The Strategic Platform for ALL Database Workloads

I was invited to Microsoft HQ in the UK yesterday to be a speaker at one of their launch event for SQL Server 2012. It's the second of these events that I've appeared at and it finally made me realise I need to change something about this blog. So far until now I have resisted … Continue reading The Strategic Platform for ALL Database Workloads →

Exadata Re-Racking Service

I've heard from a few sources now that Oracle is offering a new Exadata Re-racking service for quarter and half racks. The idea, as I understand it, is that if you have your own rack equipment in your data centre and don't want to use the rack that Exadata comes preinstalled in, you can pay … Continue reading Exadata Re-Racking Service →

SLOB testing on Violin and Exadata

I love SLOB, the Silly Little Oracle Benchmark introduced to me by Kevin Closson in his blog. I love it because it's so simple to setup and use. Benchmarking tools such as Hammerora have their place of course, but let's say you've just got your hands on an Exadata X2-8 machine and want to see … Continue reading SLOB testing on Violin and Exadata →

The History of Exadata

I've been working on a timeline for the history of Exadata, starting with the HP Oracle Database Machine and working through to the X2 series. It's interesting to see how Oracle's presentation of the product has changed over time, particularly the marketing messages. Also, if you didn't know better you would probably think that Engineered … Continue reading The History of Exadata →

Oracle minimises the Exadata minimal pack

As of Exadata Storage Software version 11.2.3.1 released in March 2012 the "minimal pack" has now been deprecated. This is a component of the storage server software patch which is actually applied to the database servers in order to bring them up to the same image version. Those who have been patching Exadata for a … Continue reading Oracle minimises the Exadata minimal pack →

Analysing Oracle Exadata

I've been working on a document recently which describes Exadata and examines its strengths and weaknesses. I have uploaded a number of the sections of the document as pages to this site - they are listed as tabs under the Oracle Exadata menu here.