Oracle Database Appliance

Last updated

The Oracle Database Appliance (ODA) is a database server appliance made by Oracle Corporation. It was introduced in September 2011 as the mid-market offering in Oracle's family of full-stack, integrated systems the company calls engineered systems. [1] The ODA is a single rack-mounted device providing a highly-available two-node clustered database server. [2]

Contents

History

Oracle introduced its first engineered database system, Oracle Exadata, in 2008.[ citation needed ] In 2011, the company announced the Oracle Database Appliance as a smaller, less powerful alternative to Oracle Exadata at a lower price point. [3] [4] According to industry analysts, Oracle expected the Oracle Database Appliance to fill the gap in its product line beneath Oracle Exadata, targeting mid-market customers. [5] The platform proved very popular with database administrators,[ according to whom? ] with enough support to launch a book about the systems. [6]

Features

The Oracle Database Appliance supports more than database systems. Starting in release 2.5 (ODA V1) and 2.5.5 (ODA V2 X3-2), the Oracle Database Appliance can be deployed using Oracle VM, which allows an administrator to install the application tier along with the database. [7]

The Oracle Database Appliance also offers a pay-as-you-grow model for Oracle licenses. This allows a customer to only license the CPU count they need and not the entire capacity of the appliance. When virtualized, this is supported for both the database and the application tier.

When the Oracle Database Appliance is connected to a ZS3 storage array, the DBA can leverage Hybrid Columnar Compression for data stored on the array to enable tiered storage and compression ratios exceeding 200%.

Hardware

The first generation of the Oracle Database Appliance (ODA V1) is a two-node cluster in a single rack-mounted chassis. Inside the chassis are two servers, configured in a cluster with shared storage. Each server includes two six-core processors (for a total of 12 cores per server), 96 GB RAM, six 1 Gigabit NICs, and two 10 Gigabit NICs. The NICs are configured in an active/passive HA (bonding) configuration. Inside, the appliance holds four 73 GB SSDs and twenty 600 GB hard disks for shared storage. Storage is configured during deployment for either double or triple mirroring (giving an overall capacity of 6 TB or 4 TB, respectively). [8] The appliance also contains redundant power supplies and cooling fans.

Later generations of the appliance moved to a more flexible platform, utilizing Oracle X3-2 and X4-2 x86 servers and one or two SAS storage trays. Each compute node of the latest X4-based configuration includes four 10GBaseT network ports, two 12-core Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 processors, 256 GB RAM, and optional 10 Gigabit fiber connectivity. The system can also support up to two storage trays, each with twenty 900 GB hard drives and four 200 GB SSDs for a maximum capacity of 36 TB of hard disk space and another 1.6 TB of SSD space. Single- and double-mirroring of disks is supported, for up to 18 TB of local data storage. [9]

Software

The Oracle Database Appliance runs Oracle Linux, Oracle Grid Infrastructure for cluster- and storage-management, and a choice of Oracle Enterprise Edition, Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), or Oracle RAC One Node. These latter two database products leverage the clustered nature of the hardware to provide database-service failover in the event of a failure. Oracle also provides Oracle Clusterware for high-availability monitoring and cluster membership, and Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) for storage and disk management. [10]

Oracle Appliance Kit (OAK) software offers a built-in management interface. [11]

Administration

Oracle provides a deployment tool called the appliance manager to simplify deployment and make it less time-consuming. [12] [ failed verification ] The vendor also provides special patch bundles for the database appliance, consisting of patches for firmware, the Linux OS, clustering, storage management, and database which have been tested[ by whom? ] for compatibility. [2]

Licensing

Customers can choose to license only a subset of the processor cores in the Oracle Database Appliance. This is done by disabling unnecessary processor cores in the BIOS, using a special interface. Cores can be enabled at a later time, allowing customers to increase the capacity of the appliance if required. [13]

Criticism

The Oracle Database Appliance is only available in fixed configurations. Customers cannot cluster multiple appliances together to create a larger cluster (beyond 2 servers), nor can they expand the internal disk storage of the system beyond the two storage trays. However, if a customer runs out of storage space, they can extend their storage to dNFS-attached storage. [14] Currently,[ when? ] when leveraging an Oracle ZS3 array, the storage limit is approximately 3.5 PB.

