Overview of Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure

Each level of the architecture model corresponds to one of the following resources types:

• An Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure resource. This is a hardware rack which includes compute nodes and storage servers, tied together by a high-speed, low-latency InfiniBand network and intelligent Exadata software. On dedicated Exadata infrastructure, you have exclusive use of the Exadata infrastructure and hardware on which your Autonomous Transaction Processing databases run.

  For a list of the hardware and Oracle Cloud resource characteristics of Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure resources, see Characteristics of Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure Resources.

• An Autonomous Container Database, which provides a container for multiple user databases. This resource is sometimes referred to as a CDB, and is functionally equivalent to the multitenant container databases found in Oracle 12c and higher databases.

  Multitenant architecture offers many advantages over non-CDB architecture. For example, it does the following:

  • Allows you to easily manage multiple individual user databases
  • Makes more efficient use of database hardware, as individual databases may use only a fraction of the server hardware capacity
  • Allows for easier and more rapid movement of data and code
  • Allows for easier testing, as development databases can be housed within the same container as production databases
  • Allows for the separation of duties between database administrators, who manage only the individual Autonomous Database instances to which they are granted privileges, and fleet managers, who manage infrastructure resources and container databases.
• An Autonomous Database. You can create multiple Autonomous Databases within the same container database. This level of the database architecture is analogous to the pluggable databases (PDBs) found in non-Autonomous Exadata systems. Your Autonomous Database can be configured for either transaction processing or data warehouse workloads.

You must create the dedicated Exadata infrastructure resources in the following order:

1. Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure. See Creating an Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure Resource for more information.
2. Autonomous Container Database. See Creating an Autonomous Container Database for more information.
3. Autonomous Database. See Creating an Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure for more information.

Related resources and prerequisites include:

• A Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) and a Subnet, which you create using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's Networking service. You must have at least one VCN and one subnet available to provision an Autonomous Database with dedicated Exadata infrastructure.

  For more information, see the following topics:

  • Network Isolation (from Fleet Administrator’s Guide to Oracle Autonomous Transaction Processing on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure)
  • Networking Overview
  • To create a VCN
  • To create a subnet
• Autonomous Backups, created for you automatically by the Autonomous Database service. By default, backups are stored for 60 days. Using the Console, you can choose to change the retention period to 7, 15, or 30 days.
• Manual Backups. Optionally, you can create on-demand manual backups. Manual backups are subject to the retention policy you have in place for the Autonomous Container Database.

Exadata infrastructure maintenance takes place at least once each quarter and is mandatory. You can schedule a maintenance window to control the time, day of the week, and week of the month for Exadata infrastructure maintenance. Exadata infrastructure maintenance patches the Exadata infrastructure (including patching of the Exadata grid infrastructure code and operating systems updates), and do not include database patching. Oracle notifies you about upcoming Exadata infrastructure maintenance in the weeks before quarterly Exadata infrastructure patching occurs. You can also view scheduled maintenance runs in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console. The following tasks explain how to view scheduled and past maintenance updates, and how to edit the maintenance schedule for an Exadata infrastructure instance:

• To configure the automatic maintenance schedule for an Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure resource
• To view the next scheduled maintenance for an Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure resource
• To view the maintenance history of an Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure resource

You can use the GetMaintenanceRun, ListMaintenanceRun, and UpdateAutonomousExadataInfrastructure API operations to view details about scheduled and past maintenance updates, and to update the maintenance schedule of your infrastructure instance.

Container database maintenance updates include Oracle Database software patches and take place at least once each quarter. You can configure a maintenance window to control the time, day of the week, and week of the month that your maintenance update run will begin. Otherwise, Oracle will schedule container database maintenance runs for you so that they are coordinated with the maintenance runs of the associated Exadata infrastructure.

If a scheduled container database maintenance run cannot take place (because of changes made to infrastructure maintenance scheduling or other reasons), Oracle will automatically reschedule the container database maintenance for the following quarter. You can change your container database maintenance window or reschedule a single container database maintenance run to ensure that your container database maintenance runs follow infrastructure maintenance within the same quarter.

Autonomous Database offers two container database maintenance choices:

• Release Update (RU): Autonomous Database installs only the most current release update.
• Release Update Revision (RUR): Autonomous Database installs the release update plus additional fixes.

The following tasks explain how to view and edit maintenance updates information for Autonomous Container Databases:

• To configure the automatic maintenance schedule for an Autonomous Container Database
• To view the maintenance history of an Autonomous Container Database
• To reschedule or skip scheduled maintenance for an Autonomous Container Database
• To configure the type of maintenance patching for an Autonomous Container Database

Use the UpdateAutonomousContainerDatabase API operation to change the patching type for an Autonomous Container Database. Use the ListMaintenanceRun API operation to see past maintenance update information. Use the UpdateMaintenanceRun API operations to skip a container database maintenance update. You can skip maintenance runs for up to 2 consecutive quarters if needed.

Autonomous Database emits events for Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure and Autonomous Container Database maintenance runs. Using the Notifications service (which consumes events), you can create and subscribe to a Notifications topic, allowing you to receive notifications about your maintenance runs by email, PagerDuty alert, Slack, or https.

You can setup notifications based on the following events:

• A new maintenance run is scheduled
• A maintenance reminder email is sent
• A maintenance run begins
• A maintenance run ends.

See Getting Started with Events to learn about creating and subscribing to an Events topic. See Services that Produce Events for a full list of Database service events. See Managing Topics and Subscriptions to learn how to create and subscribe to a Notifications topic.

• Creating an Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure Resource
• Creating an Autonomous Container Database
• Managing an Autonomous Exadata Infrastructure Resource
• Managing an Autonomous Container Database
• Fleet Administrator’s Guide to Oracle Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure (complete fleet administrator guide)

• Creating an Autonomous Database on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure
• Managing an Autonomous Database
• Connecting to an Autonomous Database
• Backing Up an Autonomous Database Manually
• Restoring an Autonomous Database
• Using Oracle Autonomous Transaction Processing on Dedicated Exadata Infrastructure (complete database administrator guide)