Exadata For Dummies Ch4

g Easier!
Making Everythin cial Edition

DLT Solutions Spe
Consolidate into high performance
Open the book and find:
and high availability architecture
with Exadata
Managing a mass of disjointed database servers,
storage devices, and networks is no way to run a
database shop. Consolidating your database and
storage into a single database machine simplifies
management and drives down costs. Exadata
provides Capacity on Demand computing through
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What exactly Exadata is and
how it works
How Exadata is configured

and tuned for performance
and high availability
What flash, compression,

and processing optimiza-
Exadata
tions reduce storage and

and optimized storage server architecture. Stop increase performance
struggling to meet requirements and start excelling
with Exadata! Why Exadata systems make
your IT environment faster
Understand Exadata architecture find out and more manageable
how Oracle RAC database servers integrate
with storage servers to provide speed and
reliability
Scale systems to meet your needs add
Quarter, Half, and Full Racks of database and Learn to:
storage capacity to support any database
Understand Exadata Database
processing environment
Machine architecture
Implement a shared services solution
discover how Exadata allows you to consolidate Maximize database and storage
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effective, Capacity on Demand environment for videos, step-by-step examples, Consolidate complex systems
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ISBN 978-1-118-14780-1
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About Oracle
Oracle provides the worlds most complete, open, and integrated business
software and hardware systems, with more than 370,000 customers including
Runs Oracle
100 of the Fortune 100 representing a variety of sizes and industries in
more than 145 countries around the globe. Oracles product strategy provides
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layer is integrated to work together as a single system. In addition, Oracles
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About DLT Solutions
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Through the partnership with Oracle, DLT Solutions provides all the key
components database, middleware, and applications necessary to Software by Oracle
transform the operations of government organizations. With Oracle and DLT,
government organizations can consolidate information, streamline operations,
and provide excellent constituent services. As one of Oracles largest government
resellers, DLT offers Oracles entire information technology portfolio. * But you have to be willing to
spend 50% less on hardware
For twenty years, DLT Solutions has been the IT software and solutions provider
of choice for federal, state, and local government and education customers.
By hand selecting its manufacturer partners, including Autodesk, Google, NetApp,
Oracle, Quest Software, Red Hat, Solarwinds, and Symantec, DLT fulfills its mission
to be a value-added reseller of only the best software and hardware products
and services, as well as a premier provider of technical support, through its many
government contracts. The company specializes in carefully selected solution
areas Cloud Computing, Data Center Consolidation, Geospatial Data Systems,
and Computer-Aided Design for Transportation, Utilities, and Manufacturing. 10x faster based on comparing Oracle data warehouses
on customer systems vs. Oracle Exadata Database Machines.
Potential savings based on total hardware costs. Oracle Database
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Exadata FOR
DUMmIES

DLT SOLUTIONS SPECIAL EDITION
by Michael Wessler, OCP & CISSP
Exadata For Dummies, DLT Solutions Special Edition
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Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About This Book......................................................................... 1
Icons Used in This Book............................................................. 2
Where to Go from Here.............................................................. 2
Chapter 1: Todays Database Challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Current Database Architecture................................................. 3
IT System Challenges.................................................................. 8
Need a Better Solution?............................................................ 14
Chapter 2: Exadatas Unique Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . 15

What Is Exadata?....................................................................... 15
The Exadata Database Machines............................................ 20
Exadata Storage Server............................................................ 25
Chapter 3: Exadatas OLTP and Data

WarehousingCapabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
OLTP Processing Requirements............................................. 29
Data Warehouse Processing.................................................... 30
Enterprise Manager Grid Control........................................... 31
Exadata Smart Flash Cache..................................................... 32
Exadata Smart Scan.................................................................. 34
Exadata Hybrid Columnar Compression............................... 34
High Availability, Backup, and Recovery............................... 35
Chapter 4: Benefiting from Shared Services

and Server Consolidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Why Server Consolidation?..................................................... 37
How Exadata Supports Server Consolidation....................... 38
Exadata I/O Resource Manager and
Quality of Service Management........................................... 40
Chapter 5: Ten (Okay, Five) Things to Look For

in an Exadata Solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Unified Hardware and Software.............................................. 43
Preconfigured Components..................................................... 43
Scaling for Large Applications................................................ 44
Reducing Infrastructure Costs through Consolidation........ 44
Agile Infrastructure to Meet Changing Requirements.......... 44
Publishers Acknowledgments
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Introduction
D atabase applications are the heart of any IT system,
and it is critical that they run at an optimum level.
Unfortunately, we often see IT shops littered with database
servers, storage networks, and network infrastructure
allrunning on a hodgepodge of hardware, software, and
configuration settings. These systems struggle to provide
theperformance and high availability necessary.
Oracle Exadata takes that mash of database servers, storage,

and network infrastructure and places it in a single database
machine. By running Oracle RAC databases in a tuned and
optimized high availability configuration, your database per-
formance will soar. Integrated Oracle storage servers using
high-performance technologies support your largest data-
bases while reducing storage requirements. You can achieve a
consolidated, high-performance database and storage server
infrastructure without breaking your IT budget.
About This Book

This book consists of five short chapters, each written as a
stand-alone chapter, so feel free to start reading anywhere
and skip around throughout the book!
Chapter 1: Todays Database Challenges. We look at how

database systems are currently architected. Then we look
at the technologies and techniques currently in use and why
they arent sufficient for the future.
Chapter 2: Exadatas Unique Architecture. Here, we get into

the nuts and bolts of Exadatas architecture, how it works,
and why Exadata is a better solution.
Chapter 3: Exadatas OLTP and Data Warehousing

Compatibilities. This chapter looks at Exadatas extensive
features and optimizations for OLTP and data warehousing
systems.
2 Exadata For Dummies, DLT Solutions Special Edition
Chapter 4: Benefiting from Shared Services and Server

Consolidation. We delve into how Exadata supports shared
services and drives down costs via server consolidation.
Chapter 5: Ten (Okay, Five) Things to Look For in an

Exadata Solution. Here, in that famous For Dummies style, we
give you the Part of Tens detailing benefits you will experi-
ence by implementing Oracle Exadata in your organization.
Icons Used in This Book

Throughout this book, we occasionally use icons to call
attention to important information that is particularly worth
noting. Heres what to expect.
If you see an icon that says remember, you may want to, uh,
remember the information. We wont have deep meaning-of-
life stuff, but it may be good to know for later.

Sometimes you just have to know a term or technical details
to understand a larger topic. Or, it could just be that we want
to throw in cool terms to try to impress people. Either way,
this icon identifies techie stuff.
This icon usually denotes something the author wishes some-
one had told him before he learned it the hard way! Keep
these items in mind to make life easier.

Where to Go from Here

Hey, its your book so feel free to jump around wherever
youd like, or simply turn the page and just start reading.
Chapter 1
Todays Database
Challenges
In This Chapter
Modeling current database architectures
Identifying database challenges
Finding a better solution
T odays business challenges dictate fast, agile, and reli-

able IT solutions, but those solutions must be secure
and within the budget. At the core of any IT solution is the
data, and that data is stored within the database. It stands
to reason, therefore, that the database is the most important
part of any IT solution.
Database technology has evolved over several generations of

architectures due to both technological advancements (hard-
ware and software) and business drivers. Today, it is often the
needs of business that determine the direction of database
technology and architecture to meet those needs.
In this chapter, we examine todays database architectures

and the challenges they face.
Current Database Architecture

To understand the role of a database and what the key factors
for a successful database are, you need to understand the role
of the database in an IT system. Essentially, a computer appli-
cation provides a user with the ability to perform some task
(such as ordering a product or service). All the data used to

support that task is stored in the database.
A modern IT system is generally composed of the following

components:
User. Very often a human sitting in front of a keyboard

interface using a computer system. That user may be a
customer or an employee. The interface may be a client
side program or it may be a web browser, but that isnt
always the case with the growth of smartphone technol-
ogy and similar devices.
Increasingly, however, the user is another computer
system interfacing with the application. It is not uncom-
mon to have automated system-to-system interfaces such
as web services.
Application. The program or application that executes

