Quick start guide for Oracle on Solaris SPARC

This quick start guide, which is excerpted from the larger User Guide, is intended to provide you with a quick overview of working with Oracle database objects in the Delphix Engine. It does not cover advanced configuration options including Oracle RAC, Linking to Standby, or Best Practices for Performance. It assumes that you are working in a Lab/Dev setting and attempting to quickly test Delphix functionality. It assumes you will use the VMware Hypervisor.

Overview

In this guide, we will walk through deploying a Delphix Engine, configuring Oracle Source and Target environments on Solaris SPARC servers, creating a dSource, and provisioning a VDB.

The following diagram describes the Delphix topology for Oracle environments. It illustrates the recommended ports to be open from Delphix to remote services, to the Delphix Engine, and to the Source and Target Environments.

For this Quick Start Guide, you can ignore the following components: Validated Sync Host, Replicated Engine, and Delphix Masking Engine.

Deploy OVA on VMware

Use the Delphix-supplied OVA file to install the Delphix Engine. The OVA file is configured with many of the minimum system requirements. The underlying storage for the install is assumed to be redundant SAN storage.

1. Download the OVA file from https://download.delphix.com. You will need a support login from your sales team or a welcome letter.

   1. Navigate to the Delphix Product Releases/<Current Version>/Appliance Images page.

2. Login using the vSphere client to the vSphere server (or vCenter Server) where you want to install the Delphix Engine.

3. In the vSphere Client, click File.

4. Select Deploy OVA template.

5. Browse to the OVA file.

6. Click Next.

7. Select a hostname for the Delphix Engine. This hostname will also be used in configuring the Delphix Engine network.

8. Select the data center where the Delphix Engine will be located.

9. Select the cluster and the ESX host.

10. Select one (1) data store for the Delphix OS. This datastore can be thin-provisioned and must have enough free space to accommodate the 127GB comprising the Delphix operating system.

11. Select four (4) or more data stores for Database Storage for the Delphix Engine. The Delphix Engine will stripe all of the Database Storage across these VMDKs, so for optimal I/O performance, each VMDK must be equal in size and be configured Thick Provisioned - eager zeroed. Additionally, these VMDKs should be distributed as evenly as possible across all four SCSI I/O controllers.

12. Select the virtual network you want to use. If using multiple physical NICs for link aggregation, you must use vSphere NIC teaming. Do not add multiple virtual NICs to the Delphix Engine itself. The Delphix Engine should use a single virtual network. For more information, see Optimal Network Architecture for the Delphix Engine

13. Click Finish. The installation will begin and the Delphix Engine will be created in the location you specified.

14. Once the installation has completed, power on the Delphix Engine and proceed with the initial system configuration as described in Setting Up Network Access to the Delphix Engine

If your source database is 4 TB, you probably need 4 TB of storage for the Delphix Engine. Add at least 4 similarly sized data disks for Delphix VM e.g. for 4 TB create 4 VMDKs of 1 TB each.

For a full list of requirements and best practice recommendations, see Virtual Machine Requirements for VMware Platform

Setup network access to Delphix engine

1. Power on the Delphix Engine and open the Console.

2. Wait for the Delphix Management Service and Delphix Boot Service to come online. This might take up to 10 minutes during the first boot. Wait for the large orange box to turn green.

3. Press any key to access the sysadmin console.

4. Entersysadmin@SYSTEMfor the username andsysadminfor the password.

5. You will be presented with a description of available network settings and instructions for editing.

   CODE

   Delphix Engine Network Setup
   To access the system setup through the browser, the system must first be configured for networking in your
   environment. From here, you can configure the primary interface, DNS, hostname, and default route. When DHCP is
   configured, all other properties are derived from DHCP settings.
   
