Why I like the term “Research Lab”
I love the term “Research Lab” to refer to our collection of Oracle Engineered Systems. It’s because that’s what we do with the equipment. We test it, we try weird experiments with it, we take it apart with a screw driver and we put it back together again. And lot’s of times we break things. But better that we break them in the lab than on a production system at a client site. The lab is a great learning environment for us and our customers. Enkitec has had a pretty solid lab for a while, but it’s about to get a lot bigger.
Here’s an abbreviated list of the what we expect to end up with in the lab in the next few weeks.
- Lot’s of Exadata’s (V2, X2, X3, X4)
- A SPARC SuperCluster
- A few Exalytics’s
- At least one Exalogic
- A couple of Big Data Appliances (BDAs)
- Several Oracle Database Appliances (ODAs)
- A ZFS Appliance or 2
- An Oracle Virtual Compute Appliance (OVCA)
So here’s to the new and improved Research Lab. Hopefully a few of the new systems will have the cool built in beer shelf like out current BDA.
I’ll post some pictures when the new stuff shows up. 🙂
Have you (Enkitec) thought about the Virtual Compute Appliance as a way to consolidate Oracle databases? Suppose the priority is reducing licensing costs: OVCA provides “Trusted Partitions”, so expensive options could be licensed just for the few processors that actually use them. This would also limit the damage from accidental use.
Stew,
The short answer is yes. In general I’m not a fan of virtualization for mission critical DB’s, but many companies have hundreds non performance critical DB’s that fit the virtualization model well. (I’m not saying that DB’s can’t perform well under VMware or OVM by the way, just that it adds another layer of complexity when trying to resolve issues) We’re really looking forward to getting our wrenches on the OVCA so we can put it through it’s paces.
Kerry
Didn’t the beer shelf become a paid extra option? It’s gone with the X4, as far as I know.
Yeah they have dropped it from some of the systems (Exadata X4 for example). I’ve still got my fingers crossed though.
Kerry
So THAT’S why those shelves pull out!! 🙂
That picture made Andy really nervous!
You guys have all the toys! 🙂
– Bobby
Is that a “Negra Modelo” beer?
Of course, this is Texas after all!
Kerry
[…] does it? … [T]he whole thing is confusing to me. Anyway, I prefer to call it a Research Lab. — Kerry Osborne, founder, Enkitec, an Oracle-based consulting firm, and an Oracle-focused […]
Kerry, can you please confirm if 12.1.0.2 fresh install is broken on x86-64 linux as of now – see CLSRSC-507: Doc ID 1919825.1
ty
Not sure. Andy is checking.
Kerry
[…] Let’s check the Exadatas in our research lab: […]