Throughout history, advances in technology have come in spurts. A single great idea can often spur rapid change as the idea takes hold and is propagated, often in totally unexpected directions. Exadata embodies such a change in how we think about and manage relational databases. The key change lies in the concept of offloading SQL processing to the storage layer. That concept is a huge win, and its implementation in the form of Exadata is truly a game changer. 

Expert Oracle Exadata will give you a look under the covers at how the combination of hardware and software that comprise Exadata actually work. Authors Kerry Osborne, Randy Johnson, and Tanel Põder share their real-world experience, gained through multiple Exadata implementations with the goal of opening up the internals of the Exadata platform. 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.

• Will changes the way you think about managing SQL performance and processing
• Provides a roadmap to laying out the Exadata platform to best support your existing systems
• Dives deeply into the internals, removing the “black box” mystique and 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 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.

Table of Contents

1. What Is Exadata?
2. Offloading / Smart Scan
3. Hybrid Columnar Compression
4. Storage Indexes
5. Exadata Smart Flash Cache
6. Exadata Parallel Operations
7. Resource Management
8. Configuring Exadata
9. Recovering Exadata
10. Exadata Wait Events
11. Understanding Exadata Performance Metrics
12. Monitoring Exadata Performance
13. Migrating to Exadata
14. Storage Layout
15. Compute Node Layout
16. Unlearning Some Things We Thought We Knew