Welcome to The First Exadata Virtual Conference!
Since its release, Oracle Exadata has quickly become a hit. Due to the relative “youth” of Exadata technology and internal behavior changes introduced with frequent patch-sets, there’s not much up-to-date quality technical information and know-how available to the public. This virtual conference brings you a chance to learn from the leading Exadata experts, from their experience of working with real Exadata environments, from Exadata V1 to the latest X2-8. Additionally, there is plenty of Q&A time scheduled, so you can also get answers to your Exadata-related questions.
The speakers are some of the most experienced Exadata consultants in the world, in the field of Exadata deployment, migration, performance, and troubleshooting. Also, Kerry, Randy and Tanel are the authors of the Expert Oracle Exadata book published by Apress in July 2011.
Check the conference schedule below and scroll down to see the abstracts of the conference sessions.
Conference Schedule:
Day 1: August 3, 2011
0800 – 0930: Understanding Exadata Offloading
Speaker: Kerry Osborne, Enkitec
0930 – 1000: Question and Answer / Break
1000 – 1130: Exadata IO Resource Management for Consolidation and Performance
Speaker: Randy Johnson, Enkitec
1130 – 1200: Question and Answer / End
Day 2: August 4, 2011
0800 – 0930: Surviving Exadata Patching
Speaker: Andy Colvin, Enkitec
0930 – 1000: Question and Answer / Break
1000 – 1130: Troubleshooting Complex Exadata Performance Problems (Case Studies)
Speaker: Tanel Poder, PoderC Consulting
1130 – 1200: Question and Answer / End
Conference Dates and Pricing:
Conference Format: 2 sessions per day, 1.5 hours per session, 30 minutes Q&A after sessions
Date: August 3 to 4, 2011
Time: 0800 – 1200 PDT
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Price: $475 USD per attendee
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Session Details:
Session Details:
DAY 1, Session 1: Understanding Exadata Offloading
Speaker: Kerry Osborne, Enkitec
Offloading is the secret sauce of Exadata. It’s what makes Exadata different from every other platform that Oracle runs on. Offloading refers to the concept of moving processing from the database servers to the storage layer. It is also the key paradigm shift provided by the Exadata platform. But it’s more than just moving work in terms of CPU usage. The primary benefit of Offloading (via Smart Scans) is the reduction in the volume of data that must be returned to the database server. which is the major bottlenecks of many large databases. This sessions aims to show how Offloading works and what optimization techniques are including in Smart Scans. While it’s true that most applications just naturally run faster on Exadata without any special effort, it is a mistake to think of Exadata as simply a black box appliance. Exadata is very well instrumented and being able to dig into what is happening (and understanding why) will allow you to make sure you are getting the best performance possible out of the platform. This presentation focuses on Smart Scans, which are the key. It aims to show how they work under the covers and more importantly, to equip you with the knowledge necessary to determine when and where they are kicking in. We also hope to provide some insight into techniques you can use to encourage Oracle to make use of Smart Scans.
DAY 1, Session 2: Exadata IO Resource Management for Consolidation and Performance
Speaker: Randy Johnson, Enkitec
It was inevitable that a platform with the performance, capacity, and scalability of Exadata would be viewed by many as an ideal consolidation platform. This has turned out to be true for a majority of Exadata customers I’ve worked with. But consolidating databases is a challenge, mainly due to the difficulty of managing resources across databases. We’ve worked with numerous clients who have used Exadata to consolidate multiple database servers onto the Exadata platform. One such client consolidated 29 databases from 17 database servers onto two Exadata full racks. Needless to say, without Oracle’s resource management capabilities, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to balance system resources among so many database environments. Until recently there was really no way to prioritize I/O across databases. With Exadata V2, Oracle introduced I/O Resource Manager (IORM) and now, for the first time, we can virtually guarantee I/O service levels within and between databases. IORM can work independently of Oracle Database Resource Manager (DBRM), and it can work in tandem with DBRM. In this session we’ll be taking a peek at IORM, how it works, and how it dove-tails with DBRM to manage IO within and among databases running on Exadata.
