Q1. What is Exadata?

Ans:

Exadata is a pre-configured combination of hardware and software which provides a platform to

run the Oracle Database.

Q2. What environment is a good fit for Exadata?

Ans:

Exadata was originally designed for the warehouse environment. Later it was enhanced for use in
the OLTP databases as well.

Q3. Key components of Exadata

Ans:

 DB Server
 Cell Storage
 Infiniband Switch
 Cisco Switch
 PDU

Q4. Features of Exadata

Ans:

 Smart Scan
 Smart Flash Cache
 IORM
 Storage Index
 EHCC (Exadata Hybrid Columnar Compression)

Q5. What are the advantages of Exadata?

Ans:

The Exadata cluster allows for consistent performance while allowing for increased throughput.
As load increases on the cluster the performance remains consistent by utilizing inter-instance
and intra-instance parallelism.

It should not be expected that just moving to Exadata will improve performance. In most cases it
will especially if the current database host is overloaded.

Q6. What are the Exadata Sizing configurations?

Ans:

Exadata comes in follwing configuration

 Full Rack
 Half Rack
 Quater Rack
 1/8th Rack

Q7. What is hybrid columnar compression?

Ans:

Hybrid Columnar compression, also called HCC, is a feature of Exadata which is used for
compressing data at column level for a table.

It creates compression data units which consist of logical grouping of columns values typically
having several data blocks in it. Each data block has data from columns for multiple rows.This
logarithm has the potential to reduce the storage used by the data and reduce disk I/O enhancing
performance for the queries.

The different types of HCC compression include:

 Query Low
 Query High
 Archive High
 Archive Low

Q8. What are the Parallelism instance parameter used in Exadata?

Ans:

The parameter PARALLEL_FORCE_LOCAL can be specified at the session level for a

particular job.

Q9. How do you Test performance of Exadata?

Ans:

You can use the “calibrate” commands at the cellcli command line.

Q10. What are the ways to migrate onto Exadata?

Ans:

Depending on the downtime allowed there are several options:

  Oracle DataGuard
 Traditional Export/Import
 Tablespace transportation
 Goldengate Replication after a data restore onto Exadata.

Q11. What are the different Exadata configurations?

Ans:

The Exadata Appliance configuration comes as a Full Rack, Half Rack, Quarter Rack or 1/8th
rack. The Full Rack X2-2 has 6 CPU’s per node with Intel Xeon 5670 processors and a total of 8
Database Server nodes. These servers have 96GB of memory on each node. A total of 14 Storage
server cells communicate with the storage and push the requested data from the storage to the
compute nodes.

The Half Rack has exactly half the capacity. It has 6 CPU’s per node with core Intel Xeon 5670
processors and a total of 4 Database Server nodes. It has 96GB of memory per database server
node with a total of 7 Storage server cells.

The Exadata is also available in the 1/8th Rack configuration.

Q12. What is the secret behind Exadata’s higher throughput?

Ans:

Exadata ships less data through the pipes between the storage and the database nodes and other
nodes in the RAC cluster. Also it’s ability to do massive parallelism by running parallel
processes across all the nodes in the cluster provides it much higher level of throughput.

It also has much bigger pipes in the cluster using Infiniband interconnect for inter-instance data
block transfers as high as 5X of fiber channel networks.

Q13. What is storage index and how it works?

Ans:

 Storage Indexes consist of a minimum and a maximum value for up to eight columns.
This structure is maintained for 1MB chunks of storage (storage regions).
 Storage Indexes are stored in memory only and are never written to disk.
 Storage Index filter out data from the consideration.

Q14. Which protocol used by ASR to send notification?

Ans:

SNMP
Q15. Is manually intervene possible in storage index?

Ans:

No

Q16. What is cellcli?

Ans:

This is the command-line utility used to managed the cell storage.

Q17. How do you create obtain info on the Celldisks?

Ans:

At the cellcli command line you can issue the “list celldisk” command.

Q18. How would you create a grid disk?

Ans:

At the cellcli command you would need to issue the “create grididsk all ..” command.

