AWS NYC Summit July

Join me at the the AWS NYC Summit as I co-present the Cloud migration session from 2-3 PM this Thursday July 9th.

http://aws.amazon.com/summits/new-york/sessions/

Cloud Migration, Application Modernization and Security for Partners

As AWS continues to expand, enterprise customers are increasingly looking to our partner ecosystem to assist in migrating their workloads to the cloud. This session describes the challenges, lessons learned, and best practices for large-scale application migrations. We will use real examples from our consulting partners and AWS Professional Services to illustrate how to move workloads to the cloud while modernizing the associated applications to take advantage of the unique benefits of AWS. We will also dive into how to use an array of AWS services and features to improve customers' security posture as they migrate and once they are up and running in the cloud.

Level: Introductory

AWS SF Summit 2015 migration sessions

Here are the AWS SF 2015 Summit decks and video replays:
1. AWS Cloud Transformation Framework:
http://www.slideshare.net/AmazonWebServices/application-portfolio-migration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FjCMWlskMU&index=11&list=PLhr1KZpdzukeD0iBeDI9WqZLYtuaFaaGc
The CAF white paper serves as the foundation for this session: http://d0.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/aws_cloud_adoption_framework.pdf 

2. AWS application modernization with a focus on security:
http://www.slideshare.net/AmazonWebServices/cloud-migration-application-modernization-and-security-for-partners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpeV4OqB6Us&index=26&list=PLhr1KZpdzukeD0iBeDI9WqZLYtuaFaaGc

3. AWS Partner session:
http://www.slideshare.net/AmazonWebServices/implementing-service-oriented-architecture

All sessions can be found on Slideshare and Youtube here:
http://www.slideshare.net/AmazonWebServices/tag/2015sfsummit?adbsc=awssummit2015_20150411_43646046&adbid=586959582653648896&adbpl=tw&adbpr=66780587
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhr1KZpdzukeD0iBeDI9WqZLYtuaFaaGc&adbsc=awssummit2015_20150411_43648896&adbid=586713471154159616&adbpl=tw&adbpr=66780587

AWS Migration Sessions

Join me at these two sessions in San Francisco.

April 8th in SF @ Moscone 

Breakout Sessions 1:00 - 1:50 

Application Portfolio Migration 

Migrating large fleets of legacy applications to AWS cloud infrastructure requires careful planning, since each phase needs to balance risk tolerance against the speed of migration.

Through participation in many large-scale migration engagements with customers, AWS Professional Services has developed a set of successful best practices, tools, and techniques that help migration factories optimize speed of delivery and success rate. In this session, we cover the complete lifecycle of an application portfolio migration with special emphasis on how to organize and conduct the assessment and how to identify elements that can benefit from cloud architecture.

http://aws.amazon.com/summits/san-francisco/enterprise/sessions

April 9th in SF @ Moscone 

Breakout Sessions 2:00 - 3:00

Cloud Migration, Application Modernization and Security for Partners

As AWS continues to expand, enterprise customers are increasingly looking to our partner ecosystem to assist in migrating their workloads to the cloud. This session describes the challenges, lessons learned and best practices for large scale application migrations. We will use real examples from our consulting partners and AWS Professional Services to illustrate how to move workloads to the cloud while modernizing the associated applications to take advantage of AWS’ unique benefits. We will also dive into how to use an array of AWS services and features to improve a customer’s security posture as they are migrating and once they are up and running in the cloud.

http://aws.amazon.com/summits/san-francisco/

Migrating to AWS : Amazon.com

Nice session on how Amazon.com has migrated several different types of workloads to AWS:

1. Rehost - Amazon.com web site : Details on an existing workload migrated to AWS.  'Classic' web site migration of web application to AWS.

2. Rearchitecture  - Database migration : Migrating application data to AWS from a traditional data store to AWS is way to reduce costs.  This use cases uses an Information Lifecycle approach to moving data off of a live production databases to S3. 