   To see the current settings, run "get." To change a property, run "set <property>=<value>." To commit your changes,
   run "commit." To exit this setup and return to the standard CLI, run "discard."
   
       defaultRoute    IP address of the gateway for the default route -- for example, "1.2.3.4."
   
       dhcp            Boolean value indicating whether DHCP should be used for the primary interface. Setting this value
                       to "true" will cause all other properties (address, hostname, and DNS) to be derived from the DHCP
                       response
       dnsDomain       DNS Domain -- for example, "delphix.com"
       dnsServers      DNS server(s) as a list of IP addresses -- for example, "1.2.3.4,5.6.7.8."
       hostname        Canonical system hostname, used in alert and other logs -- for example, "myserver"
       primaryAddress  Static address for the primary interface in CIDR notation -- for example, "1.2.3.4/22"
   Current settings:
       defaultRoute: 192.168.1.1
       dhcp: false
       dnsDomain: example.com
       dnsServers: 192.168.1.1
       hostname: Delphix
       primaryAddress: 192.168.1.100/24

6. Configure the hostname. If you are using DHCP, you can skip this step.

   CODE

   delphix network setup update *> set hostname=<hostname>

   Note: Use the same hostname you entered during the server installation

7. Configure DNS. If you are using DHCP, you can skip this step.

   CODE

   delphix network setup update *> set dnsDomain=<domain>
   delphix network setup update *> set dnsServers=<server1-ip>[,<server2-ip>,...]

8. Configure either a static or DHCP address.

   DHCP Configuration

   CODE

   delphix network setup update *> set dhcp=true

   Static Configuration

   CODE

   delphix network setup update *> set dhcp=false
   delphix network setup update *> set primaryAddress=<address>/<prefix-len>

   The static IP address must be specified in CIDR notation (for example, 192.168.1.2/24)

9. Configure a default gateway. If you are using DHCP, you can skip this step.

   CODE

   delphix network setup update *> set defaultRoute=<gateway-ip>

10. Commit your changes. Note that you can use thegetcommand prior to committing to verify your desired configuration.

    CODE

    delphix network setup update *> commit
    Successfully committed network settings. Further setup can be done through the browser at:
            http://<address>
    Type "exit" to disconnect, or any other commands to continue using the CLI.

11. Check that you can now access the Delphix Engine through a Web browser by navigating to the displayed IP address, or hostname if using DNS.

12. Exit setup.

    CODE

    delphix> exit

Setting up the Delphix engine

Once you setup the network access for Delphix Engine, enter Delphix Engine URL in your browser for server setup.

The welcome screen below will appear for you to begin your Delphix Engine setup.

The setup procedure uses a wizard process to take you through a set of configuration screens:

• Administrators

• Time

• Network

• Network Security

• Storage

• Outbound Connectivity

• Authentication

• Network Authorization

• Registration

• Summary

1. Connect to the Delphix Engine at http:///login/index.html#serverSetup. The Delphix setup application will launch when you connect to the server. Enter your sysadmin login credentials, which initially defaults to the username sysadmin, with the initial default password of sysadmin. On first login, you will be prompted to change the initial default password.

2. Click Next.

Administrators

The Delphix Engine supports two types of administrators:

• System Administrator (sysadmin) - this is the engine system administrator. The sysadmin password is defined here.

• Engine Administrator (admin) - this is typically a DBA who will administer all the data managed by the engine.

On the Administrators tab, you set up the sysadmin password by entering an email address and password. The details for the delphix_admin are displayed for reference.

The default domain user created on Delphix Engines is now admin instead of delphix_admin. When engines created before 5.3.1 are upgraded to 5.3.1 or later they will retain their old username 'delphix_admin'. To avoid complications Delphix recommends creating users with an admin role and then Disabling delphix_admin.

System time

Choose your option to setup system time in this section.

For a Quick Start, simply set the time and your timezone. You can change this later.

Network

The initial out-of-the-box network configuration in the OVA file is set to use a single VMXNET3 network adapter.

You've already configured this in the initial configuration. Delphix supports more advanced configurations, but you can enable those later.

Storage

You should see the data storage VMDKs or RDMs you created during the OVA installation. Click Next to configure these for data storage.

Outbound connectivity

Choose your options to configure outbound connectivity settings.

For a Quick Start, take the defaults. You can change this later.

Authentication

Choose your options to configure authentication services.

For a Quick Start, take the defaults. You can change this later.

Registration

If the Delphix Engine has access to the external Internet (either directly or through a web proxy), then you can auto-register the Delphix Engine:

1. Enter your Support username and Support password.

2. Click Register.

If external connectivity is not immediately available, you must perform manual registration.

