Exadata Database Machine and Its Components

What is Exadata Database Machine?

Exadata Database Machine or simply known as Exadata is:

•           An Engineered System
•           A pre-configured combination of balanced Hardware and unique software
•           A unique platform for running Oracle Databases
•           Consists of Compute Grid, Storage Grid and Network Grid
•           A fully integrated platform for Oracle Database
•           Ideal for Database Consolidation platform
•           It provides High Availability and High Performance for all types of Workloads

The Oracle Exadata Database Machine is an Engineered System designed to deliver extreme performance and high availability for all type of Oracle database workloads (OLTP, OLAP & Mixed Workload).

The Oracle Exadata vision is to deliver dramatically better performance for all database workloads.

Why Exadata?

•           It provides Extreme Performance and High Availability
•           Exadata is a flash optimized Oracle database platform by providing intelligent caching algorithms to cache *appropriate* data in flash Cache
•           For large Data Warehouse databases, it addresses the inability to move large volumes of database from the storage to database servers
•           For OLTP, it supports larger user population and transaction volumes and provides faster response time
•           It supports mixed workload in a Consolidation environment and prioritizes workload

Exadata Features

Exadata provides unique performance features such as:

•           Smart Scan
•           Smart Flash Cache
•           Smart Flash Logging
•           Storage Indexes
•           I/O Resource Management (IORM)
•           Hybrid Columnar Compression (EHCC)

Exadata Hardware and Software Components

Exadata Database Machine consists of a storage grid, compute grid, and network grid. Each grid, or hardware layer, is built with multiple high-performing, industry-standard Oracle servers to provide hardware and system fault tolerance.

Exadata Storage Server Hardware & Software

•         High Performance storage for Oracle Database

•         64 bit Intel-based sun Fire Servers

•         Contains either 12 hard disks or 8 flash disks

•         Preinstalled Software:

–     Exadata Storage Server Software

–     Oracle Linux x86_64

–     Drivers and utilities

•         Only available in conjunction with Database Machines

Exadata Compute Node Hardware & Software

•         X5-2 database servers are based on the Intel Sun Fire.

•         Each server has 2×18-core Intel Xeon Processors and 256GB of memory.

•         Can run Oracle Linux x86_64 or Oracle Solaris.

•         Oracle Linux is supported on 2-socket and 8 socket database servers.

•         Oracle Solaris is supported only on 2-socket database servers

•         12.1.1.1.1 is the terminal version that supports database servers running Oracle Solaris. 

•         Run Grid Infrastructure and RDBMS software

       Infiniband Switch

•         One of the more important hardware components of Exadata is the InfiniBand network.

•         It is used for transferring data between the database tier and the storage tier.

•         It is also used for interconnect traffic between the database servers, if they are configured in a RAC cluster.

•         In addition, the InfiniBand network may be used to connect to external systems for such uses as backups.

Exadata Configurations

•         Eight Rack

–     2 Compute node, 3 Storage Cells and 2 Infiniband Switch

•         Quarter Rack

–     2 Compute node, 3 Storage Cells and 2 Infiniband Switch

•         Half Rack

–     4 Compute node, 7 Storage Cells and 2 Infiniband Switch

•         Full Rack

–     8 Compute node, 14 Storage Cells and 2 Infiniband Switch

•         Elastic Configuration

–     2 – 9 Compute nodes and 3 – 18 Storage cells per Rack

The difference between Eight and Quarter is that, the Eight Rack comes with half of the capacity compared to Quarter Rack. In Eight Rack half of the processor and Disks are disabled.

Exadata Benefits

•         High performance

•         High availability

•         Scalability

•         Manage any kind of workload

•         Easy to deploy

•         Ideal for Consolidation

•         Virtualization

•         Available on-premises and cloud

Exadata Rack

This image gives an overview of Exadata X5-2 database machine.

Individual Exadata Components

Exadata Storage Cell

Exadata Compute node

Exadata Infiniband Switch

Conclusion

In this article we have learned about Exadata Database Machine and its components. Exadata truly provides extreme performance and highly availability using its faster and balanced hardware and unique Exadata storage software.