1 Introduction to Oracle Big Data Appliance

This chapter describes the features and hardware components of Oracle Big Data Appliance. It also includes usage information.

This chapter contains these topics:

• About Oracle Big Data Appliance

• Oracle Big Data Appliance Rack

• Server Components

• Spare Kit Components

• Oracle Big Data Appliance Management Software

• Oracle Big Data Appliance Restrictions on Use

About Oracle Big Data Appliance

Oracle Big Data Appliance is an engineered system of hardware and software optimized to capture and analyze the massive volumes of unstructured data generated by social media feeds, email, weblogs, photographs, smart meters, sensors, and similar devices.

Oracle Big Data Appliance is engineered to work with Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalytics Business Intelligence Machine to provide the most advanced analysis of all data types, with enterprise-class performance, availability, supportability, and security.

The Oracle Linux operating system and Cloudera's Distribution including Apache Hadoop (CDH) underlie all other software components installed on Oracle Big Data Appliance.

See Also:

Oracle Big Data Appliance Software User's Guide

Oracle Big Data Appliance Rack

Oracle Big Data Appliance consists of a full rack and the components to connect to your network.

Table 1-1 lists the components in an Oracle Big Data Appliance Rack.

Table 1-1 Oracle Big Data Appliance Rack Components

Quantity	Description
18	Sun Fire X4270 M2 Servers
1	Sun Rack II 1242 Base
2	NM2-GW Sun Network QDR InfiniBand Gateway Switches
1	NM2-36P Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 36
1	Cisco Catalyst 4948 Ethernet Switch
1	KVM
2	Power Distribution Units

Server Components

Table 1-2 lists the components of each Sun Fire Server.

Table 1-2 Sun Fire X4270 M2 Server Components

Quantity	Description
1	Sun Fire X4270 M2 Server Base
2	Six-Core Intel Xeon X5675 Processors (3.06 GHz)
6	8GB DDR3 2RX4 1333MHz DIMMs (48 GB RAM)
12	3TB 3.5" 7200 RPM drives
1	Ethernet Port for Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager v3.0 for remote management
1	Dual-port 4X QDR (40 Gb/s) InfiniBand Host Channel Adapter Network Interface Card
1	Host Bus Adapter (Disk Controller) with 8 internal ports and 512 MB battery-backed write cache
2	Redundant power supplies and fans
1	Embedded Gigabit Ethernet Port
1	USB-2 4GB Flash Drive

Spare Kit Components

The Oracle Big Data Appliance spare kit includes disk drives, accessory kits, cables, and documentation. Table 1-3 and Table 1-4 identify the bundled spares.

Table 1-3 Bundled Components and Accessories

Part Number	Quantity	Description
390-0476-03	2	3TB 3.5" 7200 RPM drives
590-896-501B	1	LCD Accessory Kit
630-446-501	1	KVM Switch Accessory Kit
53-2332-xx	1	Cisco Switch Documents and Accessories Kit

Table 1-4 Bundled Cables

Part Number	Length	Quantity	Description
530-4446-01	5 Meter	10	QSFP passive copper cable
530-4445-01	3 Meter	6	QSFP passive copper cable
350-1519-01	--	3	ASSY, NM2 serial cable sets

Table 1-4 lists the spare parts that are secured to the center section of an Oracle Big Data Appliance Rack.

Table 1-5 In-Rack Spare Cables

Part Number	Length	Quantity	Description
530-4445-01	3 Meter	2	QSFP passive copper cable
530-4437-01	10 Foot	1	Orange Cat 5
530-4435-01	10 Foot	1	Black Cat 5
530-4433-01	10 Foot	1	Red Cat 5
530-4432-01	7 Foot	1	Blue Cat 5

Oracle Big Data Appliance Management Software

The software components are installed on all 18 servers in Oracle Big Data Appliance Rack. Oracle Linux, required drivers, firmware, and hardware verification utilities are factory installed. Among them are the following tools:

• Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (Oracle ILOM) consists of preinstalled, dedicated hardware and software that you can use to manage and monitor the servers and switches in Oracle Big Data Appliance Rack. See Chapter 6.

• setup-root-ssh sets up passwordless SSH for the root user among all the servers in an Oracle Big Data Appliance Rack. See "Setting Up Passwordless SSH".