logic to present the data to the user and implements the
business logic to manipulate that data. The application
can execute on the clients workstation or device, on a
dedicated application or web application server, or on
the database server.
Often the application is distributed between components
with a visual component at the user interface level, busi-
ness processing on the application server, and heavy
data-manipulation functions at the database server level.
Database. The software component that stores and

manages the systems data. Data is organized in logical
containers called tables. Each table is mapped to a physi-
cal storage device, which is often a disk. User accounts
are created with security and business rule logic imple-
mented to dictate what data a user can see and how that
data is created, updated, and deleted.
Database processing is often very intensive because
enormous amounts of data are processed as part of each
application request. Because of this, database software
itself is often a specialized component that exists on one
or more dedicated database servers.
Storage. Data physically stored on a storage device and

accessed by the database. The storage device itself is
often disk, but it can also be a solid state flash drive for
fast access or tape storage for archival access.
Chapter 1: Todays Database Challenges 5
In the Cloud
A recent architecture gaining vis- Cloud computing is an advanced
ibility is cloud computing. Cloud architecture that promises to lower
computing is an approach in which costs and improve service because
instead of the client accessing a the same application is shared by
specific set of servers to perform a everyone in the cloud; software
specific application function, that becomes a shared service. Oracle
function is accessed as a service is highly interested in cloud comput-
on the Internet or intranet. The ing, and in later chapters we discuss
cloud is the network to which the how Oracles products support this
user sends an application request architecture.
and from which the user receives a
response.
Storage devices are frequently attached to the database

server over a network rather than being an internal disk
within a server. This is because storage requirements
exceed what a single server can hold internally, or the
storage is shared to support multiple database servers.
Storage devices themselves are often smart devices that
have their own memory components, management tools,
and processors to assist in performance and reliability.
Network. Communication between the user and appli-

cation server is the first network component. Within
the system itself, there are many network connections
between components. Between the application server
and the database server is another connection. From
the database server to the disk storage array is another
network connection. Other connections between compo-
nents and subsystems are common.
The technical details for a network connection depend
on which components are communicating. For example,
the connection between a clients web browser to the
web application server is different than between a data-
base server to its disk storage. However, common net-
work requirements exist regardless of the network type;
the network needs to be fast, secure, and reliable.
Database systems fall into three general categories: OLTP,

data warehousing, and hybrids.
On Line Transaction Processing

On Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) systems are used to
process transactions and perform work in a real-time, online
manner. These are the most common database systems and
are what often do the work for a business. OLTP means
thousands of users simultaneously executing small, quick
transactions.
A prime example of an OLTP system is a call center applica-

tion where customers call or order online a companys prod-
uct or service. This system may entail order entry, billing,
customer data, shipping, and inventory components.
Characteristics important to an OLTP system include
Availability. If the system isnt available, the company

wont generate revenue and will lose customers. System
uptime is very important to OLTP systems; every minute
of downtime has a dollar value of lost revenue associ-
ated with it. Architectures that allow the OLTP system
to remain available even during computer failures are
highly desirable.
Performance. If customers have to wait excessively for

processing to occur or if their process fails due to a time-
out error, theyll go to a competitor. At a minimum, fewer
customer orders will be processed in a given time period.
Poor performance leads to frustrated customers and as
a result, high throughput performance and low latency is
critical for OLTP systems.
Agility. New business opportunities or regulatory

requirements must be met in a rapid manner. Failure to
anticipate and react to changing needs can be disastrous.
A computer system must be able to be modified to meet
changing requirements in an agile manner.
Security. OLTP systems are prime targets for thieves and

competitors due to the nature of the data they contain.
Security breaches are costly beyond just what is stolen;
loss of customers, damaged public image, fines, and legal
action are likely.
OLTP systems are the focal point for IT organizations because
they are critical to the success of the business. The system
availability, performance, agility, and security are key char-
acteristics to be considered when designing and evaluating
OLTP database systems.
Data warehousing
While OLTP systems deal in real-time, active data, data ware-
houses store archival data to be used in data mining, trend
analysis, and meeting audit and regulatory requirements. As
data in OLTP systems grows older, it is used less often. That
older data is often moved into a data warehouse where spe-
cialized processing that requires a history of data occurs.
Data warehouses are commonly used to ask business-related

questions, the answers to which require the ability to collect
years of data. A business analyst may ask, How many cases of
product X are sold on Super Bowl Sunday and can you deter-
mine the growth rate over the last 10 years? both of which
are the types of questions reserved for data warehouses.
Characteristics important to a data warehouse include
Storage. The size of data warehouses is huge! Terabytes

of data are common, and specialized processing and stor-
age techniques to optimize performance are required.
Rather than using high performance disk, data warehouses
use capacity disk or tape storage because it would be
cost prohibitive to store all data on high performance
storage devices.
Processing capability. OLTP systems support thousands

of users running small quick transactions, but data ware-
houses support a handful of users executing very long
running queries. It is possible for a data warehouse query
to run many hours or even days to get an answer.
Business Intelligence (BI) tools allow management and data

analysts to perform what-if scenarios against historical data.
This allows business trends to be identified and complex
relationships between data to be seen that otherwise may go
unnoticed. This technology has occurred in situations ranging
from increasing company profits to catching criminals and
scientific research.
Data warehouses are fewer than OLTP systems, but by their

very nature, they are much longer. Their design characteristics
are different than OLTP systems as well, because they process
long running queries rather than multiple fast queries.
Hybrid systems
The hybrid is a combination of OLTP and data warehousing
systems. Often, hybrid systems start as OLTP systems, which
over time introduce data warehousing requirements.
The ideal design characteristics of OLTP versus data ware-

houses are often at odds for each other. For example, an
OLTP system is optimized for fast data access by multiple
users whereas data warehouses are optimized for fewer users
with long running queries. Different database design consider-
ations and parameters which are often mutually exclusive
are used for both systems.
One compromise is to run a hybrid database in OLTP mode

during the day and data warehousing mode at night. However,
as systems are increasingly used at all hours, that compro-
mise becomes less effective. Be sure to evaluate your capabil-
ity to support both OLTP and warehousing requirements.
IT System Challenges
Regardless of industry, IT organizations face similar chal-
lenges. Supporting complex systems with increasing require-
ments is at odds with never having enough time or resources.
The following sections discuss common issues faced by IT

management.
High availability
Few systems are only open during business hours; most need
to be available 24x7. Given that any component itself will
eventually fail, a system needs to be engineered to support
fault tolerance and eliminate single points of failure.
Fault tolerance is the ability of a system to suffer a component
failure, yet still continue processing and remain available for
the users. Any individual component will eventually fail, but
the overall system must continue to function. Designing a
system to have redundant servers so when one fails the other
servers will continue processing is an example of fault toler-
ant design.
Having only a single component (which will eventually fail)

to perform a function is referred to as a single point of failure,
which is something to avoid. If your system has a single point
of failure, its simply a matter of when, not if, it will fail.
Figure 1-1 shows how multiple database servers provide both

increased processing capabilities and fault tolerance. If one
server fails, processing continues on the remaining server.
You also see how the single web application server is a single
point of failure, making the web application server the most
likely weak link in this system.
Be sure to identify the fault tolerant components and single

points of failure in any system or product you are evaluating.
Security
Security is not a just a product you buy once or something
that is added at the end of program development. Security
needs to be an attitude and mindset that occurs at all levels
of IT and management from the beginning of a project until a
project is finally decommissioned. Products and techniques
used to implement security are merely means to an end.
Unfortunately, security is often poorly implemented and man-

aged and is deemed a burden to IT systems. Managing con-
figuration settings, access controls, and monitoring audit logs
does require resources. Testing and applying security patches
also require staff time and is usually after hours.
Keeping a handle on security issues and coordinating with

management, customers, and technical folks is a never-ending
process, but it is a critical process.
Disk Storage Array
Disk Storage Array

