Getting Storage Server Architecture Details

Exadata Storage Servers are self-contained storage platforms that house disk storage for an Exadata Database Machine and run Oracle’s Cell Services (cellsrv) software. A single storage server is also commonly referred to as a cell.

The Exadata storage cell is the building block for the Exadata Storage Grid. In an Exadata Database Machine, more cells not only equates to increased physical capacity, but also higher levels of I/O bandwidth and IOPs (I/Os per second). Each storage cell contains 12 physical SAS disks; depending on your business requirements, these can be either 600 GB, 15,000 RPM High Performance SAS disks capable of delivering up to 1.8 GB per second of raw data bandwidth per cell, or 3 TB 7,200 RPM High Capacity SAS disks capable of delivering up to 1.3 GB per second of raw data bandwidth.

Databases in an Exadata Database Machine are typically deployed so that the database files are evenly distributed across all storage cells in the machine as well as all physical disks in an individual cell. Oracle uses Oracle Automated Storage Management (ASM) in combination with logical storage entities called cell disks and grid disks to achieve this balance.

We can user  various commands to display configuration information.

1- Login in to an ExadataStorage Server as root and check your operating system release.
[root@pk3-iub-cel-es01 ~]# cat /etc/enterprise-release
Enterprise Linux Enterprise Linux Server release 5.8 (Carthage)

2- The kernel version for Exadata
[root@pk3-iub-cel-es01 ~]# uname -a
Linux pk3-iub-cel-es01.iuban.com 2.6.32-400.11.1.el5uek #1 SMP Thu Nov 22 03:29:09 PST 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

3- You can use dmidecode to obtain the server model and serial number:
[root@pk3-iub-cel-es01 ~]# dmidecode -s system-product-name
SUN FIRE X4270 M3

[root@pk3-iub-cel-es01 ~]# dmidecode -s system-serial-number
1319FM505D

4- The operating system and Exadata server software binaries are installed, patched, and maintained as images; when you install or patch an Exadata cell, a new image is installed. You can query your current active image by running the imageinfo command:

[root@pk3-iub-cel-es01 ~]# imageinfo

Kernel version: 2.6.32-400.11.1.el5uek #1 SMP Thu Nov 22 03:29:09 PST 2012 x86_64
Cell version: OSS_11.2.3.2.1_LINUX.X64_130109
Cell rpm version: cell-11.2.3.2.1_LINUX.X64_130109-1

Active image version: 11.2.3.2.1.130109
Active image activated: 2013-05-13 02:22:53 -0700
Active image status: success
Active system partition on device: /dev/md5
Active software partition on device: /dev/md7

In partition rollback: Impossible

Cell boot usb partition: /dev/sdm1
Cell boot usb version: 11.2.3.2.1.130109

Inactive image version: undefined
Rollback to the inactive partitions: Impossible

From this output, you can see that our storage cell is running image version 11.2.2.4.2.111221, which contains cell version OSS_11.2.2.4.2_LINUX.X64_111221, kernel version 2.6.18-238.12.2.0.2.el5, with the active system partition on device /dev/md6 and the software partition on /dev/md8.

5- You can also list all images that have at one point been installed on the Exadata cell by executing imagehistory:
[root@pk3-iub-cel-es01 ~]# imagehistory
Version                              : 11.2.3.2.1.130109
Image activation date                : 2013-05-13 02:22:53 -0700
Imaging mode                         : fresh
Imaging status                       : success