Oracle Database Appliance (ODA) Comparison & Overview

A great database appliance can be critical for the optimum functioning of your company. After all, databases provide storage for large volumes of data, and data is highly important for many companies. Three of the best database appliances on the market are the Oracle Database Appliance (ODA) X6-S, X6-2M, and X5-2 High Availability (HA).  In this post, we provide a comparison of these amazing appliances.

What is a Database Appliance?

A database appliance is a pre-configured, balanced set of hardware (servers, memory, storage, and I/O channels), software (operating system, database management system [DBMS] and management software), service, and support.  It is sold as a unit with built-in redundancy for high availability and positioned as a platform for DBMS use in online transaction processing (OLTP) and/or data warehousing. [Source: Gartner]

ODA Review & Comparison: X6-2S, X6-2M, and X5-2 HA

ODA X6-2S

The ODA X6-2S is designed as a single rack, mountable server. It runs on one 10 Core Intel Xeon E5 2630 v4 processor. The amount of main memory that this ODA contains is 128 GB. However, it is possible for this amount to be expanded all the way up to 384 GB.

This database is ideal for midsize companies because it has support for databases up to 5TB in size. The X6-2S also has cloud backup and archiving capabilities with the Oracle Public Cloud. With this database appliance, you can move your consolidated database workload back and forth from the cloud with ease.

This database appliance is optimized for running single instance databases. It is also optimized for Oracle Database, the most widely used database in the world. The price for the ODA X6-2S is roughly $18,000, depending on the specific needs of your company.

ODA X6-2M

The ODA X6-2M is the bigger and more intense version of the X6-2S. Like the X6-2S, the X6-2M is optimized for Oracle Database. However, the X6-2M has two 10 Core Intel Xeon E5 2630 v4 processors, instead of just one. This gives it 256 GB of main memory, which can be expanded to 768 GB, if necessary.

Both the X6-2S and the X6-2M come equipped with 6.4 TB of high bandwidth NVM express flash for database storage. This storage amount can be doubled for both database appliances, if your company needs it. In addition to sharing this feature, both ODAs also offer 10GBase-T and 10 GbE SFP+ network connectivity.

The X6-2M is also a great option for midsize companies, because it can support databases up to 5TB large. However, because the X6-2M has more memory than its X6-2S counterpart, it is a better option for midsize companies who have a larger amount of data. The X6-2M also can be backed up easily to the Oracle Public Cloud. Further, for branch offices and remote sites, it has an affordable engineered system.

Finally, if you want to move consolidated database workloads to and from the cloud from your premises, this can be easily done with the X6-2M. The price for the ODA X6-2M is roughly $24,000.

ODA X5-2 HA

Like the X6-2S and the X6-2M, the ODA X5-2 HA is designed to be optimized for Oracle Database. This ODA however, is a 6U rack-mountable system. This system has one storage shelf, and two Oracle Linux servers. Each individual server has 256 GB of memory and 10 Gigabit Ethernet external networking connectivity. Each server also has two 18 -core Intel Xeon E5-2699 v3 processors.

The X5-2 HA can consolidate data-warehousing databases and online transaction processing (OLTP) up to 128 TB large. Because of this fact, this ODA is a great option for departmental systems and midsize businesses with a high volume of data. The X5-2 HA is the heavier duty option to the X6-2S, and the X6-2M.

The X5-2 HA also has virtualization support. Virtualization support allows customers to easily send out highly available and complete solutions to branch office locations that are remote.

With the X5-2 HA, it is also possible to scale from 2 to 72 processor cores. This is done with capacity on-demand software licensing. With this type of licensing, companies don’t have to sustain the normal costs and downtime that typically accompanies hardware upgrades.

The price for the ODA X5-2 HA is approximately $68,000.

How MiCORE Helps

From acquisition and concept design to ongoing platform management, MiCORE’s expertise spans the full spectrum of ODA services.  Our team of dedicated Oracle specialists will work with you to architect, deploy, optimize, and support the ODA solution that works best for your business.

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SOURCES

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/database-appliance/downloads/oda-x6-2sm-ds-3045258.pdf

https://www.oracle.com/engineered-systems/database-appliance/x5-2/index.html

http://oracle.arrowecs.de/fileadmin/arrowecs/Redaktion/pdf/hersteller/Oracle_Hardware/20160721_Oracle_ODA_X6-2SM_Introduction_-_Harald_Brauer.pdf

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/database-appliance/overview/index.html