3. Replace - Application replacement : Deprecation of an order system, and implementing the new order system on AWS.

4. Green field : Using AWS for development of a new video service used internally at Amazon.

The video goes into details on how AWS can reduce costs, improve development productivity, enable elastic infrastructure, increase scalability, and improve high availability. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f45Uo5rw6YY

Accenture AWS re:Invent Enterprise Migrations Session

Accenture migrations at scale presentation at AWS re:Invent 2014:
accenture-reinvent-breakout-session-deck-migration-to-cloud-v3-aws-template-final-cs

AWS access key rotation

AWS supports multiple concurrent access keys and certificates. With this feature, customers can rotate keys and certificates into and out of operation on a regular basis without any downtime to their application.

Cloud migration methodology

Here is a Chapter 3 of the Migrating to the Cloud book I co-authored  :
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/cloudcomp/migrating-to-the-cloud-chap-3-495856.pdf

Oracle APEX on AWS

Oracle Application Express (APEX), a feature of the Oracle Database 11g, combines rapid web application development with the power of the Oracle database.  Application Builder features an easy-to-use browser-based interface which enables developers and non-programmers to develop and deploy data driven web applications in very little time. 

Oracle Application Express doesn’t depend on any client software for developing or deploying web applications. Simple architecture, and browser-based features make the transition for developers and end-users seamless- simply provide the URL for the cloud environment.

Oracle APEX is made for the cloud. It contains cloud development environment, built-in multi-tenancy capabilities, and end-to-end disk to application management and migration for high availability and DR purposes.  Disk-to-application management and migration allows for the entire system to be viewed as one integrated unit, which makes it easy to manage, provision, and monitor the database and application as one unit. 

The multi-tenant capabilities of Oracle Application Express allow multiple users and their associated applications to co-exist within one Oracle Database, minimizing cost. Only one instance is needed and users work in a dedicated work area called a workspace. An added advantage, when you create a database backup you also create backup of application source. Oracle Application Express can integrate with other applications by consuming web services.

Oracle Application Express can be deployed to Amazon EC2 or Amazon Oracle Relational Database Service (RDS).  EC2 is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) product and RDS is a Database as a Service (DaaS) product.  APEX on EC2 allows greater flexibility as the database environment is controlled by the client.  APEX on Oracle RDS provides a managed database service so there are less moving parts for the client to manage.

Oracle APEX on AWS allows for maximum flexibility and elasticity, for example:

•        Turn off development instance over the weekend when developers not working. This is possible for AWS EC2 but not for AWS RDS.  With RDS, you can snapshot your environment  (then then terminate the current environment) and then re-instantiate that snapshot in the same AZ, a different AZ or a different region.

•        Change from large instance to small instance for production applications after hours.

•        As application workload increases upgrade from medium instance to large instance.

•        When running the HTTP Listener on EC2, the ability to load balance the web traffic using AWS Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) and increase the number of HTTP Listeners supporting the web traffic by using AWS Auto Scaling.

AWS EC2 instances and 32 bit

Some legacy applications including pre 11 Oracle COTS software only run on 32 bit.  Keep this in mind when moving a 32 bit based application to EC2:   These are the instance types that support 32 bit:

1. m1.small : Memory 1.7 GB CPU : 1
2. m1.medium : Memory 3.75 CPU : 2
3. c1.medium : Memory 1.7 GB CPU : 5 ECU
4. t1.micro : Memory .615 GB CPU: 1 ECU variable

 ON Windows,  WoW64 on Windows Server x64 can be used to run a 32 bit application.

Oracle RAC on AWS

Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) is not natively supported on AWS. The word natively is used because it is possible to run Oracle RAC in an AWS Direct Connect facility http://aws.amazon.com/directconnect/.

