Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure Description

Learn how you can leverage the combined capabilities of Oracle Exadata and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure with Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure

About Exadata Cloud Infrastructure

Exadata Cloud Infrastructure allows you to leverage the power of Exadata in the cloud.

You can provision flexible X8M and X9M systems that allow you to add database compute servers and storage servers to your system as your needs grow. X8M and X9M systems offer RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) networking for high bandwidth and low latency, persistent memory (PMEM) modules, and intelligent Exadata software. X8M and X9M systems can be provisioned using an shape equivalent to a quarter rack X8 or X9M system, and then database and storage servers can be added at any time after provisioning. For more information on X8M and X9M systems, see Overview of X8M and X9M Scalable Exadata Infrastructure.

Note

The RDMA software allows computers in a network to exchange data in main memory without involving the processor, cache, or OS of either computer. RDMA can improve throughput and performance because it frees up resources, and it can also facilitate a faster data transfer rate. RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) is the network protocol that allows RDMA over an Ethernet network.

X8 and X7 systems are also available in fixed-shapes (quarter, half, and full rack systems). These systems use InfiniBand networking, and do not have the ability to scale database and storage servers. You can also provision an Exadata base system, which has a smaller capacity than a quarter rack system.

For all Exadata Cloud Infrastructure instances, you can configure automatic backups, optimize for different workloads, and scale the OCPU and storage allocations as needed.

Note

Exadata Cloud Infrastructure instances launched on or after March 14, 2019 run Oracle Linux 7. Previously launched systems are running Oracle Linux 6. See To update the OS on all compute nodes of an Exadata Cloud Infrastructure instance for important information about updating existing Exadata DB system operating systems.

Roles and Responsibilities for Exadata Cloud Infrastructure Software Maintenance

Oracle is responsible for the base OS and hardware. The customer is responsible for the Guest VM OS, Grid Infrastructure, and the database software maintenance.

Description of responsibilities.png follows

Customer Responsibilities

Customer is responsible for the Guest VM OS, Grid Infrastructure, and the database software maintenance.

The customer owns everything inside the database: data schema, and encryption keys.

Customer subscribes to database services
  • Customer manages VMs and Databases using Cloud Automation (UI / APIs)
  • Automation to create, delete, patch, backup, scale up/down, etc.
  • Runs all supported Oracle Database versions from 11.2.0.4 to 19c
  • Customer controls access to customer VM
  • Customer can install and manage additional software in customer VM
  • Oracle staff are not authorized to access customer VM

Oracle Responsibilities

Oracle owns and manages infrastructure. Oracle is responsible for the base OS and hardware.
  • Hypervisor, physical database and storage servers, storage network
  • Patching, security scans, security updates
  • Monitoring and maintenance
  • Customer is not authorized to access Oracle infrastructure.

Licensing Considerations for Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure

Subscription to Exadata Cloud Infrastructure can include all of the required Oracle Database software licenses, or you can choose to bring Oracle Database software licenses that you already own to Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure.

If you choose to include Oracle Database software licenses in your Oracle Exadata Database Service on Dedicated Infrastructure subscription, then the included licenses contain all of the features of Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, plus all of the database enterprise management packs, and all of the Enterprise Edition options, such as Oracle Database In-Memory and Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC). Exadata Cloud Infrastructure also comes with cloud-specific software tools that assist with administration tasks, such as backup, recovery, and patching.

Supported Database Edition and Versions for Exadata Cloud Infrastructure

Exadata Cloud Infrastructure databases require Enterprise Edition - Extreme Performance subscriptions or you can bring your own Oracle Enterprise Edition software licenses.

The Enterprise Edition - Extreme Performance provides all the features of Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, plus all the database enterprise management packs and all the Enterprise Edition options, such as Oracle Database In-Memory and Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC).

