A while ago I wrote three of Oracle on vSphere articles that have proved very popular. Most of the background behind the articles was based on my experience implementing Oracle DB, including Oracle RAC on Linux on vSphere in large enterprise environments. I’ve recently had the question post if this also works when using Windows, and I have some good news.

To date I’ve written the following popular articles on virtualizing Oracle DB, including RAC, on vSphere. These were based on Linux, as I had come across very few customers that were wanting to use Windows. Here are the links to those articles.

Oracle RAC 11g R2 Standard Edition on vSphere

Deploying Enterprise Oracle Databases on vSphere

Oracle RAC in a HA/DRS Environment

I have recently been discussing the case for Windows and using the same techniques with some of the team at VMware. Based on these discussions I am pleased to inform you that Oracle RAC running inside a Windows Guest OS (provided the Windows Guest is Supported for FT) is a fully supported configuration when using the multi-writer flag as per KB 1034165. Further to that the VMware Oracle RAC Deployment Guide has also been updated to reflect this.

This is all based on some great work by Bob Goldsend and a very large customer in the US. Bob’s VMware blog has the details you need. You can find the information at the following location:

Episode II: GMP Completes Oracle Apps and RAC Database Virtualization

For additional information on virtualizing Oracle visit my Oracle Page.

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This post first appeared on the Long White Virtual Clouds blog at longwhiteclouds.com, by Michael Webster +. Copyright © 2012 – IT Solutions 2000 Ltd and Michael Webster +. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission.