About Virtual Machine Database Systems
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure offers single-node database systems and 2-node RAC database systems on virtual machines.
- A 1-node virtual machine database system consists of one virtual machine.
- A 2-node virtual machine database system consists of two virtual machines.
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The shape-changer operation takes place in a rolling fashion for multi-node DB systems, allowing you to change the shape with no database downtime.
Available Shapes and How It Determines the Resources Allocated
When you launch a virtual machine DB system, you choose a shape, which determines the resources allocated to the DB system. After you provision the system, you can change the shape to adapt to new processing capacity requirements.
The following table shows the available shapes in the X7 series for a virtual machine DB system.
Table 1-2 VM Available Shapes X7 Series
Shape | CPU Cores | Memory |
---|---|---|
VM.Standard2.1 | 1 | 15 GB |
VM.Standard2.2 | 2 | 30 GB |
VM.Standard2.4 | 4 | 60 GB |
VM.Standard2.8 | 8 | 120 GB |
VM.Standard2.16 | 16 | 240 GB |
VM.Standard2.24 | 24 | 320 GB |
The following table shows the available shapes in the X5 series for a virtual machine DB system.
Availability of X5 shapes is limited to monthly universal credit customers existing on or before November 9th, 2018, in the us-phoenix-1, us-ashburn-1, and eu-frankfurt-1 regions.
Table 1-3 VM Available Shapes X5 Series
Shape | CPU Cores | Memory |
---|---|---|
VM.Standard1.1 | 1 | 7 GB |
VM.Standard1.2 | 2 | 14 GB |
VM.Standard1.4 | 4 | 28 GB |
VM.Standard1.8 | 8 | 56 GB |
VM.Standard1.16 | 16 | 112 GB |
How various configurations affect the usable storage
Virtual machine database systems use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure block storage. The following table shows details of the storage options for a virtual machine database system. Total storage includes available storage plus recovery logs.
You can scale your data storage and recovery storage separately for virtual machine DB systems. Oracle recommends keeping recovery storage at 20% of total storage or higher.
Available Storage (GB) | Total Storage (GB) |
---|---|
256 | 712 |
512 | 968 |
1024 | 1480 |
2048 | 2656 |
4096 | 5116 |
6144 | 7572 |
8192 | 10032 |
10240 | 12488 |
12288 | 14944 |
14336 | 17404 |
16384 | 19860 |
18432 | 22320 |
20480 | 24776 |
22528 | 27232 |
24576 | 29692 |
26624 | 32148 |
28672 | 34608 |
30720 | 37064 |
32768 | 39520 |
34816 | 41980 |
36864 | 44436 |
38912 | 46896 |
40960 | 49352 |
For 2-node RAC virtual machine database systems, storage capacity is shared between the nodes.
Availability of Older Database Versions for Virtual Machine DB Systems
For virtual machine DB systems, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure also supports the creation of DB systems using older database versions. For each shape, the latest version and the two prior versions of the release are available at provisioning.
Caution:
If you need to launch your DB system with an older database version, see Critical Patch Updates for information on known security issues with your chosen database version. You will also need to analyze and patch known security issues for the operating system included with the older database version. See Securing Databases for information on security best practices for databases in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.Fast Provisioning Option for Single-Node Virtual Machine DB Systems
For 1-node virtual machine DB systems, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure provides have a "fast provisioning" option that allows you to create your DB system using Logical Volume Manager as your storage management software. The alternative ("standard provisioning") is to provision with Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM). For more information, see Logical Volume Manager and Oracle Automatic Storage Management.
- When using the fast provisioning option, the number and size of the block volumes specified during provisioning determines the maximum total storage available through scaling.
- Multi-node Virtual Machine DB systems require Oracle Automatic Storage Management and cannot be created using the fast-provisioning option.
- You can clone virtual machine DB systems that have been created using the fast provisioning option.
- You cannot use a custom database software image when provisioning a system with logical volume manager storage software. For more information on database software images, see Oracle Database Software Images.
Storage Scaling Considerations for Virtual Machine Databases Using Fast Provisioning
This topic applies only to 1-node virtual machine DB systems.
When you provision a virtual machine DB system using the fast provisioning option, the Available storage (GB) value you specify during provisioning determines the maximum total storage available through scaling. The following table details the maximum storage value available through scaling for each setting offered in the provisioning workflow:
Table 1-4 Storage Scaling Considerations for Virtual Machine Databases Using Fast Provisioning
Initial storage specified during provisioning (GB) | Maximum storage available through scaling (GB) |
---|---|
256 | 2560 |
512 | 2560 |
1024 | 5120 |
2048 | 10240 |
4096 | 20480 |
8192 | 40960 |
Clone a Virtual Machine DB System
You can easily create a clone of a virtual machine DB system, whether the system uses Logical Volume Manager or Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) for storage management. For more information and instructions, see Clone a DB System.
Fault Domain Considerations for Two-Node Virtual Machine DB Systems
When you provision a 2-node RAC DB systems, the system assigns each node to a different fault domain by default. Using the Advanced Options link in the provisioning dialog, you can select the fault domain(s) to be used for your 2-node RAC DB systems and the system will assign the nodes to your selected fault domains. Oracle recommends that you place each node of a 2-node RAC DB system in a different fault domain. For more information on fault domains, see Regions and Availability Domains.
Reboot a Virtual Machine DB System Node for Planned Maintenance
Virtual machine DB system nodes use underlying physical hosts that periodically need to undergo maintenance. When such maintenance is needed, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure schedules a reboot of your virtual machine DB system node and notifies you of the upcoming reboot. The reboot allows your virtual machine DB system node to be migrated to a new physical host which is not in need of maintenance. (Stopping and starting the node will also result in the migration to a new physical host.) The only impact to your virtual machine DB system node is the reboot itself. The planned maintenance of the original physical hardware takes place after your node has been migrated to its new host, and has no impact on your DB system.
If your virtual machine DB system node is scheduled for a maintenance reboot, you can proactively reboot your node (by stopping and starting it) using the Console or the API. This lets you control how and when your node experiences downtime. If you choose not to reboot before the scheduled time, then Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will reboot and migrate your node at the scheduled time.
To identify the virtual machine DB system nodes that you can proactively reboot, navigate to your system's DB System Details page in the Console and check the Node Maintenance Reboot field. If the instance has a maintenance reboot scheduled and can be proactively rebooted, this field displays the date and start time for the reboot. When the Maintenance Reboot field does not display a date, your virtual machine DB system has no scheduled node maintenance events.
To check for scheduled maintenance events using the API, use the GetDbNode operation to check the timeMaintenanceWindowEnd
field of the DbNode resource. This field specifies when the system will initiate the next scheduled node reboot.
To make it easier to locate nodes that have scheduled maintenance reboots, you can use the Search Service with a predefined query to find all DB systems that have a maintenance reboot scheduled.
For instructions on using the Console to reboot a node, see Reboot a DB System.
Security Hardening Tool for Virtual Machine DB systems
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure virtual machine DB systems provisioned using Oracle Linux 7 include a python script, referred to as the Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) tool, that you can use to perform security hardening for your virtual machine DB system. For more information, see Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) Tool For the DB System and Enable FIPS, SE Linux, and STIG on the DB System Components.
Boot Volume Backups
Oracle maintains a weekly boot volume backup of your virtual machine DB system so that the system can be easily restored in the event of a serious error or system failure. Boot volume backups are currently not accessible to users (there is no Console, API, or CLI access to a DB system boot volume backup), and Oracle bears the cost of keeping and maintaining the backup. In the event of a system failure, contact My Oracle Support to request that Oracle perform a restore of your system from the boot volume backup.