Exadata Cloud Infrastructure supports the following database versions:

  • Oracle Database 19c (19.0)
  • Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2) (Upgrade Support Required)
  • Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1) (Upgrade Support Required)
  • Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2) (Upgrade Support Required)
Note

  • If you plan to run Oracle Database 19c on a cloud VM cluster or in the Exadata Cloud Infrastructure, you must specify version 19c when you create the resource. Earlier database versions are supported on a 19c cloud VM cluster and can be created at anytime. Cloud VM clusters created with earlier Oracle Database versions will not automatically support Oracle Database 19c.
  • For information on upgrading an existing 18c or earlier database to Oracle Database 19c, see Upgrading Exadata Databases.

For Oracle Database release and software support timelines, see Release Schedule of Current Database Releases (Doc ID 742060.1) in the My Oracle Support portal.

Subscription Types

Available subscription types.

The available purchase models are:
  • Pay As You Go

    Pay As You Go (PAYG) pricing lets customers quickly provision services with no commitment, and they’re only charged for what they use. There’s no upfront commitment and no minimum service period. Any cloud infrastructure (IaaS) and platform (PaaS) services consumed are metered and billed based on that consumption. If, during the services period of your order, Oracle makes new IaaS and PaaS services available within your cloud services account, Oracle will notify you of any fees that would apply to their activation and use. For more details, see our complete price list.

  • Annual Universal Credits

    Oracle Annual Universal Credits enables customers to have the flexibility to use any Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and platform services at any time, in any region, to deliver faster time to market. Customers can commit to an amount of Oracle Annual Universal Credits that can be applied towards the future usage of eligible Oracle IaaS and PaaS cloud services. This payment option offers a significant savings across cloud services, combining cost reduction and a predictable monthly spend with a ramp up period as you onboard your workloads.

See the Universal Credit Pricing FAQ for more information.

Metering Frequency and Per-Second Billing

Per-Second billing, minimums and limitations on billing.

For each Exadata Cloud Infrastructure instance you provision, you are billed for the infrastructure for a minimum of 48 hours, and then by the second after that. Each OCPU you add to the system is billed by the second, with a minimum usage period of 1 minute. If you terminate the cloud VM cluster and do not terminate the cloud Exadata infrastructure resource, billing will continue for the infrastructure resource.

Technical Architecture of Exadata Cloud Infrastructure Systems

Exadata Cloud Infrastructure systems integrate Oracle's Exadata Database Machine hardware with the networking resources needed to securely connect to your organization’s on-premise network and to other services in the Oracle cloud.

For a complete architectural overview of the components that make up an Exadata Cloud Infrastructure system, see Oracle Exadata Cloud Service (ExaCS) Technical Architecture. This interactive reference guides you through the key hardware and networking resources in the system, and provides technical specifications for the database (compute) and storage servers to help you plan for your deployment.

Scaling Options

Introduction to the Scaling option on Exadata Cloud Infrastructure.

Two kinds of scaling operations are supported for an Exadata Cloud Infrastructure:

  • For X8M and X9M systems, the flexible shape allows you to add additional database and storage servers to the cloud Exadata infrastructure resource as you need them. See Overview of X8M Scalable Exadata Infrastructure.
  • For X6, X7 and X8 Exadata DB systems, you can scale by moving the system to a different shape configuration, for example, from a quarter rack to a half rack.

For more information on each type of scaling, see Scaling an Exadata Cloud Infrastructure Instance.

Scaling CPU cores within an Exadata Cloud Infrastructure instance

If an Exadata Cloud Infrastructure instance requires more compute node processing power, you can scale up the number of enabled CPU cores symmetrically across all the nodes in the system as follows:

The options for each of the shapes are:

You can scale the infrastructure by adding DB servers or Storage Servers, up to the infrastructure limits. For more information on adding compute and storage resources to an X8M or X9M system emabled for MVM, see Scaling Exadata X8M or X9M Compute and Storage .

