McMaster University implemented Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer (EXACC), which included two Exadata servers on campus managed by Oracle. The implementation involved preparing infrastructure, hardware delivery and software installation by Oracle, integration with McMaster systems, and defining operational roles between Oracle, McMaster operations, and the DBA team. Databases were migrated to EXACC using tools like the Cloud UI, DBCA, and strategies like import/export, transportable tablespaces, and restore/clone. Key EXACC features adopted by McMaster included multitenancy for rapid provisioning, cloning, and consolidation, and partitioning for improved performance.

1. EXACC - ORACLE
DATABASE EXADATA
CLOUD AT CUSTOMER
SESSION 7037
November 6th, 2019
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019

2. PRESENTERS
Joe Giardine
Database
Administrator
McMaster
University
giardin@mcmaster
.ca
Paul Laurent
Database
Administrator
McMaster
University
laurenp@mcmaste
r.ca
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019
Oracle DBA and
PeopleSoft
Administrator working
at McMaster for 23
years with a
background in
application
development.
Oracle DBA with
sixteen years of
Oracle experience in
both higher education
and manufacturing
sectors.
Laura Seely
Database
Administrator
McMaster
University
seelyl@mcmaster.c
a
PeopleSoft
Administrator and
Oracle DBA, working
at McMaster for 11
years with a strong
systems integration
background.

3. MCMASTER
UNIVERSITY
Founded in 1887, in
Toronto, through a
bequest from the estate
of Senator William
McMaster​
Relocated from Toronto
to Hamilton in 1930
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4. ORGANIZATION &
ORACLE
Oracle 12c R2
PeopleTools 8.55.22
Interactive Hub 9.2.2
FSCM 9.2.25
HCM 9.2.24
CS 9.2.7
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019

5. EXACC – MCMASTER’S
EXPERIENCE AGENDA
1. What is EXACC
Brief discussion of EXACC architecture and licensable feature set.
2. EXACC Implementation, Installation and Operational
Roles
From hardware delivery to operational readiness, standing up
EXACC at McMaster.
3. Migration To EXACC
How do we get there from here, tooling and migration strategies.
4. EXACC and High Impact Database Features.
Review of licensable database features that were implemented as
part of initial EXACC rollout.
5. Transformative impact of EXACC at McMaster
Direct and indirect transformative impact of EXACC
implementation at McMaster
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019

6. WHAT IS EXACC
Overview of EXACC and it’s core components.
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019

7. WHAT IS EXACC – SYSTEM
ARCHITECTURE
EXACC
ExaData includes four core components:
Compute Nodes
Exadata Storage
Servers
Low Latency
InfiniBand
Network
ExaData System
Software
Exadata is a combined hardware and
software solution that is optimized for
running Oracle Database
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8. WHAT IS EXACC – SYSTEM
ARCHITECTURE
EXACC – EXADATA CLOUD AT
CUSTOMER
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019
 Cloud at Customer keeps data
physically on site while allowing
Oracle to manage and support
the database servers.
 McMaster has two ExaData X7-2
Servers
on campus

9. WHAT IS EXACC –
SYSTEM
ARCHITECTURE
Oracle Cloud Control Plane (OCC) is a
separate component of an EXACC
deployment.
• Separate hardware rack that consists
of infrastructure and software
components needed to run Oracle
Cloud. These would include, but not
be limited to:
• DNS Services
• Oracle Cloud UI
• OCC is installed and managed by Oracle.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

10. WHAT IS EXACC – MCMASTER
SPECS
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017
Supported Oracle DB Versions
• 11.2.0.4
• 12.1.0.2, 12.2.0.1
• 18
Bursting
• Can temporarily scale up
the processing power
• Up to 60 OCPU per Rack or
to the max allowable OCPU
limit
Rack 1: ¼ RACK
• 30 OCPU (cores)
• 1,440 GB RAM
• 106 TB Storage
• Scale up to 92
OCPUs
Rack 2: 1/8th RACK
• 30 OCPU (cores)
• 480 GB RAM
• 42 TB Storage
• Scale up to 44
OCPUs
Gilmor Hall JHE

11. WHAT IS EXACC – SYSTEM
ARCHITECTURE
ORACLE ADVANCED SUPPORT GATEWAY (OASG)
 Oracle
hardware and
software that
connects a
Cloud at
Customer
environment to
Oracle
Operations
Team
 Oracle
Operations
team monitors
hardware on
day to day CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017
OASG
ExaData OCC

