Oracle databases remain the foundation of many enterprise applications. As organizations adopt cloud-first strategies, migrating and managing these critical workloads on AWS presents a whole new operating model.
AWS offers multiple options for deploying Oracle, from services such as Oracle Database@AWS and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) to running Oracle E-Business Suite or self-managing Oracle using Amazon EC2 and a storage service such as Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP (FSx for ONTAP).
The choice of storage service is an important consideration for these self-managed databases. When enterprise storage features and capabilities are required, customers choose FSx for ONTAP.
This article explores how FSx for ONTAP and NetApp® Workload Factory simplify self-managed Oracle database operations on AWS. Together, they provide an enterprise-grade foundation that delivers high performance, robust data protection, and intelligent automation for Oracle workloads.
Here is what we’ll cover:
- Self-managed Oracle databases on AWS
- Benefits of FSx for ONTAP for self-managed Oracle databases
- Introducing Oracle database support in Workload Factory
- Meet the well-architected status dashboard for Oracle databases
- Summary and key takeaways
Self-managed Oracle databases on AWS
For IT teams running self-managed Oracle databases on AWS, optimal deployment depends on making sure each element of the deployment is configured correctly and follows best practices. When it comes to the storage layer, that means considering performance, resilience, disaster recovery (DR), and cost efficiency.
This is where FSx for ONTAP and Workload Factory can provide a powerful foundation for running Oracle databases on AWS. Together, they simplify migration, improve performance, protect data, and introduce automation that makes deploying and managing storage for Oracle workloads significantly easier.
Benefits of FSx for ONTAP for self-managed Oracle databases
FSx for ONTAP provides an enterprise-grade storage layer for running self-managed Oracle databases on AWS. It delivers the performance, resilience, and efficiency that mission-critical Oracle workloads demand while reducing operational complexity and cost.
- Performance at scale
FSx for ONTAP delivers the consistent, low-latency performance that Oracle workloads require. Its architecture delivers high throughput and predictable response times.
With FSx for ONTAP, mission-critical Oracle environments run consistently for even the most demanding database workloads, from online transaction processing (OLTP) systems to complex reporting and analytics.
- Resilience and data protection
Data integrity and availability are critical for enterprise workloads, particularly for databases. FSx for ONTAP delivers built-in high availability and multi-layer data protection to safeguard Oracle environments end to end.
FSx for ONTAP offers single and multi-Availability Zone (AZ) configurations. Data is synchronously replicated across nodes—either within or across AZs, respectively—to provide redundancy and automatic failover in the event of a component failure. This design helps keep Oracle databases online, meeting low recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs).
For DR, FSx for ONTAP supports seamless cross-Region replication, allowing organizations to maintain continued delivery of services even if an entire AWS Region experiences an outage.
FSx for ONTAP also leverages NetApp Snapshot™ technology for instant, point-in-time, and consistent recovery. With Snapshot copies, administrators can back up databases in seconds and restore them to a known good state after any corruption or accidental deletion takes place, recovering data in minutes and with minimal loss.
FSx for ONTAP Autonomous Ransomware Protection (ARP) is an AI-driven feature that safeguards your data from ransomware and malware. ARP uses machine learning to detect unusual activity and automatically creates immutable snapshots for quick recovery, ensuring your data is protected without manual intervention.
Together, these FSx for ONTAP capabilities give organizations confidence that their Oracle data remains protected, available, performant, and ready to support critical operations at all times.
- Rapid, space-efficient cloning for DevTest
The ability to rapidly provision DevTest environments is key to increasing operational efficiency, reducing costs, and accelerating time to market (TTM). FSx for ONTAP simplifies this process with instant, writable, and storage-efficient clone copies.
Using FlexClone® technology, FSx for ONTAP can create lightweight, writable database clones in seconds for development, testing, staging, or reporting without creating full copies. This approach dramatically reduces the storage footprint of non-production environments while preserving performance and consistency.
By reducing the time it takes to create traditional data copies to seconds, FSx for ONTAP speeds up testing cycles, enhances parallel development, and facilitates more frequent feature validation. Teams can deliver applications to market sooner while controlling infrastructure costs and maintaining operational agility.
- Optimized cost and efficiency
Managing infrastructure costs remains a constant priority for organizations running Oracle databases. FSx for ONTAP helps optimize costs with flexible, pay-as-you-go pricing and built-in storage efficiencies that reduce storage capacity.
FSx for ONTAP uses advanced deduplication, compression, compaction, data tiering, and thin provisioning to eliminate redundant data, shrink storage footprints, and allocate space only when it’s needed. This intelligent resource management allows teams to align storage precisely with workload demand, avoiding the potential over-provisioning that drives up costs in traditional environments.
