1. Installation and Configuration Guide for Exadata Database Machine
  2. Using Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant

3 Using Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant

This chapter describes how to use the Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant, which is not only used for Exadata but also Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance and other Oracle Engineered Systems. The information that you enter in it is used to create the Recovery Appliance configuration files. These files work with installation utility to automate the installation process.

3.1 Overview of Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant

Use Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant (OEDA) to specify the system configuration details and drive the system configuration processes.

OEDA provides a graphical user interface to gather your configuration details and create the Oracle Exadata Rack configuration file. The configuration file drives the automated installation and configuration processes for Oracle Exadata Rack.

Note:

For ease of reading, Oracle Exadata Rack is used when information refers to both Oracle Exadata and Oracle Exadata Storage Expansion Rack.

You can also use the OEDA command-line interface (OEDACLI) to perform Oracle Exadata Rack life-cycle management tasks.

You can download the latest version of OEDA from Exadata Database Machine and Exadata Storage Server Supported Versions (Doc ID 888828.1). OEDA is also available on Oracle Technology Network.

In addition to Oracle Exadata Rack, OEDA is also used for Oracle Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance and Oracle SuperCluster.

Oracle Exadata System Software release 19.1.0 introduced the Web-based interface for OEDA, which replaces the previous Java-based user interface as the graphical user interface for configuring Oracle Exadata Rack.

The following outlines how OEDA is used during the implementation of Oracle Exadata Rack:

  • Before your engineered system arrives, do the following:
    1. Work with your network and database administrators to evaluate the current network settings, such as current IP address use and network configuration. OEDA supports IPv6 addresses.
    2. Define the settings for the rack, such as network configuration and backup method.
    3. Download the latest version of OEDA from Oracle Technology Network.
    4. Unzip and run the configuration script on a supported platform, and select the type of system to configure.
    5. Go through every page in OEDA and supply values for all required fields. You cannot advance to the next page if you do not supply all of the required values. You must provide naming details and DNS, NTP, and networking details.

    6. At the end of the dialogue with OEDA, configuration files are generated on the client. The files are also listed at the bottom of the InstallationTemplate.html file that is generated by OEDA. Depending on your engineered system and configuration, OEDA generates all or some of the following files:

      • databasemachine.xml
      • CustomerName-rackname.xml
      • CustomerName-rackname-preconf_GUID.csv
      • CustomerName-rackname-InstallationTemplate.html
      • CustomerName-rackname-platinum.csv
      • CustomerName-rackname-checkip.sh
      • CustomerName-rackname.zip
      • pkey_GUID.csv and pkey_racknamehostname_GUID.csv — if you enabled InfiniBand partitioning for your virtual environments

      The CustomerName-hostname.zip file contains all the generated files.

    7. Review the InstallationTemplate.html file to check the entire configuration and verify all information was entered correctly.
  • Shortly before your engineered system arrives, or is scheduled to be configured, validate the network configuration, as directed by Oracle. See Verifying the Network Configuration Prior to Configuring the Rack.
  • After your engineered system arrives, the configuration files are copied to a database server, and the validation and installation is completed. See Configuring Oracle Exadata Database Machine Using OEDA.

Parent topic: Using Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant

3.1.1 Considerations and Requirement for Using OEDA

Review this information before using Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant (OEDA).

  • Oracle Exadata ships with the Oracle Linux operating system installed on the servers.

  • The rack prefix is used to generate host names for all components. For example, if you specify dbm0 for the rack prefix:

    • The database server host names are like dbm0db01
    • The storage server host names are like dbm0cel01
    • The InfiniBand Network Fabric switch names are like dbm0sw-iba1
    • The RoCE Network Fabric switch names are like dbm0sw-rocea1

    Note:

    The rack prefix can contain a maximum of 20 letters and numbers. Spaces and symbols are not permitted; for example, exclamation (!), hyphen (-), and so on.

    In you have multiple racks, then, each rack prefix should be a unique value that identifies the rack. Oracle recommends using dbm01 for the first rack, dbm02 for the second, dbm03 for the third, and so on.