1. Copy the Delphix engine registration code in one of two ways:

   1. Manually highlight the registration code and copy it to clipboard. Or,

   2. Click Copy registration Code to Clipboard.

2. Transfer the Delphix Engine's registration code to a workstation with access to the external network Internet. For example, you could e-mail the registration code to an externally accessible e-mail account.

3. On a machine with access to the external Internet, please use your browser to navigate to the Delphix Registration Portal at http://register.delphix.com

4. Login with your Delphix support credentials (username and password).

5. Paste the Registration code.

6. Click Register.

While your Delphix Engine will work without registration, we strongly recommend that you register each Delphix Engine as part of the setup. Failing to register the Delphix Engine will impact its supportability and security in future versions.

To regenerate the registration code for a Delphix Engine please refer to, Regenerating the Delphix Engine Registration Code. Delphix strongly recommends that you regenerate this code and re-register the engine regularly to maximize the Support Security of the Delphix Engine. Delphix recommends doing this every six months.

Summary

The setup procedure uses a wizard process to take you through a set of configuration screens:

• Administrators

• Time

• Network

• Network Security

• Storage

• Outbound Connectivity

• Authentication

• Network Authorization

• Registration

• Summary

1. Connect to the Delphix Engine at http:///login/index.html#serverSetup. The Delphix Setup application will launch when you connect to the server. Enter your sysadmin login credentials, which initially defaults to the username sysadmin, with the initial default password of sysadmin. On first login, you will be prompted to change the initial default password.

2. Click Next.

Requirements for Oracle hosts and databases

Oracle hosts and databases 

To begin using Oracle environments in Delphix, reference this article as a provided outline of the configuration requirements for the source and target hosts. 

On each host with Oracle, there must be an operating system user configured to the required specifications for Delphix, as explained in the table below. This user (i.e. delphix_os) can easily be created by using the createDelphixOSUser.sh script (located at the bottom of the page).

These requirements apply to both source and target environments. However, target environments have additional requirements which are detailed in the ‘Target Host Requirements’ section below.

Source host requirements

Additional requirements for RAC environments

If the source host is part of a RAC cluster, Delphix will attempt to use all nodes and crsctl for its operations. 

Masked Provisioning

Masked Provisioning is supported on Oracle RAC only when used with "script-based masking".

Auto-discovery requirements

The preferred way to find source databases it to allow Delphix to automatically discover your Oracle Homes and Databases by examining the inventory and oratab files and the listener setup. Successful autodiscovery requires read access to these and related files.

In  most  environments, delphix_os group membership is sufficient to perform auto-discovery.

However, if you have overridden Oracle's group permission structure, you may need to modify privileges to allow auto-discovery.

Source database requirements

For each source database, there are specific configurations required for Delphix to ingest data.

Operating system specific requirements

Solaris

On a Solaris host, gtar must be installed. Delphix uses gtar to handle long file names when extracting the toolkit files into the toolkit directory on a Solaris host. The gtar binary should be installed in one of the following directories:

• / bin:/usr

• / bin:/sbin:/usr

• / sbin:/usr/contrib

• / bin:/usr/sfw

• / bin:/opt/sfw

• / bin:/opt/csw/bin

Additional target/staging host requirements

This topic describes the user privileges and environment requirements that are required for Oracle target hosts and databases collectively referred to as target environments. 

These are in addition to the ‘Oracle Hosts and Database Requirements’ called out above.

Deploy hostchecker to validate Delphix requirements

Delphix has developed a hostchecker script that contains standardized checks for source and target hosts - these checks generally fall into three buckets 

• OS and Host permissions/access

• Network Port Checks

• DB-specific functionality

OS and Host permissions/access and network port checks can (and should) be performed prior to Delphix installation to ensure a smooth deployment.

Each DB should have a specifically associated hostchecker - you can find detailed documentation on the DB-specific hostchecker page.

1. Download the appropriate HostChecker tarball for your engine from https://download.delphix.com/ Tarballs follow the naming convention "hostchecker_<OS>_<processor>.tar". For example, if you are validating a linux x86 host you should download the hostchecker_linux_x86.tar tarball. 