Q19. What are the cellinit.ora and the cellip.ora files used for?

Ans:

These files have IP address of all the nodes in the cluster. They are used to run commands on
remote database and cellserver nodes from localhost.

Example:

 cat /etc/oracle/cell/network-config/cellinit.ora
 ipaddress1=192.168.47.21/24
 $ cat /etc/oracle/cell/network-config/cellip.ora
 cell=”192.168.47.21:5042″
 cell=”192.168.47.22:5042″
 cell=”192.168.47.23:5042″

Q20. What operating systems does Exadata support?

Ans:

Exadata has traditionally run Oracle Linux OS. Recently, Solaris has also been made available
on this engineered system.
Q21. What are the options to update cell_flashcache for any object?

Ans:

 KEEP
 DEFAULT
 NONE

Q22. What is the default size of smart flash log?

Ans:

512MB per module.

Each storage cell having 4 modules so its 4X512 MB per CELL

Q23. What is flash cache and how it works?

Ans:

The flash cache is a hardware component configured in the exadata storage cell server which
delivers high performance in read and write operations.

Primary task of smart flash cache is to hold frequently accessed data in flash cache so next time
if same data required than physical read can be avoided by reading the data from flash cache.

Q24. Types of EHCC:

Ans:

 Query Low
 Query High
 Archive High
 Archive Low

Q25. Which package can be used to estimate the compression ration of table?

Ans:

DBMS_COMPRESSION

Q26. Background services of Cell Server

Ans:

 MS- Management Server

  cellsrv – Cell Server
 RS – Restart Server

Q27.What is grid disk?

Ans:

Grid Disks are created on top of Cell Disks and are presented to Oracle ASM as ASM disks. 

Space is allocated in chunks from the outer tracks of the Cell disk and moving inwards. One can
have multiple Grid Disks per Cell disk.

Q28. How to replace faulty HDD in Exadata Storage?

Ans:

All the HDD are hot swapable so if we are using proper redundacny than we can direct remove
and replace new HDD.

Storage software will take care all the stuffs in background after replacing the HDD.

Q29. How many disk comes with in a storage cell?

Ans:

12

Q30. What is the purpose of spine switch?

Ans:

Spine switch is used to connect or add more Exadata machine in the cluster

Q31. How to migrate database from normal setup to Exadata ?

Ans:

There many methods we can use to migrate DB to Exadata. Below are some of them.

 Export/Import
 Physical Standby
 Logical Standby
 Transportable Tablespace
 Transportable Database
 Golden gate
 RMAN cold and hot backup restoration
  Oracle Streams

Use of migration method is totally depends on source setup as well as downtime consideration.””

Q32. Exadata shutdown and start-up procedure

Ans:

 Shutdown Procedure:
 Stop Database and Listener
 Stop Cluster
 Shutdown Database Servers
 Shutdown Cell Storage
 Shutdown all the switches
 Remove powers from PDUs
 Start-up procedure would be in reverse order.

Q33. How many database servers comes in 1/8th rack and quarter rack?

Ans:

Q34. How many cell storage comes in full rack exadata machine?

Ans:

14

Q35. Can we use flash disk as ASM disk?

Ans:

Yes

Q36. Which protocol used for communication between database server and storage server?

Ans:

iDB protocol

Q37. Which OS is supports in Exadata?

Ans:
Database servers has two option for OS either Linux or Solaris which can be finalized at the time
of configuration Cell storage comes with Linux only.

Q38. What is ASR?

Ans:

ASR is the tool to manage the Oracle hardware. Full form of ASR is Auto Service Request.
Whenever any hardware fault occurs ASR automatically raise SR in Oracle Support and send
notification to respective customer.

Q39. How to integrate Exadata with OEM 12c?

Ans:

 Install OEM agent on DB server

 Launch auto discovery with the use of One Command XML file
 Specify required credentials for all the components
 Review Configuration
 Complete the setup

Q40. How to upgrade firmware of Exadata components?

