Below are the official hardware specifications for a standard Exadata X8-2 rack configuration. Oracle primarily offers two building blocks: the Database Server and the Storage Server.
The Exadata X8M-2 is a pre-engineered, highly optimized combination of servers, storage, networking, and software. It is designed for Online Transaction Processing (OLTP), mixed workloads, and real-time analytics.
| Feature | Specification | | --- | --- | | Database Servers | 2-socket Intel Xeon (Cascade Lake) | | Storage Servers | 2-socket Intel Xeon with PMEM and NVMe flash | | Max Rack Configuration | 18 database servers + 18 storage servers (Full Rack) | | Key Innovation | Persistent Memory (PMEM) as extended cache / memory tier | | Network | RoCE (100 Gbps) for low-latency RDMA | | Maximum DRAM (per DB server) | 1.5 TB | | Maximum PMEM (per storage cell) | 12.8 TB | | Use Cases | High-throughput OLTP, AI/ML data pipelines, consolidated databases | oracle exadata x82 datasheet
A: Not recommended. Oracle requires homogeneous cells and servers for full support, though staged upgrades exist.
When analyzing the datasheet against general-purpose servers (building a database server from components), three distinct advantages emerge: Below are the official hardware specifications for a
Based on Oracle-published metrics (OLTP + Analytics mixed):
| Workload Type | Quarter Rack | Half Rack | Full Rack | |---------------|--------------|-----------|-----------| | Random IOPs (8K) | 3M | 6M | 12M | | Full Table Scan (TB/hr) | 4 TB/hr | 8 TB/hr | 16 TB/hr | | Redo Log Commit (PMEM) | 1.5M commits/sec | 3M commits/sec | 6M commits/sec | A: Not recommended
Given its low latency and high throughput, the X8M-2 excels in:
Standard servers use TCP/IP, which incurs CPU interrupts. The X8-2 uses RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet). This allows one server to write directly into the memory of another server with zero CPU overhead. The datasheet lists this as “Dual-port 100 Gb Ethernet.”