FlexFrame for Oracle

FlexFrame for Oracle is a pre-integrated IT-infrastructure of Fujitsu Siemens Computers for Oracle environments. The Oracle software and the operating system are on a central storage system and can be started on any server in the FlexFrame pool within minutes reducing installation and maintenance dramatically. It is designed as a solution for consolidating Oracle Application Server and Database applications on industry standard platforms that can grow in small steps.

Peak loads are compensated quickly by the addition of extra systems. Should a server fail the software is automatically restarted on another system. Its modularity makes FlexFrame for Oracle an ideal platform for Oracles Grid Computing and SOA strategy.

History

FlexFrame for Oracle is a joint development of Oracle and Fujitsu Siemens Computers.Following the example of FlexFrame for SAP of Fujitsu Siemens Computers a solution was to be developed using the Grid Computing properties of the Oracle 10g products.

The first version of FlexFrame for Oracle was released beginning of 2006, supporting the following Oracle Products: Oracle Application Server 10g, Oracle Database 10g with Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) and Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control. The support of storage systems was reduced to NetApp filers using NAS technology and the only supported servers have been blade servers with Intel processors. Since autumn 2006 also servers using AMD technology can be used.

In autumn 2007 Version 2.0 was released. Version 2.0 supports not only NAS but also SAN storage. This means, that beside storage systems by NetApp now also storage systems by EMC and Fujitsu Siemens Computers are supported. The supported Oracle software is enlarged by Oracle Single Instance Databases of version 9i and 10g.

Components

Basic modules of FlexFrame for Oracle are:

*Control Center - Two servers (as Clusters) based on SuSE Linux SLES9. They are to be seen as "Appliance" and are pre-configured particularly for their special purpose. The task is to control the Application Nodes and provide them with the software for the operating system and the services.

*Application Nodes - The workhorses within the landscape. The Oracle Application Server- and database-applications are running here. Operating systems of the Application Nodes can be: SuSE Linux SLES9 or RedHat4.

*Storage Area Network (SAN)and Network Attached Storage (NAS) - Storage systems by NetApp, EMC and Fujitsu Siemens Computers as central storage of the FlexFrame landscape. Operating systems (Golden image) and application software are kept centrally on NAS systems. The application data (Databases, Log-Files) can be kept alternatively on SAN- or NAS-storage systems. The OS of the Control Center is kept locally on disks and not centrally on NAS devices.

ee also

FlexFrame for SAP

External links

* [http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/it_trends/dynamic_data_center/flexframe_oracle/index.html FlexFrame for Oracle] - Information about FlexFrame for Oracle
* [http://www.oracle.com/index.html Oracle] - Information about Oracle
* [http://www.netapp.com/partners/sap/ NetApp] - Information about storage systems by NetApp
* [http://www.emc.com/utilities/globalsiteselect.jhtml EMC] - Information about storage systems by EMC
* [http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/products/storage/disk/index.html Fujitsu Siemens Computers] - Information about storage systems
* [http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/solutions/it_infrastructure_solutions/sap_infrastructure/index.html FlexFrame for SAP] - Information about FlexFrame for SAP