Ans:

It can be done through ILOM of DB or Cell server.

Q41. Where we can define which cell storage can be used by particular database server?

Ans:

CELLIP.ORA file contains the list of storage server which is accessed by DB server.

Q42. What are the Exadata Health check tools?

Ans:

 Exacheck
 sundiagtest
 oswatcher
 OEM 12c

Q43. What is EHCC?

Ans:
EHCC is Exadata Hybrid Columnar Compression which is used to compress data in the
Database.

Q44. What is offloading and how it works?

Ans:

It refers to the fact that part of the traditional SQL processing done by the database can be
“offloaded” from the database layer to the storage layer

The primary benefit of Offloading is the reduction in the volume of data that must be returned to
the database server. This is one of the major bottlenecks of most  large databases.

Q45. What is the difference between cellcli and dcli?

Ans:

Cellcli can be used on respective cell storage only.

DCLi (Distributed command Line Utility) – DCLI can be used to replicate command on multipla
storage as well as DB servers.

Q46. What is IORM and what is its role in Exadata?

Ans:

IORM stand for I/O Resource Manager which manages the I/Os of multiple database on storage
cell.

Q47. How we can check whether oracle best practice has been configured on Exadata?

Ans:

We can execute Exacheck and verify the best practice setup on Exadata machine.

Q48. How many networks required in Exadata?

Ans:

 Public/Client Network — For Application Connectivity

 Management Network — For Exadata H/W management
 Private Network — For cluster inter connectivity and Storage connectivity

Q49. What is the command to enable query high compression on table?

Ans:
SQL>alter table table_name move compress for query high;

Q50. How to take cell storage software backup?

Ans:

It is not required to take a backup as it happens automatically. Exadata use internal USB drive
called the Cellboot Flash Drive to take backup of software.

Q51. What is the difference between wright-through and write-back flashcache mode?

Ans:

 1. writethrough –> Falshcache will be used only for reading purpose

 2. writeback –> Flashcache will be used for both reading and writing

Q52. Which feature of Exadata is used to eliminate disk IO?

Ans:

Flash Cache

Q53. What is the capacity of Infiniband port?

Ans:

40 Gbps

Q54. What is the difference between high capacity and high performance disk?

Ans:

 High capacity disk comes with more storage space and less rpm (7.5k)
 High Performance disk comes with less storage and high rpm (15k)

Q55. When one should execute Exacheck?

Ans:

Before and after any configuration change in Database Machine

Q56. Which network is used for RAC inter-connectivity?

Ans:

Infiniband Network
Q57. What are the steps to create DBFS?

Ans:

 Create Directory
 Create Tablespace on database which you are going to use for DBFS
 Create user for DBFS
 Grant required privileges to created user
 Now connect to database with created user
 Create dbfs filesystem by invoking dbfs_create_filesystem_advanced
 Mount file system by starting dbfs_client

Q58. Which migration methodology available if want to migrate from high endian to low
endian OS architecture?

Ans:

 Golden Gate
 Transportable Tablespace
 Incremental Transportable Tablespace
 Data Pump

Q59. What is a Cell and Grid Disk?

Ans:

Cell and Grid Disk are a logical component of the physical Exadata storage. A cell or Exadata
Storage server cell is a combination of Disk Drives put together to store user data. Each Cell
Disk corresponds to a LUN (Logical Unit) which has been formatted by the Exadata Storage
Server Software. Typically, each cell has 12 disk drives mapped to it.

Q60. What is Flash cache?

Ans:

Four 96G PCIe flash memory cards are present on each Exadata Storage Server cell which
provide very fast access to the data stored on it. This is further achieved by also provides
mechanism to reduces data access latency by retrieving data from memory rather than having to
access data from disk. A total flash storage of 384GB per cell is available on the Exadata
appliance.

Q61. What is Smart Scan?

Ans:
It is a feature of the Exadata Software which enhances the database performance many times
over. It processes queries in an intelligent way, retrieving specific rows rather than the complete
blocks. It applies filtering criteria at the storage level based on the selection criteria specified in
the query. It also performs column projection which is a process of sending only required
columns for the query back to the database host/instance.

