1 Introduction to Oracle Database Appliance

Oracle Database Appliance saves time and money by simplifying deployment, maintenance, and support of database solutions for organizations of every size. Oracle Database Appliance hardware models are optimized to run Oracle Database Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition.

• About Oracle Database Appliance
  Understand Oracle Database Appliance hardware models, deployment plans, and database options.
• Oracle Database Appliance Software Terminology
  Understand the software patches available for Oracle Database Appliance.
• About the Browser User Interface
  Use the Oracle Appliance Manager Browser User Interface to deploy and manage the appliance, databases, networks, jobs, CPU pools,compute instances, and database systems.

About Oracle Database Appliance

Understand Oracle Database Appliance hardware models, deployment plans, and database options.

About Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Models

Choose the Oracle Database Appliance hardware model that suits your business needs.

Oracle Database Appliance Hardware Model	Deployment Use Case
Oracle Database Appliance X8-2S, X8-2M, X8-2-HA	Oracle Database Appliance X8-2S is a small configuration designed for smaller or entry-level deployments. Oracle Database Appliance X8-2M is a medium-sized configuration designed for performance. Oracle Database Appliance X8-2-HA is a large configuration designed for larger databases and high-availability.
Oracle Database Appliance X7-2S, X7-2M, X7-2-HA	Oracle Database Appliance X7-2S is a small configuration designed for smaller or entry-level deployments. Oracle Database Appliance X7-2M is a medium-sized configuration designed for performance. Oracle Database Appliance X7-2-HA is a large configuration designed for larger databases and high-availability.
Oracle Database Appliance X6-2S, X6-2M, X6-2L	Oracle Database Appliance X6-2S is a small configuration designed for smaller or entry-level deployments. Oracle Database Appliance X6-2M is a medium-sized configuration designed for performance. Oracle Database Appliance X6-2L is a large configuration designed for larger databases.
Oracle Database Appliance X6-2-HA	Highly-available two-node Oracle RAC clusters that can support both Oracle RAC and single-instance databases.
Oracle Database Appliance X5-2	Highly-available two-node Oracle RAC clusters that can support both Oracle RAC and single-instance databases.

You cannot expand or reconfigure Oracle Database Appliance to a different configuration. For example, you cannot expand Oracle Database Appliance X7-S to Oracle Database Appliance X7-2M. For Oracle Database Appliance hardware configuration details, see the Oracle Database Appliance Owner's Guide.

About Oracle Database Appliance Deployment Plans

Oracle Database Appliance X8-2S and X8-2M are single node systems that you deploy as a bare metal platform.

Oracle Database Appliance X8-2-HA is a two-node system with the option to deploy as a bare metal platform or a virtualized platform.

Oracle Database Appliance X7-2S and X7-2M are single node systems that you deploy as a bare metal platform.

Oracle Database Appliance X7-2-HA is a two-node system with the option to deploy as a bare metal platform or a virtualized platform.

Oracle Database Appliance X6-2S, X6-2M, X6-2L are single node systems that you deploy as a bare metal platform.

Oracle Database Appliance X6-2-HA is a two-node system with the option to deploy as a bare metal platform or a virtualized platform.

Oracle Database Appliance X5-2 is a two-node system with the option to deploy as a bare metal platform or a virtualized platform.

About Database Deployment Options for Oracle Database Appliance

The following Oracle Database editions are available:

Database Edition	Supported Releases
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition	Oracle Database release 19c, 12.2.0.1, and 12.1.0.2 and 21.3 (in DB system)
Oracle Database Standard Edition 2	Oracle Database release 19c, 12.2.0.1, and 12.1.0.2 and 21.3 (in DB system)

Note:

It is important to understand your Oracle Database licensing before you create databases. You cannot provision Oracle Database Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition databases in the same bare metal platform, or the same ODA_BASE virtualized deployment, subject to Oracle Database licensing requirements. Review the Oracle Database Licensing Information User Manual for the Oracle Database release to review supported options and products.

Oracle Database Appliance Software Terminology

Understand the software patches available for Oracle Database Appliance.

The table describes the Oracle Database Appliance patches that are available for download and the purpose of the patch.

Note:

Some hardware models may not use the patches listed in the table.

Table 1-1 Software for Oracle Database Appliance

Patch	Description
Oracle Database Appliance patch bundle (quarterly patch release)	Use the patch bundle to update to the latest release after Oracle Database Appliance is deployed. The patch updates the Oracle Database Appliance server, storage, and database components.
Oracle Database Appliance Grid Infrastructure/Database Clone	Use to perform an initial deployment of Oracle Database Appliance and also to patch your deployment to the latest release. The bundle contains the latest Grid Infrastructure and Database components, Oracle Database Appliance Manager software, Oracle Linux and hardware drivers for deployment on an Oracle Database Appliance that is shipped from factory state. If you reimage Oracle Database Appliance with the Bare Metal ISO Image, download the Grid Infrastructure/Database Clone patch to deploy Oracle Database Appliance.
Oracle Database Clone	Use the Database Software Clone files to get the latest Database clone binaries for Oracle Database releases 19c, 12.2.0.1, and 12.1.0.2. The RDBMS clone files are needed to create Oracle databases and database homes.
Bare Metal ISO Image	Use to reimage the appliance and reset the system back to the factory configuration.

