How FlashGrid’s Go-Live Review helped a U.S. Government Agency expand Oracle RAC deployments on AWS

Challenge

One of FlashGrid’s long-standing customers is a government agency that utilizes FlashGrid Cluster for Oracle RAC on AWS GovCloud to ensure the continuous availability of its Oracle databases. Any database downtime could cause failures in the organization’s core financial systems, impacting essential operations, including public services.

Recently, the agency expanded its Oracle Database infrastructure by deploying four additional Oracle RAC clusters on AWS, with support from an AWS Premier Consulting Partner. To ensure optimal performance and configuration, the partner’s Lead Database Engineer collaborated with FlashGrid through its Go-Live Review service.

Solution

FlashGrid’s Go-Live Review is a complimentary technical assessment designed to validate the readiness of an Oracle RAC cluster before it enters production. The process begins when the customer runs FlashGrid’s health-check utility, generating a diagnostic report. A FlashGrid expert, specialized in Oracle Database and cloud infrastructure, then reviews the report to ensure the cluster is healthy and ready for production deployment.

The expert provides actionable, detailed recommendations, accompanied by links to relevant documentation. If needed, they will meet with the customer to clarify findings or provide assistance with implementation. Once the recommended improvements are made, the cluster is re-evaluated. This cycle continues until the cluster is fully production-ready. For an in-depth overview of this process, refer to this support article.

In August 2024, the partner’s Lead DB Engineer initiated a Go-Live review in preparation for deploying four additional Oracle RAC clusters on AWS GovCloud. As part of the review, FlashGrid Support provided expert recommendations, including:

• Reviewing the available memory in cluster nodes.
• Accommodating the antivirus software’s high consumption of memory in the servers (docs).
• Adjustments to third-party RPM services.
• Making recommended updates (docs).
• Standardizing Kernel versioning.

The Go-Live Review is a critical step in ensuring a successful launch of Oracle RAC clusters into production. Skipping this process can compromise the stability, performance, and supportability of the cluster. In the event of issues, FlashGrid provides 24/7 access to experienced engineers, but without a properly validated setup, the ability to deliver effective assistance may be limited. Notably, FlashGrid’s Emergency or Urgent support cannot be guaranteed for clusters that haven’t passed the Go-Live Review.

The review process is designed to ensure complete isolation of the customer’s systems and data. All access and operations remain exclusively under the control of the customer’s internal team or authorized partners. FlashGrid provides guidance and support without any direct access to customer environments, maintaining full data privacy and system integrity.

Result

The government agency, in collaboration with the AWS Premier Consulting Partner, leveraged FlashGrid’s Go-Live Review to validate and optimize the deployment of new Oracle RAC clusters on AWS. The support provided during this process ensured a smooth launch and contributed to the continued uninterrupted uptime of mission-critical Oracle databases, which underpin essential financial applications. The customer’s satisfaction underscores the value of FlashGrid’s expert guidance in complex cloud database deployments.

FlashGrid’s Go-Live Review process helped to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks, ensuring a secure and efficient production launch. This engagement highlights FlashGrid’s role in enabling high-availability database infrastructure for the public sector.

FlashGrid customers include organizations across various sectors, including finance, government, telecommunications, e-commerce, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, energy, and other vital industries.

To learn more about how FlashGrid helps AWS customers with their HA Database infrastructure, contact us at sales@flashgrid.io or visit flashgrid.io.