Storage Area
Disk
Disk
Disk
Disk
Network
Disk
Disk
Disk
Disk
Database
Customer
Database
Database
Customer
Database
Server
Server
Application
Server
Web
Network
Cloud
Browser
Browser
Browser
Web
Web
Web
Figure 1-1: Fault tolerance and single point of failure.
Increasing storage requirements

An undeniable direction in IT is the requirement to store more
and more data, often growing at an accelerated rate. Business
requirements force the storage of more data to support cus-
tomers or develop data warehouses. Changing technology
or social media storing images, maps, and audio/video also
increase storage requirements. Finally, government or legal
data retention requirements force data to be stored for years.
Many choices regarding storage are available:
Internal or attached storage

Storage Area Network (SAN) or Network Attached

Storage (NAS)
Media options such as flash, performance disk, capacity

disk, and tape
Unified or tiered storage

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) levels and

replication
Despite improvements in storage technology, effectively man-

aging storage is often a full-time job for one or more trained
professionals.
Multiple, complex subsystems

A real-world IT system is a complex environment composed
ofmultiple subsystems or components. User management,
application servers, web servers, database servers, network-
ing, and storage are just some common components with spe-
cialized needs.
Within each subsystem, further components exist. For exam-

ple, the application itself may have credit card billing, inven-
tory control, and auditing functions. Each of these functions
has dependencies and subcomponents with further compo-
nents as you drill down into the details.
Managing these varied components is a challenge. In large

systems, just being aware of where the vital subsystems exist
is often difficult. Interoperability with these subsystems needs
to be established and maintained.
Multiple vendors
With every hardware device in a system, every software prod-
uct installed, and every service or interface partner, there is
another vendor or group to work with. Over time, the list of
vendors to evaluate, purchase support and license agreements

with, and work patch and upgrade issues with is daunting.
Best of breed is an approach in which you purchase the very

best technology product. It allows you to have the industry-
leading product for a specific hardware or software compo-
nent, which is sometimes a great benefit. The downside is
having more vendors to manage and interoperability between
components is often an issue as well. In a worst-case scenario,
a customer is caught between two vendors who will not work
together to solve a customers problem; finger-pointing then
becomes a frustrating problem.
Single source is an alternative approach in which all products

for a system or subsystem are purchased by a single vendor.
You may not have the best individual product, but you
gain not having to manage interoperability issues between
components because your vendor has already done that.
Issues with patches and upgrades between subcomponents
are already identified and resolved before they go to the cus-
tomer. Finally, although you may not have the best individual
components, the components you do have are optimized to
work together in a more efficient manner than a series of best-
of-breed components operating inefficiently.
Server consolidation
Every time a new database server or storage server is added,
the cost for hardware, software, licensing, and administra-
tive support increases. While a large server room is visually
impressive, it is also excessively expensive!
Where possible, IT organizations are consolidating as many

components to as few servers as possible in an effort to
reduce costs. For example, simply combining development
and test applications onto one server is server consolidation.
Reducing from several test and development servers into a
larger single server is a great way to reduce costs.
Technology such as virtualization is a great tool in the server

consolidation initiative. Virtualization allows a single server to
be partitioned or subdivided into smaller servers that appear
as one server to the user. Placing systems into shared envi-
ronments, but appearing to be on a dedicated, self-contained
environment is the goal of virtualization. Adding resources on
demand as systems grow with minimal downtime is an addi-
tional benefit. As you review hardware and software, be sure
to determine their support for virtualization.
Sustaining growth
Sooner or later, if a system is growing, the existing server will
need more processing capabilities to handle the increased
workload. Few things are worse than having a server too small
to support your customers. Often, either CPU or memory
needs to be increased to support the processing demands of
the application. A server can grow up (vertical) or it can grow
out (horizontal) to increase processing capability.
Vertical scaling is making an existing server bigger so that it

can support increased processing requirements. Starting with
a smaller, expandable server and adding more CPUs, memory,
and storage as needed is a common, economical practice.
One potential issue with vertical scaling is whether you need
downtime to add more resources. An even larger issue is that
eventually your server will hit its maximum number of CPUs
and memory; vertical scaling does have an upper limit for how
large a server can grow.
Horizontal scaling is adding more servers to a computing

environment to increase processing capability. Adding more
servers to support increased workload is a common solution;
it improves fault tolerance and is theoretically unlimited in
the number you can add. The downside is that you have more
servers to manage, which adds to hardware costs, software
and licensing costs, and administrative overhead.
Time constraints
Because business requirements move fast, so must support
structures such as IT. Seemingly, there is never enough time
to set up the perfect system. The problem is increased when
the IT system itself is complex with many customized compo-
nents and subsystems from different vendors. Adding in secu-
rity, documentation, testing, and performance concerns, it is
easy to see why IT systems struggle to keep up.
IT systems inherently have complex components, but where

possible they should be simplified and streamlined. The fewer
unnecessary components in a system, the more agile a system

will be and the faster it can react to changing requirements.
The key to having an agile system is being able to add or
modify components rapidly.
Need a Better Solution?

It seems that every system is growing rapidly with chang-
ing business processing requirements and increased system
availability demands. Unfortunately, IT budgets are not grow-
ing to at the same rate as these demands.
Complex database applications can be designed to accom-

plish almost any task given enough time and resources; the
problem is that organizations do not have infinite time and
resources.
A better solution would have the following characteristics:
High availability stressing fault tolerance and void of

single points of failure
High-performance, flexible and expandable storage

capabilities
Security implemented seamlessly across all components

The ability to increase processing capability both verti-

cally and horizontally
Virtualization capabilities to support consolidated sys-

tems and provide resources on demand
Support for OLTP, data warehousing, or hybrid systems

An architecture that can support cloud computing

Simplified configuration with fewer unnecessary compo-

nents and subsystems
Optimized configuration between components and single

source integration, patching, and upgrade issues
Agile design and configuration to allow for rapid stand-up

of new systems and reconfiguration of existing systems
as requirements change
It is the Oracle Exadata database and storage product that

promises to be the better solution to the challenges of IT.
Chapter 2
Exadatas Unique
Architecture
In This Chapter
Understanding Exadatas architecture and components
Unveiling the Exadata Database Machines
Detailing the components of Exadata Storage Server
B reaking the mold of traditional database server envi-

ronments is the key to expanding performance while
reducing cost and complexity. Legacy database systems
architecture lacks the agility, scalability, and performance to
meet business needs. The solution lies with what is offered in
the Oracle Exadata Database Machine and how it is fast, agile,
and scalable.
In this chapter, we examine how the Exadata Database

Machine and Exadata Storage Server are architected in terms
of hardware and software components. We discuss the vari-
ous server configurations that are used to support small,
medium, and large applications. We also discuss how servers
can be expanded to meet increased processing requirements.
Finally, we take a look at the relationship between the Exadata
Database Machine and the Exadata Storage Server.
What Is Exadata?
Enclosed in a single physical cabinet, Oracles Exadata
Database Machine is a complete package of preconfigured
and integrated database servers, storage servers, network
infrastructure, and all supporting software. As a database
machine, the intent is for a customers databases to be

hosted entirely within the Exadata Database Machine without
the need for additional, external storage, networking, or soft-
ware components. Truly a database in a box, Exadata con-
tains all components to host a customers database needs for
OLTP, data warehousing, and database consolidation.
Core Exadata components

A single Oracle Exadata appliance is composed of the follow-
ing components:
Exadata Database Machine

Exadata Storage Server

InfiniBand Network

All necessary database, storage, and management software

Exadata Database Machine

At the heart of each Exadata appliance are multiple (2 to 8,
depending on configuration) database servers. Preconfigured
with Oracle 11g R2 database software, the software comes in
an Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) configuration. Oracle
RAC is an advanced database architecture where multiple data-
base instances simultaneously operate against a single physical
database. Oracle RAC configuration provides for high availabil-
ity and horizontal scaleable growth to increase performance.

