8.2.2 Online Flash Disk Replacement for Oracle Exadata Storage Server X7

Previous generations of Oracle Exadata Database Machine allowed for online flash disk replacement in Oracle Exadata Storage Server X7-2 Extreme Flash, but flash disk replacement in Oracle Exadata Storage Server X7-2 High Capacity still required server downtime. Starting with Oracle Exadata Database Machine X7-2L and X7-8, flash disks in Oracle Exadata Storage Server X7-2 High Capacity can also be replaced online without server downtime.

Oracle Exadata System Software constantly monitors flash disk health. If a flash disk fails or experiences poor performance, then the disk can be replaced right away. If a flash disk enters predictive failure, then, to ensure redundancy, flash disk should not be replaced until:

• Oracle ASM disk rebalance completes if the device is used as data grid disk

• Flash cache flush completes if the device is used for flash cache

Oracle Exadata System Software automatically monitors the progress of Oracle ASM disk rebalance and flash cache flush operations and sends a notification to users once the flash disk can be safely replaced without compromising redundancy. In any case, when it's safe to replace a flash disk, Oracle Exadata System Software automatically prepares the flash disk for online replacement and moves the flash disk to dropped for replacement status to indicate it's ready to be replaced. In addition, Oracle Exadata System Software automatically turns on the attention LED on the flash card and turns off the power LED on the card to help identify the card to replace.

System administrators or field engineers can open the chassis without shutting down the storage server, easily identify the card by the LED pattern, and replace the disks.

See Performing a Hot Pluggable Replacement of a Flash Disk in Oracle Exadata Database Machine Maintenance Guide for details.

Minimum requirements:

• Oracle Exadata Storage Server X7-2 Extreme Flash

• Oracle Exadata System Software release 18.1.0.0.0 and Oracle Exadata Storage Server X7-2 High Capacity or Oracle Exadata Database Machine X7-8