Living with Exadata

Presented by:

Shaun Dewberry, OS Administrator, RDC

Tom de Jongh van Arkel, Database Administrator, RDC

Komaran Hansragh, Data Warehouse Manager, Telkom

IntroductionOur MessageOperational and user experiences and tasks unique to Exadata

Roles:Shaun – Hardware, OS, Exadata Storage ServerTom – Grid Infrastructure and DatabaseKomaran – ETL, Reporting

TerminologyCompute node – The nodes where the databases run. 4 Per system.Cell node – The storage nodes where the Exadata Storage Server Software run. 7 Per system + 4 Storage Expansion = 11 per system

System Hardware

• Initially acquired two X2-2 Exadata half racks but licensed

quarter racks – 7TB usable space.

• Only 10% of the processing resources used but filling up the

disk space quickly.

• Licensed the extra quarter rack – extra 7TB.

• Acquired X3 quarter rack storage expansions – extra 44TB

usable space

• Enhanced backup infrastructure

Getting to square 1

Steps taken before storage expansion commissioning:• Patch level prerequisite• Oracle appoints an installation coordinator• Complete a logistics template• Complete the Exadata deployment assistant > Installation

template• Oracle South Africa does a site inspection (space, cooling,

power)• Oracle South Africa does hardware delivery and

installation• Oracle international does software installation

PatchingPatching involves the entire system. Seven phase approach:

• Unravelling the patch instructions (which changes every version)• Infiniband Switches• Additional components (Switches, KVM, PDU)• Exadata Storage Server• OS and firmware patches for database nodes• Grid Infrastructure• Database

Quarterly Full Stack Downloads

Hybrid Columnar Compression

• Hybrid Columnar Compression is optimized to use both database and storage capabilities on Exadata to deliver tremendous space savings and performance.

• Warehouse Compression Low and High are meant to achieve a lower

compression ratio but offer better performance. ALTER TABLE MYTABLE COMPRESS FOR QUERY [ LOW | HIGH ]

• Archive Compression Low and High offers maximum space saving with higher performance costs. ALTER TABLE MYTABLE COMPRESS FOR ARCHIVE[ LOW | HIGH ]

• Real world compression ratio of 78% achieved for Warehouse Low and up to 88% for Query High.

Flash Cache

Flash Cache

Enterprise Manager• Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Release 4

Challenges• Installation• Hardware failures. Automatic Service Requests.• Patching• Leading edge• Backup volume• Learning curve for system administrators• Not a black box• Cost / limitations of scaling

Benefits• Exponential performance increase• Specialised team for Oracle support• Increase data retention with Hybrid Columnar Compression• Combine enterprise and commodity hardware• Infiniband internal network• Scalability• DB Nodes are standard OEL (unbreakable kernel)• Massively parallel architecture eliminates single points of

failure completely• Fast PCI Flash Cache cards• Tested software and hardware compatibility• Pre-tuned for high performance

User Experience

Komaran HansraghData Warehouse Specialist / Manager

Background• The Telkom Data Warehouse landscape consists of a Fixed-Line and a Mobile Data

Warehouse

• Data Warehouse landscape consists of Historical and Near Real Time Data• Historical

• Revenue data for 7 years • All other data for 5 years

• Near Real Time Data • 10 minutes for selected information

• Total number of Resources in the Data Warehouse

Background• Subject Area

• Order Management• Customer Management• Financial Management• Service Management• Network Management• Fault Management• Incident Management

• Tools• Hardware - Half Rack EXADATA Environment• Software - Oracle 11g Release 2 (11.2)• Data Integration - ABINITIO• Metadata – ABINITIO• Presentation Layer – SAP Business Objects• Analytics - SAS

Current Environment

Migration Project• Replacement of the fixed line Data Warehouse environment with an Oracle

Exadata environment

• Process started on the 5th of March 2014 and end 30th of September 2014 with 17 DW resources working on the project.

• The new DW database design on EXADATA enables a single version of the truth combining Fixed line and Mobile data.

• Planning• Archiving • Cleanup • Rewriting

Business Benefits • Fix Line and Mobile Data Warehouse on a single environment• Low Time-To-Market• Low Time-To-Insights• Flexible architecture• Enable analytics and BI self service

• Established Data Sets and Data Marts for all Business Unit • Sunset legacy data warehouse environments throughout Telkom.

• Cost saving• Single version of the truth• Self service• Increasing Performance• Increasing Productivity

• Metadata

KPI’sDW daily scheduled jobs completed successfully before 3:30am.

• Measure – divide the number of daily successfully completed jobs by the total number of jobs listed in the scheduled process log table (as a percentage), the monthly average is green if > 95%, yellow if > 84%, red < 85%

Increasing Performance• DW has increased its time to deliver performance by 75%

Start Small and Grow

Full RackHalf RackQuarter Rack

With Exadata you purchase what you require and as your Business grows you grow your Data Warehouse Environment.

Questions & Answers