Revelations of a 9iAS Implementation Michael A. Kirchenbauer P.Eng. Infrastructure Architect Sierra Systems Consultants Inc. Session id: 36645

Agenda  Overview – Project goals and infrastructure goals  Infrastructure Implementation – Key decisions and implications. – Elements and challenges  SSO/OID  OHS/OC4J  EM  Webcache  Portal  Network  Performance  Testing  Lessons Learned and Recommendations  Q&A

“ Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. ” - Albert Einstein

Overview – The Project  Self service pension admin portal  Full pension plan based personalization  Based on customized pension package implemented in client/server configuration  Self maintenance capability (security, content)  Secure

Overview – Project Goals  Project History – February 2002 to December 2002 – SUN H/W and ORACLE database shop – Initial elements included iFS and InterConnect – Integration with client/server package – Started in 9iAS v9.0.1 – plus potential users across 9 groups – All functionality based in legacy system

Overview Infrastructure Goals  Infrastructure goals – Secure data traffic externally (sensitive financial content) – Manageability (client maintainable) – Reasonably fault tolerant – Minimize cost – Scalable – Performant

Infrastructure  Assumptions – Scale out less expensive than scale up – Architecture supports full suite of availability options and features  Constraining factors – Budget limited (fixed price project) – Sun hardware standard – Shared production environment (legacy) – SSL required (all external traffic)

Infrastructure

Infrastructure SSO/OID  Separate infrastructure machine  One DIT (Portal)  Extensions to OID schema tended to be problematic in DAS  Infrastructure server not clusterable or redundant

Infrastructure OHS/OC4J  Single valued attributes (redirect, logging)  Portal clustering issues  DMS entries onerous - Log management and analysis

Infrastructure Enterprise Manager  Performance issue  Apache directives limitation  Xvfb 

Infrastructure Webcache  Clustering easy to configure  Timeout coordination with OHS  Logging detail is limited  Portal control over caching  Issue with content invalidation

Infrastructure Portal  Clustering limitation  Remote portal DB requires effort  Installation configuration differs from runtime configuration

Infrastructure Network  Firewall issues (admin port quantity)  Capacity  LBR configuration coordination with Webcache  Hybrid SSL configuration

Infrastructure Application Performance  Configuration (connection pooling and life cycle of connections)  Database performance and configuration  Network impact (SSL overhead)

Other Elements Testing  Test tools essential  You need to deal with security (or not)  Products – IBM Rational TeamTest – Mercury Interactive LoadRunner – Open Source (JMeter,Ant,Ethereal)

Some Lessons Learned  Adding servers to the pool is not trivial  Scalability cannot be based on 9iAS architecture alone  OID configuration constrained by Portal requirements and DAS  OHS limitations to standard Apache by EM  Hybrid SSL config not trivial  SSL Accelerator a MUST  Application performance related to pooling  Learn XML

Recommendations  ptlasst – get friendly with it  Scale up rather than out  Prevent redirection to infrastructure  Extend base class attributes in OID rather than creation of new classes  Manage OHS logging (rotatelogs/cronolog)  Limit number of DADS and OHS processes to minimize database sessions and maximize the benefits of pooling

Recommendations  If SSL is required beyond authentication, use an SSL accelerator.  If possible, wait for 9.0.4!

A Q & Q U E S T I O N S A N S W E R S Additional Questions:

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