1. Administering Oracle Database Exadata Cloud at Customer (Gen 1/OCI-C)
  2. Getting Started with Exadata Cloud at Customer
  3. About Exadata Cloud at Customer Database Deployments

About Exadata Cloud at Customer Database Deployments

Service Level

When creating a database deployment on Oracle Database Exadata Cloud at Customer, ensure that you select Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service as the service level option.

Ignore other service level options, as these relate to Oracle Database Cloud Services that are implemented on non-Exadata systems.

Note:

Before you can create a database deployment with Exadata Cloud at Customer, you must have access to an Exadata Cloud at Customer instance. If you do not have access you will not see Oracle Database Exadata Cloud Service in the list of service level options.

Oracle Database Software Release

When creating a database deployment on Oracle Database Exadata Cloud at Customer, you choose one of the following Oracle Database software releases:

  • Oracle Database 11g Release 2

  • Oracle Database 12c Release 1

  • Oracle Database 12c Release 2

  • Oracle Database 18c

  • Oracle Database 19c

Oracle Grid Infrastructure Software Release

Oracle Grid Infrastructure provides infrastructure services, such as cluster management and storage management, to Oracle Database. On Exadata Cloud at Customer, one installation of Oracle Grid Infrastructure supports all of the database deployments in each Exadata Cloud at Customer instance or VM cluster.

The Oracle Database software release version that you select for the starter database deployment determines the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software release version that is configured on your Exadata Cloud at Customer instance or VM cluster. The starter database is the very first database deployment that you create after the creation of your Exadata Cloud at Customer instance or VM cluster.

Your starter database configuration and the resulting Oracle Grid Infrastructure version is important because the Oracle Database software release cannot be newer than the underlying Oracle Grid Infrastructure version. For example, you cannot have a database using Oracle Database 19c running in conjunction with Oracle Grid Infrastructure 18c or earlier.

If you select the latest available Oracle Database software release version for your starter database, then the corresponding Oracle Grid Infrastructure version is installed. If you pick an earlier Oracle Database software release version for your starter database, then the second most recent Oracle Grid Infrastructure version is installed.

For example, for new starter database deployments on a system having Oracle Database 19c as the latest available Oracle Database software release version:

  • If you select Oracle Database 19c as the Oracle Database software release version, then Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c is installed.

  • If you select Oracle Database 18c, or earlier, as the Oracle Database software release version, then Oracle Grid Infrastructure 18c is installed.

After Oracle Grid Infrastructure is installed:

  • On systems configured with the latest Oracle Grid Infrastructure version, you can create database deployments that use any Oracle Database release version.

  • On systems configured with an earlier Oracle Grid Infrastructure version, you can only create database deployments that use the corresponding Oracle Database version or earlier.

  • If you want to use a later Oracle Database version on a system that is already configured with an earlier Oracle Grid Infrastructure version, then you must manually upgrade Oracle Grid Infrastructure.

    For details about upgrading to Oracle Grid Infrastructure 19c, see My Oracle Support note 2709296.1. For details about other Oracle Grid Infrastructure releases, contact Oracle Support.

Oracle Database Software Edition

When creating a database deployment on Oracle Database Exadata Cloud at Customer, Enterprise Edition - Extreme Performance is the only available choice. This provides all the features of Oracle Database Enterprise Edition, plus all the database enterprise management packs and all the Enterprise Edition options, such as Oracle Database In-Memory and Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC).

Oracle Database Type

When creating a database deployment on Oracle Database Exadata Cloud at Customer, you choose one of the following database types:

  • Database Clustering with RAC — creates a clustered database that uses Oracle Real Application Clusters. You can specify to run the clustered database instances on one or more compute nodes (database servers) in the Exadata Cloud at Customer environment.

  • Database Clustering with RAC and Data Guard Standby — creates two clustered databases with one acting as the primary database and one acting as the standby database in an Oracle Data Guard configuration. Each database uses Oracle Real Application Clusters, with clustered database instances on one or more compute nodes (database servers).

Automatic Backup Configuration

Oracle Database Exadata Cloud at Customer provides automatic built-in database backup facilities. Automatic backups can be stored on:

  • Cloud storage — uses an Oracle Storage Cloud container. This container becomes associated with Oracle Database Backup Cloud Service, which Exadata Cloud at Customer uses to perform backups to cloud storage.

  • Exadata storage — uses storage from the local Exadata Storage Servers that is allocated to the RECO disk group. Database backups are managed in the Fast Recovery Area (FRA), which is located in the RECO disk group.

  • ZDLRA storage — uses Oracle Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance (ZDLRA).

When creating a database deployment on Exadata Cloud at Customer, you choose the destination for automatic backups. Your choices are:

  • Both Cloud Storage and Exadata Storage — enables two separate backup sets containing periodic full (RMAN level 0) backups and daily incremental backups. The backup to cloud storage uses an Oracle Storage Cloud container, with a seven day cycle between full backups and an overall retention period of 30 days. The backup to Exadata storage uses space in the RECO disk group, with a seven day cycle between full backups and a seven day retention period.

    Note:

    This option is only available if you provisioned for database backups on Exadata storage. See Exadata Storage Configuration.

  • Cloud Storage Only — uses an Oracle Storage Cloud container to store periodic full (RMAN level 0) backups and daily incremental backups, with a seven day cycle between full backups and an overall retention period of 30 days.

    Note:

    To eliminate possible confusion or contention, do not use a single cloud storage container as a backup destination for multiple database deployments.

  • ZDLRA Storage Only — uses the Recovery Appliance to store one full (RMAN level 0) backup and daily incremental (RMAN level 1) backups.  The Recovery Appliance creates virtual full backups from each daily incremental and validates those backups to ensure that they are always recoverable.

    Note:

    This option is only available if you configured your Exadata Cloud at Customer environment to enable database backups on ZDLRA. See Creating an Exadata Cloud at Customer Instance.

  • None — no automatic backups are configured.