  • The backup method and redundancy protection levels you use determine how to size the Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) disk groups that are created during installation.

    • If you configure internal backups, then the database backups are created on disk in the Fast Recovery Area in the RECO disk group for the database. The Fast Recovery Area also contains Archived Redo Logs and Flashback Log Files. The division of disk space between the DATA disk group and the RECO disk group is 40% and 60%, respectively.

    • If you configure external backups, then database backups are created on disk or tape media that is external to currently deployed Oracle Exadata. The Fast Recovery Area contains only objects such as Archived Redo Logs and Flashback Log Files.

      Because you do not need to reserve additional space in the RECO disk group for backups, the division of disk space between the DATA disk group and the RECO disk group is now 80% and 20%, respectively.

  • Oracle recommends the use of high redundancy disk groups for mission critical applications. Use the following guidelines to assist in sizing the disk groups based on the redundancy levels for the disk groups:

    Table 3-1 Protection Levels and Disk Group Contents

    Oracle ASM Redundancy Level for DATA Disk Group Oracle ASM Redundancy Level for RECO Disk Group DATA Group Contents RECO Group Contents

    High

    High

    Data files

    Temporary files

    Online redo logs

    Control file

    Archive logs

    Flashback log files

    High

    Normal

    Data files

    Online redo logs

    Control file.

    Archive logs

    Temporary files

    Flashback log files

    Normal

    High

    Data files

    Temporary files

    Online redo logs

    Control file

    Archive logs

    Flashback log files

    Normal

    Normal

    Data files

    Temporary files

    Online redo logs

    Control file

    Archive logs

    Flashback log files

  • A valid time zone name is required when installing Oracle Exadata. Time zone values provided for Oracle Exadata and Oracle Linux comes from the Time Zone Database. You must specify a valid time zone name for each server using the TZ environment variable. The variable value is of the form Area/Location. For example, America/New_York is a valid TZ value; EST, EDT, and UTC-4 are invalid values.

  • OEDA configures all Exadata components, including the database servers (with or without virtualization), storage servers, and the RDMA Network Fabric. For successful configuration, OEDA requires access to:

    • The client and administration network interfaces on the database servers, including the VM server host and the VM guests where applicable.
    • The administration network interfaces on the storage servers.
    • The administration network interfaces on the RDMA Network Fabric switches.

    Ensure that you run the OEDA deployment phase on a host with access to all of the required network interfaces.

Related Topics

Parent topic: Overview of Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant

3.2 Getting Started with the OEDA Browser-based User Interface

The OEDA application server is available for Linux, OSX and Windows.

The Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant (OEDA) Web-based user interface is available starting with the October 2018 OEDA release. The OEDA Web-based interface can import previous OEDA XML configuration files created with the Java-based version of OEDA.

Note:

The OEDA Web-based interface is supported only on Chrome and Firefox browsers.

To set up the OEDA application server and start the Web-based user interface, perform the following steps.

  1. Download the latest OEDA release from My Oracle Support note 888828.1 and copy the archive to the system where you want to run the OEDA application server.

  2. On the system where you want to run the OEDA application server, extract the contents of the downloaded compressed file. The extracted contents is written to a directory based on the operating system, such as linux-x64, macosx-x64, or windows-i586. This is referred to as the OEDA_HOME directory.

  3. Launch the OEDA application server (located in the OEDA_HOME directory).

    • On Linux, OSX, and UNIX run:

      installOedaServer.sh [-p port-number] [-g]

    • On Microsoft Windows run:

      installOedaServer.cmd [-p port-number] [-g]

    In the command:

    • -p port-number — optionally specifies the port number for the OEDA application server.

      If not specified, the default port number is 7072. However, you can specify any unused port number. It is not recommended to use port numbers less than 1024.

    • -g — optionally specifies that the OEDA application server accepts connections on all available network interfaces.

      If not specified, the OEDA application server only listens on the localhost interface (127.0.0.1).

    You can run the installOedaServer program using a non-privileged OS user account. You do not need to be logged in as an OS administrator.

    When you run the installOedaServer program, previous OEDA application server instances are stopped and removed before starting the latest OEDA application server version.