Related Research Articles

Xserve Apple rack-mounted server

Xserve is a line of rack unit computers designed by Apple Inc. for use as servers. Introduced in 2002, it was Apple's first designated server hardware design since the Apple Network Server in 1996. In the meantime, ordinary Power Macintosh G3 and G4 models were rebranded as Macintosh Server G3 and Macintosh Server G4 with some alterations to the hardware, such as added Gigabit Ethernet cards, UltraWide SCSI cards, extra large and fast hard drives etc. and shipped with Mac OS X Server software. The Xserve initially featured one or two PowerPC G4 processors, but later switched over to the then-new PowerPC G5, transitioned to Intel with the Core 2-based Xeon offerings and subsequently switched again to two quad-core Intel Nehalem microprocessors.

NetApp American technology company

NetApp, Inc. is an American hybrid cloud data services and data management company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. It has ranked in the Fortune 500 since 2012. Founded in 1992 with an IPO in 1995, NetApp offers cloud data services for management of applications and data both online and physically.

MySQL Cluster is a technology providing shared-nothing clustering and auto-sharding for the MySQL database management system. It is designed to provide high availability and high throughput with low latency, while allowing for near linear scalability. MySQL Cluster is implemented through the NDB or NDBCLUSTER storage engine for MySQL.

A NetApp FAS is a computer storage product by NetApp running the ONTAP operating system; the terms ONTAP, AFF, ASA, FAS are often used as synonyms. "Filer" is also used as a synonym although this is not an official name. There are three types of FAS systems: Hybrid, All-Flash, and All SAN Array:

  1. NetApp proprietary custom-build hardware appliances with HDD or SSD drives called hybrid Fabric-Attached Storage
  2. NetApp proprietary custom-build hardware appliances with only SSD drives and optimized ONTAP for low latency called ALL-Flash FAS
  3. All SAN Array build on top of AFF platform, and provide only SAN-based data protocol connectivity.

The IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) is a block storage virtualization appliance that belongs to the IBM System Storage product family. SVC implements an indirection, or "virtualization", layer in a Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN).

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at Austin, United States, is an advanced computing research center that provides comprehensive advanced computing resources and support services to researchers in Texas and across the USA. The mission of TACC is to enable discoveries that advance science and society through the application of advanced computing technologies. Specializing in high performance computing, scientific visualization, data analysis & storage systems, software, research & development and portal interfaces, TACC deploys and operates advanced computational infrastructure to enable computational research activities of faculty, staff, and students of UT Austin. TACC also provides consulting, technical documentation, and training to support researchers who use these resources. TACC staff members conduct research and development in applications and algorithms, computing systems design/architecture, and programming tools and environments.

Dell EMC Isilon Network-attached storage

Isilon is a scale out network-attached storage platform offered by Dell EMC for high-volume storage, backup and archiving of unstructured data. It provides a cluster-based storage array based on industry standard hardware, and is scalable to 50 petabytes in a single filesystem using its FreeBSD-derived OneFS file system.

The Sun Fire X4500 data server integrates server and storage technologies. It was announced in July, 2006 and is part of the Sun Fire server line from Sun Microsystems.

In computing, the term data warehouse appliance (DWA) was coined by Foster Hinshaw for a computer architecture for data warehouses (DW) specifically marketed for big data analysis and discovery that is simple to use and high performance for the workload. A DWA includes an integrated set of servers, storage, operating systems, and databases.

IBM Netezza is a subsidiary of American technology company IBM that designs and markets high-performance data warehouse appliances and advanced analytics applications for uses including enterprise data warehousing, business intelligence, predictive analytics and business continuity planning.

In computer science, memory virtualization decouples volatile random access memory (RAM) resources from individual systems in the data centre, and then aggregates those resources into a virtualized memory pool available to any computer in the cluster. The memory pool is accessed by the operating system or applications running on top of the operating system. The distributed memory pool can then be utilized as a high-speed cache, a messaging layer, or a large, shared memory resource for a CPU or a GPU application.

Texas Memory Systems, Inc. (TMS) was an American corporation that designed and manufactured solid-state disks (SSDs) and digital signal processors (DSPs). TMS was founded in 1978 and that same year introduced their first solid-state drive, followed by their first digital signal processor. In 2000 they introduced the RamSan line of SSDs. Based in Houston, Texas, they supply these two product categories to large enterprise and government organizations.

IBM Storwize systems were virtualizing RAID computer data storage systems with raw storage capacities up to 32 PB. Storwize is based on the same software as IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC).

Exalogic is a computer appliance made by Oracle Corporation, commercially available since 2010. It is a cluster of x86-64-servers running Oracle Linux or Solaris preinstalled.

