Within the environment, the Oracle compute instance is deployed via an AWS EC2 instance console. There are multiple EC2 instance types available from the console. NetApp recommends deploying a database-oriented EC2 instance type such as an m5 Ami image with RedHat enterprise Linux 8 and up to 10Gps of network bandwidth.

Oracle database storage on FSx volumes on the other hand is deployed with the AWS FSx console or CLI. The Oracle binary, data, or log volumes are subsequently presented and mounted on an EC2 instance Linux host. Each data or log volume can have multiple LUNs allocated depending on the underlying storage protocol employed.

An FSx storage cluster is designed with double redundancy, so that both the primary and standby storage clusters are deployed in two different availability zones. Database volumes are replicated from a primary FSx cluster to a standby FSx cluster at a user-configurable interval for all Oracle binary, data, and log volumes.

This high availability Oracle environment is managed with an Ansible controller node and a SnapCenter backup server and UI tool. Oracle installation, configuration, and replication are automated using Ansible playbook-based tool kits. Any update to the Oracle EC2 instance kernel operating system or Oracle patching can be executed in parallel to keep the primary and standby in sync. In fact, the initial automation setup can be easily expanded to perform some repeating daily Oracle tasks if needed.

SnapCenter provides workflows for Oracle database point-in-time recovery or for database cloning at either the primary or standby zones if needed. Through the SnapCenter UI, you can configure Oracle database backup and replication to standby FSx storage for high availability or disaster recovery based on your RTO or RPO objectives.

The solution provides an alternative process that delivers capabilities similar to those available from Oracle RAC and Data Guard deployment.