You can scale CPU cores in multiples of the number of database servers currently provisioned for the cloud VM cluster. For example, if you have 6 database servers provisioned, you can add CPU cores in multiples of 6. At the time of provisioning, X8M or X9M systems have as few as 2 database servers or up to to 32 database servers. For more information on adding compute and storage resources to an X8M or X9M system, see Scaling Exadata X8M or X9M Compute and Storage .

All systems that are not X8M or X9M are fixed shape systems. For a base system or an X7 or X8 quarter rack, you can scale in multiples of 2 across the 2 database compute nodes. For an X7 or X8 half rack, you can scale in multiples of 4 across the 4 database compute nodes. For an X7 or X8 full rack, you can scale in multiples of 8 across the 8 database compute nodes.

For a non-metered service instances, you can temporarily modify the compute node processing power (bursting) or add compute node processing power on a more permanent basis. For a metered service instance, you can simply modify the number of enabled CPU cores.

You can provision an Exadata Cloud Infrastructure instance with zero CPU cores, or scale the service instance down to zero cores after you provision it. With zero cores, you are billed only for the infrastructure until you scale up the system. For detailed information about pricing, see Exadata Cloud Service Pricing.

Note

OCPU scaling activities are done online with no downtime.

For information on CPU cores per configuration, see Exadata Shape Configurations. To learn how to scale a system, see To scale CPU cores in an Exadata Cloud Infrastructure cloud VM cluster or DB system .

Scaling X6, X7 and X8 Exadata Cloud Infrastructure Instances Configurations

Scaling an Exadata X6, X7, or X8 Exadata Cloud Infrastructure instance by moving to a shape with more capacity enables you meet the needs of your growing workload.

This is useful when a database deployment requires:

  • Processing power that is beyond the capacity of the current system configuration.
  • Storage capacity that is beyond the capacity of the current system configuration.
  • A performance boost that can be delivered by increasing the number of available compute nodes.
  • A performance boost that can be delivered by increasing the number of available Exadata Storage Servers.

You can move you workloads to a larger fixed shape (X7 and X8 hardware shapes), or move to the flexible X8M shape that allows for easy expansion of compute and storage resources as your workloads grow.

To assist with moving your database deployments between Exadata Cloud Infrastructure instances, you can restore a backup to a different service instance that has more capacity, or create a Data Guard association for your database in a service instance with more capacity, and then perform a switchover so that your new standby database assumes the primary role. To start the process, contact Oracle and request a service limit increase so that you can provision the larger service instance needed by your database.

System and Shape Configuration Options

Review the list of Exadata System Shapes

Exadata Shape Configuration

This topic describes the available Exadata Cloud Infrastructure instance shapes in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

See the following sections for shape specifications:

Exadata X9M

The values in the table that follows represent the specifications for an X9M cloud service instance that has not been expanded.

After provisioning, the X9M shape is expandable, unlike X6, X7, and X8 shapes. The initial minimum configuration of 2 database servers and 3 storage servers is similar to the quarter rack shape offered for X6, X7 and X8 infrastructure resources.

The properties of an X9M Shape at Provisioning.

Property Value
Shape Name Exadata X9M-2
Minimum Number of VMs per Cluster 2
Maximum Number of VMs per DB Server per VM Cluster 1
Maximum Number of VM Clusters across all DB Servers 8
Minimum Number of Compute Nodes 2
Maximum Number of Compute Nodes 32
Total Minimum Number of Enabled CPU Cores 0
Total Maximum Number of Enabled CPU Cores 252 (for 2 initial database servers)
Total RAM Capacity 2780 GB (initial value)
Minimum Number of Exadata Storage Servers 3
Maximum Number of Exadata Storage Servers 64
Total Raw Flash Storage Capacity 76.8 TB (for 3 initial storage servers)
Total Usable Storage Capacity 190 TB (for 3 initial storage servers)
Total Persistent Memory Capacity 4.5 TB (for three initial storage servers)
Disk Size 18 TB

