Expert Oracle Exadata, Second Edition

Expert Oracle Exadata, 2nd Edition opens up the internals of Oracle's Exadata platform so that you can fully benefit from the most performant and scalable database hardware appliance capable of running Oracle Database. This edition is fully-updated to cover Exadata 5-2 and Oracle Database 12c. If you're new to Exadata, you'll soon learn that it embodies a change in how you think about and manage relational databases. A key part of that change lies in the concept of offloading SQL processing to the storage layer. In addition there is Oracle's engineering effort in creating a powerful platform for both consolidation and transaction processing. The resulting value proposition in the form of Exadata has truly been a game-changer.

Expert Oracle Exadata, 2nd Edition provides a look at the internals and how the combination of hardware and software that comprise Exadata actually work. Authors include Martin Bach, Andy Colvin, and Frits Hoogland, with contributions from Karl Arao, and built on the foundation laid by Kerry Osborne, Randy Johnson, and Tanel Poder in the first edition. They share their real-world experience gained through a great many Exadata implementations, possibly more than any other group of experts today. Always their goal is toward helping you advance your career through success with Exadata in your own environment. This book is intended for readers who want to understand what makes the platform tick and for whom—"how" it does what it is does is as important as what it does. By being exposed to the features that are unique to Exadata, you will gain an understanding of the mechanics that will allow you to fully benefit from the advantages that the platform provides.

This book changes how you think about managing SQL performance and processing. It provides a roadmap to successful Exadata implementation. And it removes the "black box" mystique. You'll learn how Exadata actually works and be better able to manage your Exadata engineered systems in support of your business.

This book:

• Changes the way you think about managing SQL performance and processing
• Provides a roadmap to successful Exadata implementation
• Removes the "black box" mystique, showing how Exadata actually works

What you’ll learn

• Configure Exadata from the ground up
• Optimize for mixed OLTP/DW workloads
• Migrate large data sets from existing systems
• Connect Exadata to external systems
• Support consolidation strategies using the Resource Manager
• Configure high-availability features of Exadata, including Real Application Clusters (RAC) and automatic storage management (ASM)
• Apply tuning strategies utilizing the unique features of Exadata

Who this book is for

Expert Oracle Exadata, 2nd Edition is for database administrators and developers who want to understand what makes Exadata unique so that they can take advantage of all the platform has to offer. It is also for anyone who needs to plan and execute migrations of systems to the Exadata platform. Finally, the book will be invaluable to those who support and maintain such systems.

About the Author

Randy Johnson is a principal consultant at Enkitec, a consulting firm specializing in Oracle. Randy has more than 18 years of experience with Oracle, beginning with Oracle 7 during the early 1990s. Much of his career has combined Oracle database administration with Unix administration duties. Over the last five years, Randy focused almost exclusively on real application clusters and automatic storage management. He is also an authority on Oracle backup and recovery via RMAN, having written a popular utility for automating RMAN scripts called Dixie. Randy occasionally blogs at http://blog.enkitec.com.

Kerry Osborne began working with Oracle (version 2) in 1982. He has worked as both a developer and a DBA. For the past several years he has been focused on understanding Oracle internals and solving performance problems. He is an OakTable member and an Oracle Ace Director.. Kerry is a frequent speaker at Oracle conferences. He is also a co-founder of Enkitec, an Oracle-focused consulting company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. He blogs at kerryosborne.oracle-guy.com.

Tanel Poder is one of the leading Oracle performance specialists in the world, having helped solve complex problems for customers in more than 20 countries on five continents. He specializes in advanced performance tuning, end-to-end troubleshooting, and other complex (and therefore interesting) tasks, such as migrating very large databases with minimal downtime. Tanel has optimized the performance of Exadata installations, starting from Exadata version 1, and he plans to go even deeper with his current Exadata performance and troubleshooting research. He is one of the first Oracle Certified Masters in the world, an Oracle ACE Director, and a proud member of the OakTable Network. Tanel regularly speaks at conferences worldwide and publishes his articles, scripts, and tools in his blog at http://blog.tanelpoder.com.

Martin Bach started working with Oracle in 2001. His main interests are high availability and disaster recovery solutions for mission critical 24 7 systems, in which he possesses a wealth of experience. Martin has also spent many years exploring the benefits of virtualisation technologies for Oracle products, mainly by using VMWare ESX Server and Oracle VM.

Martin is a proud member of the Oracle Certified Master community, having successfully passed the exam for Database 10g Release 2 in December 2008. He has contributed to various Oracle user group publications and runs a successful web log. Martin likes to share his knowledge with the Oracle user community in form of presentations, such as at U.K. Oracle User Group events.

Martin has a degree in business and computer science from the University of Applied Sciences in Trier, Germany.