Many mission-critical Oracle enterprise databases are still hosted on-premises, and many enterprises are looking to migrate these Oracle databases to a public cloud. Often, these Oracle databases are application centric and thus require user-specific configurations, a capability that is missing from many database-as-a-service public-cloud offerings. Therefore, the current database landscape calls for a public-cloud-based Oracle database solution built from a high-performance, scalable compute and storage service that can accommodate unique requirements. Azure virtual machine compute instances and the Azure NetApp Files storage service might be the missing pieces of this puzzle that you can leverage to build and migrate your mission-critical Oracle database workloads to a public cloud.

Azure virtual machines are one of several types of on-demand, scalable computing resources that Azure offers. Typically, you choose a virtual machine when you need more control over the computing environment than the other choices offer. Azure virtual machines offer a quick and easy way to create a computer with specific configurations required to run your Oracle database, whether it is for compute- or memory-intensive workloads. Virtual machines in an Azure virtual network can easily be connected to your organization’s network, for example through a secured VPN tunnel.

Azure NetApp Files is a fully managed Microsoft service that will take your database workload to the cloud faster and more securely than ever before. It was designed to meet the core requirements of running high-performance workloads such as Oracle databases in the cloud, and it provides performance tiers that reflect the real-world range of IOPS demands, low latency, high availability, high durability, manageability at scale, and fast and efficient backup, recovery, and cloning. These capabilities are possible because Azure NetApp Files is based on physical all-flash NetApp ONTAP systems running within the Azure data center environment. Azure NetApp Files is completely integrated into the Azure DCs and portal, and customers can use the same comfortable graphical interface and APIs for creating and managing shared files as with any other Azure object. With Azure NetApp file, you can unlock the full capabilities of Azure without extra risk, cost, or time and trust the only enterprise file service native to Azure.

This documentation describes in detail how to deploy, configure, and protect an Oracle database with an Azure virtual machine and Azure NetApp Files storage service that delivers performance and durability similar to an on-premises system. For best-practices guidance, see TR-4780 Oracle Databases on Microsoft Azure. More importantly, NetApp also provides automation toolkits that automate most of the tasks that are required for the deployment, configuration, data protection, migration, and management of your Oracle database workload in the Azure public cloud. The automation toolkits are available for download at NetApp public GitHub site: NetApp-Automation.