Oracle Exadata is a database appliance

Data warehouse appliance

In computing, a data warehouse appliance consists of an integrated set of servers, storage, operating system, DBMS and software specifically pre-installed and pre-optimized for data warehousing...

 with support for both OLTP and OLAP

OLAP

In computing, online analytical processing, or OLAP , is an approach to swiftly answer multi-dimensional analytical queries. OLAP is part of the broader category of business intelligence, which also encompasses relational reporting and data mining...

 workloads. It was initially designed in collaboration between Oracle Corporation

Oracle Corporation

Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...

 and Hewlett Packard where Oracle designed the database, operating system (based on the Oracle Linux distribution), and storage software whereas HP designed the hardware for it. With Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

, Oracle announced the release of Exadata Version two with improved performance and usage of Sun Microsystems Storage Systems technologies.

History

Exadata was announced by Larry Ellison at the 2008 Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco for immediate delivery. The main headline was that Oracle was entering the hardware business with a pre-built Database Machine, engineered by Oracle. The hardware at this time was manufactured, delivered and supported by HP. Since the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle circa January 2010, Exadata hardware utilises Sun based hardware. Oracle claims that it is the fastest database server on the planet.

In August, 2011, Oracle announced that Exadata Database Machines would be orderable with Solaris 11 Express (in addition to Oracle Enterprise Linux

Oracle Enterprise Linux

Oracle Linux, formerly known as Oracle Enterprise Linux, is a Red Hat Enterprise Linux-compatible distribution, repackaged and sold by Oracle, available under the GNU General Public License since late 2006....

).

Technical details

Database servers X2-2

(Sun Fire X4170 M2)

• 2 x Six-Core Intel® Xeon® X5670 Processors (2.93 GHz)
• 96 GB Memory
• Disk Controller HBA with 512MB Battery Backed Write Cache
• 4 x 300 GB 10,000 RPM SAS Disks
• 2 x QDR (40Gb/s) Ports
• 2 x 10 Gb Ethernet Ports based on the Intel 82599 10GbE Controller
• 4 x 1 Gb Ethernet Ports
• 1 x ILOM Ethernet Port
• 2 x Redundant Hot-Swappable Power Supplies
• 3 x 36 port QDR (40 Gb/sec) InfiniBand Switches

Database servers X2-8

(Sun Fire X4800)

• 8 x Eight-Core Intel® Xeon® X7560 Processors (2.26 GHz)
• 1 TB Memory
• Disk Controller HBA with 512MB Battery Backed Write Cache
• 8 x 300 GB 10,000 RPM SAS Disks
• 2 x QDR (40Gb/s) Ports
• 8 x 10 Gb Ethernet Ports based on the Intel 82599 10GbE Controller
• 8 x 1 Gb Ethernet Ports
• 1 x ILOM Ethernet Port
• 4 x Redundant Hot-Swappable Power Supplies
• 3 x 36 port QDR (40 Gb/sec) InfiniBand Switches

Oracle Exadata Storage Servers X2-2

• 2 x Six-Core Intel® Xeon® L5640 (2.26 GHz) Processors
• Exadata Smart Flash Cache 384 GB
• System Memory 24 GB
• Disk Controller Disk Controller HBA with 512MB Battery Backed Write Cache
• InfiniBand Connectivity Dual-Port QDR (40Gb/s) InfiniBand Host Channel Adapter
• Power Supplies Dual-redundant, hot-swappable power supply
• Remote Management Sun Embedded Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)
• Disk Drives 12 x 600 GB 15,000 RPM High Performance SAS or
• 12 x 2 TB 7,200 RPM High Capacity SAS
• Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) Ethernet port

Infiniband switches

• Sun
  Sun Microsystems
  Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
  
  Datacenter Infiniband Switch 36
• 36 ports

Source: Pythian

	Database Machine Full Rack	Database Machine Half Rack	Database Machine Quarter Rack
Database Servers	8	4	2
Exadata Storage Servers	14	7	3
InfiniBand Switches	3	3	2
Upgradability	Connect multiple Full Racks via the included InfiniBand fabric	Field upgrade to Full Rack	Field upgrade from Quarter Rack to Half Rack

Source Oracle Corporation

External links

• Oracle Exadata Database Machine - Larry Ellison's Exadata V2 announcement