Release Notes

Optimize an SC Series array for an Oracle data warehouse
8 Optimizing Dell EMC SC Series Storage for Oracle OLAP Processing | 2009-M-BP-O
3 Optimize an SC Series array for an Oracle data warehouse
Unlike an OLTP database, a data warehouse is characterized by relatively low volume of transactions. The
majority of the activities in a data warehouse involves complex queries and aggregates large set of data. The
volume of data tends to grow steadily over time and is kept available for a much longer period of time.
The following sections discuss ways to optimize an SC Series array and Oracle storage for a data warehouse
environment.
3.1 Create a high availability SAN
A well-designed SAN should always include redundant hardware components to eliminate a single point of
failure. SC Series arrays are designed with high availability (HA) in mind. Each array consists of two
controllers and multiple front-end and back-end ports. SC Series arrays support simultaneous transport
protocols including Fibre Channel (FC) and iSCSI. For improved performance in a data warehouse, it is
recommended to use high speed FC connectivity and high speed (12Gb) back-end SAS connectivity.
3.1.1 Redundant hardware components, SC Series virtual ports, and fault domains
For each connection type, ensure redundant adapter cards are installed in each SC Series controller. To
provide maximum HA protection and bandwidth optimization, configure the front-end ports on the SC Series
array in virtual port mode and groups into multiple fault domains which provide port-level and controller-
level failover functionality. Similarly, redundant SAN switches are preferred.
Figure 1 illustrates an example of FC connectivity in a dual fault domain configuration on an SC5020 array.
Each domain consists of two FC ports from each controller. A similar setup can also apply to a dual iSCSI
fault domain configuration. FC and iSCSI ports cannot be mixed in the same fault domain.
On an Oracle database server, configure a minimal of two FC or iSCSI ports for redundancy. To handle the
large throughput and bandwidth required during the ETL process or the data ingestion, use multiple high-
speed FC or iSCSI HBAs or ports such as 32Gb FC or 40Gb iSCSI.
It is not recommended to present an SC Series LUN to the same server on both the FC and iSCSI SAN
because of different performance characteristics.
3.1.2 Multipath I/O software
Regardless of FC or iSCSI SAN use, multipath software is strongly recommended on the database server to
provide I/O load balancing, bandwidth aggregation, and automatic path failover. SC Series arrays work
seamlessly with various multipath software including Linux DM-Multipath, Dell EMC PowerPath™ and
Microsoft Windows
®
MPIO.
If the database server runs on a virtual machine (VM) and the SC Series volumes are virtualized through a
hypervisor such as VMware vSphere
®
, multipath software should be configured on the physical nodes and is
not required in the database VM.