Exadata Database Service FAQ

General service information

What is Exadata Database Service?

Oracle Exadata Database Service is an automated Oracle Database service running on purpose-built Exadata cloud environments, delivering fast and predictable performance, high availability, and unparalleled scalability in public, hybrid, or multicloud environments. It’s a co-managed, full-featured database service that enables administrators to retain full operational control while simplifying day-to-day management via built-in automation for common lifecycle tasks.

With globally consistent pricing, pay-for-use consumption and online resource scaling, and the choice of dedicated or shared deployments, Exadata Database Service delivers modern agility cost-effectively for any size business and all database workloads. It supports all Oracle Database Enterprise Edition (EE) features, options, and management packs, making it easier to migrate databases without time-consuming refactoring efforts.

What is meant by a “co-managed” database service?

Exadata Database Service has a shared responsibility model that simplifies overall management while enabling you to retain full administrative control with root access to the database VMs. Oracle manages and maintains underlying Exadata infrastructure. You as a customer are responsible for managing and maintaining the database VM operating system, Oracle Grid Infrastructure, and database software—with the aid of cloud automation to simplify database lifecycle management.

What deployment options are available for Exadata Database Service?

Exadata Database Service delivers modern agility with your choice of clouds and deployment models. Get the same service wherever its deployed, with a similar user experience and full compatibility across the board.

What is the difference between shared and dedicated Exadata clouds?

Shared, multitenant infrastructure is provisioned from a dynamic pool of Exascale compute and storage resources, while a dedicated infrastructure allocates Exadata database and storage servers to a single customer in the cloud. A shared Exascale Infrastructure environment offers a lower-cost entry point, allowing you to start with a smaller environment and scale in more granular increments than a customer-dedicated infrastructure.

What Oracle Database versions are supported?

Oracle Database 19c and Oracle Database 23ai are supported and can run concurrently on customer-dedicated public and hybrid clouds—Exadata Cloud Infrastructure and Exadata Cloud@Customer. Exadata Database Service on Exascale Infrastructure supports Oracle Database 23ai.

Does Oracle offer service level agreements (SLAs) for Exadata in public and Cloud@Customer offerings?

Yes. Oracle provides an availability and management SLA of 99.95% for the infrastructure, as described in the Oracle PaaS and IaaS Public Cloud Services Pillar Document (PDF).

Billing and economics

Does Exadata Database Service consumption qualify for Oracle Support Rewards?

Yes, Exadata Database Service consumption is eligible for Oracle Support Rewards, which can be applied toward your on-premises Oracle tech software license support bill.

In addition to Oracle Support Rewards, Exadata Database Service spend counts toward AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud consumption commitments as applicable.

• AWS commitments: The purchase of Oracle Database@AWS from the AWS Marketplace will qualify for AWS commitments as AWS Marketplace spend.
• Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC): The purchase of Oracle Database@Azure contributes toward your MACC.
• Google Cloud commitments: The purchase of Oracle Database@Google Cloud contributes toward your Google Cloud commitments.

For more information, please refer to Oracle Support Rewards and the cloud provider’s commitment program(s) in relation to Oracle Database@AWS, Oracle Database@Azure, or Oracle Database@Google Cloud consumption.

What database subscription options are available?

Exadata Database Service offers two cost-effective consumption models:

1. License-included subscriptions include all Oracle Database Enterprise Edition features, advanced options, and management packs.
   • This is ideal if you don’t have existing Oracle Database licenses or you wish to expand your capabilities with advanced database options
2. Bring-your-own-license (BYOL) subscriptions enable you to use existing Oracle Database investments for a lower subscription price.
   • This is ideal if you have existing database license entitlements available to move to the cloud.
   • Exadata Database Service BYOL subscriptions include, at no additional cost, the use of several advanced database technologies beyond the existing license entitlement you’re moving to the cloud:
     • Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
     • Real Application Testing Option
     • Data Masking and Subsetting Pack
     • Diagnostics and Tuning Pack
     • Exadata Columnar Cache feature

Is Exadata Database Service technical support an additional cost item?

No. Oracle technical support is included in the subscription price. For BYOL subscriptions, you maintain your current support contracts for any license entitlements moved to the cloud.

