Pythian is a global leader in database administration and consulting services. The document discusses the speaker's first 100 days of experience with an Oracle Exadata database machine. It provides an overview of Exadata components and features like Hybrid Columnar Compression and Smart Scan, which offloads processing from database servers to storage cells.

1. My First 100 days with an
Exadata
Presented by : Gustavo René Antúnez
Oracle DBA
The Pythian Group
April, 2014

2. About Pythian
• Recognized Leader:
– Global industry-leader in remote database administration services and
consulting for Oracle, Oracle Applications, MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server
– Work with over 250 multinational companies such as Forbes.com, Fox Sports,
Nordion and Western Union to help manage their complex IT deployments
• Expertise:
– One of the world’s largest concentrations of dedicated, full-time DBA
expertise. Employ 9 Oracle ACEs/ACE Directors.
– Hold 7 Specializations under Oracle Platinum Partner program, including
Oracle Exadata, Oracle GoldenGate & Oracle RAC
• Global Reach & Scalability:
– Around the clock global remote support for DBA and consulting, systems
administration, special projects or emergency response

3. About Me
– Oracle DBA
– Part of the First Oracle
Associate Group
• Started with Version 9.2 in 2004
– With The Pythian Group for the
last year
– Movie Fanatic
– Music Lover
– Bringing the best from México
(Mexihtli) to the rest of the world
and in the process
photographing it :)
– reneantunez.com
– @grantunez
• #CLV14

4. Where do I come from?

5. How did I get to be a DBA

6. Happiest Job of 2014!*
*http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/03/20/the-happiest-and-unhappiest-jobs-in-2014/
Work-life
balance
Relationship with
boss and co-
workers
Daily tasks
Job
resources
Field will grow by
15% between
2012 and 2022
DBA can be the
key driver of
success

7. What is Oracle Exadata Database
Machine?
• Optimized database machine designed by
Oracle. It is a combination of Oracle Exadata
Storage Server software, Oracle Database
software, completely redundant hardware and a
high-bandwidth low-latency InfiniBand network
that connects all the components inside.

8. My Version of an Oracle Exadata
Database Machine
Storage
Nodes
Database
Nodes
Infiniband Leaf
Switches
ILOM,KVM,
Cisco Network
Switch

9. My Version of Rack Mount Options
of an Exadata
1/8 1/4 1/2 1
X3-2 and X4-2

10. Compute or Database Nodes
Grid
Infrastructure RDBMS
RAC
Linux or
Solaris OS
Linux OS
commands,
SQL*Plus,
ASMCMD, CRSCTL

11. Storage or Cell Node
Exadata
Storage Server
Software
4 PCIe flash
cards
12 rotating
magnetic disks
12 rotating
magnetic disks
Linux OS only
cellcli,dcli, Linux
OS Commands

12. Abstraction of Disk 1 and 2 of the
Cell Node
Physical
Disk
Grid
Disk
Grid
Disk
Grid
Disk
LUN
OS
Storage
Area
(Disk1
and
Disk2)
Cell
Disk
Cell
System
Area
(Disk
1
and
Disk
2)
Faster
(Outside)
Slower
(Inside)

13. CellCLI> list cell detail
name: exa1c114_net0
…
cellVersion: OSS_11.2.0.3.0_LINUX.X64_110929
cpuCount: 16
…
ipaddress1: 192.168.12.114/24
kernelVersion: 2.6.18-238.12.2.0.2.el5
locatorLEDStatus: off
makeModel: SUN MICROSYSTEMS SUN FIRE X4275 SERVER SAS
metricHistoryDays: 7
…
powerCount: 2/2
powerStatus: normal
releaseVersion: 11.2.2.4.0
…
status: online
…
upTime: 97 days, 21:53
General information about your cell

14. CellCLI> list physicaldisk detail
name: 20:0
deviceId: 8
diskType: HardDisk
enclosureDeviceId: 20
errMediaCount: 0
errOtherCount: 0
foreignState: false
luns: 0_0
makeModel: "SEAGATE ST360057SSUN600G"
physicalFirmware: 0805
physicalInsertTime: 2010-02-05T10:31:54+00:00
physicalInterface: sas
physicalSerial: E03WV1
physicalSize: 558.9109999993816G
slotNumber: 0
status: normal
General Information about your Physical
Disk

