1. Exadata and ZFS Storage at Nielsen
Travis Parker
February 4, 2014

2. Who is nielsen A Measurement Company Known for the “Nielsen Ratings”
2 Main Businesses: Measuring what people “Watch” and what people “Buy”
Measuring these things involves analyzing Terabytes and Terabytes of data
Global Technology and Information Center (GTIC) located in Oldsmar, FL

3. History of nielsen
90th Anniversary this year

4. History of nielsen

5. History of nielsen

6. ORACLE AT NIELSEN Oracle is a key partner of Nielsen’s
Large Oracle footprint – 1,000 instances and growing
Large Databases, Frequently Loaded Data, Tight SLAs
Key challenges: Availability, Large Queries, ETL, Co-hosting

7. Problem ETL processes take 7 days to run
New large client is 6X larger than the largest current client
SLAs cannot be met using existing database server hardware
Backup and restore is problematic – easier to just re-run ETL
Aggressive deployment deadlines (of course)
Prepared for: [Client Name]
Source: XXXXXX

8. Potential solutions Exadata Netezza back end, Oracle front end
Requires copying data around
Reliability
Prepared for: [Client Name]
Source: XXXXXX

9. Why exadata appeals to nielsen
It’s an Oracle Database. It’s a RAC cluster.
We already have RAC clusters. We already have Oracle databases.
Nearly transparent high availability. Worst case, restart the application.
No DNS changes, no connect string changes for HA.
Very high availability without passive hardware.
Flexible. Can implement multiple ways.
InfiniBand interconnect reduces interconnect traffic concerns.
Prepared for: [Client Name]
Source: XXXXXX

10. Fully monitored by enterprise manager 12c
EM12c monitors ZFS

11. Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance
Backup to disk over InfiniBand
1 ZFS Storage Appliance with 2 disk shelves
Connects to Exadata via InfiniBand network (40 Gigabit/sec – 17.5 TB/hour)
Web interface for administration, patching

12. solution Deploy Exadata NOW!
Re-architect application, consolidate activities into 1 database, modify for RAC
Port scripts from AIX to Linux
Test application
Go Live
Attach ZFS Storage Appliance via InfiniBand for backups

13. outcome Installation to go-live in 10 days
ETL processing time improved by 7X over previous hardware
Critical client deadline met
Fastest Exadata implementation in North America

14. Long term outcome
Architecture greatly simplified – 8 servers with 2 databases each reduced to 1 large database on 3 Exadata compute nodes. Exadata was originally going to be dedicated to Walmart.
1.5 years later – no production outages, no missed SLAs
Backups run daily and complete easily during off hours

15. ZFS STORAGE APPLIANCE Backup Performance
Around 6TB/hour backing up (seeing 9TB/hour+ on second ZFS)
Approximately 2X+ compression without reduced performance
No failures (other than the occasional disk) in 1.5 years
Can attach multiple Exadatas if they are on different InfiniBand subnets
Backup time reduced by as much as 75X
Elapsed time for 1TB backup on Exadata X2-2 : 10 Min to 12 Min vs. 10 Hours using RMAN, NetBackup, and VTL
Elapsed time for 1TB restore on Exadata X2-2 : 16 minutes vs. 5 Hours using RMAN, NetBackup, and VTL

16. Lessons learned
A small team of very qualified people can do a lot in a short period of time
Exadata allows you to consolidate databases you wouldn’t have considered
ZFS Appliances are a good option for making timely backups and accelerating restore time

17. questions