Each Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer database server contains one or more virtual machine (VM) guests running on a hypervisor and you can designate each VM to host either Exadata Database or Autonomous AI Database Service instances. This configuration ensures a distinct separation between the Oracle-managed and customer-managed components for the Exadata Cloud@Customer platform.
Oracle manages the hypervisors through the management network. The client and backup networks connect to the VM guests through bonded network interfaces to maximize performance and availability.
If you include Oracle AI Database software licenses in your Exadata Database Service or Autonomous AI Database subscription, each VM guest has a complete Oracle AI Database installation that includes all the features of Oracle AI Database Enterprise Edition plus all the database enterprise management packs and all the Enterprise Edition options, such as Oracle AI Database In-Memory and Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), as well as Oracle Grid Infrastructure. Alternatively, you can use Oracle AI Database software licenses that you already own.
Note: Autonomous AI Database Service prevents customer access to the VM guests because Oracle manages these as part of the service. Administrative actions against the database are limited to protect the service configuration for availability and security. Given that SSH access to VM guests is removed, customer administrative actions in Autonomous AI Database are performed by an ADMIN user, not by the standard SYSTEM/SYSDBA users, and they're limited to the service-defined APIs, console, and CLI.
Exadata Database Service allows customer access to the VM guests. VM guests require an SSH public/private key pair for operating system security. You register a public key in each guest, and you retain the private key that enables access to the VM operating system. VM guests include standard user accounts, such as oracle, opc, grid, and root.
As a result of this configuration, Exadata Database Service customers manage the VM guests and all the software they contain, including the Oracle-provided management tools, including dbaascli for database lifecycle management and ExaCLI for monitoring and managing your Exadata storage servers.
The diagram shows Exadata infrastructure with two database and three storage servers.
The database servers connect to the Exadata storage servers through network fabric ports. The Exadata infrastructure resides in your data center.
Oracle manages the infrastructure and, for Autonomous AI Database, the VM guests and database, through the service-specific management network that connects the database and storage server hardware.