Storage responsibilities are intelligently handled by the
Exadata Storage Server. Composed of multiple (3 to 14,
depending on configuration) storage servers, Oracle has taken
storage beyond simply being a disk array. Each storage server
is a multi-CPU device with memory, flash storage, and either
capacity or high-performance disk. Intelligent Oracle stor-
age software offloads data intensive SQL processing from the
database server to the storage server to improve performance
and reduce data transfer. Thats right; your SQL processing
takes place at the storage (not at the database) server!
InfiniBand Network
Network communication between the Exadata Database
Machine and the Exadata Storage Servers is handled by dual
Chapter 2: Exadatas Unique Architecture 17
40 Gigabit InfiniBand links that provide very fast and reliable
connectivity. InfiniBand is also used when adding additional
Exadata appliances to increase capacity. Redundant and
reliable, Oracle uses an interconnect protocol to move data
directly to database buffers reducing CPU overhead.
Software
All the software needed to run Exadata is installed, optimized,
and configured. Two operating system choices are available at
installation time for the Exadata Database Machine: Oracle Linux
or Solaris 11 Express. Exadata Storage Server uses Oracle Linux.
Oracle 11g R2 Enterprise Edition with Oracle RAC is the

standard for database software. All database features and
software options remain available. Key database management
products including Enterprise Manager (EM) Grid Control and
Recovery Manager (RMAN) are also available.
Architecture
It is important to understand that Exadata is an appliance that
contains the database and storage servers supported by the
network and software. Figure 2-1 shows the architecture of a
single Exadata appliance.
As you can see in Figure 2-1, within a single Exadata Database

Machine X2-2, there are four database servers in an Oracle
RAC configuration connected via the InfiniBand network to
seven storage servers. The database servers form the data-
base server component connected via InfiniBand to seven
storage servers to form the storage server component.
Just as Oracle Exadata supports database technology, Oracle

Exalogic supports the application server tier. Oracle Fusion
Middleware and Oracle Fusion Applications are key components
within Exalogic and Oracles Exalogic Elastic Cloud environment.
Configured, optimized,
and ready to use
A common problem in IT is that it takes too long to implement
new hardware and software solutions, but Oracle makes it
easy to jump aboard the Exadata train by offering the follow-
ing features to help the customer get started quickly.
Storage
Server
DB Server
Storage
Instance
Server
DB RAC
Exadata Database Machine X2-2 Half Rack
Storage
Server
DB Server
Instance
DB RAC
InfiniBand Network
Storage
Server
DB Server
Instance
DB RAC
Storage
Server
DB Server
Instance
DB RAC
Storage
Server
Storage
Server
Figure 2-1: Exadata architecture.
Install standard, optimized configurations

All software is installed with a standard, optimized configura-
tion. The customer doesnt have to guess what features to
configure or how to set up software; configuration and tuning
settings are predetermined.
Oracles top tuning experts have determined and tested the

optimal settings for the hardware and software components
within Exadata. These configurations prevent potentially
inefficient configuration settings from being imported by sys-
tems coming from non-Exadata environments. This practice
allows for faster, less error prone configuration. Furthermore,
because it is a standardized build, Oracle Support Services
are already familiar with the environment.
Implement common systems without changes

The most common database environments are OLTP, data
warehouses, or consolidated database systems. Oracle real-
izes this and has designed Exadata to allow these systems
to be deployed directly to the Exadata server. No special
Exadata product certifications are needed; the idea is to allow
the conversion to Exadata in days/weeks not months/years.
Leverage existing Oracle expertise

The learning curve for IT administrative staff is reduced
because theyre still using familiar software. Oracle 11g R2
Enterprise Edition is already commonly used in non-Exadata
environments. Key database and server functions are man-
aged by Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control, which
is standard in most database environments. Oracle soft-
ware such as partitioning, Data Guard, Automatic Storage
Management (ASM), and Recovery Manager (RMAN) are still
used as they were in non-Exadata environments.
At the Operating System (OS) level, enterprise-grade Oracle

Linux and Oracle Solaris use all the features and utilities of
those OSs and are already familiar to Database Administrators
(DBAs) and System Administrators (SAs) alike.
Working with Oracle experts

Exadata Start-Up Pack and Support Services take an active
role in ensuring that the migration to Oracle Exadata is a suc-
cess and provide support after the migration is complete.
Several packages are available with Oracle Exadata Start-Up
Packs:
Oracle Exadata Start-Up Advisory Service. Oracle engi-

neers are in contact with the customer to identify needs,
objectives, and provide recommendations and an action
plan to achieve the desired result.
Oracle Exadata Production Support Readiness. Oracle

experts work with the customer to develop an implemen-
tation plan and work with the customer through the plan
to ensure success. Oracle takes an active role in working
with the customer during the installation, migration, and
post-migration project phases.
Oracle Exadata Installation Service. Oracle engineers

install Exadata components and validate that all hard-
ware, software, and operating system functionality is
correct and documented.
Oracle Exadata Configuration Service. In accordance

with Oracle best practices, Oracle engineers configure
operating system parameters, database software, net-
work settings, and storage. All settings are validated and
documented for the customer.
Oracle Exadata Quarterly Patch Deployment Service.

Quarterly patch requirements are identified for the
customer and are applied by Oracle. High-level system
checks are performed to ensure that the Exadata server
is still compliant with Oracle best practices.
Additionally, Oracle Support Services provides support for

the multiple components of Exadata. The hardware has a war-
ranty and support for operating systems, devices, and con-
figurations; upgrades are available in addition to the database
support thats so well known. Oracle Support Services are
available 24x7, and Auto Service Requests (ASR) automate the
creation of trouble tickets.
The Exadata Database Machines

Exadata Database Machines are available on two models: the
X2-2 and X2-8. Common to both machines is the choice of either
Oracle Linux or Oracle Solaris 11 Express. The same database
software options are common to both server types. Additionally,
the same Exadata Storage Server architecture and version is
used although the number of storage servers and capacity vary.
The primary difference between the Exadata X2-2 and X2-8 is

related to capacity in terms of processor type, number of pro-
cessors, memory, and underlying server type. These equate
to different processing capacities and types of workload that
each server best supports.
Exadata Database Machine X2-2
The Exadata Database Machine X2-2 is based on the Sun Fire
X4170 M2 and is designed for OLTP and data warehouse imple-
mentations of different sizes. The X2-2 comes in three different
capacity configurations to support small, medium, and large
computing capacity; these are referred to as Quarter Rack, Half
Rack, and Full Rack. Each rack differs only in the number of data-
base and storage servers within the Exadata Database Machine:
Quarter Rack: 2 database servers with 3 Exadata Storage

Servers
Half Rack: 4 database servers with 7 Exadata Storage

Servers
Full Rack: 8 database servers with 14 Exadata Storage

Servers
Quarter Rack
The entry-level Exadata Database Machine is the Quarter Rack
configuration composed of 2 database servers and 3 Exadata
Storage Servers. Each server has 2 Intel Xeon X5670 6 core
processors at 2.93 GHz. Total processing capacity is
24 CPU cores (12 per server)

192 GB memory (96 GB per server)

4 x 10GbE ports (2 per server)

2 InfiniBand 36 port switches

3 Exadata Storage Servers

1.1 TB Exadata Smart Flash Cache

21 TB raw disk on high-performance disk

72 TB raw disk on high-capacity disk

Up to 5.4 GB/second of uncompressed raw disk band-

width on high-performance disk
Up to 3 GB/second of uncompressed raw disk bandwidth

on high-capacity disk
Half Rack
The mid-level Exadata Database Machine is the Half Rack









Up to 12.5 GB/second of uncompressed raw disk band-


Full Rack
The fully loaded Exadata Database Machine is the Full Rack








Up to 25 GB/second of uncompressed raw disk band-

Up to 14 GB/second of uncompressed raw disk band-

width on high-capacity disk
As the need for capacity grows, the X2-2 can be scaled verti-
cally to either Half Rack or Full Rack configuration at the
customer site to reduce downtime. This scalability allows
customers to grow into a larger Exadata configuration as their
needs dictate. The ability to support capacity on demand is a
key to supporting customers in growing environments.
Exadata capacity can also be expanded by adding memory

and disk-only expansion racks. Exadata Expansion Racks can
add from 4 to 18 additional Storage severs to any Exadata
Database Machine. The Exadata Memory Expansion kit allows
you to increase the memory on X2-2 machines.
Additional Quarter Rack, Half Rack, and Full Rack X2-2 appli-
ances can be added to scale a system horizontally, as shown
in Figure 2-2.
InfiniBand networking allows for the connection of up to eight

