Customers can subscribe to a number of standard Oracle Private Cloud at Customer configurations, based on the capacity and performance requirements of the services and applications to be hosted on the environment. For practical purposes, an initial distinction must be made based on the systems' internal physical network connectivity: Oracle Private Cloud at Customer may be built around a full Ethernet fabric or an InfiniBand fabric. The system delivered is based on the requirements of the customer environment and could be impacted by other factors, such as local RoHS regulations.
While the performance and capacity of Ethernet-based and InfiniBand-based systems are practically identical, the rack layout is different. Because the Ethernet-based systems have an Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance ZS7-2 built into the base rack, they are only offered as a single rack configuration. However, additional storage does need to be installed in another rack.
The InfiniBand-based systems, in contrast, have an additional storage appliance, which can technically be installed inside the base rack if the required number of compute nodes is 9 or fewer. The single-rack InfiniBand-based system is called the compact configuration; the version with storage and infrastructure hardware installed in a second rack is called the scale configuration.
Optionally, each of these versions of Oracle Private Cloud at Customer can be combined with an existing Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer system. In this configuration, both systems may share an Oracle Advanced Support Gateway.
The Ethernet-based version of Oracle Private Cloud at Customer contains all the management, compute, connectivity and storage components in a single rack. It has enough rack units available for 20 compute nodes and two disk trays, with the ability to add up to 14 additional storage trays, installed in an additional rack. With 15 kVA PDUs, the maximum number of compute nodes is reduced to 13.
In terms of virtualization capacity, the minimum subscription contains two compute nodes and two high-capacity storage trays. The subscription can be expanded by one node at a time. Extra storage can also be added to the subscription.
The compact configuration contains all the necessary infrastructure, compute and storage components for your private cloud environment, packaged in a single rack. Two restrictions apply: electrical power and rack space. Assuming the rack contains 22 or 24 kVA power distribution units (PDUs), a maximum of 9 compute nodes can be installed. Racks can also be equipped with 15 kVA PDUs, which can provide power reliably to a system with up to 6 compute nodes.
In terms of virtualization capacity, the minimum subscription contains two compute nodes and two high-capacity storage trays. The subscription can be expanded by one node at a time.
The scale configuration comes with storage hardware and interconnect infrastructure components installed in a second rack. As the name suggests, the scale configuration is aimed at scalability over the installation lifetime of the subscriptions by providing space to grow both the compute and storage capacity of the system. This is accomplished through the installation of additional server nodes for expanded compute capacity in the base rack and up to 14 additional storage trays in the second rack. The two-rack configuration allows the system to scale to a maximum of 25 compute nodes. A fully loaded base rack requires 24 kVA PDUs; the maximum number of compute nodes is reduced to 23 with 22 kVA PDUs, or 13 with 15 kVA PDUs.
In terms of virtualization capacity, the minimum subscription contains two compute nodes and two high-capacity storage trays. The subscription can be expanded by one node at a time. In the case of a scale configuration, extra storage can also be added to the subscription one high-performance or high-capacity tray at a time.
All standalone configurations of Oracle Private Cloud at Customer, as described above, can be integrated with an existing Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer system. The main benefit of this integration is that applications can be consolidated on the virtualization compute platform, with high-performance access to the database layer.
Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer consists of two racks. The base rack contains the Database Machine with database and storage servers. Additional infrastructure components, which provide a cloud deployment management interface for the Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer system, are installed in a second rack named the Oracle Cloud Control Plane. This configuration results in a total of 3 racks. However, additional disk trays for storage capacity may still require extra rack space.
When an Oracle Private Cloud at Customer is added to the configuration, the management networks of both systems are joined together for easy maintenance access. A single instance of Oracle Advanced Support Gateway is used for monitoring and administration of both integrated systems.
Most importantly, for optimum connectivity between the application layer and the database layer hosted by the two respective systems, the data network traffic must be optimized. Using their 10GbE infrastructure, both Oracle systems connect externally to the customer data center network. Because the data traffic passes through the data center switches, it is critical that the data center network hardware and topology are configured to enable the best possible connection.