5.1.3.2 Using Interdatabase Plans for Consolidation and Isolation

Interdatabase resource management plans help manage resources when consolidating or isolating databases.

Consider the consolidation of four different databases sharing the same Oracle Exadata Storage Servers. If all the databases have equal priority, you can use IORM to equally allocate 25% of the I/O resources to each database. If one database is more important than the others, then you can use IORM to give it a larger share of the I/O resources.

Defining maximum utilization limits may also be useful in consolidation scenarios. By using limits, you can isolate each database in case one sees a sudden workload increase. For example, you could define a maximum utilization limit of 40% for each database, which would guarantee that no database can monopolize the system. However, when a database reaches its assigned limit it cannot take advantage of any spare capacity. Consequently, it is possible for disks to run below full capacity when limits are specified.

Resource management using limits is also ideal for pay-for-performance use cases, where service providers want to guarantee performance to their customers corresponding to the level of service being purchased. For example, customers paying for a lower performance tier should be limited more than customers paying for higher performance.