  4. Access the OEDA Web-based user interface.

    After you start the OEDA application server, you can access the Web-based interface by opening a browser and entering the following URL: 

    http://host-name:port-number/oeda

    In the URL:

    • host-name is the application server host name.

    • port-number is the network port number that you specified when starting the installOedaServer program. For example, 7072.

    If you did not specify the -g option when starting the OEDA application server, then you must run the browser on the same host as the OEDA application server and specify localhost as the application server host name.

Parent topic: Using Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant

3.3 Using the Browser-based Version of Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant

Use the deployment assistant for initial configuration, and when modifying or adding to an existing deployment. You can import an existing configuration when adding new components or modifying an existing deployment.

Have the following available before running the deployment assistant:

  • IP addresses
  • Machine names
  • DNS and NTP information

The following options are available in the Options drop-down menu:

  • About: View version information for OEDA.
  • New: Start a new configuration.
  • Import: Import an existing configuration file. The file format is XML.
  • Save: Save the current configuration to an XML file.
  • Diagnostics: Creates a ZIP file that can be used to troubleshoot and diagnose issues with the OEDA Web interface.
  • Preferences: Specify your preferences for how the Web interface behaves.
  • Validate (OEDA Step 1): Check the current configuration for completeness and correctness.
  • CheckIp: Checks the IP addresses.
  • Installation Template: Generates the Installation Template report, which summarizes the current configuration.
  • OEDA Keyboard Shortcut Keys: Describes keyboard shortcuts for navigating the OEDA Web interface.

The following list describes the configuration flow in the OEDA Web interface. Use the Help menu option to display details about the options and controls provided in the OEDA Web interface.

  1. Specify the hardware for the deployment on the Select Hardware page. This page also captures customer information and various rack-level configuration options.

  2. Use the Choose Operating System page to choose whether to configure virtualization on the database servers.

    Note:

    In a virtualized configuration, each Exadata database server may only contain a limited number of VMs up to the supported maximum.

    For Exadata X8M-2 and later systems, see Oracle Linux KVM Deployment Specifications and Limits. Otherwise, see Oracle VM Deployment Specifications and Limits.

  3. Enter the administration network and private network information on the Rack Networks page.
  4. Specify the configuration of database server operating system users and groups on the Users page. You can choose between Default, Role Separated, or a Custom configuration.

  5. Define the clusters on the Clusters page.

    Each cluster definition specifies the database and storage servers that are associated with the cluster.

    In a virtualized configuration, each cluster definition also specifies the CPU and memory resources allocated to each VM. You can also customize the configuration of the guest user filesystem (/u01) and optionally add others (/u02, and so on).

  6. Define the ASM disk group layout on the Diskgroups page.
  7. Specify the Oracle Database home information for each Oracle home on the Create Database Home page.
  8. Specify databases and their attributes on the Create Database page.

    Note:

    To create databases on Exadata, Oracle recommends using Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant (OEDA) or the OEDA Command Line Utility (OEDACLI), as both utilities implement the latest Exadata best-practice configuration settings for your Exadata system configuration. The Oracle Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) is also available in the Oracle Database software bundle. However, DBCA is not recommended for new database creation on Exadata because it does not integrate with the OEDA XML configuration file and may not implement the recommended Exadata-specific configuration settings.

  9. Enter the client and backup network information on the Cluster Networks page.

  10. Configure the email alerts, SNMP alerts, Auto Service Request, Oracle Config Manager, and Enterprise Manager alerting on the Alerting page.
  11. Answer the configuration questionnaire and provide additional information about the deployment in the text field on the Comments page. Information entered in this field appears at the bottom of the InstallationTemplate.html file.
  12. Click Save and Download to create the configuration files. You are prompted to choose a location in which to save a ZIP file to your local computer.
  13. Copy the ZIP file to a directory on the first database server in Oracle Exadata Rack. Use a subdirectory of /u01, such as the /u01/oeda directory. These files are used by the field engineer to configure the Oracle Exadata Rack.

Parent topic: Using Oracle Exadata Deployment Assistant