Database Reference
In-Depth Information
1.7.2 Antivirus
20
1.7.3 hyperthreading
20
1.7.4
virtual versus Physical
20
1.7.5
Ensure File Systems Are Fully Formatted
20
1.7.6
named user versus Processor Licensing
20
1.8 Conclusion
22
1.8.1
Parting Shots
22
1.1 introDuCtion
Essbase is a dynamic product that has evolved and expanded continuously since its
initial release by Arbor Software in 1992. oracle's ownership, starting in 2007, has
accelerated its development and growth. one side effect of this evolution is that the
deployment of Essbase has gradually become more complex. In Essbase's infancy,
a finance user could install Essbase from a few floppy disks in a matter of minutes onto
a server under his desk. today an Essbase installation can take half a day to a week.
What has changed? A whole lot of speed, scalability, and, most especially, functionality
have been added to the core Essbase goodness and that has meant relational databases,
Java application servers, and Web server complexity. Essbase now lives in corporate
datacenters with 24/7 uptimes for a global user community. no longer a departmental
point solution, Essbase is now an enterprise level tool with a concomitant enterprise
level of infrastructure requirements.
A recent major change is a hardware appliance featuring Essbase called Exalytics,
which oracle announced at openWorld 2011 in San Francisco. The product is so new
there is little hands-on experience. Exalytics is an integrated software and hardware
platform featuring in-memory Business Intelligence Foundation Suite (of which Essbase
is one component). The product brief reads like a piece of dream hardware for any
infrastructure geek. A side benefit is that an appliance like this is as close to “plug it in
and go” as you can get. It is built such that it can deal with extremely rich data sets and/
or thousands of users. Due to the anticipated price, only large corporations have deep
enough pockets to purchase the equipment. As time goes on, perhaps they will turn this
into a scalable (lowering entry cost) solution rather than the one size fits all appliance
it is today.
1.1.1 Who Should Read This Chapter?
This chapter is aimed at anyone who cares what goes on “under the hood.” This chapter
gives a broad overview of then infrastructure secrets I've learned over the span of two
decades.
1.1.2 What Will Not Be Covered
This chapter is not intended to be a replacement for oracle installation guides and
product information. In my 20 years of experience with the information technology
industry, I believe oracle as a vendor has some of the most robust documentation of any
software vendor and I encourage you to read these documents very closely.
Additionally, these specific topics are outside of the scope of this chapter:
• IBm's AS/400 and oS/390 Essbase (which are now obsolete)
• Exalytics (very new and minimal need for infrastructure expertise)