Note:

See the Oracle Database Appliance Release Notes for the patch numbers and download locations and the component versions available in the patch bundle.

Note:

Starting with Oracle Database 18c, Oracle provides quarterly updates in the form of Release Updates (Updates) and Release Update Revisions (Revisions). Oracle no longer releases patch sets. For more information, see My Oracle Support Note 2285040.1.

Oracle Database releases are of type version and version_full releases. The version release is designated in the form major release version.0.0.0.0. The major release version is based on the last two digits of the year in which an Oracle Database version is released for the first time. The version_full release is an update of a version release and is designated based on the major release version, the quarterly release update version (Update), and the quarterly release update revision version (Revision).

Prior to Oracle Database release 18c, changing the first or second digit in the release number was an upgrade, and changing the fourth digit indicated an update. With 18c and later releases, changing the first digit is an upgrade, and changing the second indicates an update.

About the Browser User Interface

Use the Oracle Appliance Manager Browser User Interface to deploy and manage the appliance, databases, networks, jobs, CPU pools,compute instances, and database systems.

The Browser User Interface provides a user-friendly interface to quickly view and perform many of the tasks needed to deploy, patch, and manage your bare metal system. The Oracle Database Appliance Deployment and User's Guide for your hardware model describes how to use the Browser User Interface to perform many of the tasks related to deployment, patching, and management of your appliance.

Use the links in the side navigation to view and manage the following:

• Appliance

  • Appliance information

  • System information

  • Disk group information including storage utilization such as free and used space

  • Information about all databases that use a storage disk group

  • All the patches and hardware and software components installed on the appliance

  • List of RPMs and RPM Drift information

• Network

  • View network details

  • Create, update, and delete networks

  • View interface details

• Oracle ASR

  • View Oracle Auto Service Request (Oracle ASR) configuration details

  • Configure, update, test, and delete Oracle ASR

• Patch Manager

  • Update the patch repository with Oracle Database Appliance patches

  • View component details of the patch and versions that are installed on the appliance

  • View component details of the patch and versions that are available, but not yet installed, on the appliance

  • Run patch prechecks before applying the patch

  • Update the server and storage components

• Compute Instances

  • Create KVM deployment on Oracle Database Appliance

  • Create view, modify, and, delete virtual storage, virtul network, and virtual disks

  • Create view, modify, and, delete, start, and stop virtual machines

• DB Systems

  • Create Database System

  • List and describe Database System

  • Modify, delete, start, and stop Database System

• CPU Pools

  • Create view, modify, and, delete CPU pool for bare metal and KVM deployments

Use the links in the top navigation to view and manage the following:

• Database

  • Create a database

  • View database details

  • Apply a backup policy for the database

  • Create a manual backup

  • Recover a database from a backup

  • View and update the database backup schedule and update the archive log backup schedule for the database

  • Modify associated networks, database shape and class, and the associated backup policy for a database

  • Create, update, and delete backup policies

  • Create, update, and delete database homes

  • Create and delete database backup
  • Clone a database from a database backup or an Oracle ACFS database snapshot

  • Patch database homes

  • Move databases from one Oracle home to another

• Object Store

  • Create Object Store Credentials for backup and recovery

  • View the details for Object Store Credentials, including the endpoint URL, user name, and tenant

  • Update and delete Object Store Credentials

• Monitoring

  • View the status of hardware, storage, memory, cooling, networking, and power

  • View monitoring information for each node, in the case of High-Availability deployments
  • View system health status and drilldown to details of incidents

  • Click the hardware image to view details

• Security

  • View audit records and create and view database security assessment reports

• Activity

  • View a list of jobs, details, and status

  • Click a job description to view job details

Expand Resources in the upper right corner of the Browser User Interface to perform the following tasks:

• There are links to access the Oracle Database Appliance blogs, FAQs, and Documentation.

• Click About to view the Oracle Database Appliance release that is installed on the appliance.

Expand Account in the upper right corner of the Browser User Interface to perform the following tasks:

• Click ILOM Setting to change the root password. To enable first-time login and access to Oracle ILOM, a default Administrator (root) account and its password are provided with the system.

• Click Change Password to change the oda-admin password.

• Click Sign Out to sign out of the Browser User Interface. If you do not sign out, the system automatically signs you out after a period of inactivity. A warning will appear 2 minutes before the session expires.

Doc Search

You can access the Oracle Database Appliance documentation set from the Browser User Interface. There is a search box at the top right hand corner on the BUI. Search results are links to documentation pages shown as a new window in the BUI. When you click the Help button, links from the documentation relevant to the context of the tab are displayed.

Along with the search results from the Oracle Database Appliance documentation pages, BUI also provides relevant Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for the search query. Additionally, you can also search on DCS error codes such as DCS-10001, DCS-10032, and so on in the search box and get the links to documentation pages contains these error codes. When you specify the search query, relevant documentation links, FAQs and DCS error codes links are displayed under separate sections in a new window in the BUI.

For the latest updates to the documentation for a release, see the online Oracle Database Appliance documentation library at https://docs.oracle.com/en/engineered-systems/oracle-database-appliance/index.html.