This section gives you an overview of the OCPU, Memory and Storage capacity available in Exadata Cloud Infrastructure X9M

Database Servers

This table describes the Max OCPUs and Total Memory available in a Database Server

Maximum OCPUs Total memory available
126 OCPUs 1,390 GB

Storage Servers

This table describes the usable disk capacity, Persistent memory, and Total flash capacity available in a Storage Server

Total usable disk capacity Persistent memory Total flash capacity
64 TB 1.5 TB 25.6 TB
Exadata X8M

The values in the table that follows represent the specifications for an X8M cloud infrastructure instance that has not been expanded.

After provisioning, the X8M shape is expandable, unlike X6, X7, and X8 shapes. An initial minimum configuration of 2 database servers and 3 storage servers is similar to the quarter rack shape offered for X6, X7 and X8 infrastructure resources.

Table 1-1 X8M Capacity with minimum servers at Provisioning

Property Value
Shape Name Exadata X8M-2
Minimum Number of VMs per Cluster 2
Maximum Number of VMs per DB Server per VM Cluster 1
Maximum Number of VM Clusters across all DB Servers 8
Number of Compute Nodes 2 (value can be set up to system limit at provisioning)
Minimum Number of Compute Nodes 2
Maximum Number of Compute Nodes 32
Total Minimum Number of Enabled CPU Cores 0
Total Maximum Number of Enabled CPU Cores 100 (for 2 initial database servers)
Total RAM Capacity 2780 GB (for 2 initial database servers)
Number of Exadata Storage Servers 3 (value can be set up to system limit at provisioning)
Total Raw Flash Storage Capacity 76.8 TB (for 3 initial storage servers)
Total Usable Storage Capacity 149 TB (for 3 initial storage servers)
Total Persistent Memory Capacity 4.5 TB (for three initial storage servers)

X8M Expansion Server Capacity

When you add additional database or storage servers to an X8M system, the expansion servers have the following capacity.

Table 1-2 Database Servers

Maximum OCPUs Total memory available
50 OCPUs 1,390 GB

Table 1-3 Storage Servers

Total usable disk capacity Persistent memory Total flash capacity
49.9 TB 1.5 TB 25.6 TB
Exadata Base System

An Exadata base system is a fixed shape similar in size to a quarter rack , with some differences in capacity.

Property Value
Shape Name Exadata.Base.48
Number of Compute Nodes 2
Total Minimum Number of Enabled CPU Cores 0
Total Maximum Number of Enabled CPU Cores 48
Total RAM Capacity 720 GB
Number of Exadata Storage Servers 3
Total Raw Flash Storage Capacity 38.4 TB
Total Usable Storage Capacity 74 TB
Exadata X8 Shapes

Capacities of the various X8 Shapes

This topic lists the specifications of the available shapes for Oracle Exadata X8.

Property Quarter Rack Half Rack Full Rack
Shape Name Exadata.Quarter3.100 Exadata.Half3.200 Exadata.Full3.400
Number of Compute Nodes 2 4 8
Total Minimum Number of Enabled CPU Cores 0 0 0
Total Maximum Number of Enabled CPU Cores 100 200 400
Total RAM Capacity 1440 GB 2880 GB 5760 GB
Number of Exadata Storage Servers 3 6 12
Total Raw Flash Storage Capacity 76.8 TB 179.2 TB 358.4 TB
Total Usable Storage Capacity 149 TB 299 TB 598 TB

Exadata X8 shapes provide 700 GB of user disk space for database homes.

Exadata X7 Shapes

Capacities of the various X7 Shapes

This topic lists the specifications of the available shapes for Oracle Exadata X7.