In computer science, in-memory processing is an emerging technology for processing of data stored in an in-memory database. Older systems have been based on disk storage and relational databases using SQL query language, but these are increasingly regarded as inadequate to meet business intelligence (BI) needs. Because stored data is accessed much more quickly when it is placed in random-access memory (RAM) or flash memory, in-memory processing allows data to be analysed in real time, enabling faster reporting and decision-making in business.

The Oracle Big Data Appliance consists of hardware and software from Oracle Corporation sold as a computer appliance. It was announced in 2011, promoted for consolidating and loading unstructured data into Oracle Database software.

StorTrends is a brand name of disk-based, hybrid array, and solid state storage products for computer data storage in data centers, sold by AmZetta Technologies. Formally a division of American Megatrends, StorTrends appliances utilize the iTX architecture, which includes features such as deduplication and compression, SSD caching and SSD tiering, automated tiered storage, replication, data archiving, snapshots, WAN optimization, and a VMware vSphere plug-in.

Dell EMC PowerFlex, is a commercial software-defined storage product from Dell EMC that creates a server-based storage area network (SAN) from local server storage using x86 servers. It converts this direct-attached storage into shared block storage than runs over an IP-based network.

Oracle Cloud is a cloud computing service offered by Oracle Corporation providing servers, storage, network, applications and services through a global network of Oracle Corporation managed data centers. The company allows these services to be provisioned on demand over the Internet.

ONTAP or Data ONTAP or Clustered Data ONTAP (cDOT) or Data ONTAP 7-Mode is NetApp's proprietary operating system used in storage disk arrays such as NetApp FAS and AFF, ONTAP Select and Cloud Volumes ONTAP. With the release of version 9.0, NetApp decided to simplify the Data ONTAP name and removed word "Data" from it and remove 7-Mode image, therefore, ONTAP 9 is successor from Clustered Data ONTAP 8.

References

  1. ↑ Curtis, Bobby; Velikanov, Yury; Benner, Erik; Arshad, Fuad; Elsins, Maris; Sharman, Pete; Gallagher, Matt (January 29, 2014). "9: Business Values for the ODA". Practical Oracle Database Appliance. Expert's voice in Oracle. Apress (published 2014). p. 160. ISBN   9781430262657 . Retrieved January 19, 2017. ODAs will maintain their place within the Oracle engineered system product lineup for the foreseeable future.
  2. 1 2 "Oracle Database Appliance White Paper" (PDF). Oracle. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 13, 2013. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Oracle Engineered Systems Price List--December 4, 2012" (PDF). Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  4. ↑ Fielding, Marc (September 21, 2011). "Comparing Oracle Database Appliance and Oracle Exadata". Pythian. Archived from the original on September 25, 2011. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  5. ↑ Jennings, Tim. "Oracle Applies for Database Simplicity" (PDF). Ovum. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
  6. ↑ Arshad,Benner, Curtis,Elsins, Gallagher, Sharman, Velikanov. Practical Oracle Appliance. Apress. Retrieved June 6, 2014.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ↑ Arshad, Fuad. "Deploying a Virtualized Oracle Appliance". fuadarshad.com. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Oracle Database Appliance Data Sheet" (PDF). Oracle. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Oracle Database Appliance X4-2 Datasheet" (PDF). Oracle. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
  10. ↑ Baird, Cathy. "Oracle High Availability and Best Practices". Oracle. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  11. ↑ Curtis, Bobby; Velikanov, Yury; Benner, Erik; Arshad, Fuad; Elsins, Maris; Sharman, Pete; Gallagher, Matt (January 29, 2014). "2: Integrated Lights Out Management". Practical Oracle Database Appliance. Expert's voice in Oracle. Apress (published 2014). p. 13. ISBN   9781430262657 . Retrieved July 28, 2017. The Oracle Database Appliance (ODA) is a bundle of two server nodes that include storage and embedded cluster networking. Each server node has an Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) interface that is used for management and maintenance tasks. [...] The Oracle Appliance Kit (OAK), also known as the Oracle Appliance Manager, is the software that manages installation and patching, and in some cases, the gathering of diagnostic information and integration of the ILOM with ASR.
  12. ↑ Moltzen, Edward. "Oracle Database Appliance: Perfect Time for Sun/Oracle Offspring". CRN.com. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  13. ↑ Walsh, Larry. "Oracle Goes Small with Database Appliance". Channelnomics. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  14. ↑ "Oracle Database Appliance Frequently Asked Questions" (PDF). Oracle. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.