In addition to the intelligent cost-saving features that are based on storage capacity reduction, FSx for ONTAP saves costs another way: Carrying out replication tasks at the storage layer instead of at the database layer. Doing so optimizes the type of Oracle licenses available to you, because only certain (and generally more expensive) Oracle licenses can replicate data.
By combining these efficiencies with enterprise-grade performance and protection, FSx for ONTAP lowers total cost of ownership for Oracle databases.
FSx for ONTAP offers all these important benefits for Oracle databases, and now it’s even easier to configure and manage them with Workload Factory support for Oracle.
Introducing Oracle database support in Workload Factory
To simplify the process of running self-managed Oracle databases on FSx for ONTAP storage, Workload Factory now has dedicated support for Oracle databases.
Workload Factory is a free, workload-centric automation and optimization service that streamlines how teams design, deploy, and operate data-intensive workloads on FSx for ONTAP. It helps align deployments with AWS Well-Architected Framework recommendations as well as Oracle and NetApp best practices.
The new Oracle integration provides more visibility into Oracle instances across your FSx for ONTAP storage environments. Using the Database workload’s Inventory screen, DBAs get several useful toolsets.
The Inventory screen presents a general overview of your databases and their statuses.
In the Databases list, you can select a specific database to drill down into and monitor its underlying storage performance, capacity, protection, and more details. Each database has a View and fix button, which opens the Well-architected status dashboard, where you can investigate the well-architected status for that database.
Meet the well-architected status dashboard for Oracle databases
Selecting View and fix from a database’s options in the Inventory screen opens the Well-architected status dashboard for that database. Here, Workload Factory compares your database’s deployment to storage recommendations modelled after the AWS Well-Architected Framework. The results are shown in the dashboard, bringing some much-needed visibility and governance to the Oracle landscape.
The well-architected analysis evaluates configurations and provides actionable recommendations across five categories:
- Storage: Evaluates and optimizes the storage configurations for your Oracle databases. You’ll see how your resources align with best practices for performance and cost. For example, Workload Factory can recommend a specific type of storage configuration for high-performance transactions or optimizing data tiering to reduce costs.
- Compute: Assesses the compute resources allocated to your Oracle databases, providing recommendations for sizing and configuration to achieve optimal performance and cost efficiency. An example would be suggesting a particular EC2 instance type for a given Oracle workload or advising on scaling strategies for peak demand.
- Application (Oracle Server): Evaluates the Oracle Server application itself, offering insights and recommendations for its configuration and operation within the AWS environment. This might include advice on Oracle parameter tuning or best practices for database patching and upgrades.
- Resiliency: Focuses on the ability of your Oracle database environment to withstand and recover from failures, including recommendations to optimize availability, DR, and data protection strategies. Examples include configuring multi-AZ file systems for ONTAP deployments for automatic failover or implementing cross-region replication for DR.
- Cloning: Suggests old clone volumes to either refresh or delete to optimize costs.
The well-architected analysis can be triggered manually using the Analyze now button or by setting up automatic daily analysis. Monitoring this way helps keep your Oracle databases aligned with best practices and maintain operational excellence on AWS both for production and for proof-of-concept environments.
The well-architected dashboard is the first functionality that Workload Factory has rolled out to support Oracle, with more on the way, such as the AI-based log analyzer, migration advisor, total cost of ownership (TCO) calculator, and protection overview. Learn more about aligning to AWS Well-Architected storage recommendations with Workload Factory.
Summary and key takeaways
Migrating and operating Oracle databases on AWS requires the right balance of performance, protection, and cost control. FSx for ONTAP and Workload Factory simplify this journey by combining enterprise-grade storage with intelligent automation.
FSx for ONTAP delivers high throughput, low latency, and multi-AZ resilience that Oracle workloads demand for optimal performance. The built-in ONTAP® technologies, such as thin provisioning, Snapshot copies, and space-efficient cloning combine to lower your total cost of ownership. Now configuring and maintaining FSx for ONTAP as the storage layer for a self-managed Oracle database is easier thanks to Workload Factory.
Workload Factory adds a unified layer of visibility and automation for FSx for ONTAP that helps you deploy, monitor, and optimize your Oracle databases’ storage layer with well-architected recommendations and best practices baked in.
Together, FSx for ONTAP and Workload Factory create a foundation for running Oracle databases on AWS that delivers performance, resilience, and cost efficiency.
Ready to modernize your Oracle database strategy? Explore the documentation for the well-architected dashboard and get started with Workload Factory today.