Exadata or Exalogic appliances to allow maximum computing
capability. Such a configuration would be capable of support-
ing very large systems!
Technical hardware specifics will change over time. To

see most up-to-date specifics on the X2-2 and X2-8, be sure
to review the Oracle Data Sheets at www.oracle.com/
technetwork/database/exadata/dbmachine-
x2-2-datasheet-175280.pdf and www.oracle.
com/technetwork/database/exadata/dbmachine-
x2-8-datasheet-173705.pdf.
Exadata Database Machine X2-8

The Exadata Database Machine X2-8 is based on the Sun Fire
X4800 and is designed for database server consolidation and
the largest, most intensive OLTP and data warehouse imple-
mentations. The X2-8 comes in only one configuration, which
is a Full Rack of 2 database servers and 14 Exadata Storage
Servers.
24
Exadata X2-2 Exadata X2-2 Exadata X2-2 Exadata X2-2

Full Rack Full Rack Full Rack Full Rack
8 DB Servers 8 DB Servers 8 DB Servers 8 DB Servers
14 Storage Servers 14 Storage Servers 14 Storage Servers 14 Storage Servers
100 TB Performance 100 TB Performance 100 TB Performance 100 TB Performance
336 TB Capacity 336 TB Capacity 336 TB Capacity 336 TB Capacity

InfiniBand Network

2 TB memory (1 TB per server)
Figure 2-2: Scaling horizontally via multi racks.
Exadata X2-2 Exadata X2-2 Exadata X2-2 Exadata X2-2
1TB of memory. Total processing capacity is

Full Rack Full Rack Full Rack Full Rack
Exadata For Dummies, DLT Solutions Special Edition
8 DB Servers 8 DB Servers 8 DB Servers 8 DB Servers

14 Storage Servers 14 Storage Servers 14 Storage Servers 14 Storage Servers
100 TB Performance 100 TB Performance 100 TB Performance 100 TB Performance
336 TB Capacity 336 TB Capacity 336 TB Capacity 336 TB Capacity

X7560 8 core processors at 2.26 GHz (giving 64 cores) and
Each database server is a Sun Fire X4800 with 8 Intel Xeon







on high-performance disk

Because the X2-8 is already at a Full Rack configuration, more

hardware resources cannot be added to an individual machine.
However, as with all Exadata Database Machines, the X2-8 can
be scaled horizontally to where additional Exadata machines
are connected via the InfiniBand network to increase capacity.

Disk and flash storage are intelligently managed by the
Exadata Storage Server. More than just a simple disk array,
each Exadata Storage Server is itself a server running Oracle
Linux with CPU, memory, and management software. The
intelligence of the storage server comes in the Oracle data-
base specific optimizations that occur to improve performance
and management capabilities.
All software and configuration items are pre-installed and

optimized to manage Oracle databases. Management soft-
ware is also included. Administrators use the already familiar
Oracle Enterprise Manager tool with System Monitoring plug-
in monitor and manage storage servers.
Fault tolerance is provided by dual port InfiniBand connections

and redundant, hot-swappable power supplies. Disks are also
hot swappable in addition to mirroring, which is implemented
by the volume management software. These features allow
a system to tolerate failures more gracefully and result in
higher availability.
Several key features of Exadata Storage Server include
Oracle Automatic Storage Manager (ASM) software

handles storage management for Oracle databases and
is a long-used product to manage storage for Oracle RAC
databases. ASM provides volume management, data
striping, and disk mirroring for storage volumes. It also
manages the data distribution across available storage.
Database files can be encrypted for maximum security as

an additional security option.
Encrypting data at rest, which is data stored on a device
such as disk, is a hot requirement these days. Many gov-
ernment agencies fear loss of sensitive data and mandate
that steps be taken to encrypt data at rest.
Processing of many database operations occurs on the

processors of the storage server. Specific database que-
ries are processed at the storage level so that only the
data requested is returned to the database server. This
enhancement results in greatly reduced network traffic
and offloads CPU processing requirements from the data-
base server to the storage server. The result is an overall
boost in performance by distributing processing and
reducing data transfer and traffic.
Additional Exadata Storage Server technologies such as

Smart Scan, Smart Flash Cache, and Hybrid Columnar
Compression are covered in Chapter 3 to show how they
are used for specific environments.
Like Exadata Database Machines, the Exadata Storage Server

is composed of multiple, individual servers providing a unit of
capacity. A single Exadata Storage Server is composed of:
Two 6 core Intel Xeon L5640 processors at 2.26 GHz

24 GB system memory

384 GB Exadata Smart Flash Cache

12 x 600 GB 15,000 RPM High Performance SAS or 12 x 2

TB 7,200 RPM High Capacity SAS
HBA disk controller with 512 MB battery backed write

cache
Dual-port 40 Gb/s InfiniBand Host Channel Adapter

As database servers are used, more storage servers are used,
which results in capacity increases. Scalability of storage solu-
tions is important as storage requirements increase at a rapid
rate.
Disk storage is available in two categories: High Performance

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and High Capacity Serial Attached
SCSI (SAS). High Performance SAS runs at 15,000 RPM while
High Capacity SAS runs at a slower 7,200 RPM. Before selecting
a type of disk, determine whether your database applications
are large enough to warrant slower but higher capacity
storage, or whether the databases are smaller and can take
advantage of faster disk. Be sure to also consider if your appli-
cation requires faster disks, which is a common requirement
in many environments.
Flash Cache is very high-speed solid-state storage. Because

it lacks moving parts, Flash Cache is very fast and reliable.
Generally too expensive to store an entire database, Exadata
leverages technologies to keep the most-critical, frequently
accessed data on Flash Cache.
Different configurations of Exadata Database Machines are

supported by groups of 14, 7, or 3 Exadata Storage Servers
corresponding to Full, Half, or Quarter Rack configurations.
Each configuration yields different storage capacity, as shown
in Table 2-1.
Table 2-1 Raw Storage Server Capacity

Storage Type Full Rack Half Rack Quarter Rack
Performance Disk 100 TB 50 TB 21 TB
Capacity Disk 336 TB 168 TB 72 TB
Flash Cache 5.3 TB 2.6 TB 1.1 TB
Table 2-1 shows raw storage capacity, which is the amount of

storage physically provided to the storage server. However,
in actual use, not all of that storage is usable. Some of the raw
storage will be lost due to overhead, and much more will be
lost due to mirroring.
Mirroring is making redundant copies of data on disks. The

benefit is that if one disk is damaged or lost, the data copy
isnt lost and is therefore still available.

