Remote Database running on a VM?

[Paulo]

Hi,

We are using a Remote Database running on a VM with Oracle version 12.1.0.2. We want to know if this kind of setup is recommended by RSA. Has there been any issues reported on having the Remote DB running on a VM instead of a physical machine specifically for Oracle version 12.1.0.2? 

Reason for the question is we have been experiencing multiple times in a day that RSA IG&L application will just stop working and the only solution we are being told is to restart the ACM. Other than doing restart daily, we want to know what could be the root cause of this. Just want to know if it could be the DB setup we have.

I've read the document "RSA Identity Governance and Lifecycle 7.1 Database Setup and Management Guide" and there's no mention of using a Remote DB on a VM.

Thanks.

[MHelmy · Accepted solution]

Running the database on dedicated hardware is always more recommended than on VMs. Dedicated hardware will always guarantee that you have the full resources available exclusively to the database. However if you setup your VM correctly, you should not have issues.

I would first check the basics:

1. How many CPU cores does the VM have? According to the database setup and management guide, it should be Dual Quad-Core CPU (8 CPU cores).
2. How much memory is available on the VM? According to the database setup and management guide, a minimum memory of 32GB is required.
3. Another important factor is the storage technology used. IGL application is I/O intensive, so having slow storage will be a bottle neck for the overall performance.
4. Finally one thing you need to confirm with your Hypervisor admins is that all the above resources are dedicated to the VM. They Hypervisor should not try to share any of these resources with other VMs since this impacts performance hugely (E.g.: VMware's memory ballooning should not be enabled … etc).

There are other requirements for the IGL application server VM, I would suggest going over those as well. Once you confirm that resources at least meet our minimum requirements, then you can start looking into the database memory parameters (SGA/PGA).

If you initially install the database on a VM with low memory, then later increase the VM memory, Oracle will not use the new memory unless you tweak the SGA/PGA according to this article 000034569 - Oracle Database Memory Sizing for RSA Identity Governance & Lifecycle .

Finally if all checks out, please log a case with RSA Support to help inspect the root cause of slowness/crashes on your side.