Question

Multiple instances of Remote IFS Cloud on a single server

  • 10 November 2021
  • 11 replies
  • 356 views

Userlevel 7
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Today with Apps 9, we have multiple DEV environments hosted on a single application server and on a single database server. We keep them separated with different database service names and different port numbers. (Production has its own set of servers, as does our final UAT environment.)

 

When we move to a Remote deployment of IFS Cloud, is this still going to be feasible? Will we be able to host multiple nonproduction instances on a single server?

 

...and would we still want to?


11 replies

Userlevel 7
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Hi @durette,

You can have multiple databases on the same server depending on Oracle platform and sizing guidelines. 

For the middle tier, IFS Cloud requires 2 servers.  

  1. Windows Management Server - a Windows server used for installing and maintaining the IFS Cloud middle tier and its infrastructure.
  2. Middle Tier Server -  an Ubuntu server with microk8s that is running the middle tier containers.

You can use the same Windows Management Server for multiple installations, but there were some limitations in 21R1 with regards to the logging solution. I am not aware if those limitations have been eliminated in 21R2, perhaps @Yasas Kasthuriarachchi has some new information on that. 

It is not possible to run multiple instances of the Middle Tier on the same server for IFS Cloud 21R1 and 21R2. This is functionality that is planned to be released with IFS Cloud 22R1.

Hope this helps!

Userlevel 4
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Has there been any change on this?

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Has there been any change on this?

Not yet, to my knowledge.

Userlevel 7
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Putting all our nonproduction Oracle Database instances on the same Oracle Home has caused us problems when it came time to apply a patch. After upgrading the Oracle Database software and instance, if uplifting the database files requires additional work, then every environment will be down until that fix is applied to every environment’s database. Staging these upgrades to different environments allows us to figure out solutions for such issues in a less-critical environment (like DEV) while user training and process development can continue to happen in a semi-critical environment (like TEST or QA).

You can run multiple Oracle Homes on the same server, but this gets quite tricky because you’ll have to be extra mindful of how you manage the environment variables ORACLE_BASE, ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_SID, and PATH.

Userlevel 6
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@durette Makes total sense.  We have ours combined in one server but we only have a single Oracle home and need to coordinate well.  Sounds like our ‘semi-critical’ environments are less critical to us than yours are to you.

I definitely wouldn’t want to put multiple Oracle homes of the same version on a single server, not just from the perspective of the env vars that you note, but also I wouldn’t trust Oracle to not break itself when deploying patches etc with registry entries and the like.  All risk, very minimal reward IMO.

Nick

Userlevel 4
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@Yasas Kasthuriarachchi  is it possible to run multiple Middle tier instances on the same server yet?

Userlevel 4
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Any update on this?

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Has this answer changed in 23R1?

Userlevel 7
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Hi @durette ,

 

We are in the process of upgrading to the 22R2 and we've installed our none production databases CFG and UAT as separate pluggable databases within a single container.  We also will be using a single management server for our none production environment.  We are using separate middleware severs for each environment.

 

Regards,

William Klotz

Userlevel 4
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Any update on this?

Userlevel 2
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Hi @william.klotz ,

Since you are sharing the management server for multiple environment, how do switch between environments to execute kubectl and mtctl commands?

 

Thank you.

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