15. CellCLI> list lun detail
name: 0_0
cellDisk: CD_00_exa1c114_net0
deviceName: /dev/sda
diskType: HardDisk
id: 0_0
isSystemLun: TRUE
lunAutoCreate: FALSE
lunSize: 557.861328125G
lunUID: 0_0
physicalDrives: 20:0
raidLevel: 0
lunWriteCacheMode: "WriteBack, ReadAheadNone, Direct, No Write
Cache if Bad BBU"
status: normal
General Information about your LUN Disk

16. CellCLI> list celldisk detail
name: CD_00_exa1c114_net0
comment:
creationTime: 2011-06-14T02:25:45+00:00
deviceName: /dev/sda
devicePartition: /dev/sda3
diskType: HardDisk
errorCount: 0
freeSpace: 0
id: 00000130-8bf8-0381-0000-000000000000
interleaving: none
lun: 0_0
raidLevel: 0
size: 528.734375G
status: normal
General Information about your Cell Disk

17. CellCLI> list griddisk detail
name: DATA_CD_00_exa1c114_net0
asmDiskGroupName: DATA
asmDiskName: DATA_CD_00_exa1c114_NET0
availableTo:
cellDisk: CD_00_exa1c114_net0
comment:
creationTime: 2011-06-14T02:26:18+00:00
diskType: HardDisk
errorCount: 0
id: 00000130-8bf8-867a-0000-000000000000
offset: 32M
size: 430G
status: active
General Information about your Grid Disk

18. View Name
Description
V$CELL
IP addresses assigned to the cells. This also
includes the hash value for the cell which is
included in the Exadata storage cell session
waits in v$session_wait in the P1 column.
V$CELL_CONFIG
Configuration information about all the levels
in a storage cell.
V$CELL_REQUEST_TOTALS
Snapshots of the requests made to each cell
over the last 15 minutes
V$CELL_STATE
Current statistics for each storage cell.
V$CELL_THREAD_HISTORY
Detail of events over the previous 15 minutes
for the storage cell.
Database Performance views to get
information concerning the storage cells

19. Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)
• Cell and Compute Nodes come with a dedicated
management channel for device maintenance
called Integrated Lights Out Manager that works
independently from these nodes
• It supports various interfaces for accessing it:
– Web Interface
– CLI (Command Line Interface)
– Remote console
– Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI)

20. Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)
• When using the ILOM to view your Hardware, we need to
understand that there are 2 types
– Customer-Replace Unit (CRU)
– Field-Replaceable Units (FRU)
-> show faulty
Target | Property | Value
--------------------+------------------------
+---------------------------------
/SP/faultmgmt/0 | fru | /SYS/SP
…
faults/0 | |
/SP/faultmgmt/0/ | uuid | a6409101-e792-efb0-e4a2-
b4674191
…
/SP/faultmgmt/0/ | product_serial_number | < SERIAL NUMBER >
faults/0 | |
/SP/faultmgmt/0/ | chassis_serial_number | < SERIAL NUMBER >
faults/0 | |

21. Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)
• You can also login to the node via the ILOM
home/antunez> ssh root@10.10.10.10
Password:
…
Copyright (c) 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
-> start /SP/console
Are you sure you want to start /SP/console (y/n)? y
…
test01db01.pythian.com login: root
Password:
Last login: Thu Jan 30 20:01:47 from 10.10.10.11
[root@test01db01 ~]# ps -eaf | grep pmon
grid 12167 1 0 21:42 ? 00:00:00 asm_pmon_+ASM1
root 13408 11206 0 21:42 ttyS0 00:00:00 grep pmon

22. Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)
• You can also power on a server with the IPMI interface
[root@test01db01 ~]# ipmitool -H test01db01-ilom -U root -P welcome1 chassis
power on
• Interact with the ILOM through the IPMI interface
[root@test01db01 ~]# ipmitool sunoem cli "show /SP/network"
Connected. Use ^D to exit.
-> show /SP/network
/SP/network
Targets:
interconnect
ipv6
test
Properties:
commitpending = (Cannot show property)
dhcp_server_ip = none
…

23. Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM)
• http://tiny.cc/hw03dx

24. Disk Replacement
• Common tasks done and that normally is not done on
non-Exadata environment is a disk replacement.
• The following two MOS documents should be revised
before doing a disk replacement :
– 1390836.1 (Predictive Failure)
– 1386147.1 (Hard Failure)

25. Network Consolidated
interconnect backbone
that serves all of the
hardware
components.
iDB is used to ship SQL
operations down to the
cell nodes for execution
and to return query result
sets to the database
kernel
It uses “zero
copy”

26. Exachk: healtcheck for Exadata
• MOS note 1070954.1
• The tool is non-intrusive, when it completes it's collection
and analysis, it produces two reports, summary and
detailed.
• Advised to be run as a part of periodic maintenance
operations on the exadata.
• Configure oem12c to perform checkups on exadata
(exachk)
– http://tiny.cc/scz3dx

27. Exachk: healtcheck for Exadata

28. Useful MOS Note and ASR
• Information Center: Troubleshooting Oracle
Exadata Database Machine (Doc ID 1346612.2)
• ASR is designed to automatically create Service
Requests when specific hardware fault events
occur.
• ASR requires the following software packages to
be downloaded and installed:
– Oracle Automated Service Manager (OASM)
(SUNWsasm package)
– ASR Plug-in (SUNWswasr package)

29. Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC)
• HCC is optimized to use both database and
storage capabilities on Exadata to deliver
tremendous space savings
• Data will only be compressed in HCC format
when it is loaded using direct path loads types
BLOCK HEADER
CU HEADER
BLOCK HEADER BLOCK HEADER BLOCK HEADER
C3
C4
C1
C2
C7
C5
C6 C8
C8
Logical Compression Unit

30. Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC)
• HCC has four types of compression:
– Query Low. - It uses the LZO compression algorithm.
CREATE TABLE ... COMPRESS FOR QUERY LOW;
– Query High. - It uses the ZLIB (gzip) compression algorithm.
CREATE TABLE ... COMPRESS FOR QUERY HIGH;
– Archive Low. - It uses the ZLIB (gzip) compression algorithm as well,
but at a higher-level compression than Query High.
CREATE TABLE ... COMPRESS FOR ARCHIVE LOW;
– Archive High. – It uses Bzip2 compression
CREATE TABLE ... COMPRESS FOR ARCHIVE HIGH;

31. Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC)
• For new tables and partitions:
CREATE TABLE emp (emp_id NUMBER, first_name
VARCHAR2(128), last_name VARCHAR2(128)) COMPRESS
FOR QUERY HIGH;
• For existing tables and partitions
Online Redefinition (DBMS_REDEFINITION)
ALTER TABLE ... MOVE COMPRESS FOR QUERY HIGH

32. Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC)
Compression
Method
Segment Size
High NDV
Low NDV
MB
Reduction
MB
Reduction
No Compression
3,109.00
3,008.00
Basic
2,769.00
10.90%
246.88
91.80%
OLTP
3,080.60
0.90%
280.94
90.70%
Query Low
2,466.90
20.70%
113.25
96.20%
Query High
1,637.40
47.30%
5.31
99.80%
Archive Low
1,632.80
47.50%
5.31
99.80%
Archive High
1,546.10
50.30%
5.31
99.80%
• We created 2 tables consisting of only 12 columns and both with close to 20
billion rows. Many of the columns in table 1 have a very HIGH number of
distinct values (NDV) and the second one with very LOW number of distinct
values (NDV)

33. Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC)
• Oracle also provides an EHCC advisor, called
GET_EHCC_CR, which can be found in MOS
1269846.1
SQL> EXEC GET_EHCC_CR('DATA','TST','EX_TAB_ORIGINAL',NULL,3);
Compression Advisor self-check validation successful. select
count(*) on both Uncompressed and EHCC Compressed format =
1000001 rows
COMPRESSED_TYPE = "Compress For Archive Low"
COMPRESSED_BLOCKS = 10417
UNCOMPRESSED_BLOCKS = 19611
COMPRESSED_ROWS = 96
UNCOMPRESSED_ROWS = 51
COMPRESSION_RATIO = 1.8

34. Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC)
• Row level locking goes away when using HCC.
• Every update of a record stored in HCC format
results in a migrated row
• Non-direct path inserts will be loaded into OLTP
compressed blocks as opposed to HCC format.
• For the above reasons, mixing HCC with DML is
not recommended.