There are a number of options when migrating an Oracle RAC database to AWS.  The option you use depends upon the reason RAC is being used.  For HA and fail over, AWS offers multi-AZ capabilities which can provide the same level of service.  For very large databases that require high transaction through put that can not be achieved on a single instance database, Direct Connect would be the solution.  Details on these options are as follows:
1. RDS with multi-AZ :  Oracle RDS is the managed database service from AWS.  Oracle RDS has builtin multi-AZ capabilities.  Because RDS is a managed service, AWS takes care of installation, configuration and management of the secondary database, the replication between AZs, and the fail over and fail back of the database instance.
2. EC2 with multi-AZ :  Running on EC2 requires the customer or partner to install, configure, manage, and take care of the replication.    Oracle Data Guard or GoldenGate can be used for replication.
3. Direct Connect : The AWS partner Datapipe runs RAC in a managed service model using Direct Connect.

Note: Remember that AWS RDS only supports databases up to 6 TB in size. Note this number changed to 6 TB in June 2015 after being 2 TB. https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2015/06/amazon-rds-increases-storage-limits-to-6TB-for-piops-and-gp2/. Check the whats new web page for any updates related to Oracle on RDS.

Note:  The reason Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) is not supported on AWS is:
1. Multicast is not supported on the AWS network. An overlay network is possible on AWS: http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2013/06/overlay-networks-on-aws.html
2. AWS EBS is not a shared disk / clustered file system.
So, even if you use a solution such as Amazon EFS, GlusterFS, Zadara, SoftNAS, or custom NFS for shared disk you can not use RAC on AWS as you need multicast support.  More on Amazon Elastic File System (EFS): https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-elastic-file-system-shared-file-storage-for-amazon-ec2/ 

Migrating enterprise applications to AWS

There are many infrastructure artifacts that need to be addressed when migrating enterprise workloads to AWS: compute, storage, database, security, load balancers, firewalls, data encryption, management, monitoring, patching, anti-virus, and intrusion detection to name a few.  There are also development artifacts that need to be addressed: packaging, testing, deployment, versioning, and upgrades to name a few. These on premise constructs need to the mapped to the same, equivalent, or new constructs on AWS.  

There are also a number of migration approaches that can be employed: lift and shift, leverage and extend, or re-engineering.  The approach taken depends upon the application attributes - Oracle and SAP Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS), Microsoft and other 3RD party packaged applications, or custom systems.   There are strength and weaknesses of each approach.

AWS offerings services that are not readily accessible in your on premise environment.  There are services, including CloudFront and Auto Scaling, that can be used to increase performance and reduce cost without changing a line of application code.

In future blogs, I will began to identify and address the mappings, approaches, and services that can be used to migrate enterprise workloads to AWS.

ELB and Security Groups

The ELB Security Groups for EC2 classic can not be changed and the ELB security group name is the same across all ELBs launched an account. This means there is no way to control security group for different apps as same securiy group name across the account.  VPC changes this as each ELB has its own security group name.

AWS disaster recovery for applications, database and storage

When coming up with an approach to perform disaster recovery on AWS from your on premise environment,  you need to look at these layers of your system as individual entities.  This is because for each of them their are different tools and approaches.

1. Storage Layer: The storage layer includes multi media files, batch files, log files and any other files that not directly owned by the application or database server.  These files are typically on SAN or NAS devices on premise.

More information here:

http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2013/04/on-premise-application-replication-and.html

2. Database Layer:  This would be data files associated with your relational or NoSQL database.  There are many database vendor specific tools. So the best approach is typically to use the tool or facility provided by the DB vendor.  More information in these blog entries:
http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2013/01/disaster-recovery-in-cloud-options.html
http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2013/03/aws-ebs-snapshot-volumes-for-mysql.html – More on snapshots as apply to MySQL

http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2013/03/aws-ec2-oracle-database-backup.html - OSB or EBS snapshots
http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2012/10/oracle-helps-amazon-save-money-on.html – More on OSB
http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2013/01/oracle-exadata-dr-to-cloud.html - Exadata
http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2013/02/oracle-secure-backup-restore.html – Recovery speed for OSB

3. Application Layer:  The application layer includes all source code (Java, PHP, Ruby, HTML etc), log files and anything else associated with your application server.

