Oracle APEX on AWS

I only know of one documented public case study, but it is documented very well!  While at Oracle, I co-authored the book Migrating to the Cloud.  The Oracle partner JSA2 (http://www.jsa2.com) authored a chapter (13) in the book which goes into extensive detail on moving a Powerbuilder/Oracle/on premise application to APEX/Oracle/AWS.  The book can be found here:  http://www.amazon.com/Migrating-Cloud-Oracle-Client-Modernization/dp/1597496472/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355941590&sr=8-1&keywords=migrating+to+the+cloud

AWS Partner Network Portal

AWS Partner Portal can be found here:
https://apn-portal.full.cs8.force.com/home/home.jsp

AWS EBS cross region migration

AWS offers the capability to migrate an EBS volume from one region to another.  The feature applies to any application or database data:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ebs-copy-snapshot.html

This can be used to move Oracle database EBS snapshot from one region to another for HA and DR.

Oracle Enterprise Manager and AWS EC2 instance restart

Question: An EC2 restart causes OEM to loss IP address of OEM management console - Is there a way to attach a static IP address to an EC2 instance instead the default o

ec2 IP.compute-1.amazonaws.com Response: If you assign an Elastic IP address to the EC2  instance before installing OEM, then you should have no problem.     Once the EC2 instance has been created (without an EIP) and  OEM has been installed there is no  other way to do it except to use this workaround -  http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2012/12/oracle-enterprise-manager-on-ec2-ip.html

Cloudwatch and benchmarking

Question: Can Cloudwatch provide enough metrics for an Oracle DB benchmarks? What are other tools that can be used?

Response: Cloud really does not provide much in terms of Oracle DB metrics.  Oracle AWR is the best option.  There is also a new OEM AWS plug for AWS:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/grid-control/downloads/oem-aws-plugin-1852739.html

Of course, there is the performance pack that is part of OEM.

Oracle on AWS - EBS mirroring

Question RAID and EBS Raid 1 - Does AWS EBS provide recovery from an EBS volume since the data is automatically mirrored by AWS?

Response:  It depends on whether  you want control over the recovery for mirroring.   Using the built in mirroring means you do not control the mirroring and therefore when recovery happens.  Other options include using Oracle Standby DB/DataGuard, GoldenGate or even EBS snapshots.

Oracle Database PIOPS and striping

A common question on PIOPS and striping:

Question: Striping with PIOPS - Is it necessary to stripe data when using PIOPS?

Response: It depends on how many PIOPS you are looking to achieve.  Since max PIOPS is per volume is 2000 PIOPS, if you need more then 2000 PIOPS then you would need to stripe.  Less than 2000 PIOPS then striping is not required. 

Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c AWS plug in

There is now a plug in for Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) so OEM 12c can be used to monitor Oracle technology running on AWS:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/grid-control/downloads/oem-aws-plugin-1852739.html

This plug in uses AWS CloudWatch metrics and can monitor EBS, EC2 and RDS. 

Microsoft hourly pricing

announced this week -https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/search/ref=srh_chd_children_2649276011?ie=UTF8&node=2649276011&searchTerms=microsoft

Gettings started with Oracle DB on AWS

Here are some links to get you started with Oracle database on AWS (EC2 and RDS):

• Oracle on AWS FAQ - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/cloud/faq-098970.html
• Landing page on AWS - http://aws.amazon.com/oracle/
• Oracle Amazon Machine Imagines - https://aws.amazon.com/amis?ami_provider_id=4&selection=ami_provider_id.  You can find the latest OEL AMIs, for OEL 5.9 and 6.4, at the bottom of this web page: http://aws.amazon.com/oracle/        
• Marketplace AMIs - Can be found here:  https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/search/results/ref=srh_navgno_search_box?page=1&searchTerms=oracle+database+12c
• AWS EC2 Instances (you manage the database) - http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/
• AWS EC2 Pricing - http://aws.amazon.com/pricing/ec2/
• AWS Pricing calculator - http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/calc5.html
• AWS RDS (managed database) - http://aws.amazon.com/rds/oracle/
• 10g Database - This can only be run on EC2 as RDS does not support 10g.
• Licensing - http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/cloud-licensing-070579.pdf
• AWS RDS limitations - http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/Concepts.DBEngine.Oracle.html
• Download and use the Oracle Database on AWS reference implementation - Oracle Database 11g on Amazon EC2 Implementation Guide
• Review the presentations here - http://www.slideshare.net/tomlaszewski

Oracle WebLogic clustering

Active/active high availability with Oracle Weblogic on AWS EC2 can be done with Oracle WebLogic Server clustering.  You must use unicast as multicast is not supported on AWS.

Copying 1 TB of data from on premise RDBMS to AWS/EC2

I often get asked how long it will take to transmit a 1 TB database (assumes that the database is actually 1 TB in size and not just allocated at 1 TB). Elapsed time is going to depend on many factors: speed of connection, compression used (if any), can load be done in parallel etc.  The fastest load times will happen using AWS import/export (http://aws.amazon.com/importexport/ ).  The next fastest will be using AWS Direct Connect (http://aws.amazon.com/directconnect). Direct Connect provides speeds of 1 Gbps to 10Gbps.  Using a 1 Gbps line, it would take about 3-4 hours (here is a good site: http://fasterdata.es.net/fasterdata-home/requirements-and-expectations/).    Assuming an internet connection speed of 100 Mbps (100Base-T connection) it would take about a day to transfer using a traditional connection to AWS/EC2  Both DirectConnect and Import/export provide a secure method of transfer. 

AWS Provisioned I/Os

Provisioned IOPS volumes are designed to deliver within 10% of the provisioned IOPS performance 99.9% of the time. Therefore, PIOPS are very good choice when running RDBMS systems like Oracle on EC2 or RDS.