35. Smart Scan and Offloading
• Processes queries at the storage layer, returning
only relevant rows and columns to the database
server.
• Offloading refers to the concept of moving
processing from the database servers to the
storage layer
• Will not use Smart Scan
– if the columns being requested include a database
large object (LOB)
– if a table is a clustered table
– If is an index-organized table

36. Smart Scan and Offloading
• There are three basic requirements that must be
met for Smart Scans to occur:
– There must be a full scan of an object.
• These correspond to TABLE ACCESS FULL and INDEX
FAST FULL SCAN operations of an execution plan.
– The object must be stored on Exadata storage.
– The scan must use Oracle’s Direct Path Read
mechanism

37. • The scan must use Oracle’s Direct Path Read
mechanism.
Smart Scan and Offloading
Server
Process
SQL Work Areas
Private SQL AreaSession Memory
Database
Buffer Cache

38. Smart Scan and Offloading
• With Smart Scan, come several optimizations:
– Column Projection or Column Filtering
• The cell server will only return the columns
requested.
– Table that has 50 columns, and only 5 are selected and 2
involved in the join operation. The cell server will only
return 7 columns.

39. Smart Scan and Offloading
– Predicate Filtering
• The cell server will only return the rows requested
instead of all the rows in a table.
– Since iDB includes the predicate information in its
requests, this is accomplished by performing the
standard filtering operations at the storage cells before
returning the data.

40. Smart Scan and Offloading
– Storage Indexes
• Cell Server In-Memory structure that its main goal
is to reduce the number I/O’s from disk
• Automatically created and maintained
transparently by the Exadata Storage Server
Software
• Three “commonly” known hidden database
parameters that deal with Storage Indexes
– _kcfis_storageidx_disabled .- When set to TRUE it will turn
Storage Indexes off
– _kcfis_storageidx_diag_mode.- This will enable you to trace the
Storage Index
– _cell_storidx_mode.- Controls where Storage Indexes will be
applied (Comparison operators)

41. Smart Scan and Offloading
• Should You Drop Indexes in Exadata?
– http://tiny.cc/wr03dx

42. Exadata Patching
• You now have several components
– The firmware of the nodes
– Operating System
– Infiniband Switches
– RDBMS and Grid Infrastructure binaries
• MOS document 888828.1 will have the latest patches
and release dates
• Information Center: Upgrading Oracle Exadata Database
Machine (Doc ID 1364356.2)
• Exadata Database Server Patching using the DB Node
Update Utility (Doc ID 1553103.1)

43. Different types of patches for Exadata
Database Machine
• Storage Server software
– Contains updates to firmware, operating system, and/
or Exadata Storage Server
• Rolling
• Non-rolling
• Database server
– Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Database software
– Operating system software and firmware
• InfiniBand switch software
• Additional components
– Ethernet switch, KVM, and PDU patches

44. Example of dbnodeupdate.sh
[root@test01db01 ~]# ./dbnodeupdate.sh -u -l /u01/stage/
p16432033/p16432033_112321_Linux-x86-64.zip
…
(*) 2013-12-07 03:24:52: Backing up /etc/yum.repos.d/Exadata-
computenode.repo in /etc/yum.repos.d.bak/071213032414
…
Active Image version : 11.2.3.1.0.120304
Active Kernel version : 2.6.18-274.18.1.0.1.el5
…
Automatic checks incl. : Issue 1.8 - Hotspare not reclaimed
: Issue 1.10 - Cell and Database image
versions 11.2.2.2.2 or lower require workaround before patching
…

45. Example of dbnodeupdate.sh
…
Manual checks todo : Issue 1.11 - Database Server upgrades
to 11.2.2.3.0 or higher may hit network routing issues after
the upgrade
Note : After upgrading and rebooting run './
dbnodeupdate.sh -c' to finish post steps
Continue ? [Y/n]
Y
(*) 2013-12-07 03:25:30: Verifying GI and DB's are shutdown
…
(*) 2013-12-07 03:36:34: System will reboot automatically for
changes to take effect
(*) 2013-12-07 03:36:34: After reboot run "./dbnodeupdate.sh
-c" to complete the upgrade

