Oracle: Database Appliance (ODA) used for other things

The Oracle Database Appliance is a great part of hardware, bundled with software. It's made to easily deploy and run Oracle databases on it, with the best practices and the highest performance.

But for some customers, also the smallest ODA is just too big for their small databases. So what can the do to use the resources they already paid for?

I recently read Shruti Sriram's and Paul Tsien's blog entry, and I have my own ideas:

Additional databases

Installing additional software using RPMs

As the ODA is an Oracle Enterprise Linux, which based on RedHad Linux, other database systems like PostgreSQL or MySQL can easily be installed by using the RedHat package management RPM, executing yum or dnf (on newer systems):

$ yum install mysql-server

$ yum install postgresql-server

You just need the right repository for it.

If you're installing from RPM files, and additional packages from the repository are needed, you can execute

# yum localinstall mysql*.rpm

It resolves dependencies and installs them.

The same applies for additional 3rd party software you install using RPM.

But please keep in mind, that with every ODA update, also RPMs coming from Oracle (Linux) are updated. So there could remain a small risk that your RDBMS RPMs will cause an update/upgrade error.

Installing software without package management

Many Open Source software solutions also come as ZIP files, so that the don't have to be installed: just unzip them. But then you'll have to resolve software dependencies by yourself, and you'll also have to manage other things, like configuration files or shutdown/startup with the operating system.

But you could use GI for that, and start the RDBMS with some scripts you have to provide. Or you create your own systemd scripts.

And you can use ACFS as a file system for your database or other files.

VMs for databases or applications

If you prefer to separate your foreign databases from the ODA, you can easily create a VM for that. Doing that, you're absolutely free which operating system you use: RedHat, Oracle Linux, Ubuntu, Solaris, or even Windows. You'll just have to make sure that x86_64 is your platform, and KVM drivers support it.

But also keep in mind, that with an own VM, you'll be responsible to do updates. ODA cannot do that for you. But that also be an advantage: patching DB Systems, which belong to ODA, increase the patching time.

VMs can also be used for other reasons, like as application servers. Again, you're completely free on which OS you use (as long as KVM drivers exist). When your application uses your Oracle database on the ODA, it could be also an advantage, as only internal network is used, which operates at higher speed.

Drawbacks

But not everything's beautiful and shiny: When you're running all your applications and databases on one hardware system, there's no redundancy. This could be achieved by using a second ODA and implementing high availability.

Also, when patching ODA to newer software, all components on it will go down at once. So be sure if this constellation meets your requirements.

End of life

Normally, Oracle hardware has support for at least 5 years, but it can be extended to 7 years (maybe even more?). But what to do after that?

Even though the hardware is quite old, it's not necessarily bad. There's still enough CPU (1 or 2 Xeons), RAM (at least 384 GB), and NVMe disks (at least one pair of >6TB).

But as this system is out of support, you wouldn't run your production databases - or anything for production - on it. But you could do that:

• Run test or development databases on it
• Use it as virtualization host
  • by using the existing ODA KVM functionality (but keep in mind that an old ODA will not get updates forever)
  • by reimaging your ODA with another virtualization solution, like
    • OLVM
    • Proxmox
  • by running Docker on it

Happy installing! 😄