2. Create a working directory and extract the HostChecker files from the HostChecker tarball.

   CODE

   mkdir dlpx-host-checker
   cd dlpx-host-checker/
   tar -xf hostchecker_linux_x86.tar

3. Run the sh script contained within:

   CODE

   sh hostchecker.sh

   This will extract the JDK included in the tarball (if necessary) and invoke the HostChecker.

   CODE

   ora10205@bbdhcp:/home/ora10205/hostchecker-> sh hostchecker.sh
   Extracting the JDK from the tarball jdk-6u45-linux-i586.tar.gz.

   Warning:
   Don't run as root
   Do not run the HostChecker as root; this will cause misleading or incorrect results from many of the checks.

4. Select which checks you want to run.
   Note:
   Run Tests without the Interface

   You can also run checks without spawning the interface. Enter --help to get a list of arguments you can pass to the HostChecker.

5. As the checks are made, enter the requested arguments.

6. Read the output of the check. The general format is that severity increases as you scroll down the output. First comes informational output, then warnings, then errors.

   Note:
   Internal Errors

   If you see a message that starts with Internal Error, forward it to Delphix Support immediately. This represents a potential bug in the HostChecker, and not necessarily a problem with your environment.

7. Error or warning messages will explain any possible problems and how to address them. Resolve the issues that the HostChecker describes. Do not be surprised or undo your work if more errors appear the next time you run HostChecker, because the error you just fixed may have been masking other problems.

8. Repeat steps 3 - 7 until all the checks return no errors or warnings.

Adding Oracle source and target environments

Follow the steps below to add both source and target environments for Oracle.

1. Login to the Delphix management application.

2. Click Manage.

3. Select Environments.

4. Click the Plus icon next to Environments.

5. In the Add environment dialog, select Unix/Linux.

6. Select Standalone host or Oracle cluster, depending on the type of environment you are adding.

7. For standalone Oracle environments enter the Host IP address.

8. For Oracle RAC environments, enter the Node address and Cluster home.

9. Enter an optional Name for the environment.

10. Enter the SSH port. The default value is 22.

11. Enter a Username for the environment. See Requirements for Oracle Target Hosts and Databases for more information on the required privileges for the environment user.

12. Select a Login Type: — Username and Password - enter the OS username and password, or — Username and Public Key - enter the OS username. — Password Vault - select from an existing Enterprise Password Vault 
    Note:
    Using public key authentication

    If you want to use public-key encryption for logging into your Unix-based environment:

    1. Select Public key for the Login type.

    2. Click View public key.

    3. Copy the public key that is displayed, and append it to the end of your ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file. If this file does not exist, you will need to create it.

       1. Run chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys to allow only the file's owner to read and write to it (make sure the file is owned by the user).

       2. Run chmod 755 ~ to restrict access to the user's home directory so no other user may write to it.

       3. Run chmod 700 ~/.ssh so that others cannot write to it. The ~/.ssh directory cannot be writable by group or other users. Otherwise, authentication will fail.

    The public key needs to be added only once per user and per environment.
    

13. For Password login, click Verify credentials to test the username and password.

14. Enter a Toolkit path. The toolkit directory stores scripts used for Delphix Engine operations, and should have a persistent working directory rather than a temporary one. The toolkit directory will have a separate subdirectory for each database instance. The toolkit path must have 0770 permissions and at least 345MB of free space.

15. Click Submit.

Linking an Oracle data source

1. Login to the Delphix management application.

2. Navigate to Manage > Datasets.

3. Click the plus icon and select Add dSource.

4. In the Add dSource wizard, select the source database with the correct environment user-specified.

5. Enter your login credentials for the source database and click Verify credentials. If you are linking a mounted standby, Click Next. See the topics under Linking Oracle Physical Standby Databases for more information about how the Delphix Engine uses non-SYS login credentials.

6. Enter a name and select a group for your dSource. Adding a dSource to a dataset group lets you set Delphix Domain user permissions for that database and its objects, such as snapshots. See the topics under Users and Groups for more information.

7. Select the Data management settings needed. For more information, visit Data Management Settings for Oracle Data Sources

8. Assign existing policies to the new dSource. New policies can be created and associated later.

9. Enter any scripts that should be run using the Hooks page.

10. Review the dSource Configuration and Data Management information, and then click Submit.

Once the action to add a dSource has been submitted, the Delphix Engine will initiate a DB_Link job to create the dSource. If the Load Immediately option was selected in the data management page a DB_Sync job will also be executed to ingest data from the source, otherwise, this first DB_Sync job will run as per the associated SnapSync policy. 

