NetApp reveals Exadata backup plan
Exadata users want more than Oracle backup
SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had
NetApp has quietly announced, through its blogs and user community, a backup solution for Oracle's Exadata appliances.
Oracle has previously suggested its own storage kit is the best place to protect the contents of Exadata boxes, but the NetApp 'Technical Report', titled Deploying a Backup Solution and Dev/Test Platform for Oracle Exadata with NetApp, says “... many enterprises are looking to provide Exadata systems as the database platform, while leveraging NetApp storage for backup and recovery as well as development and test environments.” The Technical Paper goes on to say that “further protection” of Exadata is another motivator, along with a desire to “improve the flexibility and efficiency in cloning Exadata databases for development and test (dev/test) requirements.”
NetApp's response is a method of sending Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) backups of Exadata databases to its own kit while maintaining the Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC) format. Those who follows the recipe are said to find themselves better able to clone Exadata databases or create test and development environments.
The lengthy recipe for Exadata backups has been tested by Oracle labs and has the Big O's seal of approval.
The Technical Paper says the solution “consists of the Exadata production environment running Oracle 11g Databases. The local NetApp storage system is directly attached to the Exadata database machine using a 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) network to host RMAN backup sets and to replicate them to a remote NetApp storage system for protection. The backup and dev/test environment consists of standard Linux servers and NetApp storage with both Fibre Channel and 10GbE connectivity. Oracle Data Guard provides database replication between the Exadata production environment and the non-Exadata backup and dev/test environment. Gigabit (or WAN/LAN) networks between the production site, Exadata, and the dev/test site, non-Exadata, are configured to support Oracle Data Guard redo log transport and SnapMirror storage replication.”
There's plenty more in the 34-page PDF if you're up for it. ®
COMMENTS
Re: I smell something funny
I smell something funny too. It's your logic and obvious sour grapes.
IDC says that Exadata has sold over 1,000 Exadata's (as of about Oct '11). This matches the number that Oracle provides as well. I guess the average customer could have 10 of these things, but I doubt it. Oracle says that they expect to have sold about 3,000 by 2013. Not a bad market to get into.
One question that I have on the NetApp solution is can it do HCC? The Oracle backup solution with ZFS Appliance supports HCC so you do not have to decompress and then backup -- maybe it's not as much of a downfall as I think though. Also, can you hook up the NetApp storage directly to the infiniband network? Without this, then you would have to backup over the 1GbE or 10GbE network using RMAN, right? That does not seem like a comparable solution to the ZFS Storage solution that Oracle sells.
OK... I just looked a bit closer at the NetApp whitepaper, and it seems that you have to uncompress the data before backing up, and all of the compression benefit they show is only with non-hcc compressed data. I guess that answers that question.
There's also no mention of Infiniband, so I assume you can't hook up the NetApp storage to the Infiniband network either.
Re: I smell something funny
@J.T.
Too funny. Oracle's competition can't create a competitive product to what Oracle is doing, so they make silly, unsubstantiated comments such as this. IDC did not say Exalogic and Exadata, they said Exadata. So you're calling IDC liars?
STK
This is interesting.... I wonder how supportive will Oracle (ex-STK) be of this offering?
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