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Introduction



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



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 Hardware Components



The Exadata Storage Cells and Compute nodes consists of several hardware components, such as:


  • Hard disk
  • Flash disk 
  • Physical Memory
  • Processor  
  • IB ports
  • Mother Board
  • Batteries
  • Power Supply
  • and So on



All these hardware components are subjected to failure. Most common failure on Exadata is Hard Disk failure on Storage Cells. With the latest generation of Exadata the hardware failures are very minimal and less troublesome. 



In this article I would like to show few different hardware failure I have encountered along with an image for easy understanding. This will help the DBAs who still didn’t get a change to work on Exadata Hardware side.



Different Exadata Hardware components failures



  • Battery Failure on Exadata X4-2



  • Flash Card Failure on Exadata V2



  • Flash Card Failure on Exadata X5-2



  • Flash Card Failure on Exadata V6-2



  • Hard Disk Failure on Exadata V2



  • Hard Disk Failure on Exadata X2-2



  • Hard Disk Failure on Exadata X4-2



  • Hard Disk Failure on Exadata X5-2



  • IB Port Failure on Exadata X2-2



  • IB Port Failure on Exadata X4-2



  • IB Port Failure on Exadata X5-2



  • Physical Memory (DIMM) Failure on Exadata X5-2



  • Physical Memory (DIMM) Failure on Exadata X6-2



  • Processor Failure on Exadata X4-2



  • Processor Failure on Exadata X5-2



  • Power Supply Failure on Exadata V2



  • Power Supply Failure on Exadata X4-2



  • Power Supply Failure on Exadata X5-2


  • Power Supply Failure on Exadata X6-2





Conclusion



In this article we have learned different Exadata components and also seen the images on different hardware failures. If you have configured the SMTP attributes of Compute nodes and Storage cells, whenever there is an hardware failure it will send you an email alert. This way it is very easy to monitor hardware failures and other software related failures.



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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.



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