OCI Full Stack Disaster Recovery Support for Oracle Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer (ExaC@C)

We are thrilled to announce the addition of fully integrated support for Oracle Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer (ExaC@C) as a discoverable member of a DR protection group in Full Stack DR service.

Overview of Oracle Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer (ExaC@C)

With Oracle Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer, you can maintain absolute control over your data while leveraging the combined capabilities of Oracle Exadata and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, which Oracle manages.

Oracle Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer enables you to apply the combined power of Oracle Exadata and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure inside your data center. You have full access to the features and capabilities of Oracle Database and the intelligent performance and scalability of Oracle Exadata, but with Oracle owning and managing the Exadata infrastructure. You can use the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console and APIs to manage Oracle Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer, just as with any other cloud resource, while maintaining absolute sovereignty over your data.

You can also create Autonomous databases on ExaC@C infrastructure; please refer to the blog of integrating an autonomous Container Database (ACD) with Full-Stack DR. This blog focuses on integrating databases running in Oracle Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer.

For more information, refer to ExaC@C and ADB-D on ExaC@C’s documentation.

Setup Oracle Data Guard with Oracle Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer (ExaC@C)

Before adding the database from ExaC@C to a protection group in Full Stack DR, you must first configure Oracle Active Data Guard or Data Guard between two existing Exadata VM Clusters across cross-regionally or across availability domains. Below are the high-level steps required to set up Oracle Active Data Guard or Data Guard across two existing Exadata VM Clusters at a high level:

• Create a VCN and complete other related networking requirements to configure Oracle Active Data Guard or Data Guard between the primary and standby databases
• Create two Exadata VM clusters across two regions or availability domains
• Set up SYS and TDE wallet passwords for the primary and standby databases. Passwords must be the same.
• Set up Oracle Active Data Guard or Data Guard using the OCI console, OCI CLI, or SDKs

Please refer to the Oracle Data Guard with ExaC@C documentation for more information.

Integration of ExaC@C within Full Stack DR

With this new support, you can now add a database running in the ExaC@C VM Clusters as a Full Stack DR protection group member. OCI Full Stack DR automatically generates built-in plan groups and steps for the ExaC@C databases based on the type of DR plans (switchover, failover) being configured. For DR Drill plans (start and stop), Full Stack DR will not generate built-in plan groups and steps since ExaC@C doesn’t yet have built-in APIs for converting physical standby to snapshot standby and vice versa. Instead, you must leverage user-defined plan groups to add scripts to convert the database role depending on the drill plan types. The intent is to add APIs in the near future to automate this functionality, as has been done on other Oracle Database cloud platforms, such as Oracle Autonomous Database. Additionally, it is important to note that with ExaCC, we are currently unable to discover resources like compute/storage/applications running on-premises alongside the ExaCC databases in Full Stack DR. We intend to have support for compute/storage/applications in the future along with the ExaCC databases as part of Full Stack DR hybrid support.

Below are the high-level steps required to integrate a database running in the ExaC@C VM Cluster into an existing DR protection group pair.

• Add the primary DB to the Primary DR protection group (DRPG)
• Add the standby DB to the Standby DR protection group (DRPG)
• Create the switchover, failover, start drill, and stop drill plans in the standby DRPG
• Full Stack DR will automatically generate built-in plan groups for switchover and failover plans.
• For drill plans, create user-defined plan groups to convert physical standby to snapshot standby and vice versa.

Note: Full Stack DR allows the creation of DR plans only in the standby DR Protection group. It is highly recommended that you utilze a test execution of a switchover plan to create all the DR plans (Switchover, Failover, and Drill plans) in the other DR Protection group as well. This will ensure the DR plans are available in both regions.

A step-by-step example 

Since the focus is on support for the newly introduced ExaC@C resource type, we are only demonstrating the required members related to ExaC@C as part of this blog. Ideally, for any business system, you will have various components like Compute, Application, Storage, Load balancer, etc., along with the database in your DR protection groups and plans. The resources below are pre-created with the required roles and are ready to use. For more information, refer to the OCI Full Stack DR and ExaC@C documentation.

Let’s create DR plans for this DR topology.

1.  Add Primary Database (FSDRDB03) to the IAD-ExaCC DRPG

• Select resource type as Database.
• Database type – Select Oracle Exadata on Cloud@Customer
• VM Cluster – Select scaqan21adm0506clu1-vm
• Database – Select FSDRDB03
• Database password secret – Select fsdr-iad-secret
• Click Add

2. Verify the added member in IAD-ExaCC DRPG

3. Add Standby Database (FSDRDB03) to the PHX-ExaCC DRPG

• Select resource type as Database.
• Database type – Select Oracle Exadata on Cloud@Customer
• VM Cluster – Select scaqan21adm0708clu1-vm
• Database – Select FSDRDB03
• Database password secret – Select fsdr-phx-secret
• Click Add

4. Verify the added member in PHX-ExaCC DRPG

5.  Create DR plans in the PHX-ExaCC DRPG. Full Stack DR allows the creation of DR plans only in the DRPG, which has the standby role.

• Click the Create Plan button.
• Create Switchover and Failover plans
• You should be able to use both plans in an Active state

Note: For the start and stop drill plans, you must create user-defined plan groups with scripts hosted in the OCI VM. The OCI VM should be able to communicate to the databases running in ExaC@C.You should also ideally host those scripts as non-moving instances.  For more details on how to do it, refer to the ExaScale Full Stack DR blog and follow the similar process.

6. Let’s explore the Switchover-IAD-To-PHX and Failover-IAD-To-PHX plans.

Full Stack DR has created built-in plan groups for the Prechecks and Database Switchover.

Full Stack DR has created built-in plan groups for the Prechecks and Database Failover.

7. Now, execute the Switchover-IAD-To-PHX plan and monitor the status. After a few minutes, the plan succeeded in being executed.

8. Considering the switchover is completed, and the roles of the DRPG have been changed, we can now create the DR Plans in the IAD-ExaCC DRPG.

Note: For the start and stop drill plans, you must create user-defined plan groups with scripts hosted in the OCI VM. The OCI VM should be able to communicate to the databases running in ExaC@C.You should also ideally host those scripts as non-moving instances.  For more details on how to do it, refer to the ExaScale Full Stack DR blog and follow the similar process.

Here is the summary of the steps for the ExaC@C database plan groups for all the DR plan types.

Conclusion

OCI Full Stack Disaster Recovery (DR) offers built-in Oracle Exadata Database Service support on Cloud@Customer (ExaC@C). This makes the recovery process for a business system using the ExaC@C databases for fleet-level database role transitions. In the future, Full Stack DR will support compute, storage, and applications running on-premises alongside the ExaCC databases in Full Stack DR to make the recovery process seamless.

Additional resources

Here are some additional resources to help you get started with Full Stack Disaster Recovery:

• Full Stack Disaster Recovery product page
• Full Stack Disaster Recovery User Guide
• Full Stack Disaster Recovery API Reference Guide
• Try out Full Stack Disaster Recovery using our hands-on lab
• Oracle Exadata Database Service on Cloud@Customer (ExaC@C)

Feel free to connect with me directly on LinkedIn, X and Bluesky.

For more information, please refer to and documentation.