14.6 Configuring Exadirect Support for InfiniBand Connections

Oracle Net Services provides support for the Exadirect for InfiniBand high-speed networks.. Use the new transport to improve latency and throughput by leveraging Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) in an InfiniBand environment

Exadirect protocol uses TCP for control communication and IB RC transport for data. The Exadirect protocol adapter is supported only on Oracle Linux in this release.

Note:

Exadirect does not support DRCP.

The following sections describe how to set up Oracle Net support of Exadirect for middle tier and database server communication.

• Prerequisites for Using Exadirect
  
• Configuring Exadirect on the Server
  To configure the database server, configure an Exadirect address in the listener.ora file on the database server.
• Configuring Exadirect on the Client
  Specify a network service name that uses the same Exadirect address that is configured in the tnsnames.ora file.

14.6.1 Prerequisites for Using Exadirect

Exadirect can be used as a transport protocol between Exadata nodes. The Exadata version must be 12.1.2.3.3 or higher for Exadirect to work.

14.6.2 Configuring Exadirect on the Server

To configure the database server, configure an Exadirect address in the listener.ora file on the database server.

Configure enable_exadirect_listener_name=on parameter in listener.ora file.

The following example shows an Exadirect endpoint that uses port number 1522 on the computer having IB interface as 192.168.10.1.

LISTENER
=
(DESCRIPTION=
(ADDRESS_LIST=
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=exadirect)(HOST=192.168.10.1)(PORT=1522))
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=sales-server)(PORT=1521))
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(KEY=extproc))))

ENABLE_EXADIRECT_LISTENER=on

Note:

To enable Exadirect flow control, set exadirect_flow_control=on in sqlnet.ora file. This is a negotiated parameter and should be set in both the server and the client sqlnet.ora file. EXADIRECT_RECVPOLL parameter specifies the time that a receiver polls for incoming data. Exadirect adapter uses HugePages.

14.6.3 Configuring Exadirect on the Client

Specify a network service name that uses the same Exadirect address that is configured in the tnsnames.ora file.

Enable Exadirect flow control by setting exadirect_flow_control=on in sqlnet.ora file.

For example:

(DESCRIPTION=
(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=exadirect)(HOST=192.168.10.1)(port=1522))
(CONNECT_DATA=
(SERVICE_NAME=sales.us.example.com)))