1.2 Key Features of Oracle Exadata System Software

This section describes the key features of Oracle Exadata System Software.

• Reliability, Modularity, and Cost-Effectiveness
  Oracle Exadata Storage Server employs cost-effective modular storage hardware in a scale-out architecture enabling high availability and reliability.
• Compatibility with Oracle Database
  When the minimum required versions are met, all Oracle Database features are fully supported with Oracle Exadata System Software.
• Smart Flash Technology
  The Exadata Smart Flash Cache feature of the Oracle Exadata System Software intelligently caches database objects in flash memory, replacing slow, mechanical I/O operations to disk with very rapid flash memory operations.
• Persistent Memory Accelerator and RDMA
  Persistent Memory (PMEM) Accelerator provides direct access to persistent memory using Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), enabling faster response times and lower read latencies.
• Exadata RDMA Memory
  Oracle Exadata System Software release 23.1.0 introduces Exadata RDMA Memory (XRMEM). XRMEM incorporates all of the Exadata capabilities that provide direct access to storage server memory using Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), enabling faster response times and lower read latencies.
• Centralized Storage
  You can use Oracle Exadata to consolidate your storage requirements into a central pool that can be used by multiple databases.
• I/O Resource Management (IORM)
  I/O Resource Management (IORM) and the Oracle Database Resource Manager enable multiple databases and pluggable databases to share the same storage while ensuring that I/O resources are allocated across the various databases.
• Exadata Hybrid Columnar Compression
  Exadata Hybrid Columnar Compression stores data using column organization, which brings similar values close together and enhances compression ratios.
• In-Memory Columnar Format Support
  In an Oracle Exadata environment, the data is automatically stored in In-Memory columnar format in the flash cache when it will improve performance.
• Offloading Data Search and Retrieval Processing
  Exadata Smart Scan offloads search and retrieval processing to the storage servers.
• Offloading of Incremental Backup Processing
  To optimize the performance of incremental backups, the database can offload block filtering to Oracle Exadata Storage Server.
• Fault Isolation with Quarantine
  Oracle Exadata System Software has the ability to learn from the past events to avoid errors.
• Protection Against Data Corruption
  Data corruptions, while rare, can have a catastrophic effect on a database, and therefore on a business.
• Fast File Creation
  File creation operations are offloaded to Oracle Exadata Storage Servers.
• Storage Index
  Oracle Exadata Storage Servers maintain a storage index which contains a summary of the data distribution on the disk.