3 to step 7 to log on to the same volume for every other iSCSI

initiator IP addresses.

9 Repeat step 3 to step 8 to log on to all other volumes created for the database.

10 Repeat step 1 to step 9 on all other hosts in the cluster.

51296A00.fm Page 16 Tuesday, February 3, 2009 4:10 PM

Verifying the Storage Assignment to the Nodes

Follow the steps in section "Verifying the Storage Assignment to the Node" of the

Oracle 10g Deployment Guide.

Preparing the Disks for Oracle Clusterware

Follow the steps in section "Preparing the Disks for Oracle Clusterware" of the

Oracle 10g Deployment Guide.

Removing the Assigned Drive Letters

Follow the steps in the section "Removing the Assigned Drive Letters" in the

Oracle 10g Deployment Guide.

____________________

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

© 2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Reproduction of these materials in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.

Trademarks used in this text: Dell, the DELL logo, Optiplex, PowerEdge, PowerConnect and EqualLogic are trademarks of Dell Inc.; Microsoft, Windows is either a trademark or registered trademark of Microsoft

Corporation in the United States and/or other countries; Oracle is a trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.

Rev. A01