When the jobs have successfully completed, the database icon will change to a dSource icon on the Environments > Databases screen, and the dSource will be added to the list of Datasets under its assigned group.

Provisioning an Oracle VDB

1. Login to the Delphix management application.

2. Select Manage > Datasets.

3. In the Datasets panel on the left-hand side, click the group containing the dSource or VDB from which you want to provision.

4. Click the TimeFlow tab.

5. Select a  snapshot.

   Note:
   You can take a snapshot of the dSource from which to provision. To do so, click the Camera icon.

6. Optional: Select

   

   to open LogSync timeline.

7. 

   Select

   

   to provision from a point of time within a snapshot. You can select by date or time.

8. Click

   

    and the Provision VDB wizard will open:

   1. For Oracle single instance the fields Installation home, Database unique name, SID, Database name, Mount base, and Environment user will auto-populate with information from the parent.

   2. For Oracle RAC the fields Installation home, Database unique name, SID, Database name, Mount base, Instance number, Instance name and Environment user will auto-populate with information from the parent.

      Note:
      Editable Fields in the VDB Provision Wizard

      The following fields are editable:

      Installation Home (need to have an additional compatible target)

      Database Unique Name

      SID

      Database Name

      Mount Base

      Instance Number (RAC Only)

      Instance Name (RAC Only)

9. If you need to add a new target environment for the VDB, click the green Plus icon next to the Filter target field, and follow the instructions in Adding an Oracle Single Instance or RAC Environment

10. Review the information for Installation home, Database unique name, SID, and Database name. Edit as necessary.

11. Review the Mount base and Environment user. Edit as necessary. The Environment User must have permission to write to the specified Mount Base, as described in Requirements for Oracle Target Hosts and Databases. You may also want to create a new writeable directory in the target environment with the correct permissions and use that as the Mount Base for the VDB.

12. Select Provide privileged credentials if you want to use login credentials on the target environment that are different from those associated with the Environment user.

13. Click Advanced to customize the VDB online log size and log groups, archivelog mode, local_listener parameter (TCP/IPC protocol addresses), additional VDB configuration settings or file mappings, or custom environment variables. For more information, see Customizing Oracle VDB Configuration Settings, Customizing VDB File Mappings, and Customizing Oracle VDB Environment Variables
    If you are provisioning to a target environment that is running a Linux OS, you will need to compare the SGA_TARGET configuration parameter with the shared memory size in /dev/shm. The shared memory configured on the target host should match the SGA memory target. You can check the Linux OS shared memory size with the command df -k /dev/shm and the SGA_TARGET configuration parameter by opening the Advanced settings and then finding the value for SGA_TARGET under VDB Configuration templates.

14. Click Next.

15. Select a Target group for the VDB.

16. Enable Auto VDB Restart to allow the VDB to be automatically restarted when the target host reboot is detected by Delphix.

17. Click Next.

18. Select a Snapshot policy for the VDB.

19. Click Next.

20. Enter any operations that should be run at Hooks during the provisioning process. Click Next.

21. Click Submit.

When provisioning starts, you can review the progress of the job by selecting the VDB and clicking on the Status tab, or by selecting Manage/Dashboards and viewing the Job history panel. Alternatively, you could see this in the Actions sidebar. When provisioning is complete, the VDB will be included in the group you designated and listed in the  Datasets panel. If you select the VDB in the  Datasets panel and click the Configuration tab, you can view information about the database and its Data Management settings.

Next steps

Congratulations! You've provisioned your first virtual database!

You should attempt some simple functional tests with your application. You can connect your app to the VDB using standard TNS/JDBC techniques. Delphix has already registered the VDB for you on the Target listener.

We suggest the following next steps:

• dropping a table and using the VDB Rewind feature to test recovery of your VDB

• Take a snapshot of your dSource and Refresh your VDB to quickly get fresh production data

• Provision a new VDB from your VDB to test sharing data quickly with other teams

• Mask your new VDB to protect sensitive data. Provision new VDBs from that Masked VDB to quickly provide safe data to development and QA teams.