Design considerations for configuring Oracle in a PowerStore metro node environment are governed by the best practices in PowerStore: Oracle Database Best Practices. For PowerStore metro node volume groups used by Oracle ASM, follow the recommendations in that guide.
If AppSync will also be used to protect the Oracle environment on PowerStore or PowerStore metro node, see AppSync Integration with Oracle Database Server for additional information.
Some metro node design recommendations specific to Oracle are:
- If metro node is being considered as part of the Oracle infrastructure, it is recommended to deploy and configure metro node when the environment is initially built. Deploying metro node after the Oracle database is in production will cause an application outage so it can switch over to using the metro node virtual volumes.
- Use extra care to ensure proper volumes are selected for the mirroring phase. If metro node cannot be configured up front, it is highly recommended to make a snapshot of the entire Oracle environment in PowerStore in the event a restore is necessary.
- Because of the amount of time and care that must be used to setup and remove metro node from an environment, frequently adding and removing metro node from an environment is not recommended because it negates the benefit of simple administration. This is especially true in a metro configuration as there are two clusters needing the reconfiguration.