Deployment for IBM cloud

Overview

This article covers the virtual machine requirements, including memory and data storage, for the deployment of the Delphix Engine on IBM Cloud. Once the requirements listed on this page are reviewed, refer to the next articles on GCP deployment:

Delphix disk storage capabilities remain seamlessly operable. There are no additional limitations to your storage, unless otherwise imposed by the [respective] Hypervisor or Cloud environment.

Supported profiles

The following is a list of profiles that are supported to deploy Delphix on IBM Cloud.

Requirements

Notes

Memory instance families.

The minimum requirements are listed below:

8vCPUs minimum
64GB RAM minimum
10Gbps min (25Gbps recommended)
Processors: Intel or AMD (No ARM)
Storage
- SSD or NVMe (No HDD)

Recommended instance families:

mx2

The Delphix Engine most closely resembles a storage appliance and performs best when provisioned using a storage-optimized profile.
Larger profiles provide more CPU, which can prevent resource shortfalls under high I/O throughput conditions.
Larger profiles also provide more memory, which the Delphix Engine uses to cache database blocks. More memory will provide better read performance.

Information on IBM Cloud instances

Network configuration

Requirements

Notes

Virtual server instances

Deploy the Delphix Engine and all of the source and target environments in the same VPC network.
When adding environments to the Delphix Engine, use the host’s VPC IP addresses.

Security configuration

The default security group will only open port 22 for SSH access. The security group must be modified to allow access to all of the networking ports used by the Delphix Engine and the various source and target engines.
See Network performance configuration options for information about network performance tuning.
See General network and connectivity requirements for information about specific port configurations.
Reference: IBM cloud security and compliance documentation

Port Requirements

Using the Delphix Engine for OCI will require connections to source and target database servers. Such connections require various ports to be open, enabling communications. For a detailed list of the network and port requirements, click the link that corresponds with the relevant database platform.

General storage configuration

Requirements

Notes

General storage configuration

Delphix recommends using storage disks that in sum, have enough storage and IOPS/throughput for your data and performance requirements. Planning ahead for the use of multiple storage disks for the Delphix File System (DxFS) is recommended as it will facilitate growing and shrinking DxFS more easily in the future should your storage needs change. If using multiple storage disks for DxFS, Delphix recommends using equally sized storage disks. Please consult your cloud provider’s storage best practices for additional recommendations.
Allocate initial storage equal to the size of the physical source database storage. For high redo rates and/or high DB change rates, allocate an additional 10-20 %.
Add storage when storage capacity approaches 30% free.
When adding additional disks to the block storage pool, storage device initialization will not occur since it is not required on this cloud.
Reference: IBM block storage documentation

Additional IBM configuration notes

Expandable volume is a beta feature that is available for evaluation and testing purposes. This feature is available in the US South, US East, London, and France regions. Contact an IBM Sales representative if interested in getting access at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-expanding-block-storage-volumes .
After performing an “online” resize/expansion of a storage volume using IBM Cloud tools, then use the Delphix sysadmin interface to “Expand” the storage device; otherwise, the newly allocated storage space, from the resize/expansion, will not be used.
Resize/expansion of a storage volume using IBM Cloud is not supported while the Delphix engine is in a stopped state.
Removing a storage volume should be done while the machine is running. First use the Delphix sysadmin CLI interface to “Unconfigure” the storage device, then remove it from IBM Cloud.