Exadata has consumed much of my attention and the attention of a significant portion of my development team here at Oracle since the early 2000s. This project began when we saw our customers struggling with Oracle database implementations on hardware platforms that were inadequate to meet the demands of growing data sizes and workloads. In particular we found that Oracle performance was limited by the inability to move data from disks into the database fast enough. There was plenty of throughput in the disks themselves, and plenty of processing power in the servers, but the architecture for moving data from disks to processors was severely limited. Since inadequate throughput was clearly the cause of most performance bottlenecks, we started an effort to develop software to move database processing directly into intelligent storage. Later, it became clear to us that we needed to focus all our efforts on a specific storage platform to achieve the best performance and reliability.
When we first productized the Exadata platform, we offered two options. One option was to attach intelligent storage to customer purchased and configured database servers. The other option was to purchase a complete optimized Database Machine from Oracle, including servers, storage, and networking. We thought that many customers would find it more convenient to add storage to their existing standard configurations than to adopt a completely new platform. We could not have been more wrong. Almost no customers bought the storage only solution. Instead, we found huge interest in our customers for a completely integrated and optimized full database solution from Oracle. Thus, Oracle entered the integrated systems business.
We have come a long way since Larry Ellison introduced the first version of the Oracle Exadata Database Machine in 2008 at Oracle OpenWorld. Today, Exadata is used in production to run an incredible variety of applications. Exadata runs everything from enormous telecom data warehouses to response-time-critical financial trading applications. We have a growing number of deployments of Exadata running the most sophisticated applications in the world—Oracle E-Business Suite, Siebel, and PeopleSoft.
Many lessons were learned along the way as we worked with this fast-growing customer base. This book takes you through some of the history of the Oracle Exadata Database Machine and some of the best practices we developed. After you read this book, you should have a better understanding of fundamental Exadata concepts and how to leverage Exadata’s benefits in your applications. My hope is that you find this book useful as you deploy and manage your Oracle Exadata Database Machine. I sincerely hope that the extreme performance you experience will take your business or organization to a new level of success.
Juan Loaiza
Redwood Shores, CA
October 2010
Juan Loaiza is senior vice-president of systems technologies at Oracle and manages the “systems” aspects of Oracle’s database development organization, including Exadata, high availability and Data Guard, Oracle Secure Backup and RMAN, Flashback, performance, data and index management, and platform-specific development. He has worked in the database development organization since 1988 and contributed to every release since Oracle version 6. Juan has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science from M.I.T.