The amount of raw disk provided is not the amount of disk

youll actually have available to store data.
Automatic Storage Management controls the level of mirror-

ing of storage on disk. Under a normal redundancy model
where a single mirrored copy is used, you can expect your
usable data to be cut in half, as shown in Table 2-2.
Table 2-2 Mirrored Storage Server Capacity

Performance Disk 45 TB 22.5 TB 9.25 TB
Capacity Disk 150 TB 75 TB 31.5 TB
Note: Flash Cache is not impacted by mirroring.
The most fault tolerant level of mirroring providing the high-

est level of redundancy is high-redundancy mirroring. As seen
in Table 2-3, high redundancy uses triple mirroring to reduce
usable raw disk to approximate one-third.
Table 2-3 High-Redundancy Storage Server Capacity

Performance Disk 30 TB 15 TB 6.25 TB
Capacity Disk 100 TB 50 TB 21.5 TB
High redundancy may not be necessary for many environ-

ments. By understanding the requirements of the specific appli-
cation, you then can intelligently determine the mirroring level.
Exadata Storage Server is a scalable, intelligent component in

the Exadata Database Machine. Beyond only storing data, each
storage server uses hardware and software to reduce CPU
processing on the database server and reduce the amount of
data transferred over the network by executing some database
processing at the storage level. Familiar Oracle tools such
as Enterprise Manager and ASM combined with Oracle Linux
allow for easy Oracle Exadata Storage Server management.
Chapter 3
Exadatas OLTP and Data

Warehousing Capabilities
In This Chapter
Understanding OLTP and data warehousing environments
Examining tools for managing OLTP and data warehouse systems
Improving performance with Exadata Smart Flash Cache and
SmartScan
Reducing storage with Exadata Hybrid Columnar Compression
Providing High Availability and backup and recovery solutions
O LTP database applications are very common, yet to be

successful, they have special requirements. Many best
practices have been developed for OLTP systems. Oracle has
implemented these best practices with their database prod-
ucts for years and has a very successful track record for OLTP
systems.
Data warehousing systems have different processing charac-

teristics. Instead of supporting many concurrent users, the
system allows for fewer users, but they are users executing
exhaustive, long-running queries.
In this chapter, we see how OLTP and data warehouse sys-

tems are optimized and supported on the Exadata Database
Machine.
OLTP Processing Requirements

OLTP systems are the systems people login to and use to gen-
erate revenue. Often someone is buying a product or a service
via a database application. If the transaction is fast and occurs

without errors, the company makes money, and the customer
likely returns for future business. On the other hand, if the
transaction processing is slow or fails or if the system itself is
simply not available, you can lose revenue.
Businesses place a price tag on lost revenue based on the

number of hours an OLTP system is down. It is not uncommon
for the price tag to be many thousands of dollars per hour if a
system isnt available. For these reasons, OLTP systems need
to be available, fast, and execute without errors.
These characteristics are common requirements for OLTP

systems:
High concurrency. Many people use an OLTP system at

the same time. Locking or contention or system bottle
necks are not acceptable.
Fast performance. The more sales transactions pro-

cessed per hour, the more revenue generated. Therefore,
even a small-percentage increase in processing capability
can yield tangible benefits. Furthermore, if a system runs
so slow that it is a burden to the customer, that customer
may opt to take their business elsewhere.
High Availability (HA). If the system is down, revenue

cannot be generated. Furthermore, frustrated custom-
ers will take their business to competitors. A simple
cost-benefit analysis shows how investing in a High
Availability architecture saves an organization money
over time because unplanned downtime is eliminated.
For an OLTP system to be successful, it must support many

users simultaneously, provide fast performance, and be avail-
able when needed. Fortunately, Exadata effectively supports
those requirements.
Data Warehouse Processing

Data warehouses (DW) are the largest databases used to sup-
port long-running queries to identify patterns, trends, and
what if analysis for the decision makers of an organization.
While not as common as OLTP systems, DWs have processing
requirements which need to be met.
Chapter 3: Exadatas OLTP and Data Warehousing Capabilities 31
Data warehouses are in many ways the opposite of OLTP
systems. To contrast against OLTP, a DW has the following
characteristics:
Low concurrency. Only a few people will use a DW at a

given time. Because these systems are used for analysis
and what if analysis, the average user wont access it.
However, the users in a DW are often power users who
are analysts and managers working to identify new busi-
ness opportunities.
Long-running queries. While an OLTP transaction needs

to be complete within seconds, DW queries can run
hours or days. This is due to processing large volumes of
data that involves complex processing logic. SQL tuning,
efficient execution plans, and increased processing
power are critical to DW performance. Any opportunities
to reduce unnecessary processing need to be taken.
Large size. DWs are often built by data feeds from OLTP

systems. That means that a DW often dwarfs the OLTP
systems it was spawned from. Expect enormous and con-
stantly expanding storage requirements.
Although a DW is in many ways the opposite of an OLTP

system, Oracle Exadata is well suited to meet the unique chal-
lenges of DW processing.
Enterprise Manager Grid Control

Enterprise Manager (EM) Grid Control is an administrative
tool used by administrators to intelligently manage and moni-
tor components in an Oracle environment. More than just
managing Oracle databases, EM also can manage and monitor
application servers and monitor operating system resources.
Plug-ins are available to allow EM to monitor non-Oracle com-

ponents as well. Additional management and diagnostic packs
provide additional EM capabilities. In the Exadata environ-
ment, not only are databases, database servers, and operating
systems monitored, but so are Exadata Storage Servers.
EM is a tool very well known to DBAs; many would have a diffi-

cult time doing their job without it. As part of Grid Computing,
EM has agents installed on all the servers throughout an
enterprise that collect data and monitor components. This

information is sent back to a management server where it is
stored for analysis.
The DBA can monitor in real time or can set up automatic

alerts that are triggered when an event occurs (such as a full
disk or down database). This lights out management capa-
bility is critical to running in a 24x7 environment.
EM offers the following powerful features (among many others):
Monitor real-time database activity and identify and trou-

bleshoot database sessions causing issues.
Identify and tune SQL queries running long or causing

performance bottlenecks.
Modify or create new database tables, indexes, code, or

users.
Back up and recover databases via Recovery Manager

(RMAN).
Monitor OS and database health for potential issues.

EMautomatically sends alerts or takes corrective action
when issues are detected.
Upgrade databases and apply patches.

EM provides hooks into the Exadata environment beyond the

standard database and OS capabilities it already has; EM can
also monitor and manage storage servers. The greater benefit
of what EM provides is the capability to better manage OLTP
databases in an automated, error-free manner to promote per-
formance, concurrency, and increased availability.
Exadata Smart Flash Cache

The fastest storage media is solid state technology, also
known as flash storage. Even the fastest disk will never be
close to the speed of flash. Because flash storage is essentially
nonvolatile memory, it has no moving parts, which makes it
very fast and reliable. On the other hand, disk drives have
moving parts that, due to the laws of physics, will always be
slower and less reliable. Additional issues with disk storage
are I/O bottlenecks that can occur in the disk subsystem.
Flash storage is historically too expensive to store entire data-
bases on as a disk replacement. This is especially the case as
disk storage requirements continue to grow. However, it is a
wise strategy to store your most critical and frequently used
data on flash technology and leave your remaining data on
disk storage.
Given the large amount of flash storage available in some config-

urations, having an entire database in flash is not inconceivable.
Oracle Exadata Smart Flash Cache leverages the flash that is

available on each Exadata Storage Server for database caching
of high-use objects. As Table 3-1 shows, the amount of flash
available is dependent on your configuration.
Table 3-1 Raw Storage Server Capacity

Within the Exadata Storage Server, Oracle uses Sun Flash

Accelerator F20 PCIe cards to provide flash. Each card pro-
vides 96 GB of flash, and each storage server has 4 cards.
Because these are flash cards, they avoid I/O bottlenecks of
disk controllers.
You can use several methods to implement flash storage:
Oracle Database and Exadata Storage Server software,

integrated to automatically place data that is likely to
benefit from caching in flash storage. For example, you
would not cache large table scans but you would cache
random reads against tables and indexes in flash storage.
Database storage parameters are available to pin objects

(such as tables) in cache in flash storage. The database
administrator can modify storage clauses for database
objects to be stored in flash cache. The database admin-
istrator and developers would be responsible for know-
ing which objects benefit the most, but tools such as EM
could make the job easier.
Database administrators using Oracle database 11g R2 should

consider Oracle Database Smart Cache. This is different from
Exadata Smart Flash Cache.

