List of Arguments

Separate Application and Database or run both on same Server? (Application / DB split yes or no?) Version 1.0
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Copyright 2008 Mercury Consulting Ltd. Published in July 2008

Conventions
The following typographical conventions are used in this book: Constant width Used for source code Constant width bold user input [] optional elements {} mandatory choice | separates choices

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Table of Contents
Summary..................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Details......................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 License related Topics................................................................................................................................................................ 5 Technical Topics........................................................................................................................................................................ 6 Different Operating Systems.................................................................................................................................................... 6 Network............................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Hardware.............................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Operations ........................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Other................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Scalability............................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Appendix A - Server Class / Category......................................................................................................................................... 10 How Mercury Consulting Ltd. can help you .............................................................................................................................. 11 Our Services ....................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Our Products....................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Our free Whitepapers............................................................................................................................................................ 15

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Summary
There exists no general valid answer to the question if database and application should be separated on different physical servers or share the same physical server. Trends as "Server Consolidation" or "Multi-Tier-Architecture" provide arguments for each side the best solution depends on the individual combination of several factors which are listed in tabular form. In case that the per-CPU software license costs are magnitudes higher than the hardware costs, the the decision is very likely driven by costs rather than based on the companies standard / reference architecture. In case that an old or not popular application software requires a specific operating system or an old version, the possibility to run the database on a separated server on your strategic operating system can be a strong argument for the separation. As database CPU-licenses are very expensive, the newest, fastest CPU's can reduce the number of required database CPU's and thus reduce the license costs; but the newest CPU's usually requires a very new operating system version which might still not be supported by your application vendor. Running the database on an separates server circumvents this limitation. The "virtualized architecture" will be somewhere between the two base architectures. This table provides a high level overview, more specific tables in the main section drill down to a more detailed level. Architecture Topic
Application and Database sharing same physical server (not virtualized or partitioned) Application and Database on separated physical servers

License costs for database, application server / middle ware, application Different operating systems Number of Servers (installation, maintenance, rackspace, energy, operating system licenses, backup licenses) Total number of CPU's Server Class

In worst case you pay for all CPU's in the server the database license and the application (server) license. not possible 1

In many cases big savings

possible 2

equal or higher more likelihood to avoid the higher server classes local interprocess communication or local TCP/IP communication usually TCP/IP + network + switch

Connectivity between database and application

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Details
License related Topics
Example: Single-Server configuration with 8 CPU's compared with Split-Architecture with 4 CPU's on the database server and 6 CPU's on the application server.
Topic Application and Database sharing same physical server, not virtualized or partitioned. Application and Database running on different virtual or in other way partitioned servers on same physical server Application and Database on separated physical servers

Operating System License + Support Software for Virtualization, Partitioning or Zoning Database Software Licenses Cost for CPU-Licenses and yearly repeating support and maintenance contracts for database server software Application Software Licenses Cost for CPU-Licenses and yearly repeating support and maintenance contracts for Application and/or Application Server Software Total CPU-Licenses Advanced Filesystem Options

For 1 server (but might be more expensive because of more CPU's or higher server class)

For 1 server + dependent on operating system this might be a standard feature or feature at extra costs or an additional product

For 2 servers

for all CPU's (example: 8) Note: Dependent on number of CPU's you might need to purchase more expensive "Enterprise" or "Data Centre" (example: 8)

depends on vendor's license policy

only for CPU's in database server (example: 4)

depends on vendor's license policy

only for CPU's in the application server (example: 6)

16 (8 database + 8 application (-server) Might be more expensive on a server with more CPU's or in a higher server class.

depends on vendor's license policy depends on vendor's license policy

10 (4 database + 6 application (-server) You might decide to reduce costs for additional licenses for advanced filesystem products / options by using those for the database server only. Limited to database server

License for Database Backup Agent (in addition to standard backup license)

Might be more expensive on a server with more CPU's or in a higher server class.

depends on vendor's license policy

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Technical Topics Different Operating Systems

Topic Application and Database sharing same physical server, not virtualized or partitioned. Application and Database running on different virtual or in other way partitioned servers on same physical server Application and Database on separated physical servers

Operating System Dependencies

The operating system and version must be supported by database vendor and application vendor.

The list of operating systems is limited to those supporting your hardware / CPU-type.