How is elastic database compute consumption metered?

Exadata Database Service uses ECPUs as the standard billing metric for compute resources when running on dedicated Exadata X11M cloud environments and on Exascale Infrastructure. On earlier Exadata cloud generations, OCPUs are the billing metric.

ECPUs provide a consistent billing metric across both Exadata Database Service and Autonomous Database, with similar price-performance as that of OCPUs. For a simple comparison, one OCPU is equal to four ECPUs.

How is Exadata Database Service provisioned?

Elastic database compute consumption (ECPU) and the underlying infrastructure are provisioned separately.

For additional information, refer to the Exadata Database Service pricing tab or Oracle PaaS and IaaS Universal Credits Service Descriptions.

Operational management

What automation is available to simplify database lifecycle management?

Exadata Database Service has built-in cloud automation for common lifecycle tasks, which you can control using Oracle Cloud web-based UI, REST APIs, SDK, CLI, or Terraform. These tasks include:

• Scale compute and storage resources
• Create Database Homes and databases
• Schedule infrastructure maintenance
• Update operating system, Grid Infrastructure, and databases
• Backup and recover databases
• Create and manage one or more Oracle Data Guard standby databases

Can I schedule when infrastructure maintenance is performed?

Yes, when using customer-dedicated Exadata environments in public and hybrid clouds. You can schedule preferred windows of time for quarterly and monthly security infrastructure maintenance to be performed on your infrastructure components. You can also opt for rolling or non-rolling updates.

If you’re running on a shared, multitenant Exascale Infrastructure, the underlying physical hosts must periodically undergo maintenance that requires your VM to be restarted. Oracle Cloud Engineers will schedule the maintenance operation to migrate your VM to an updated host and notify you of the upcoming restart. You may choose to restart the VM prior to that time or allow it to occur as scheduled.

Can I run single-instance databases in Exadata Database Service environments?

Yes. While Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) is recommended for superior scalability and availability, all Exadata Database Service deployment options support running single-instance databases in VM clusters deployed on a single VM. An Oracle RAC license is not required to run an Oracle Database in a single VM cluster.

Can multiple databases be updated or upgraded at the same time in one process?

Yes. Oracle Enterprise Manager (EM) or Exadata Fleet Update can be used to simplify database updates and upgrades across large database estates running on Exadata Cloud Infrastructure or Exadata Cloud@Customer—at no additional charge.

Is database encryption required?

Yes. Oracle databases running in Exadata Database Service are automatically encrypted using Oracle Transparent Database Encryption (TDE) for tablespaces. License entitlement is included in your subscription at no additional charge.

What is the backup destination used for automatic backups in public cloud deployments?

The default backup destination is Oracle Database Autonomous Recovery Service, with an option to enable real-time data protection and thereby upgrade to Oracle Database Zero Data Loss Autonomous Recovery Service. Alternatively, you may use Oracle Object Storage by selecting it as your backup destination in the OCI console drop-down menu.

What backup options are supported with Exadata Cloud@Customer?

For Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer, you can use OCI Object Storage or local Exadata storage, or you can configure an alternate backup destination. Oracle recommends backing up to Oracle’s Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance, which is purpose-built for Oracle Database protection and ransomware resiliency. Alternatively, you may configure a network file system (NFS) for your backup destination.

Can backups be performed on Oracle Data Guard standby databases?

Yes. Backups may be performed on production databases, standby databases, or both.

Can Exadata Database Service and Autonomous Database run concurrently on the same Exadata cloud environment?

Yes, Autonomous Database and Exadata Database Service can be used on the same Exadata Cloud Infrastructure or Exadata Cloud@Customer environment.

Does Oracle Full Stack Disaster Recovery support Exadata Database Service environments?

Yes. It supports Exadata Database Service on Dedicated and Exascale Infrastructure in Oracle’s public cloud and on Exadata Cloud@Customer.

Can I control how cloud operators access our Cloud@Customer environment?

Yes. Oracle Operator Access Control enables you to grant, audit, and revoke access to Exadata Cloud@Customer infrastructure by Oracle Cloud Operators.