Oracle Exadata

Oracle Exadata (Exadata[1]) is a computing system optimized for running Oracle Databases.

Exadata is a combined database machine and software platform that includes scale-out x86-64 compute and storage servers, RoCE networking, RDMA-addressable memory acceleration, NVMe flash, and specialized software.[2]

Exadata was introduced in 2008 for on-premises deployment, and since October 2015, via the Oracle Cloud as a subscription service, known as the Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure,[3] and Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure.[4] Exadata Cloud@Customer[5] is a hybrid cloud (on-premises) deployment of Exadata Database Service.

Starting December, 2023, Exadata Database Service became available for Microsoft Azure, Google and AWS public clouds within the Oracle Database@Azure, Oracle Database@Google Cloud and Oracle Database@AWS multicloud partnerships.

Exadata is designed to run all Oracle database workloads, such as online transaction processing, data warehousing, analytics, and AI Vector processing, often with multiple consolidated databases running simultaneously.

Historically, specialized database machines were designed for a particular workload, such as Data Warehousing, and poor or unusable for other workloads, such as online transaction processing. Exadata specializes in mixed workloads sharing system resources with resource management features for prioritization, such as favoring workloads servicing interactive users over reporting and batch. Long running requests, characterized by Data Warehouses, reports, batch jobs and Analytics, are reported to run many times faster compared to a conventional, non-Exadata database server.[6][7]

Exadata Release Primary Software Enhancements Primary Hardware Enhancements Database@AWS Exadata Database Service available with AWS X11M - Jan 2025 AI Vector search acceleration - up to 55% faster 25% faster compute core performance Analytics scan throughput increase - 2.2x faster 33% greater server memory bandwidth Transaction processing acceleration - 25% faster 11% faster storage core performance Online transaction processing read latency acceleration - up to 21% faster (14 microseconds) PCIe 5 performance-optimized flash Intelligent power management - reduce CPU cores, cap power consumption, optimize power utilization X11M-Z database and storage servers Available on-premises, Oracle Cloud, Cloud@Customer and multicloud (Azure, Google Cloud, AWS) X11M-XT storage servers for less frequently accessed data. Supports Exascale. Database@Google Cloud Exadata Database Service available with Google Cloud Exadata Exascale

July, 2024

Fully elastic pay-per-use architecture. Users specify the cores and storage capacity needed, reducing entry-level infrastructure costs for Exadata Database Service and aligning costs with usage None Large pools of shared compute and storage allow databases to quickly scale over time without concern for server-based size limitations or disruptive migrations Rapid and efficient database snapshots and thin cloning Database@Azure Exadata Database Service available with Microsoft Azure X10M - June 2023 Exadata RDMA Memory (XRMEM) DRAM cache 3x increase in compute cores (96-core AMD EPYC) Oracle Linux 8 and UEK 6 kernel updates 1.5x higher memory capacity New In-Memory Columnar compression algorithm 2.5x faster DDR5 memory Optimized Smart Scan for more complex queries 2.4x higher flash storage capacity (in all-flash storage) Faster decryption and decompression 22% more disk storage capacity X9M - Sept, 2021 Secure RDMA fabric isolation PCIe 4.0 dual-port active-active 100 Gb RoCE network Smart Flash Log write-back 33% increase in compute cores Storage Index and Columnar Cache persistence 33% increase in memory capacity Faster decryption and decompression Algorithms 28% increase in disk capacity Smart Scan performance optimizations 1.8x greater internal fabric bandwidth (PCIe 4.0) 1.8x greater flash bandwidth (PCIe 4.0) X8M - Sept, 2019 RoCE: RDMA over Converged Ethernet Persistent Memory (PMEM) in storage Persistent Memory Data Accelerator 100 Gbit/s internal fabric (2.5x increase) Persistent Memory Commit Accelerator KVM virtual machine support X8 - April, 2019 AIDE: Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment Storage Server Extended (XT) ML-based monitoring and auto-indexing 40% increase in disk capacity Real-time updates of optimizer statistics 60% increase in storage processor cores X7 - Oct, 2017 In-memory database in flash storage 2x increase in flash capacity DRAM cache in storage 25% increase in disk capacity Large-scale storage software updates 25 Gbit/s data center Ethernet support Exadata Cloud@Customer Exadata Cloud Service on-premises X6 - April, 2016 Exafusion direct-to-wire online transaction processing protocol 2x increase in flash capacity Smart Fusion Block Transfer 10% increase in compute cores Smart Flash Log 2x increase in memory capacity Exadata Database Service Exadata on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) X5 - Dec, 2014 In-memory database fault tolerance 2x increase in flash & disk capacity Database snapshots Elastic configurations Xen virtual machine support All-flash storage server option NVMe flash protocol support 50% increase in compute cores IPv6 support 50% increase in memory capacity X4 - Nov, 2013 Network Resource Management 2x increase in flash capacity I/O latency capping 2x increase in memory capacity Capacity-on-Demand licensing 50% increase in compute cores Active/Active InfiniBand (2x increase) 33% increase in disk capacity X3 - Sept, 2013 Smart Flash Cache write-back Eighth-Rack configuration Improved management of slow disks/flash 4x increase in flash capacity Sub-second brownout after storage failure 33% increase in compute cores Simplified disk replacement 75% increase in memory capacity Bypass predictive disk failure 2x increase in data center bandwidth X2 - Sept, 2010 Smart Flash Log 8-socket (X2-8) configuration Auto Service Request Storage Expansion Rack Secure Erase of storage Hardware-based decryption Platinum Services 50% increase in compute cores 2x increase in memory capacity 50% increase in disk capacity 8x increase in data center bandwidth v2 - Sept, 2009 Storage Indexes Flash storage Database-aware Smart Flash Cache Quarter-Rack configuration Hybrid Columnar Compression 2x increase in memory & disk capacity 3x increase in data center bandwidth 40 Gbit/s internal fabric (2x increase) v1 - Sept, 2008 Oracle Enterprise Linux Scale-out 4-socket compute servers Smart Scan (storage offload) Scale-out 4-socket storage servers IORM (I/O Resource Manager) 20 Gbit/s internal fabric (InfiniBand) Join filtering (Bloom filters) 1 Terabyte disks Incremental backup filtering 1 Gbit/s data center network (Ethernet) Smart file creation

As the platform has been around since 2008, Oracle has published information related to the end-of-support for older Exadata generations. In Oracle's published document titled Oracle Hardware and Systems Support Policies,[8] they mention "After five years from last ship date, replacement parts may not be available and/or the response times for sending replacement parts may be delayed." To look up the "last ship date" of a particular Oracle Exadata generation, Oracle published a document titled Oracle Exadata - A guide for decision makers.[9]