DAY 2, Session 3: Surviving Exadata Patching
Speaker: Andy Colvin, Enkitec
Exadata’s ability to patch both the hardware and software in one patch set is a new approach for even the most seasoned database and system administrators. More than ever, DBAs and sysadmins will need to work together during patch windows due to how these patches affect the entire stack. This presentation will utilize knowledge gained from patching more than a dozen Exadata systems in the wild over the past year. Topics will include common mistakes, what the various types of Exadata patches affect, and what to expect from the patching process. Examples will include a deep-dive into how Exadata Storage Servers were built from the ground up with patching in mind, along with the utilities used to patch Exadata systems.
DAY 2, Session 4: Troubleshooting Complex Exadata Performance Problems (Case Studies)
Speaker: Tanel Poder, PoderC Consulting
While troubleshooting Exadata performance starts from the same point as troubleshooting regular Oracle database performance issues, sometimes a drilldown deep into low-level Exadata-specific performance metrics is needed. In this session, Tanel will walk you through some non-trivial Exadata performance issues he has troubleshooted recently, involving Exadata bugs and little known Exadata design limitations and implementation issues. Exadata is still fresh, not well understood and the software is constantly changing – and there is very little information about advanced performance troubleshooting out there. This session aims to change that, by showing that it is possible to perform advanced Exadata performance troubleshooting yourself, if you use the right tools. This allows you to fix any performance surprises faster and not having to rely only on Oracle Support – allowing your Exadata project to be a continuing success.
About the Presenters:
Kerry Osborne began working with Oracle (version 2) in 1982. He has worked as both a developer and a DBA. For the past several years he has been focused on understanding Oracle internals and solving performance problems. He is an OakTable member, an Oracle Ace Director and is the author of an upcoming Apress book on Exadata. Kerry is a frequent speaker at Oracle conferences. He is also a co-founder of Enkitec, an Oracle focused consulting company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. He blogs at kerryosborne.oracle-guy.com.
Randy Johnson is a Principal Consultant at Enkitec, a consulting firm specializing in Oracle. Randy has over 18 years of experience with Oracle beginning with Oracle 7 in the early 90′s. Much of his career has combined Oracle DBA work with Unix administration duties. Over the last 5 years he has focused almost exclusively on RAC and ASM. He is also an authority on Oracle backup and recovery via RMAN, having written a popular utility for automating RMAN scripts called Dixie. Over the past year and a half he has focused exclusively on the Exadata platform. He is an Oracle certified Exadata, and RAC Specialist and just finished co-authoring Expert Oracle Exadata with Kerry Osborne and Tanel Poder. Randy occasionally blogs at blog.enkitec.com.
Andy Colvin has worked with Oracle for more than 10 years, and has been with Enkitec for 4 years. For the past year, he has focused primarily on Exadata, leading 6 separate Exadata implementation projects, and has worked on over a dozen Exadata systems, ranging from V2 basic systems to X2-8 full rack systems. His experience with Exadata includes configuration from the factory image, migrating databases to Exadata, backup and recovery, performance tuning, and applying Exadata patches. Besides Exadata, Andy has experience working with Oracle databases dating back to version 7, and RAC from 10.1 on platforms including OpenVMS, HP-UX, AIX, Windows, Solaris, and Linux. In his spare time, Andy blogs at blog.oracle-ninja.com.
Tanel Põder is one of the leading Oracle performance specialists in the world, having helped solve complex problems for customers in over 20 countries on five continents. He specializes in advanced performance tuning, end-to-end troubleshooting and other complex (and therefore interesting) tasks such as migrating very large databases with minimal downtime. Tanel has optimized the performance of Exadata installations starting from Exadata V1 and he plans to go even deeper with his current Exadata performance and troubleshooting research. He is a co-author of the Expert Oracle Exadata book, published by Apress.Tanel is one of the first Oracle Certified Masters in the world, an Oracle ACE Director and a proud member of the OakTable Network. Tanel regularly speaks at conferences worldwide and publishes his articles, scripts and tools in his blog at blog.tanelpoder.com.
