Deploy a Hybrid DR Solution on OCI for Oracle WebLogic or Fusion Middleware Domain Environments

Use the WLS_HYDR framework to create and configure a symmetric disaster recovery (DR) system in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) for an existing Oracle WebLogic Server (WLS) or Oracle Fusion Middleware (FMW) primary system involving Oracle WebLogic Domain, Oracle HTTP Server, storage, load balancer and network configuration. The framework automates most of the tasks.

Architecture

This architecture shows a typical hybrid disaster recovery topology for an Oracle WebLogic Server or Oracle Fusion Middleware system.

In this architecture, the framework creates and configures a secondary environment in OCI, including the following components:
  • Internet, Service, and NAT Gateways
  • Route table
  • Web-tier, which can be a public or private subnet, with security list, load balancer, and web host compute instances
  • Mid-tier private subnet with security list with app host compute instances and block volumes
  • FSS-tier private subnet with security list and OCI File Storage service
  • DB tier private subnet with security list

The following diagram illustrates this reference architecture.


Description of maa-wls-hybrid-dr-tool-highlights.png follows
Description of the illustration maa-wls-hybrid-dr-tool-highlights.png

maa-wls-hybrid-dr-tool-highlights-oracle.zip

The framework enables you to perform a complete DR setup where you create a continuously mirrored system for an existing primary Oracle WebLogic Server or Oracle Fusion Middleware domain. Consider using the framework for the following scenarios:

  • COMPLETE DR SETUP

    This is the main use case addressed by the framework. In this scenario, use the framework to create a continuously mirrored system for an existing primary Oracle WebLogic Server or Oracle Fusion Middleware domain. Connectivity between primary and OCI is required. Periodic replication is setup to maintain both systems in sync. In this scenario, the database uses Oracle Data Guard for continuous synchronization of the DB tier.

  • BACKUP AND RESTORE TO OCI

    In this scenario, an Oracle WebLogic Server or Oracle Fusion Middleware domain is restored (or migrated) to OCI from a backup. In this use case, continuous connectivity between the primary datacenter and OCI is not needed. You upload the binary and configuration contents from primary to a bastion node in OCI. The OCI resources are created based on this information and the required input properties provided in the framework's configuration files. The RTO and RPO of this solution is considerably worse than in the "COMPLETE DR SETUP" case. When using this "backup and restore" approach, Oracle recommends that the secondary system is created and tested on a regular basis. However, and to reduce costs, it is also possible to "leave" the backup in the bastion and use it only when a restore is required (hence not incurring in the additional costs of having resources created and running upfront). In this scenario, the database uses Oracle Data Pump for exporting and importing the data used by Oracle WebLogic Server or Oracle Fusion Middleware in the DB tier.

  • INFRASTRUCTURE CREATION

    You can use the framework to create the infrastructure required by an Oracle WebLogic environment in OCI (Load Balancer, Compute instances, shared storage, network, security rules, and so on) without a primary system as a reference.

    There is no discovery of resources from a primary system. You provide all the required input properties to create the OCI resources that a highly available Oracle WebLogic domain typically uses. There is no replication phase, since there is no primary system. You run the framework to create infrastructure resources in OCI, then install Oracle products and configure the Oracle WebLogic or Fusion Middleware domain manually.

    The WLS_HYDR framework only creates the OCI artifacts that you need for an Oracle WebLogic EDG-like system in OCI: compute instances for WebLogic and for OHS, storage artifacts, OCI Load Balancer, network infrastructure and security rules for the subnets in the VCN.

The architecture has the following components:

  • Region

    An Oracle Cloud Infrastructure region is a localized geographic area that contains one or more data centers, hosting availability domains. Regions are independent of other regions, and vast distances can separate them (across countries or even continents).

  • Virtual cloud network (VCN) and subnets

    A VCN is a customizable, software-defined network that you set up in an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure region. Like traditional data center networks, VCNs give you control over your network environment. A VCN can have multiple non-overlapping CIDR blocks that you can change after you create the VCN. You can segment a VCN into subnets, which can be scoped to a region or to an availability domain. Each subnet consists of a contiguous range of addresses that don't overlap with the other subnets in the VCN. You can change the size of a subnet after creation. A subnet can be public or private.

  • Site-to-Site VPN

    OCI Site-to-Site VPN provides IPSec VPN connectivity between your on-premises network and VCNs in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The IPSec protocol suite encrypts IP traffic before the packets are transferred from the source to the destination and decrypts the traffic when it arrives.

  • Dynamic routing gateway (DRG)

    The DRG is a virtual router that provides a path for private network traffic between VCNs in the same region, between a VCN and a network outside the region, such as a VCN in another Oracle Cloud Infrastructure region, an on-premises network, or a network in another cloud provider.

  • FastConnect

    Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect creates a dedicated, private connection between your data center and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. FastConnect provides higher-bandwidth options and a more reliable networking experience when compared with internet-based connections.

  • Internet gateway

    An internet gateway allows traffic between the public subnets in a VCN and the public internet.

