Exadata was first launched in the year 2008 and it was names
as Exadata V1. Since then Exadata has undergone many significant changes.
In this article I will give a quick overview of Exadata
history and changes made in each of the model.
•
V1
– First
Exadata model released in 2008
– It
was a combination of HP hardware + Oracle Software
– Exclusively
for Data Warehouse workload
– There
were too many hardware failures noticed in this model
– Working
with Hardware issues was not easy as it involved multiple vendors
– There
was no Flash in this version
– Major
problem with V1 was the cabinet gets overheated. You can fry Eggs on the
cabinetJ
•
V2
– V2
was released in 2009
– Combination
of Sun hardware and Oracle Software
– Flash
Cache was introduced for the first time in V2
– Caches
data intelligently on Flash Cache
– Faster
components and used solid state disks
– More
than just Data Warehouse
•
X2
– X2
is the third version of Exadata and it was released in 2010
– This
time the naming changed to X series
– Introduced
two variants X2-2 and X2-8
– Introduced
Exadata Storage Expansion for addition storage capacity
– Faster
components and increased capacity (CPU, memory and disk)
•
X3
– X3
was released in 2012
– Named
as “In-Memory Database machines”
– Introduced
Exadata Eight Rack configuration
– Increased
Flash cache
– Introduced
write back flash cache
– Faster
components and increased capacity
– Increased
High Capacity disk Size from 2TB to 3TB
– Introduced new Software feature Write-Back Flash Cache
– Introduced new Software feature Write-Back Flash Cache
•
X4
– It
was released in 2013
– Introduced
Xeon processors
– Physical
memory can be expanded up to 512GB on Compute nodes
– Doubled
Flash Cache
– Increased
High Performance disk size from 600GB to 1.2TB
– Increased
High Capacity disk size from 3TB to 4TB
– Introduced
Active/Active Infiniband network connection
•
X5
– It
was released in 2015
– Uses
2-socket CPU
– Physical
memory can be expanded up to 768GB on Compute nodes
– Introduced
OVM
– Introduced
Extreme Flash Cache servers
– Introduced
Elastic Exadata configuration
– High
performance disk are removed in favor of Extreme Flash Cache servers
– Doubled
flash cache and used NVMe
•
X6
– X6
was released in 2016
– Increase
Flash cache
– Faster
components and increased capacity
– Also
available in Public Cloud
– Ideal
for DBaas
The diagram below gives you an overview of the Exadata hardware evolution.
Conclusion
In this article we have learned the history of Exadata. We
have seen how Exadata has undergone significant changes since it’s launched in
the year 2008.
3