Property Quarter Rack Half Rack Full Rack
Shape Name Exadata.Quarter2.92 Exadata.Half2.184 Exadata.Full2.368
Number of Compute Nodes 2 4 8
Total Minimum Number of Enabled CPU Cores 0 0 0
Total Maximum Number of Enabled CPU Cores 92 184 368
Total RAM Capacity 1440 GB 2880 GB 5760 GB
Number of Exadata Storage Servers 3 6 12
Total Raw Flash Storage Capacity 76.8 TB 153.6 TB 307.2TB
Total Usable Storage Capacity 106 TB 212 TB 424 TB

Exadata X7 shapes provide 1 TB of user disk space for database homes.

Exadata X6 Shapes

Capacities of the various X6 Shapes

This topic lists the specifications of the available shapes for Oracle Exadata X6.

Note

Exadata X6 shapes must be provisioned using the License Included option. Bring-Your-Own-License (BYOL) is not supported for the X6 shape family.
Property Quarter Rack Half Rack Full Rack
Shape Name Exadata.Quarter1.84 Exadata.Half1.168 Exadata.Full1.336
Number of Compute Nodes 2 4 8
Total Minimum(Default) Number of Enabled CPU Cores 22 44 88
Total Maximum Number of Enabled CPU Cores 84 168 336
Total RAM Capacity 1440 GB 2880 GB 5760 GB
Number of Exadata Storage Servers 3 6 12
Total Raw Flash Storage Capacity 38.4 TB 76.8 TB 153.6 TB
Total Usable Storage Capacity 84 TB 168 TB 336 TB

Exadata X6 shapes provide 200 GB of user disk space for database homes.

Exadata X6 shapes must be provisioned using the License Included option. Bring-Your-Own-License (BYOL) is not supported for the X6 shape family.

Exadata Fixed Hardware Shapes: X6, X7, X8 and Exadata Base

The available fixed-size Exadata Cloud Infrastructure hardware shapes in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Note

For information on the flexible X8M shape, see Overview of X8M Scalable Exadata Infrastructure.

Exadata X8 shapes:

  • Exadata.Quarter3.100: Provides a 2-node Exadata DB system with up to 100 CPU cores, and 149 TB of usable storage.
  • Exadata.Half3.200: Provides a 4-node Exadata DB system with up to 200 CPU cores, and 299 TB of usable storage.
  • Exadata.Full3.400: Provides an 8-node Exadata DB system with up to 400 CPU cores, and 598 TB of usable storage.

Exadata X7 shapes:

  • Exadata.Quarter2.92: Provides a 2-node Exadata DB system with up to 92 CPU cores, and 106 TB of usable storage.
  • Exadata.Half2.184: Provides a 4-node Exadata DB system with up to 184 CPU cores, and 212 TB of usable storage.
  • Exadata.Full2.368: Provides an 8-node Exadata DB system with up to 368 CPU cores, and 424 TB of usable storage.

Exadata X6 shapes:

Note

Exadata X6 shapes must be provisioned using the License Included option. Bring-Your-Own-License (BYOL) is not supported for the X6 shape family.
  • Exadata.Quarter1.84: Provides a 2-node Exadata DB system with 22 enabled CPU cores, with up to 62 additional CPU cores, and 84 TB of usable storage.
  • Exadata.Half1.168: Provides a 4-node Exadata DB system with 44 enabled CPU cores, with up to 124 additional CPU cores, and 168 TB of usable storage.
  • Exadata.Full1.336: Provides an 8-node Exadata DB system with 88 enabled CPU cores, with up to 248 additional CPU cores, and 336 TB of usable storage.

Exadata base system:

Exadata.Base.48: Provides a 2-node Exadata DB system with up to 48 CPU cores, and 74 TB of usable storage.

All Exadata shapes provide unlimited I/O, and support only Enterprise Edition - Extreme Performance. All Exadata shapes provide 720 GB RAM per node except for Exadata base systems, which provide 360 GB RAM per node. For more details about Exadata shapes, see Exadata Shape Configurations.

For information on provisioning an Exadata Cloud Infrastructure instance, see Creating an Exadata Cloud Service Instance.