Oracle Exadata Expert's Handbook

Tariq Farooq, Oracle ACE director and Oracle RAC certified expert, has spent more than twenty-four years working with Oracle technologies in highly complex environments. He was the founding president of the IOUG Virtualization and Cloud Computing SIG; founded the BrainSurface Social Network; and is an award-winning speaker, author, forumizer, blogger, and active community leader/organizer. Charles Kim, Oracle ACE director, Oracle certified DBA, Certified RAC expert, and VMware vExpert, is co-founder and president of Viscosity North America. He specializes in Exadata, RAC, and virtualization. Nitin Vengurlekar, co-founder/CTO of Viscosity North America, is a seasoned systems architect specializing in highly available Oracle systems. He spent seventeen years at Oracle, primarily in RAC engineering. Sridhar Avantsa, associate practice director at ROLTA Solutions/Americas and EMEA. He was formerly senior DBA/database engineer at Amazon.com. Guy Harrison, a world-renowned database expert, is executive director of R&D at Dell Quest Software. There, he leads development for the Toad family of database and BI tools. Syed Jaffar Hussain, DB architect at Alinma Bank, is an Oracle certified master (10g); Oracle ACE director; Oracle RAC certified expert; and OCP v8i, v9i, v10g and v11g DBA. He has spent a decade consulting on Oracle with international clients and was Oracle Magazine's 2011 DBA of the year.

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xix

About the Authors xxiii

About the Technical Reviewers and Contributors xxvii





Chapter 1: 360-Degree Overview of Exadata 1

An Exadata Synopsis 2

Hardware Architecture 5

Software Architecture 7

Models and Configuration Options 9

Examining an Exadata Machine 35

Summary 37



Chapter 2: Real Application Clusters (RAC) in Exadata 39

The Significance of RAC in Exadata 40

An Overview of RAC 41

Setting Up RAC Clusters in Exadata 43

Operational Best Practices 45

Managing RAC with OEM 12c 49

Common Utilities and Commands 50

Troubleshooting and Tuning RAC 55

Summary 59



Chapter 3: The Secret Sauce: Exadata Storage Cells 61

An Overview of Exadata Storage Server 61

Storage Architecture and Formulation 72

Disk Architecture in Non-Exadata 74

Disk Architecture in Exadata 74

System Users for Cell Administration 77

Managing the Cell Server 82

Troubleshooting the Cell Server 83

Storage Cell Startup and Shutdown 85

Solving Disk Problems 87

Enforcing Cell Security 89

Summary 92



Chapter 4: Flash Cache, Smart Scans, and Cell Offloading 93

Concepts of Exadata Flash Cache 93

Storage Server and Flash Cache 95

The Database and Flash Cache 99

Summary 120



Chapter 5: Exadata Compression: HCC Demystified 121

Columnar Storage Models 122

Oracle Implementation of DSM-Hybrid Columnar Compression 125

HCC and Performance 131

HCC and DML 140

HCC and Locking 144

Practical Uses of HCC 147

Summary 148



Chapter 6: Oracle Database 12c and Exadata 149

12c Partitioning Features 149

New 12c Optimizer Features 157

Information Lifecycle Management 164

Application Continuity 167

Multitenant Architecture 168

Exadata Software Updates 183

Summary 183



Chapter 7: Exadata Networking: Management and Administration 185

Exadata Network Components 185

The Role of the InfiniBand Network 186

Network Architecture 187

Network Setup Requirements 188

Troubleshooting Tools and Utilities 190

Log Files Collection 194

Integrated Lights Out Manager 195

OEM Cloud Control 12c 197

Summary 199



Chapter 8: Backup and Recovery and Data Guard 201

RMAN Disk-to-Disk Backups 202

Data Guard 216

Far Sync 233

Switchover Considerations 242

Summary 244



Chapter 9: Managing Exadata with OEM 12c 245

Exadata Targets Discovery 246

Oracle Exadata Plugins 248

Exadata Database Machine Discovery 250

Exadata Components 260

Summary 265



Chapter 10: Migrating to Exadata 267

Exadata Implementation Lifecycle 267

Phase I: Architectural Strategy 268

Phase II: Planning and Design 277

Phase III: Migration Testing 287

Exadata Migration Best Practices 290

Summary 291



Chapter 11: Upgrading and Patching Exadata and ZFS Storage Appliance 293

Planning an Exadata and ZFS Upgrade 294

Quarterly Full Stack Download 297

Patching Tools and Processes 297

Oracle Patch Types 302

Exadata High Availability Upgrades 305

Reviewing Settings with Exachk 306

Exadata Full Stack Upgrade 307

ZFS Upgrade 333

Summary 336



Chapter 12: ZFS Storage Appliance for Exadata 337

ZFS Family Line 338

Increased Storage Capacity 340

ZFSSA Browser User Interface 342

Creating NFS Shares 343

Preparing Exadata for Direct NFS 345

Other Industry Use Cases 355

Learning on the Simulator 355

Summary 356



Chapter 13: Exadata Performance Tuning 357

Oracle Performance Tuning 357

Application Design for Exadata 362

Database Design for Exadata 364

SQL Tuning for Exadata 372

Exadata RAC Tuning 374

Optimizing Exadata I/O 386

Summary 388



Chapter 14: Database Consolidation on Exadata 389

Database Consolidation Models 389

Exadata Consolidation Planning 390

Grouping Applications 391

Evaluating Sizing Requirements 393

Setting Up Exadata for Consolidation 394

Isolation Management 405

12c Pluggable Database 410

Summary 411



Chapter 15: Exadata Smart Flash Cache in Depth 413

Solid-State Disk Technology 413

Exadata Flash Hardware 422

Exadata Smart Flash Cache 423

Exadata Smart Flash Logging 433

Smart Flash Cache WriteBack 439

Summary 443



Chapter 16: Advanced Exadata Flash Configuration 445

Using Flash as Grid Disks 445

Flash Tablespace versus Flash Cache 451

Storage Tiering Solutions 458

Summary 463



Chapter 17: Exadata Tools and Utilities 465

Exadata Diagnostic Tools 465

InfiniBand Network Diagnostic Tools 469

Other Useful Exadata Commands 475

Monitoring Exadata Storage Cells 484

Summary 491



Index 493