You might decide to use even different hardware / CPU types for application and database. Even if your application vendor supports only one or very limited number of operating systems, you can continue to run the database on your favourite operating system. Newest CPU's with highest clock speed require often a very new operating system version or patch level which is usually supported very soon by database server vendors but not by all application vendors. When using same operating system , you still can operate the database on a different version than the application.

Network
A real load test is the most reliable method to identify the impact of the network between 2 different physical servers in best case you might not see any performance difference on application level.
Topic Application and Database sharing same physical server, not virtualized or partitioned. Application and Database running on different virtual or in other way partitioned servers on same physical server Application and Database on separated physical servers

Connectivity between Application and Database.

Local Interprocess-Communication possible.

Network Connection required (typical TCP/IP1)

The processing of the TCP/IP stack is continuously improved and the CPU-overhead required is therefore decreasing.
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Hardware
Topic Application and Database sharing same physical server, not virtualized or partitioned. Application and Database running on different virtual or in other way partitioned servers on same physical server Application and Database on separated physical servers

Administration Overhead Total number of CPU's

1 Server 8 CPU

2 servers instead of 1 can be higher 4 CPU's Database server + 6 CPU's Application Server 10 CPU's total You might still remain in the smaller server category (e.g. "Work group" servers). it depends 2 small / medium servers of "Work group" class might be cheaper or more expensive than one server of "High-End" / "Enterprise" class.

Server Class / Category

You might need to purchase a bigger model or server of a bigger class.

Hardware Costs

High Availability (HA) considerations

8 CPU's Main Server + 8 CPU's Standby Server 16 CPU's Database server

8 CPU's Main Server + 8 CPU's Standby Server 16 CPU's Database server

4 6 6 16

CPU's CPU's CPU's CPU's

Database server + Application Server Standby Server total

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Operations
Topic Application and Database sharing same physical server, not virtualized or partitioned. Application and Database running on different virtual or in other way partitioned servers on same physical server Application and Database on separated physical servers

Application server needs to be rebooted.

Database will be shut down too. (And database cache will be lost too.)

depends on actual circumstances

You can keep the database running. This can be an advantage if you have direct database connections e.g. from interfaces and users connecting in client/server mode. You keep the database cache warm. 2 servers instead of 1

Administration Overhead

1 Server

Other

Topic

Application and Database sharing same physical server, not virtualized or partitioned.

Application and Database running on different virtual or in other way partitioned servers on same physical server

Application and Database on separated physical servers

The application or your customizations utilises a database feature to read from / write to nondatabase files (e.g. "utl_file") which need to be accessible by the application Kernel Parameters

not an issue.

You might require a NFS- or other shared filesystem for those directories

cannot be optimized

Can be optimized for each server.

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Scalability
Most servers allow adding of CPU up to a server-specific limit, e.g. 2, 4, 8 or 16 CPU's. When your load increases over time and the last free CPU-sockets are filling up, you have following options:

Advantage Replace the existing CPU's with newer, faster CPU's In case of CPU-based licenses the number of CPU's stays constant Simple

Disadvantage or other comments Newer CPU's might require newer operating system version. You need to purchase more licenses If the bigger server is classified in a higher server class, you should read Appendix A with some comments about server classes.

Replace server with a bigger server which supports more CPU's

Add one more server. If you are currently running database and application on one server, the split should not be too difficult.

All advantages described before for the split-server architecture

The simple split from application and database on same server to 2 servers requires ome configuration changes, but those are usually well known and well documented. However, distributing the application across different servers, or the database across different servers isn't as simple as splitting application and database if the application was not explicitly designed for horizontal scalability.

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Appendix A - Server Class / Category

High-End / Enterprise Servers offer many advantages, especially in the areas reliability, redundant components, scalability and flexibility. If you are in the lucky situation of having experienced staff skilled in utilizing all the advantages and your standard architecture to use only partitions within enterprise server class hardware, you know the and benefit from those advantages and costs and you don't need to read this table. But if you are considering to to introduce the first time a server of "Enterprise Computing" class, you should be aware about a few challenges of introducing this server class: In addition to the immediately visible costs (hardware and yearly maintenance) following factors should be considered:
Topic Internal Experience

We are already using this high end server class and just need to add a partition / cell to it. This would be our first installation of this server class. We have <xx> employees with more than 2 / 5 years experience on this server type.

