Home > Workload Solutions > Oracle > Guides > Implementation Guide—Oracle Database 19c Best Practices on PowerStore > Software components
Oracle offers one of the most popular databases in the world. We chose Oracle 19c for our best practices tests because it is a version of the database that many of our customers use. The Oracle database has many features and capabilities. In our database validation tests, the engineering team tested changes to the database configuration that will optimize performance.
Virtualization of databases has become increasingly popular over the years. There are many advantages to virtualizing the database, including consolidation, agility, and ease of management. We chose to virtualize the Oracle database with VMware vSphere version 7.0. With virtualization, another layer of configuration that applies to the database. As virtualization impacts every part of the database infrastructure, our approach was to integrate VMware best practices with each physical layer rather than having a dedicated section for virtualization. For example, storage best practices include recommendations for VMware latency sensitivity and the storage I/O control threshold. This should simplify reviewing best practices, as both physical and virtualization recommendations are presented for each part of the infrastructure.
The Linux operating system has been widely accepted for supporting Oracle databases. Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 8.5 was used in the tests as this Linux flavor provides the stability, reliability, and security required for databases. The same best practice approach was taken with Red Hat Linux, as used for VMware. Linux best practices are integrated into each physical layer of recommendations. It is easy to review Linux recommendations by reading CPU best practices or adding another physical layer.
The software stack includes a ESXi hypervisor, vCenter, VM guest operating system, Oracle grid infrastructure, Oracle database, HammerDB performance test kit, and Nexpose agent for security vulnerability scans.
The following table summarizes the software architecture details used in this solution:
Name | Description |
Hypervisor operating system | VMware ESXi 7.3 (Dell customized ISO image) with vCenter 7.3 |
Guest operating systems | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5 with kernel 4.18.0-348.el8.x86_64 |
Oracle Grid Infrastructure | Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c (19.0.0.0) with Release Update U 19.15(19.15.0.0). |
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition | Oracle Database 19c (19.0.0.0) with U 19.15 (19.15.0.0) |
vCenter | 7.3 |
HammerDB | 4.4 |
Nexpose Agent | Rapid7 Insight Agent |
There are many combinations possible for the software architecture. In testing with Oracle Database19c, Red Hat 8.5, and VMware vSphere 7.3, the goal was to have a design that applies to most of our customers’ databases. Future best practices programs will address new versions of the Oracle database and advances in both the operating system and virtualization.