More entries in these blog entries:

http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2012/11/aws-storage-gateway-for-application-dr.html

http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2013/04/on-premise-application-replication-and.html

CloudFormation, OpsWorks and Elastic Beanstalk

Now that AWS has announced OpsWorks and also has CloudFormation and Elastic Beanstalk there are questions on which application and infrastructure management tools is best for you.  Through in thinks like Chef and Puppet and things get really interesting. More can be found here:

https://aws.amazon.com/application-management/

Oracle RDS timezone

The default time zone for your RDS instance is UTC and cannot be changed on the DB. You can set the desired timezone (EST) per database connection. The time zone will only be valid for the connection therefore it needs to be done for each connection (and each time you connect).

The following page outlines  how to do this http://aws-musings.com/amazon-relational-database-service-rds-the-timezone-problem

Cloud Migrations using Racmi

Here is company that can move 'as is' (lift and shift) from on premise to AWS : www.racemi.com.

Getting started with Oracle EBusiness Suite on AWS

Here are the links to get you started with Oracle EBusiness Suite on AWS (EC2 only, RDS not supported):

1. Oracle on AWS FAQ - 

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/cloud/faq-098970.html

2. Landing page on AWS - 

http://aws.amazon.com/oracle/

3. Oracle Amazon Machine Imagines - 

There are Oracle Enterprise Linux, Database and WebLogic AMIs on the AWS web site but you are best to create your own AMI with the OS of your choice and install EBusiness Suite on this base instance.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/  

4. EC2 Instances available - 

http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/

5. EC2

Pricing - http://aws.amazon.com/pricing/ec2/

6. Pricing calculator - 

http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/calc5.html

Key Considerations:

1. Oracle licensing : You bring your own license.  You can not buy a license from AWS. Your Oracle license that you bring or purchase from Oracle can be an Oracle ULA, ELA, or perpetual licenses.  More on licensing can be found here: 

http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2013/01/oracle-licensing-on-aws.html

2. The bulk of the AWS cost is composed of EC2 compute, storage (EBS and S3) and network (data transfer out). The pricing calculator above can give you an estimate of AWS cost.

3. Oracle support on AWS : 

 http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/cloud/faq-098970.html#support

Oracle EBusiness Suite sizing

Here is some public information for sizing of Oracle EBusiness Suite.

The Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1 requires at least 2GB of 3GB would be better and 4GB even better: http://gerardnico.com/wiki/ebs/installation

The installation recommended the minimum of 6 GB memory for Ebusiness Suite 12.1.3 according to Oracle documention: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B53825_08/current/acrobat/121upgrade.pdf.  For the upgrade test used in this example, a machine for the middle tier/application had 4 CPUs.    The database tier upgrade example in this document used a 24 CPU machine.

Here is some other sizing information that can help
1.  https://blogs.oracle.com/stevenChan/entry/ebs_sizing_primer   
2. http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/benchmark/apps-benchmark/index.html - all results http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/benchmark/apps-benchmark/results-166922.html

        Go directly to report results for this benchmark : http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/benchmark/apps-benchmark/hp-dl585-2100-16-core-166452.pdf

Database Tier:
Hewlett-Packard® ProLiant® DL585 G5 server equipped with 4 x 2.7 GHz Quad-Core AMD® Opteron™ 8384 processors.

128 GB of memory
Applications Tier:
3 x Hewlett- Packard® BL685c server blades. Each server equipped with 4 x 3.0 GHz Dual-Core AMD® Opteron® 8222 processors.

32 GB of memory

Online: 2,100 Users
Batch: 50,000 Order Lines
10,000 Payroll Employees

Be aware that Oracle E-Business Fusion Applications require a minimum of 128 GB of memory. http://onlineappsdba.com/index.php/2011/11/02/fusion-applications-128-gb-memory-and-500-gb-disk-space-are-you-ready/