Oracle Exadata

Oracle Exadata is a database appliance with support for both OLTP (transactional) and OLAP (analytical) database systems.^[1] It was initially designed in collaboration between Oracle Corporation and Hewlett Packard. Oracle designed the database, operating system (based on the Oracle Linux distribution), and storage software whereas HP designed the hardware for it. After Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems, in 2010 Oracle announced the Exadata Version 2 with improved performance and Sun storage systems.^[2]

History

Exadata was announced by Larry Ellison at the 2009 Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco for immediate delivery. The main headline was that Oracle was entering the hardware business with a pre-built database machine, engineered by Oracle. The hardware at this time was manufactured, delivered and supported by HP. Since the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle circa January 2010, Exadata used Sun-based hardware. In August 2011, Oracle announced that Exadata database machines would be orderable with Solaris 11 Express (in addition to Oracle Linux).^[3]

Technical details

Exadata X2-2 at Oracle OpenWorld 2009

Database servers X3-2

A third generation was announced in 2012.^[4] Each Database Server with

• 2 x Eight-Core Intel Xeon E5-2690 Processors (2.9 GHz)
• 128 GB Memory (expandable to 256GB)
• Disk Controller HBA with 512MB Battery Backed Write Cache
• 4 x 300 GB 10,000 RPM Disks
• 2 x QDR (40Gbit/s) Ports
• 4 x 1/10 Gb Ethernet Ports (copper)
• 2 x 10 Gb Ethernet Ports (optical)
• 1 x ILOM Ethernet Port
• 2 x Redundant Hot-Swappable Power Supplies

The Exadata X3-2 comes in 4 different sizes

• Eighth Rack - 2 Database Servers (half of the cores used in each server [8 cores per server]), 3 Storage Servers (half of the disks enabled, half of the Flash Cache enabled)
• Quarter Rack - 2 Database Servers, 3 Storage Servers
• Half Rack - 4 Database Servers, 7 Storage Servers
• Full Rack - 8 Database Servers, 14 Storage Servers

Database servers X3-8

2 Servers, each with

• 8 x Ten-Core Intel Xeon E7-8870 Processors (2.40 GHz)
• 2 TB Memory
• Disk Controller HBA with 512MB Battery Backed Write Cache
• 8 x 300 GB 10,000 RPM Disks
• 8 x InfiniBand QDR (40Gbit/s) Ports
• 8 x 10 Gb Ethernet Ports based on the Intel 82599 10GbE Controller
• 8 x 1 Gb Ethernet Ports
• 1 x ILOM Ethernet Port
• 4 x Redundant Hot-Swappable Power Supplies

Storage Servers X3-2

Each Storage Server has

• Processors: 2 x Six-Core Intel Xeon E5-2630L (2.0 GHz) Processors
• Exadata Smart Flash: Cache 1.6 TB (4 PCI cards)
• System Memory: 64 GB
• Disk Controller: Disk Controller HBA with 512MB Battery Backed Write Cache
• InfiniBand Connectivity: Dual-Port QDR (40Gbit/s) InfiniBand Host Channel Adapter
• Power Supplies: Dual-redundant, hot-swappable power supply
• Disk Drives:
  • 12 x 600 GB 15,000 RPM High Performance or
  • 12 x 3 TB 7,200 RPM High Capacity
  • For raw disk capacity, 1 GB = 1 billion bytes. Actual formatted capacity is less.
• Remote Management: Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) Ethernet port

Database servers X2-2

Sun Fire X4170 M2^[5]

• 2 × Six-Core Intel Xeon X5675 Processors (3.06 GHz)
• 96 GB Memory (expandable to 144 GB with optional memory expansion kit)
• Disk Controller HBA with 512MB Battery Backed Write Cache
• 4 × 300 GB 10,000 RPM SAS Disks
• 2 × QDR (40Gbit/s) Ports
• 2 × 10 Gb Ethernet Ports based on the Intel 82599 10GbE Controller
• 4 × 1 Gb Ethernet Ports
• 1 × ILOM Ethernet Port
• 2 × Redundant Hot-Swappable Power Supplies
• 3 × 36 port QDR (40 Gbit/s) InfiniBand Switches (2 x in Quarter Rack configuration)

Database servers X2-8

Sun Fire X4800^[6]

• 8 × Ten-Core Intel Xeon E7-8870 Processors (2.40 GHz)
• 2 TB Memory.
• Disk Controller HBA with 512MB Battery Backed Write Cache.
• 8 × 300 GB 10,000 RPM SAS Disks
• 8 × QDR (40Gbit/s) Ports
• 8 × 10 Gb Ethernet Ports based on the Intel 82599 10GbE Controller
• 8 × 1 Gb Ethernet Ports
• 1 × ILOM Ethernet Port
• 4 × Redundant Hot-Swappable Power Supplies
• 3 × 36 port QDR (40 Gbit/s) InfiniBand Switches

Storage Servers X2-2

• 2 × Six-Core Intel Xeon L5640 (2.26 GHz) Processors
• Exadata Smart Flash Cache 384 GB
• System Memory 24 GB
• Disk Controller HBA with 512MB Battery Backed Write Cache
• InfiniBand Connectivity Dual-Port QDR (40Gbit/s) InfiniBand Host Channel Adapter
• Power Supplies Dual-redundant, hot-swappable power supply
• Remote Management Sun Embedded Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)
• Disk Drives 12 × 600 GB 15,000 RPM High Performance SAS or
• 12 × 3 TB 7,200 RPM High Capacity SAS
• Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) Ethernet port^[7]

There was also an expansion rack.^[8]

Software

Software caches database objects in flash memory, replacing slow, mechanical I/O operations to disk with rapid flash memory operations. Software also provides logging feature to speed database log I/O. Exadata storage cells determine which rows contain values that are being queried. Smart Scan only returns blocks that are relevant to the compute nodes. Storage cells can take over data intensive processing from compute nodes.

Storage cells keep track on maximum and minimum values stored in different areas and use those values to determine where predicates can not exist. This allows the storage cell to not have to read the area at all thus saving time and processing cycles.

InfiniBand switches

The 2010 version of the product used Sun Microsystems datacenter InfiniBand switches with 36 ports.^[9]

Source Oracle Corporation ^[2]

See also

• Oracle
• Exalogic

References

External links

• Oracle Exadata Database Machine
• Oracle & Sun Unveil Exadata Version 2 on YouTube - Larry Ellison's Exadata V2 announcement
• History of Exadata