Experience of Service Provider hosting / operating the Servers

The Service Provider employs <xx> employees with more than 2 years experience on this server type, and <yy> employees with more than 5 years experience on this server type. If the servers are in the customer's (your) data centre but operated by service provider: From those employees above there are <z> employees working on those servers. The Vendor employs in your country / city <xx> employees with more than 2 years experience on this server type, and <yy> employees with more than 5 years experience on this server type. In case that your data centre is in a very remote / small country and you don't allow remote access then you might expect travel costs (and delay by visa procedures) for vendor's global support staff coming on site. Are the costs for support- / consulting staff in the high end server class the same or higher? Even if vendor or service provider denies this, there is still the risk that for the high end server class all available staff is in a more senior job level and for this reason more expensive. Trying to hire employees with hands on experience in the highest server class is more cumbersome, and those you find will apply for more senior positions.

Vendor's Staff experience in your city / in your country

Costs for Experts

Employees Cheaper "Work group"-License types for operating system software are not available on high end servers. Cheaper "Work group"-License types for cluster software are not available on high end servers. Cheaper "Work group"-License types for database server software are not available on high end servers. Availability of spare parts for all components

. All spare parts are / will remain guaranteed on stock within the same city / within a region of <xxx> kilometres. ... Vendor promised overnight shipment (by air). ... Customs clearance usually takes <xx> days / <yy> weeks. ... All spare parts are within the country / customs union.

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How Mercury Consulting Ltd. can help you

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This vendor- and operating system independent checklist deals with "big picture" and helps to evaluate all potential impact of upgrading a server, e.g. adding CPU's, replacing CPU's with faster CPU's , Operating System Upgrade, adding Storage or replacing a server with a newer, bigger model Purpose of this document is to support The decision making process of "should we upgrade now or later or not at all?" The impact analysis identification of all internal and external dependencies. The gathering of requirements for the upgrade. The selection of the best upgrade approach ("In-Place Upgrade" or "New Installation"). Providing input required for the Upgrade Planning.

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Database Specific Products

Product Database SLA / OLA Benefit If a Service Level Manager needs to offer to Business a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for an End-to-End IS/ITService, he sign this SLA only after he arranged within IS/IT for each system or component used to provide this service an Operations Level Agreement (OLA) with the providing team or department. This document provides a template for such an Operations Level Agreement (OLA) for Oracle Databases containing the agreed values and for QA-purpose also the measures implemented to reduce the likelihood of violations of those agreed values. It does not only deal with availability, but contains also comprehensive service catalogue of advanced DBA services and a template for the Service Level Reporting (SLR). Database Health Check - Part 1: Stability Assessment Stability Assessment of your Oracle Database. Most Application- and Database-Crashes can be avoided when detecting early indicators and reacting to them. Be Proactive - Check Now! DBA and Application Support: Job Description and Self Assessment Checklist to ensure that all 60 DBA-duties are assigned: System DBA, Development DBA and Application DBA versus Application Support If you have just a job role "DBA", but not a dedicated job role "Application DBA" those 19 duties must be explicitly assigned to either "Application Support" or to the "DBA" - otherwise they might not be executed! Detect unassigned tasks before an auditor reports them ! This product addresses disputes between System DBA and Application Support (or, if existing, dedicated Application DBA) regarding the responsibility for the application's database objects.

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Our free Whitepapers

http://www.mercury-consulting-ltd.com/wp/whitepapers.html Whitepaper The Importance of Application Level Monitoring. Benefit and Description Keeping your applications free from invalid objects is an important task, but does not guarantee error free operations. This free whitepaper explains the difference between "Application Level Monitoring" to "Database Monitoring" and "System/Server/OS"-Monitoring. Understanding the topic archivelog volume can avoid unexpected troubles when applying changes or conducting upgrades. This awareness paper explains why Change Managers must ask questions about the archivelog volume created during changes and upgrades and why application support staff and not only the DBA - must understand this topic. An awareness paper for Operations Managers and Application Support describing the problems and potential risks caused by invalid objects in an Oracle Database. A decision support paper visualizing the pro's and contras on a single page in tabular form and evaluating the arguments. An "Awareness Paper" for Application Support / Application Operations, Operations Managers and Change Managers to avoid unplanned outages. This white paper discusses several pro- and contra- arguments if you should separate application and database on different servers or not. Although this topic is not new you will be surprised about some of the arguments.

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