• dcli executes commands across a group of servers on Oracle Big Data Appliance and returns the output. See Chapter 7.

• bdacheckib checks the private InfiniBand network. See "Checking the Health of the Network".

• bdachecknet checks the network configuration. See "Checking the Health of the Network".

• iblinkinfo lists the connections in the InfiniBand network. See "Checking the Health of the Network".

• listlinkup identifies the active Ethernet ports. See "Checking the Health of the Network".

• showvlan lists the Virtual LANs configured on a Sun Network QDR InfiniBand Gateway Switch. See "Checking the Health of the Network".

• showvnics lists the Virtual NICs created on a Sun Network QDR InfiniBand Gateway Switch. See "Checking the Health of the Network".

All end-user software is installed on site using the Mammoth Utility. See Chapter 13, "Installing the Oracle Big Data Appliance Software."

See Also:

Oracle Big Data Appliance Software User's Guide

Oracle Big Data Appliance Restrictions on Use

The following restrictions apply to hardware and software modifications to Oracle Big Data Appliance. Violating these restrictions can result in the loss of warranty and support.

• Oracle Big Data Appliance hardware cannot be modified or customized, with one exception. The only allowed hardware modification to Oracle Big Data Appliance is to the administrative 48-port Cisco 4948 Ethernet switch.

  Customers may choose to do the following:

  • Replace the Gigabit Ethernet switch, at the customer's expense, with an equivalent 1U 48-port Gigabit Ethernet switch that conforms to their internal data center network standards. This replacement must be performed by the customer, at their expense and labor, after delivery of Oracle Big Data Appliance. If the customer chooses to make this change, then Oracle cannot make or assist with this change given the numerous possible scenarios involved, and it is not included as part of the standard installation. The customer must supply the replacement hardware, and make or arrange for this change through other means.

  • Remove the CAT5 cables connected to the Ethernet switch and connect them to the customer's network through an external switch or patch panel. The customer must perform these changes at their expense and labor. In this case, the Cisco 4948 Ethernet switch in the rack can be turned off and disconnected from the data center network.

• Customers cannot update the firmware directly on Oracle Big Data Appliance servers. The firmware is updated as part of an Oracle Big Data Appliance patch.

• Customers can update the firmware of the other components of Oracle Big Data Appliance:

  • Customers can update the IOS and firmware versions on the Cisco 4948 Gigabit Ethernet switch to meet their data center requirements.

  • Customers can update the firmware of the KVM switch and the KMM (keyboard, monitor, mouse) as needed.

  • Customers can update the firmware of the components of the Oracle Big Data Appliance servers provided they comply with the restrictions documented in My Oracle Support (MOS) Master Note 1434477.1 and its related notes.

  • Customers can update the firmware of the InfiniBand switches provided they comply with the validated versions documented in MOS Master Note 1434477.1 and its related notes.

• Customers may load additional software on Oracle Big Data Appliance servers. Oracle does not support questions or issues with the non-standard modules. If a server fails, and Oracle suspects the failure may have been caused by a non-standard module, then Oracle Support may refer the customer to the vendor of the non-standard module or ask that the issue be reproduced without the non-standard module. Modifying the server operating system other than by applying official patches and upgrades is not supported. InfiniBand-related packages must always be maintained at the officially supported release.

• Customers can use Cloudera Manager to stop and start services, but cannot use it to move services from one server to another. The Hadoop services such as NameNode and JobTracker must remain on the servers where they were installed by the Mammoth Utility.

  See Also:

  Oracle Big Data Appliance Software User's Guide for service locations

• A Hadoop cluster must consist of one or more Oracle Big Data Appliance Racks. One Oracle Big Data Appliance Rack cannot be split into multiple Hadoop clusters.

• Customers cannot connect USB devices to Oracle Big Data Appliance servers except as documented in this guide. In those documented situations, the USB device should not draw more than 100 mA of power.

• The network ports on the servers can be used to connect to external non-Sun Fire Servers using iSCSI or NFS. However, the Fibre Channel Over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol is not supported.

• Only switches specified for use in Oracle Big Data Appliance, Oracle Exadata Database Machine, and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud may be connected to the InfiniBand network. Connecting third-party switches and other switches not used in these engineered systems is not supported.