Q62. Which statistic can be used to check flash hit ration on database level?

Ans:

Cell flash cache read hits

Q63. Which disk group is used to keep OCR files on Exadata?

Ans:

+DBFS_DG

Q64. How many Exadata wait events contained in 11.2.0.3 release?

Ans:

There are 53 wait events are exadata specific events.

Q65. What is the difference between an Exadata X3-2 machine and an Exadata X3-8
machine?

Ans:

The X3-8 is comprised of 2 large SMP compute servers while the X3-2 can scale to as many as 8
compute servers as processing requirements increase.

Q66. What are the three major components of Exadata database server?

Ans:

Database Instance

ASM Instance

Database Resource Manager

Q67. What is the difference between DBRM and IORM?

Ans:
DBRM is the feature of database while IORM is the feature of storage server software.

Q68. What are the key Oracle Exadata Features?

Ans:

Some of the key hardware and software features are:

 Hardware level
 Storage Server Cells
 High Speed Infiniband Switch
 Software level
 Smart Scan,
 Flash Cache
 . Hybrid Columnar Compression
 IORM (I/O Resource Manager)

Q69. How much time required to apply bundle patch on Half rack Exadata Database
Machine with rolling option?

Ans:

Approximate 3 hours per Cell and DB server including Infiniband & PDU patching required 1
hour each

Q70. What benefit we can get if we apply bundle patch on exadata in rolling fashion while
ASM configured with high redundancy?

Ans:

It will reduce the risk of storage disk failure

Q71. Advantages and disadvantages of rolling and non-rolling patching on Exadata

Database Machine.

Ans:

Rolling

Advantages:

 No downtime required

Disadvantages:

 1. It takes more time to apply bundle patches

  2. If ASM is on normal redundancy than disk failure on another Cell could lead to the DB
corruption.

Non-Rolling

Advantages:

 1. Less time required to do the patching

 2. It could eliminate the risk of single disk failure if ASM configured with normal
redundancy

Disadvantages:

 Downtime required while applying bundle patch.

Q72. Which ASM parameters are responsible for Auto disk management in Exadata?

Ans:

_AUTO_MANAGE_MAX_ONLINE_TRIES — It controls maximum number of attempts to

make disk Online

_AUTO_MANAGE_EXADATA_DISKS — It control auto disk management feature

_AUTO_MANAGE_NUM_TRIES    — It controls maximum number of attempt to perform an

automatic operation

Q73. How to enable Flashcache compression?

Ans:

CellCLI> ALTER CELL flashCacheCompress=true

Q74. How many Exadata Storage Server Nodes are included in Exadata Database Machine
X4-8?

Ans:

14 storage nodes

Q75. Getting ready for a Exadata interview?

Ans:

Make sure to refresh your knowledge by reviewing this list of Exadata Interview Questions.
Q76. What are the key Hardware components?

Ans:

 DB Server
 Storage Server Cells
 High Speed Infiniband Switch
 Cisco Switch

Q77. What are the Key Software Features?

Ans:

 Smart Scan,
 Smart Flash Cache
 Storage Index
 Exadata Hybrid Columnar Compression (EHCC)

IORM (I/O Resource Manager)

Q78. What is IORM?

Ans:

IORM stands for I/O Resource Manager.

It manages the I/O demand based on the configuration, with the amount of resources available. It
ensures that none of the I/O cells become oversubscribed with the I/O requests. This is achieved
by managing the incoming requests at a consumer group level.

Using IORM, you can divide the I/O bandwidth between multiple databases.

To implement IORM resource groups, consumers and plans need to be created first.

Q79. What types of operations does Exadata “offload”?

Ans:

Some of the operations that are offloaded from the database host to the cell servers are:

 Predicate filtering
 Column project filtering
 Join processing
 Backups
Q80. What is Exadata in brief?

Ans:

exadata is pre-configured combination of hardware and software which provides a platform to

run the Oracle Database.