  • Network address translation (NAT) gateway

    A NAT gateway enables private resources in a VCN to access hosts on the internet, without exposing those resources to incoming internet connections.

  • Security list

    For each subnet, you can create security rules that specify the source, destination, and type of traffic that is allowed in and out of the subnet.

  • Network Firewall

    OCI Network Firewall is a cloud native, machine learning-powered firewall with advanced intrusion detection and prevention capabilities, supported by Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewall (NGFW) technology that scales automatically.

  • On-premises network

    This is a local network used by your organization.

  • Data Catalog

    Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Data Catalog is a fully-managed, self-service data discovery and governance solution for your enterprise data. It provides data engineers, data scientists, data stewards, and chief data officers a single collaborative environment to manage the organization's technical, business, and operational metadata.

  • Application server

    Application servers use a secondary peer that, like the database, will take over processing in the event of a disaster. Application servers use configuration and metadata that is stored both in the database and the file system. Application server clustering provides protection in the scope of a single region but ongoing modifications and new deployments need to be replicated to the secondary location on an ongoing basis for a consistent disaster recovery.

  • Bastion service

    Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Bastion provides restricted and time-limited secure access to resources that don't have public endpoints and that require strict resource access controls, such as bare metal and virtual machines, Oracle MySQL Database Service, Autonomous Transaction Processing (ATP), Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Kubernetes Engine (OKE), and any other resource that allows Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) access. With OCI Bastion service, you can enable access to private hosts without deploying and maintaining a jump host. In addition, you gain improved security posture with identity-based permissions and a centralized, audited, and time-bound SSH session. OCI Bastion removes the need for a public IP for bastion access, eliminating the hassle and potential attack surface when providing remote access.

  • Load balancer

    Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Load Balancing provides automated traffic distribution from a single entry point to multiple servers.

  • Oracle Base Database Service

    Oracle Base Database Service is an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) database service that enables you to build, scale, and manage full-featured Oracle databases on virtual machines. Oracle Base Database Service uses OCI Block Volumes storage instead of local storage and can run Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) to improve availability.

  • Data Guard

    Oracle Data Guard and Oracle Active Data Guard provide a comprehensive set of services that create, maintain, manage, and monitor one or more standby databases and that enable production Oracle databases to remain available without interruption. Oracle Data Guard maintains these standby databases as copies of the production database by using in-memory replication. If the production database becomes unavailable due to a planned or an unplanned outage, Oracle Data Guard can switch any standby database to the production role, minimizing the downtime associated with the outage. Oracle Active Data Guard provides the additional ability to offload read-mostly workloads to standby databases and also provides advanced data protection features.

  • DNS

    Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Domain Name System (DNS) service is a highly scalable, global anycast domain name system (DNS) network that offers enhanced DNS performance, resiliency, and scalability, so that end users connect to internet applications quickly, from anywhere.

  • File storage

    Oracle Cloud Infrastructure File Storage provides a durable, scalable, secure, enterprise-grade network file system. You can connect to OCI File Storage from any bare metal, virtual machine, or container instance in a VCN. You can also access OCI File Storage from outside the VCN by using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect and IPSec VPN.

Considerations

When implementing the framework, consider what the framework provides.

The framework does perform the following:

  • Creates and configures a secondary environment in OCI (the compute instances for the mid-tier and the web-tier, the OCI Load Balancer, the private and shared storage artifacts, the network resources, and so on), based on a combination of user inputs and information automatically discovered from the primary system. To get the complete list of the resources that this framework creates, see List of the Resources.

  • Copies binaries and configuration (Oracle products' installations, Oracle HTTP Server and Oracle WebLogic domain configuration) from the primary hosts to the OCI compute instances.

  • Translates primary data sources' connect strings to secondary data sources' connect strings (based on TNS alias).

  • Prepares the system for an ongoing replication of configuration and binaries (with different cycles as needed) so that the primary and secondary systems evolve as exact mirrors of each other.

The framework does not perform the following:

  • It doesn't configure connectivity between the primary system and the OCI one (typically an OCI FastConnect link, a VPN or a Peered Gateway).

  • It doesn’t create the secondary system's database in OCI (it doesn't configure Oracle Cloud Guard between the primary and the OCI database or perform a Data Pump export-import implicitly). Since the Database can be shared by multiple mid-tier systems, a separate framework is provided for that tier.

See the Preparations and Requirements section in the framework's README for an updated list of conditions that you must take into account before using the framework.

Recommendations

The framework provides its greatest degree of automation for the cases where the primary environment follows the Oracle Enterprise Deployment Guide (EDG) best practices, but also supports many other topologies.

Deploy

Download the code from GitHub, customize the code, and deploy it.

Deploy using the code in GitHub.

  1. Go to GitHub.
  2. Download or clone the code to your local computer.
  3. Follow the instructions in the README document.

Explore More

To learn more the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and hybrid disaster recovery, see the following resources:
To learn more about Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture ( Oracle MAA) and high availability, see the following resources:

Acknowledgments

  • Authors: Fermin Castro Alonso, Iratxe Etxebarria