By increasing the speed for database transactions with tools

like Exadata Smart Flash Cache, you can process more trans-
actions per hour, resulting in greater revenue.
Exadata Smart Scan

In traditional database architectures, a full table-scan query
returns all data blocks for a table from disk to the database
server for processing. In most cases, much of that data isnt
what was requested. Regardless, the database server still
must use its CPU to process the data to find what it actually
wants. Furthermore, network resources are wasted by moving
data thats usually not wanted by the user.
Exadata Smart Scan offloads processing of queries from the

database server to the storage server. Processors on the
Exadata Storage Server process the data on behalf of the
database SQL query. Only the data requested in the query
is returned to the database server. Thus, the heavy lifting
occurs at the Exadata Storage Server, which results in reduced
processing on the database server and less network traffic.
Using Exadata Smart Scan is transparent to the application and

requires no SQL changes. Some metrics for data warehouse
environments indicate a 10X or more reduction of data sent
to the database server over the network. Combined with the
reduction of CPU processing on the database server, Exadata
Smart Scan is especially valuable to data warehouse systems.
Exadata Hybrid Columnar

Compression
Compressing data to reduce the amount of storage required is
especially useful for data warehouse implementations where
reducing storage reduces costs. In other cases, it can actually
increase performance by reducing the size of data transferred
over the network. Further savings are realized when you
consider the reduced space needed for backups, standby sys-
tems, and production-sized test environments.
Exadata Hybrid Columnar Compression (EHCC) is a technique

where tables are organized based on similar columns and
then compressed. The key is organizing data based on column
values; this keeps similar data together resulting in greater
compression factors.
Oracle Exadata Hybrid Columnar Compression provides two

compression modes: Query Mode for data warehouses and
Archive Mode for seldom-used archive data. Oracle reports
a 10X compression factor for Query Mode and a 15X to 50X
compression factor for Archive Mode data.
Compressed tables are still accessed via standard SQL com-

mands with SELECT, INSERT, and DELETE however, an
UPDATE of EHCC data does impact performance. The data
itself is not uncompressed during processing; only the data
to be returned to the user needs to be uncompressed. The
decompression is executed at the storage server rather than
at the database server to enhance performance.
High Availability, Backup,

and Recovery
Impact on a business or organization is severe when any criti-
cal systems are not available, but OLTP system downtime often
has a large price tag attached. Because of this, Oracle Exadata
Database Machine has many features to provide High Availability
(HA) and enhance backup and recovery mechanisms.
Knowing that any piece of hardware is destined to fail at some

point, the key questions are how to enhance fault tolerance
and eliminate single points of failure. These are areas where
the Exadata database and storage servers excel.
Although a hardware failure is a common cause for downtime,

its not the only cause. Software errors, logical data corruption,
human errors, or just taking a component down for patching for
routine maintenance are other common causes for downtime.
HA and backup and recovery are provided by:
Multiple, redundant database servers available in every

Exadata database server configuration. If one server fails
or needs to be shutdown for maintenance, the other
server is still available.
Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) is installed by

default on Oracle Exadata Database Machines. Oracle
RAC allows for multiple database instances on separate
servers to access the same physical database.
Data Guard and Standby Databases allow a database

to be the primary database for OLTP activity but keep
another standby database located on a different server.
The standby database is kept in sync to match the con-
tent of the primary so if the primary goes down, the
standby can be used immediately.
Enterprise Manager Grid Control promotes HA by allow-

ing the DBA to effectively monitor and manage the data-
base and support infrastructure. Many potential issues
are automatically detected and fixed before they become
serious problems. Using EM also reduces some human
errors by administrators, which can cause downtime.
Recovery Manager is used via EM to schedule database

backup jobs and recover databases. Additionally, RMAN
can be used to move or clone databases to new server
environments.
Automatic Storage Management (ASM) manages the stor-

age volumes supporting the database. ASM allows the
administrator to create disk groups, enforcing standard
disk mirroring and also triple disk mirroring. This pro-
vides fault tolerance in the event of a disk failure.
Redundant hardware components are throughout the

Exadata Database Machine. Redundant network compo-
nents, disk and disk subsystems, and servers provide
fault tolerance for when a hardware failure does occur.
HA and backup and recovery are critical to OLTP systems

because a failure equates to very expensive losses for a company.
The Exadata Database Machine and Storage Server are archi-
tected and support software to enhance HA for the OLTP system.
Data warehouse users also gain from the HA benefits because the
system will be available for their reporting processes.
Chapter 4
Benefiting from Shared

Services and Server
Consolidation
In This Chapter
Identifying the benefits of server consolidation
Understanding how Exadata supports shared services and
consolidation
M anaging a hodgepodge of disjointed database servers,

storage devices, and network infrastructure is difficult,
expensive, and inefficient. Smart IT organizations are pushing to
consolidate into common, shared services architecture. By pro-
viding capacity on demand as a shared service, the IT cost goes
down while performance, security, and ease of management go
up. This chapter takes a take a look at how shared services and
server consolidation benefit organizations.
Why Server Consolidation?

Walk into most established IT shops and youll see a parade of
different database servers, storage devices, and network con-
figurations supporting the current database environments. The
result is having different versions of server hardware, operating
systems, Oracle database software, and configurations support-
ing very similar systems. Trying to manage this environment is
a constant struggle, and heres why:
Every server needs to be managed individually at the

hardware, operating system, and database level.
Differences in hardware and software versions require a

customized approach to every system, even though dif-
ferent systems are themselves relatively similar.
Enforcing configuration and optimization parameters are

at best a manual, labor-intensive task. Best practices are
difficult to uniformly implement across environments.
Worse yet, poor configurations may exist undetected.
Patching and upgrading heterogeneous customized serv-

ers and software is labor intensive and error prone.
Adding new capacity is a challenge because you must fit in

the new capacity into the current disjointed environment.
Servers and storage are often either over utilized or

under utilized in terms of capacity and performance.
Either youre over stressed or youre wasting resources.
Want to show your management a tangible way you are work-

ing to cut costs? Start your server consolidation initiative and
show the cost savings in terms of the few computing environ-
ments youll need to support.
All this extra customized work results in increased costs and

complexity, but provides no real benefit to anyone.
How Exadata Supports Server

Consolidation
Using Exadata to consolidate your existing environments pro-
vides the following benefits:
Standardized, homogeneous environment. Oracle soft-

ware on Oracle hardware eliminates differences in hard-
ware, operating systems, and database software. Servicing
one type of system is easier than servicing many and
allows your staff to become experts in a technology.
Consistent hardware and software configurations. Exadata

hardware and software are the same version and have the
same base configuration settings. This makes management
and maintenance much easier, faster, and less error prone.
Chapter 4: Benefiting from Shared Services and Server Consolidation 39
Optimized configuration settings. Exadata comes precon-

figured based on Oracle best practices. Starting with a clean
configuration, you dont have to worry about antiquated
settings carrying forward into your new environment.
Segmentation of applications. Virtualization technolo-

gies and techniques allow applications to still operate as
if they were in their own dedicated environments.
Support for OLTP, data warehouse, and mixed work-

loads. Different applications have different processing
requirements. Exadata has optimizations for OLTP, data
warehouse, and mixed workload environments.
Easy and rapid implementation. Applications can move

to Exadata with little or no customization; Exadata is
designed for rapid implementation. Oracle Exadata
Start-Up packs provide Oracle staff to assist with migra-
tion and support.
Capacity on Demand (COD) computing. Once on

Exadata, applications are configured to only use the
capacity they need. Quarter Racks, Half Racks, Full
Racks, and multiple servers are options. As more capac-
ity is needed, more resources are allocated.
Increased security. Software patching and configuration

is easier and more uniform. Removing undocumented
configuration settings and enforcing a consistency pro-
motes security.
If your IT shop bills business units for support of services,

Exadata shared services and Capacity on Demand computing
makes this process easier and less expensive.

