best practice question - hosting in virtual and physical
c.p.gAug 13 2012 — edited Apr 18 2013Hello,
I am looking for some feedback. unsure if this is the right forum or if the database forum is better. Trying here.
We are looking at moving into virtualization on Oracle T4 servers using zones.
Some possibly relevant background detail:
* The T4 servers will be hosting database, content management and web servers (all Oracle products). I'm only looking at the oracle database servers for this question.
* In general, we have server pairs. For a specific database (or group of databases), I have the prod server and a dev server. For another set of databases I have another prod and dev server. This way, i can patch the OS for one set but maybe not the others (for wahtever reason).
Specific scenario:
I have an older v440 server that I need to life cycle. The production server is on a newer v490 which is still under support for another year or so. My first thought was I can P2V it into a Solaris Zone on the T4. The direction we are taking is virtualization & consolidation to save money and make better use of our hardware. That is all great.
However, my concern is that my dev server is now virtualized and my production server is still physical. The OS patches are different as the hardware is different. However, the v440 and v490 they are on today would be slightly different as well. Oracle DB is certified on both and the database patches are the same regardless of the hardware since it is the same operating system. From a change management point of view, my patching process should be identical so if less of a concern as well.
However, I am not sure if this is a good idea or not and am wondering if anyone can advise based on their experience. What can I expect to run differently in a Zone compared to physical? This cannot be a reccomended practice, but I have not found much saying it is not a viable option either.
I am considering moving the production to a T4 Solaris Zone as well to keep them the same, however, that possibly means dropping a server that still have some years remaining (yes, it could be used by something else..but maybe).
Is this a viable solution - hosting dev on virtual and prod on physical? what problems could I expect?
Thanks!