46. Exadata and EM12c
• EM 12c offers an integrated approach to managing
Oracle Exadata Database Machine
• Use the Oracle Exadata Discovery Cookbook
– http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oem/exa-mgmt/em12c-
exadata-discovery-cookbook-1662643.pdf
• Pre discovery process and pre work will save you a lot of
headaches
– exadataDiscoveryPreCheck.pl from MOS note 1473912.1
– Need to have the ILOM user oemuser created
– Preferably to use the ASMSNMP user for ASM instances
– Make sure all the /etc/hosts are correctly set

47. Exadata and EM12c
*************************************************************
* Enterprise Manager Exadata Pre-Discovery checks *
**************************************************************
…
Script used is /home/oracle/working/antunez/exadataDiscoveryPreCheck.pl
…
test1cel01 test1cel02 test1cel03 test2cel01 test2cel02 test2cel03 test2cel04
…
Verifying component versions...
-------------------------------
Verifying Exadata Storage Server Software version...
----------------------------------------------------
Verifying version for test1cel01 cell node...
Exadata Storage Server Software version is 11.2.3.2.1 ===> Ok
…
Press [Enter] to continue...
Verifying ILOM ipmitool version...
----------------------------------
ILOM ipmitool version is 1.8.10.4 ===> Ok

48. Exadata and EM12c
• From the setup menu
– Select Add targets à Add targets manuallyàAdd
Non-HostàTargets using Guided process àOracle
Exadata
• Follow this order when discovering
– DataBase Machine
– Cluster and HA Services on each node
– Databases, Listeners and ASM

49. Exadata and EM12c
• Recommended that you setup the target
properties correctly when discovering
• If Having Problems discovering a Database
target, use the rcuJDBCEngine to test.
oracle@testoms.pythian.com [oms] /opt/software/oms/Middleware/
oms/bin
oracle $ ./rcuJDBCEngine
dbsnmp@"(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(Host=test01-scan)
(Port=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=testdb)))" JDBC_SCRIPT
test.sql
…
Completed SQL script execution normally.
1 scripts were processed

50. Exadata and EM12c

52. Slideshare
• Session ID 544
• http://www.slideshare.net/
GustavoReneAntunez

53. Pythian at Collaborate 2014
Session
ID
Session
Date
Start
Time Session Room Session Title
Presenter
Name
157 4/9/2014 8:30 AM Level 3, Lido 3101B Database Private Clouds with Oracle Database 12c Marc Fielding
574 4/9/2014 8:30 AM Level 3, Lido 3005 DBA 101 : Calling all New Database Administrators Rene Antunez
14408 4/9/2014 4:30 PM Sands, Level 1 - 309What's New in Oracle E-Business Suite R12.2 for Database
Administrators?
Vasu Balla
158 4/10/2014 3:00 PM Level 3, San Polo
3403
Accelerate Your Exadata Deployment with the Skills You Already Have Marc Fielding
411 4/10/2014 4:15 PM Level 3, Murano
3306
Thou Shalt Not Steal: Securing Your Infrastructure in the Age of
Snowden
Paul Vallee
544 4/10/2014 11:00 AM Level 3, San Polo
3403
My First 100 days with an Exadata Rene Antunez
135 4/11/2014 9:45 AM Level 3, Lido 3003 Ensuring Your Physical Standby is Usable Michael Abbey
194 4/11/2014 12:15 PM Level 3, Lido 3101B 12c Multi-Tenancy and Exadata IORM: An Ideal Cloud Based Resource
Management
Fahd Chughtai
546 4/11/2014 8:30 AM Level 3, Lido 3103 RMAN in 12c: The Next Generation ReneAntunez
878 4/11/2014 9:45 AM Level 3, San Polo
3405
Practical Machine Learning for DBAs Alex Gorbachev

54. Thank you – Q&A
To contact us
sales@pythian.com
1-877-PYTHIAN
To follow us
http://www.pythian.com/blog
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Pythian-Group/163902527671
@pythian
http://www.linkedin.com/company/pythian
We are hiring!
Booth 1535