In Figure 4-1, you see a before-and-after view of how Exadata
can change a database environment.
As you see, the original environment had multiple database

servers, networks, and storage servers. With Exadata, you
now have a single database machine supporting the same
workload in a more efficient, highly available configuration.
Network Attached
Data Warehouse
Application #4
Storage #2
Application #4
Storage Server #3
RAC Database Servers
Hybrid DB Server
Application #3
Application #4
Exadata Database Server Machine
InfiniBand Network
Network Attached
Storage Server #2
Storage #1
Application #1
Application #2
Application #3
OLTP DB Server
Application #2
RAC Database Servers
Storage Server #1
Application #1
Application #2
Application #3
OLTP DB Server
Application #1
Internal Disk
Storage
Before Exadata
After Exadata
Figure 4-1: Exadata server consolidation.
Exadata I/O Resource Manager and

Quality of Service Management
A valid concern of server consolidation is how workload is
managed on a shared environment. Often, mixed workloads
prove to be difficult to manage. Exadata has several compo-
nents to ensure processing workload is properly managed.
Chapter 4: Benefiting from Shared Services and Server Consolidation 41
Exadata I/O Resource Manager
Exadata I/O Resource Manager allows the administrator to
create resource plans to prioritize how different I/O requests
are processed. This allows different databases to have appropri-
ate levels of I/O processing priority. For example, you can give
a higher priority to a high visibility OLTP application while less
visible data warehouse processing receives a lesser priority.
Exadata I/O Resource Manager is beneficial in consolidated

environments where different, conflicting workloads exist.
For example, one feature is the ability to reserve flash storage
for specific databases, ensuring that the most critical applica-
tions have the fastest storage.
Another example is where development, test, and produc-

tion databases coexist. High throughput for your production
database can be ensured by giving development and test a
lower relative I/O priority and giving production a higher rela-
tive I/O priority. This relative allocation is implemented via
consumer groups that are defined by the administrator and
implemented via the Exadata I/O Resource Manager.
Oracle Database Resource Manager allows DBAs to create

resource plans to manage CPU and parallel processing
for databases. This is different than Exadata I/O Resource
Manager but is a useful tool to use.
Exadata Quality of Service

(QoS) Management
Exadata Quality of Service (QoS) Management monitors work-
load on the system and manages shared resources to ensure
processing continues at requested levels. QoS automati-
cally tracks workload requests, identifies bottlenecks, and
reallocates resources to maintain the desired performance for
a process. QoS helps you to maintain a stable, consistent level
of performance, which is key to keeping within your Service
Level Agreements with customers.
Using Oracle Enterprise Manager, the administrator creates

policies to define the required performance for a workload.
QoS takes the inputs, tracks workload requests, and makes
recommendations or changes as needed to ensure that they

finish within the required timeframe. If QoS needs to make
changes, it provides an audit log of changes. Enterprise
Manager provides dashboards and options to view perfor-
mance metrics and edit policies.
QoS promotes shared services and server consolidation via:
Allowing databases with different levels of importance

toshare the same machine. Development, test, and pro-
duction can coexist without risk of negatively impacting
production performance.
Preventing performance issues from noticeably impacting

applications by detecting bottlenecks and providing recom-
mendations to fix them before they become real problems.
Providing automated, detailed, and end-to-end tracking

and monitoring of workloads and logging of corrective
changes.
Ensuring that resources are not over- or under-allocated

for a workload. This results in more intelligent manage-
ment of shared resources.
Simplifying performance management for administrators

via Enterprise Manager and automated processes.
Enforcing Service Level Agreements in an automated

manner with logging and metrics to prove the SLA has
been met.
Exadata I/O Resource Manager and Exadata Quality of Service

allow mixed workload systems to be consolidated into the
same machine while ensuring performance is not hindered.
The end result is lower total cost to host multiple databases
while meeting processing and performance requirements.
Chapter 5
Ten (Okay, Five) Things

to Look For in an
Exadata Solution
In This Chapter
Benefiting from the Exadata Database Machine
M oving to the Exadata Database Machine is a potential

game-changer for your IT infrastructure. Here, we
cover some of the benefits you can expect.
Unified Hardware and Software

Exadata is unified hardware and software optimized to work
together. Integration between each hardware and software
component and subsystem is tested and optimized for perfor-
mance and reliability. When working with complex systems,
having this integration and optimization done for you makes
your Exadata implementation much easier.
Preconfigured Components
You dont have to reinvent the wheel when you get an Exadata
Database Machine; it comes to you with the features precon-
figured and optimized! Oracle uses their best practices and
lessons learned when configuring your Exadata system.
Scaling for Large Applications

Exadatas Capacity on Demand (COD) simplifies the situ-
ation because it allows you to start with the capacity you
need and expand as your processing requirements increase.
Leveraging the Exadata Database Machine X2-2, you start
with a Quarter or Half Rack configuration and add additional
capacity as needed. You can scale vertically into a Half or Full
Rack configuration only when you need to. When you need to
scale horizontally beyond a Full Rack configuration, simply
add additional X2-2 or X2-8 Exadata Database Machines. This
allows you to purchase and support only what you need with-
out being wasteful by having unused capacity.
Reducing Infrastructure Costs

through Consolidation
Because Exadata is a single solution, you no longer need
to support multiple independent database servers or their
storage devices or the network. That reduction in hardware
equates to large savings. Furthermore, licensing costs are
reduced because less overall software is needed to support all
the systems. Finally, administrators have fewer environments
to manage, and the Exadata environment is standardized and
optimized to allow for easier administration.
Agile Infrastructure to Meet

Changing Requirements
To meet new business requirements, you need an agile
system. Exadata creates new environments quickly because
of its virtualization and Capacity on Demand capabilities. This
capability allows you to spend more time on development to
meet a new requirement rather than waiting on the purchase,
installation, and configuration of new hardware or software.
Runs Oracle
10x Faster *
The Worlds Fastest

Database Machine
Hardware by Sun
Software by Oracle
* But you have to be willing to

spend 50% less on hardware.
10x faster based on comparing Oracle data warehouses

on customer systems vs. Oracle Exadata Database Machines.
Potential savings based on total hardware costs. Oracle Database
and options licenses not included. Actual results and savings may vary.
Copyright 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
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g Easier!

Making Everythin cial Edition

How Exadata is configured

What flash, compression,

tions reduce storage and

Copyright 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved .

DLT SOLUTIONS SPECIAL EDITION

by Michael Wessler, OCP & CISSP

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE

Chapter 1: Todays Database Challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 2: Exadatas Unique Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter 3: Exadatas OLTP and Data

Chapter 4: Benefiting from Shared Services

Chapter 5: Ten (Okay, Five) Things to Look For

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Composition Services

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Oracle Exadata takes that mash of database servers, storage,

About This Book

Chapter 1: Todays Database Challenges. We look at how

Chapter 2: Exadatas Unique Architecture. Here, we get into

Chapter 3: Exadatas OLTP and Data Warehousing

Chapter 4: Benefiting from Shared Services and Server

Chapter 5: Ten (Okay, Five) Things to Look For in an

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

T odays business challenges dictate fast, agile, and reli-

Database technology has evolved over several generations of

In this chapter, we examine todays database architectures

Current Database Architecture

(such as ordering a product or service). All the data used to

A modern IT system is generally composed of the following

User. Very often a human sitting in front of a keyboard

Storage devices are frequently attached to the database

Database systems fall into three general categories: OLTP,

On Line Transaction Processing

A prime example of an OLTP system is a call center applica-

Characteristics important to an OLTP system include

Availability. If the system isnt available, the company

Data warehouses are commonly used to ask business-related

Characteristics important to a data warehouse include

Storage. The size of data warehouses is huge! Terabytes

Business Intelligence (BI) tools allow management and data

Data warehouses are fewer than OLTP systems, but by their

The ideal design characteristics of OLTP versus data ware-

One compromise is to run a hybrid database in OLTP mode

The following sections discuss common issues faced by IT

Having only a single component (which will eventually fail)

Figure 1-1 shows how multiple database servers provide both

Be sure to identify the fault tolerant components and single

Unfortunately, security is often poorly implemented and man-

Keeping a handle on security issues and coordinating with

Disk Storage Array

Disk Storage Array

Figure 1-1: Fault tolerance and single point of failure.

Increasing storage requirements

Many choices regarding storage are available:

Internal or attached storage

Despite improvements in storage technology, effectively man-

Multiple, complex subsystems

Within each subsystem, further components exist. For exam-

Managing these varied components is a challenge. In large

vendors to evaluate, purchase support and license agreements

Best of breed is an approach in which you purchase the very