One of the new requirements of the Exadata Storage Server patches (starting with 11.2.3.1.0) is that the compute nodes will be patched through yum. Previously, the minimal pack was bundled with the storage server patch and applied directly to the database servers. Instead of having the compute node directly receive updates from Oracle’s yum repository… Read More »
For some reason, I’ve been working on lots of Exadata V2 systems in the past few months. One of the issues that I’ve been coming across for these clients is a failure in the battery that is used by the RAID controller. It was originally expected for these batteries to last 2 years. Unfortunately, there… Read More »
Oracle has announced a new patching strategy for Exadata, starting with databases running 11.2.0.3. Oracle will be moving away from the monthly bundle patch philosophy, which was panned by many administrators as coming too often to keep up with, given the tight schedules held around most Exadata systems. Instead, Oracle will be releasing a Quarterly… Read More »
Oracle has released a critical patch for storage server versions 11.2.2.3.x through 11.2.2.4.1. While 11.2.2.4.1 was released last week, there were a few oneoff patches from 11.2.2.4.0 that didn’t seem to make it in to the release. Oracle has since released 11.2.2.4.2 (patch #13513611, supplemental note #1388400.1). Similar to 11.2.2.4.1, this release looks to patch… Read More »
As business has picked up since OpenWorld (didn’t think that was possible, but that’s another story for another day), we have been seeing more customers adopt or seriously look at Exadata as an option for new hardware implementations. While many will complain that there isn’t enough room for customization in the rigid process of configuring… Read More »
It appears that Oracle has resolved the issue with the 10GbE drivers that were introduced in version 11.2.2.4.0. There is an updated note (1376664.1) that includes the patch to fix it. The issue was apparently related to TCP segmentation offloading, and can be fixed by installing the patch found in the note listed above. It… Read More »
Oracle has upgraded the supplemental note for 11.2.2.4.0 (1348647.1) with a handful of critical issues. First, there is an issue mentioned by Vishal Gupta here regarding 10 gigabit ethernet on the database servers. Currently, there is no workaround for this bug, and it is advised that customers utilizing 10 GbE on the database servers should… Read More »
After seeing this press release, I couldn’t help but think back on the last year and a half that I’ve been working on Exadata, and all of the interesting projects and implementations we’ve worked on. When you think about the number of Exadata systems that are out there (Oracle claims over 1,000), and we at… Read More »
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on some new (and older) installations of Exadata, and came across a few items that piqued my interest. Each of these things had been on my mind for a while, but it’s nice to see them finally resolved. The first is a small change to the installation… Read More »
One of the common refrains regarding Exadata storage is that there’s no real capacity for adding storage as your database grows. The routine was always to let the storage guys dole out storage as needed, keeping tight reins on where their precious gigabytes (now terabytes) went. When a database outgrew the storage it was allocated,… Read More »