Installing Oracle for OASIS

Overview

Oracle is a premium database option for OASIS users. Only groups with 25 or more OASIS users and the following should consider moving to Oracle:

• A database over 500GB in size with daily log file growth of 1GB or more.
• A database over 1TB in size.
• Active groups with over 50 users might also consider upgrading to Oracle. Depends on the activity on the database.

Other options do include just archiving old data if the log file growth is less than 1GB per day.

In short - there are two primary reasons to move to Oracle:

• A larger OASIS database - 1 TB through 21 TB without any rebuilds or other management actions outside backups
• Performance - Oracle is a performance based implementation

WARNING

Ingen software is partnered with Oracle and can offer significant discounts on the Oracle database engine. This does impose a limitation: the Oracle database can ONLY be used with OASIS. Using other applications to access the OASIS data or creating new applications to run on the Oracle database are NOT covered by the discounted price.

If you are to access the Oracle directly, you will need to contact Oracle directly for a price to purchase a regular Oracle license.

Preparing to Implement Oracle with OASIS

To take advantage of the performance and database sizes possible with Oracle, we recommend the following predatory steps before the installation date:

1. Disc: spread the access out between the following:
   1. OS, Page file and Oracle Software should be on one DRIVE/DISK
   2. The Database should reside on a DIFFERENT hard drive/disk
      NOTE: Don't "cheap out" here! Use 10K or SSD drives!
   3. The backup or "recovery area" should be on a NAS or other storage area outside the physical cabinet of the server. (This is your "we just lost the server" plan.)
2. Make sure you have enough RAM: 32GB minimum
3. CPU cores: 4 cores minimum. However, Ingen Software can offer discounts on Oracle SE2 which will use up to 16 threads.

Performance note: I don't know how many groups that get tunnel vision and spend big $$s on one element of the server and "cheap out" on the rest. Generally, faster hard drives/disks do improve the overall speed of any database - especially Oracle. However, if you pay for the server grade SSDs and limit the amount of RAM installed on the server, you might see lesser performance overall.

SSD WARNING! SSDs come in two groups: Consumer and "server grade". Yes, you MIGHT get lucky with the cheap consumer grade SSDs - are you willing to bet your data on that?

SAN Warning: we have a few groups that have moved to SAN environments. If executed well, the result is reasonable. Generally, there is a performance hit moving the hard drives/disks out of the actual server to a network attached storage array (the SAN). However, this is one area where you get what you pay for. The first item to note is that a SAN REQUIRES a very fast network. We use a 10G network while most data centers use (optical) fiber based networking to connect servers and SANs.

Call and we can help with the transition. From an IT perspective, databases run entirely out of RAM - and the speed at which the server is capable of moving data from the hard drives/disks to RAM - and back!

Obtaining the OASIS/Oracle License: This will require a conversation with the OASIS support team. Using OASIS with Oracle does require a special OASIS license - even if Oracle is not purchased directly from Ingen Software. The license will unlock and use only a specific release (EE or SE) and version (currently only V18 and above is supported).

The Installation

The current OASIS installer that is able to install Oracle SE 18 is OASIS_273_64_O_W810B4.msi. The installation of OASIS is as a simple Windows application.

Before beginning the installation process - review the preparation steps above and be ready with the following details:

• The amount of RAM to allocate to Oracle. If only Oracle is to run on the server: calculate the total ram less 4GB for the operating system.
• The drive letter where the Oracle software it to be installed
• The drive letter where the OASIS database is to reside and GROW
• The drive letter or network share where the backup/recovery area is to reside
• Open the firewall to allow INBOUND requests on port 1521
• TURN OFF ALL VIRUS SCANNING SOFTWARE! (Windows defender will interfere with the installation.)

To begin the Oracle installation, start "OASIS DB Tools" in the "OASIS 2.7.3" program group.

Start the installation by selecting "Install New Database" under the "Local Software" menu:

In this example, the everything will be installed on the C: drive - not a typical install. Also note the memory is 12000 MB as the server actually has 16GB. This allows a little over 4GB for the operating system.

Click "install" - which may take up to one hour performing the following steps:

• Oracle is downloaded by the installer.
• The download is verified.
• The installer is unzipped into the "DB Software Location".
• Oracle is installed.
• An Oracle "container database" is created in the "ACTIVE DB Location".
• The "BACKUP Location" is verified.

The message after the installation is currently a little cryptic and it will look like an error - even if the installation is successful. The results must be verified by the OASIS support team!

Today, the post installation steps will result in an error unless the "OASIS DB Tools" application is restarted. This has to do with how programs are registered with the operating system. Once "OASIS DB Tools" is restarted, click on "Re-run Post Install" under the "Local Software" menu. This will perform the following steps:

• A proper admin user is created for managing the database.
• The database is altered for archive logging and backups are activated for the recovery area.
• The size of the recovery area is set to 10TB (should be altered later to reflect the actual size Oracle should use for backups).
• A windows scheduled task is set to backup the log files every day at 5PM.
• A windows scheduled task is set to backup the full database every Saturday at 5PM.

Once complete, the "OASIS DB Tools" can be refreshed using the "Refresh" menu in the "Databases" menu.

Double click on the "Admin Only" database:

Key elements to review before moving on:

• "ARCHIVELOG mode active
• Recovery area is available with a usage value LARGER than the size of the database
• Weekly - view the Last backup and the backup area details.

WHEN a system failure happens, your database is only as good as the last backup!

Next, create the OASIS "pluggable database" by selecting "New PDB" under the "PDB" menu:

NOTE: you may have to create the OASIS database folder under the ORCL folder in the "ACTIVE DB Location". Just name the folder the same as the PDB: OASIS.

Press "Create". Once complete, press "close". The screen will refresh with the new database details:

The pluggable database "OASIS" is show with the details. The size of the ODATA and OATTACHMENTS table spaces indicate the overall size of the OASIS database.

The OASIS database is now ready for service using the following connection information:

Kind: Oracle Thin
Server: IP address of the server
Port: 1521/OASIS.ingensoftware.local