Exadata Hardware - Oracle Exadata Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach - page 6

The Exadata network grid is comprised of multiple Sun QDR InfiniBand switches, which are used for the storage
network as well as the Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) interconnect. The Exadata Quarter Rack ships with
two InfiniBand leaf switches and the Half Rack and Full Rack configurations have two leaf switches and an additional
InfiniBand spine switch, used to expand and connect Exadata racks. The compute and storage servers are configured
with dual-port InfiniBand ports and connect to each of the two leaf switches.
In addition to the hardware in the storage grid, compute grid, and network grid, Exadata also comes with
additional factory-installed and Oracle ACS configured components to facilitate network communications,
administration, and management. Specifically, Exadata ships with an integrated KVM switch to provide
administrative access to the compute and storage servers, a 48-port embedded Cisco Catalyst 4948 switch to provide
data center network uplink capability for various interfaces, and two power distributions units (PDUs) integrated in
the Oracle Exadata rack.

How It Works
The Oracle Exadata Database Machine is one of Oracle's Engineered Systems, and Oracle's overarching goal with
the Exadata Database Machine is to deliver extreme performance for all database workloads. Software is the most
significant factor to meet this end, which I'll present in various recipes throughout this topic, but the balanced,
high-performing, pre-configured hardware components that make up the Exadata Database Machine play a
significant role in its ability to achieve performance and availability goals.
When you open the cabinet doors on your Exadata, you'll find the same layout from one Exadata to the
next—ExadataStorage Servers at the bottom and top sections of the rack, compute servers in the middle, InfiniBand
switches and the Cisco Catalyst 4948 switch and KVM switch placed between the compute servers. Oracle places
the first of each component, relative to the model, at the lowest slot in the rack. Every Oracle Exadata X2-2, X2-8,
X3-2, and X3-8 Database Machine is built identically from the factory; the rack layout and component placement
within the rack is physically identical from one machine to the next:

• On Half Rack and Full Rack models, the InfiniBand spine switch is in position U1.

• Storage servers are 2U Sun Fire X4270 M2 or X3-2 servers places in positions U2 through U14,

with the first storage server in U2/U3.

• For the Quarter Rack, the two 1U compute servers reside in positions U16 and U17. In the Half

Rack and Full Rack configurations, two additional 1U compute servers reside in positions U18
and U19.

• In the Full Rack, positions U16 through U19 contain the first Oracle X2-8 compute server.

• The first InfiniBand leaf switch is placed in U20 for all X2-2, X2-8, X3-2, and X3-8 models.

• The Cisco Catalyst Ethernet switch is in position U21.

• The KVM switch is a 2U component residing in slots U22 and U23.

• U24 houses the second InfiniBand leaf switch for all Exadata models.

• For the X2-2 and X3-2 Full Rack, four 1U compute servers are installed in slots U25 through

U28 and, in the X2-8 and X3-8 Full Rack, a single X2-8 4U server is installed.

• The seven additional 2U storage servers for the X2-2, X2-8, X3-2, and X3-8 Full Rack models

are installed in positions U29 through U42.

Figure 1-1 displays an Exadata X2-2 Full Rack.