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 sections:

• About Oracle Big Data Appliance

• Oracle Big Data Appliance Rack

• Server Components

• Spare Parts Kit Components

• Oracle Big Data Appliance Management Software

• Oracle Big Data Appliance Restrictions on Use

1.1 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, web logs, photographs, smart meters, sensors, and similar devices.

Oracle Big Data Appliance is engineered to work with Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalytics In-Memory 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

1.2 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 Switch
1	NM2-36P Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 36
1	Cisco Catalyst 4948 Ethernet Switch
1	KVM
2	Power distribution units

1.3 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	8 GB DDR3 2RX4 1333 MHz DIMMs (48 GB RAM)
12	3 TB 3.5-inch 7200 RPM drives
1	Ethernet Port for Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager v3.0 for remote management
1	Dual-port 4X QDR (40 Gbps) 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 4 GB flash drive

1.4 Spare Parts Kit Components

The Oracle Big Data Appliance spare parts 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	3 TB 3.5-inch 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 meters	10	QSFP passive copper cable
530-4445-01	3 meters	6	QSFP passive copper cable
350-1519-01	--	3	ASSY, NM2 serial cable sets

Table 1-5 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 meters	2	QSFP passive copper cable
530-4437-01	10 feet	1	Orange Cat 5
530-4435-01	10 feet	1	Black Cat 5
530-4433-01	10 feet	1	Red Cat 5
530-4432-01	7 feet	1	Blue Cat 5

1.5 Oracle Big Data Appliance Management Software

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

Note:

See "Checking the Health of the Network" except where directed otherwise.

• 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 an Oracle Big Data Appliance rack. See Chapter 6.

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

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

• The bdacheckcluster utility checks the health of the cluster.

• The bdacheckib utility checks the private InfiniBand network.

• The bdachecknet utility checks the network configuration.

• The iblinkinfo utility lists the connections in the InfiniBand network.

• The listlinkup utility identifies the active Ethernet ports.

• The showvlan utility lists the virtual local area networks (VLANs) configured on a Sun Network QDR InfiniBand Gateway Switch.

• The showvnics utility lists the virtual network interface cards (VNICs) created on a Sun Network QDR InfiniBand Gateway Switch.

All end-user software is installed on site using the Mammoth Utility. See Chapter 11.

See Also:

Oracle Big Data Appliance Software User's Guide

1.6 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 can do the following:

  • Replace the Gigabit Ethernet switch with an equivalent 1U 48-port Gigabit Ethernet switch that conforms to their internal data center network standards. This replacement must be performed by customers at their own expense and labor, after delivery of Oracle Big Data Appliance. If customers choose 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. Customers must supply the replacement hardware, and make or arrange for this change through other means.

  • Remove the Cat 5 cables connected to the Ethernet switch and connect them to the customer network through an external switch or patch panel. Customers 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 Information Center: Oracle Big Data Appliance (ID 1445762.2) and its related notes.

  • Customers can update the firmware of the InfiniBand switches provided they comply with the validated versions documented in Information Center: Oracle Big Data Appliance (ID 1445762.2) and its related notes.

• Customers can load additional software on Oracle Big Data Appliance servers. Oracle does not support questions or issues with the nonstandard modules. If a server fails, and Oracle suspects that the failure may have been caused by a nonstandard module, then Oracle Support may refer the customer to the vendor of the nonstandard module or ask that the issue be reproduced without the nonstandard 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 or the Mammoth Reconfiguration 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 Internet small computer system interface (iSCSI) or network file system (NFS) protocols. 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 can be connected to the InfiniBand network. Connecting third-party switches and other switches not used in these engineered systems is not supported.