12. EXACC
IMPLEMENTATION,
INSTALLATION AND
OPERATIONAL ROLES
Standing up EXA at McMaster
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019

13. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION
AT MAC
• Getting Ready – Pre – Hardware
Delivery Tasks
• Hardware Delivery and Software
Installation.
• Handover and Integration into
McMaster Ecosystem
• EXACC at McMaster and
Operational Roles
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019

14. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION
AT MAC
PRE-DELIVERY TASKS
Clear floor space. Run Electrical
Network
Configuration and
Firewall Rules
Install and Configure
New Version of Cloud
Control
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019

15. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION AT
MAC – DELIVERY AND
SOFTWARE INSTALLATION
Hardware Delivery:
Arranged with via Oracle and
McMaster Project and
Operations Team
Hardware installation
performed by Oracle
Software Installation:
Installation software
installation and associated
patching performed of EXACC
and the OCC performed by
Oracle.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

16. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION
AT MAC – HANDOVER AND
INTEGRATION
Oracle Specific Handover Items
Workshops on new features and
functionality associated EXA and
associated licensable products.
EXA hardware and tooling
overview conducted by CSM.
Integration into McMaster
management and monitoring system
OEM 13C – Push 13c agents and
perform associated configuration
Installation of backup agents
and installation of Oracle
specific backup plugins.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

17. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION AT
MAC - OPERATIONAL ROLES
Group Role
Oracle • OCC and EXACC Patching
• Remote Hardware Monitoring
• Hardware Replacement (disk,
memory etc)
• Customer liasing via CSM
McMaster
Operations
• Co-ordination of onsite part
replacement.
• Provide physical access to Oracle
personnel to McMaster Data Centres
DBA Team • Creation, monitoring, PSU and
maintenance of databases
• PSU patches
• Performance tuning
• Additional sys admin tasks
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

18. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION AT
MAC - OPERATIONAL ROLES
Group Role
Enterprise Systems • Provide access to leverage
McMaster infrastructure
• Backup Appliance
• Access to additional
storage (NFS)
Enterprise Networks • F/W rules – On Going
• Initial network config
required for EXACC.
• Primary DNS services for
scan aliases, EXACC VIPS
and EXACC compute node
host.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

19. MIGRATION TO EXACC
Journey from Commodity Hardware to EXACC
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019

20. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION
AT MAC – MIGRATION TO
EXACC
Migration Tools
Cloud UI
DBCA
Migrations Strategies
Import/Export
Transportable Tablespaces
Restore and Clone
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

21. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION
AT MAC – MIGRATION TO
EXACC
Cloud UI
•Used to create service instances.
•Allows DBA’s to perform EXACC Specific Management
and Monitoring
•Burst for capacity on demand.
•Start and stop databases and compute nodes.
•Some limited monitoring capabilities
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

22. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION
AT MAC – MIGRATION TO
EXACC
Cloud UI (Continued)
•Used to create EXACC Databases
•Recommend way to create all databases on
EXACC.
•For 12CR1 and above, CDB’s and a starter
PDB are created.
•All databases RACed (all versions)
•Used to create MAA databases.
•Can be used to apply databases patches.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

23. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION
AT MAC – MIGRATION TO
EXACC
DBCA
•More traditional tool used for database
creation.
•For the purposes of PeopleSoft
migrations at make, used to create a
standalone staging database.
•On EXACC must be run from an
existing Oracle Home created via the
Cloud UI.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

24. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION
AT MAC – MIGRATION TO
EXACC
Factors Influencing the Migration
Strategy
McMaster is not a 24 X 7 shop.
Production PeopleSoft Streams at McMaster have negotiated
monthly weekends.
NonPeopleSoft environment outages negotiated with
stakeholders around business cycles.
Relative size of database also contributes to the choice of
migration strategy.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

25. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION AT
MAC – MIGRATION TO EXACC
Creating a Database on EXACC
VIA Cloud UI
All strategies required the creation of database via
Cloud UI.
Access to Cloud UI is via a web interface hosted
by the OCC.
EXACC rack location, version and availability
requirements need to be known prior to
creation of database.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

26. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION AT
MAC – MIGRATION TO EXACC
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

27. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION AT
MAC – MIGRATION TO EXACC
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

28. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION AT
MAC – MIGRATION TO EXACC
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

29. EXACC IMPLEMENTATION AT MAC
– MIGRATION TO EXACC
MIGRATION
METHODS
Import/Export
•Useful when migrating small
databases.
•Use Data pump to export
application schemas from
source database.
•Use database pump to import
database into pdb.
Tranportable Tablespaces
•McMaster Use Case: PDB
unplug/plug migration failed
on EXACC due to DataPatch
Roll back issue.
•Place source application
tablespaces in read only mode.
•Copy application datafiles to
staging location.
•Perform Metadata export of
source database.
•Copy datafiles from staging
location into ASM on EXACC
target.
•Import metadata into target
PDB
Restore/Clone
•Create non CDB staging
database off existing EXACC
home using DBCA.
•Perform RMAN backup of
source database.
•Restore RMAN backup to
staging database.
•Clone database as PDB to
target CDB.
•Perform PDB conversion
activities.
•Patch PDB

30. EXACC HIGH IMPACT
FEATURES
SHORT DESCRIPTION
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019

31. EXACC HIGH IMPACT
FEATURES
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

32. EXACC HIGH
IMPACT
FEATURES
•Multitenancy
•Partitioning
•Active Data
Guard
Key
Features
Immediately
Adopted At
McMaster
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

33. EXACC HIGH IMPACT
FEATURES - MUTLITENANCY
Pre 12C database architecture
Multitenancy
architecture
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

34. EXACC HIGH IMPACT
FEATURES
McMaster Multitenancy Use Cases
• Rapid Provisioning
• Inter and Intra PDB Cloning Operations for rapid
Refreshes.
• Snap cloning via test master
• Patching and upgrade
• Increased speed/rollout time
• Lower risk – no big bang approach
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

35. EXACC HIGH IMPACT
FEATURES
McMaster Multitenancy Use Cases
Consolidation:
•Reduced Resource footprint
•Memory
•Storage
•Manage many as one
•Reduction in overall hardware footprint.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

36. EXACC HIGH IMPACT
FEATURES
Partitioning
•What is partitioning
•Benefits of partitioning
•McMaster’s Partitioning
Implementation Strategy
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

37. EXACC HIGH IMPACT
FEATURES
What is Partitioning
•Decomposition of a very large table in smaller set of tables that are
related to each other.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

38. EXACC HIGH IMPACT
FEATURES
Advantages of Partitioning
• Improved Availability
• Reduced Costs
• Improved Performance
Partitioning - McMaster Implementation Approach
• Identify candidate partitioning tables
• Identify partitioning key(s)
• Pre partitioning performance baseline testing
• Partition table
• Re-run baseline tests
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

39. EXACC HIGH IMPACT
FEATURES
Active Data Guard
•What is Active Data Guard
•Active Data Guard use cases
and current use in our
Peoplesoft environment
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

40. EXACC HIGH IMPACT
FEATURES
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017
Primary
Database
Data Guard Standby
Database

41. EXACC HIGH IMPACT
FEATURES
Data Guard and Active Data Guard
•Real-time Data Protection/continuous
synchronization and data validation and HA
•RO components, Queries and Reports
Offload
•Off load RMAN Backups
•Source of thin snaps/clones
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

42. TRANSFORMATIVE
IMPACT OF EXACC
ANY QUESTIONS?
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019

43. TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACT OF
EXACC
As a result of implementing
EXACC McMaster has seen
two types of benefits:
Direct Benefits
Indirect Benefits
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

44. TRANSFORMATIV
E IMPACT OF
EXACC
Direct Benefits
• Greatly Reduced Complexity of, and effort required
to manage, McMasters’s Oracle Environment.
• Performance Improvements:
• PSQuery and Data Warehousing components saw
immediate performance impacts with little tuning
required.
• Database cloning/refresh times greatly reduced.
• Partitioning allows for performance gains.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

45. TRANSFORMATIVE IMPACT OF
EXACC
Indirect
•Allowed us to review database we support and
remove those that were no longer needed
•Catalyst for review and modification of our
PeopleSoft Instance strategy and environment
geometry
•Allowed for us to pursue end to end refreshes
of our PeopleSoft environments.
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

46. QUESTIONS ????
CANADA ALLIANCE 5-7 NOVEMBER 2017

47. THANK YOU!
CANADA ALLIANCE 4 - 6 NOVEMBER 2019