exadata v3 ( x2-8 )

x2-2 and x2-8 are the next releases for exadata v2.

x2-8  has fewer but way bigger database servers. That means that x2-8 will scale better with the less RAC overhead for the databases



The differences between the X2-2 and the X2-8 offerings are:

• X2-8 only comes in full racks (of 2 database nodes)
• X2-8 has 2 TB of RAM per rack (compared to 768 GB for the X2-2)
• X2-8 has 16s/128c/256t per rack vs. 16s/96c/192t for the X2-2 (s=sockets, c=cores, t=threads)

The major updates in the X2-2 compared to V2 database nodes are:

• CPUs updated from quad-core Intel 5500 Series (Nehalem-EP) processors to six-core Intel 5600 Series (Westmere-EP)
• Network updated from 1 GbE to 10 GbE
• RAM updated from 72 GB to 96 GB

The updates to the Exadata Storage Servers (which are identical for both the X2-2 and X2-8 configurations) are:

• CPUs updated to the six-core Intel 5600 Series (Westmere-EP) processors
• 600 GB 15k RPM SAS offering now known as HP (High Performance)
• 2 TB  7.2k RPM SAS offering now known as HC (High Capacity) [previously the 2 TB drives were 7.2k RPM SATA]

It means that live update of this post is probably over (27-Sep-2010).

	v2 Full Rack	x2-2 Full Rack	x2-8 Full Rack
Database servers	8 x Sun Fire x4170 1U	8 x Sun Fire x4170 M2 1U	2 x Sun Fire x4800 5U
Database CPUs	Xeon E5540 quad core 2.53GHz	Xeon X5670 six cores 2.93GHz	Xeon X7560 eight cores 2.26GHz
database cores	64	96	128
database RAM	576GB	768GB	2TB
Storage cells	14 x SunFire X4275	14 x SunFire X4270 M2	14 x SunFire X4270 M2
storage cell CPUs	Xeon E5540 quad core 2.53GHz	Xeon L5640 six cores 2.26GHz	Xeon L5640 six cores 2.26GHz
storage cells CPU cores	112	168	168
IO performance & capacity	15K RPM 600GB SAS or 2TB SATA 7.2K RPM disks	15K RPM 600GB SAS (HP model – high performance) or 2TB SAS 7.2K RPM disks (HC model – high capacity) Note that 2TB SAS are the same old 2 TB drives with new SAS electronics. (Thanks Kevin Closson for ref)	15K RPM 600GB SAS (HP model – high performance) or 2TB SAS 7.2K RPM disks (HC model – high capacity) Note that 2TB SAS are the same old 2 TB drives with new SAS electronics. (Thanks Kevin Closson for ref)
Flash Cache	5.3TB	5.3TB	5.3TB
Database Servers networking	4 x 1GbE x 8 servers = 32 x 1GbE	4 x 1GbE x 8 servers + 2 x 10GbE x 8 servers = 32 x 1Gb + 16 x 10GbEE	8 x 1GbE x 2 servers + 8 x 10GbE x 2 servers = 16 x 1Gb + 16 x 10GbEE
InfiniBand Switches	QDR 40Gbit/s wire	QDR 40Gbit/s wire	QDR 40Gbit/s wire
InfiniBand ports on database servers (total)	2 ports x 8 servers = 16 ports	2 ports x 8 servers = 16 ports	8 ports x 2 servers = 16 ports
Database Servers OS	Oracle Linux only	Oracle Linux (possible Solaris later, still unclear)	Oracle Linux or Solaris x86