Cnetics builds Oracle 10g RAC prototype for iHealth Technologies

Objective: iHealth Technologies is a national leader in comprehensive payment policy management located in Atlanta, GA, Their current production system is a Sun E25k. iHT wanted to build an Oracle RAC prototype to explore the benefits of a clustered system instead of using another SMP box as their needs grow. iHealth approached their Sun/Oracle partner, Emtec, Inc. about building a test bed using two T2000 servers running Solaris 10 for this purpose. Emtec handled the hardware and Oracle licensing and contacted Cnetics to help with the RAC installation and implementation portion of the project.

Solution: Engineers and sales consultants from iHealth, Cnetics, Emtec, and Oracle sat down to discuss the details of the project and determine the best way to build the prototype. During the meeting iHealth Vice President of Technology Kevin York, expressed the desire that the Cnetics engineers mentor his staff during the entire process so they would be able to successfully run the tests and manage the RAC once it was up and running.

After this meeting Cnetics prepared a Scope of Work document to define exactly what iHealth and Emtec could expect and the estimated hours to complete the install. During the entire process they worked closely with the iHealth staff to show them how each step of the install was done, explained any gotchas that could come up during their testing, and shared a joke or two along the way.

Result: The project was completed in less than a week and the Director of Technology Mike Jablon was impressed that the job was done ahead of schedule and within budget. He also added, “The Cnetics team were the best consultants we have had in this year. Our DBAs were extremely pleased with the caliber of their work and their knowledge transfer.”

Dan Johnson, Director of System Operations, said, “I was surprised when they walked away and it worked. We have had projects in the past that didn’t work once the consultants left.”

Ron Lindsay, the account manager for Emtec stated, “Implementation of Oracle Real Application Clusters at iHealth Technologies is considered a strategic initiative for them. As their business continues to grow, RAC offers a cost-effective way for them to scale up and scale out while still delivering the high level of service their customers have come to expect. Oracle RAC running on Sun Microsystems servers has proven to be a powerful combination.

“I would also like to commend the excellent job that the Cnetics folks did on this project. As a system integrator, working with professional partners who do what they say and bring the project in on time is essential. I would highly recommend Cnetics to anyone.”

Cnetics consultants not only set up a working Oracle 10g Real Application Cluster, but they also demonstrated to the customer how to use Oracle Enterprise Manager Database control to manage the database cluster during the prototype. Finally, the Cnetics team provided system diagrams and command “cheat sheets” to help the iHealth team make the best use of the new clustered database system.

The prototype was a success and iHealth has now scaled out their cluster with two additional servers for use in production for their claims analysis environment.