Oracle Database Appliance Reviews

We value the following features:

• Performance (we used a bare-metal configuration so I don't know about using it as a virtual environment).
• Easy management (it saves a lot of installation and patching time).

This box allowed me to consolidate the three most critical databases in one single reliable server (it is actually two nodes in our machine).

The following issues need attention:

• I would be happy to see the Oracle Auto Service Request (ASR) pre-installed in it instead of installing it in a separate machine.
• The Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) is quite slow. Sometimes the page takes ages to open.
• The shutdown procedure in this box is different from many other servers that I worked with. For example, when you shut down the server, you see the LEDs of the storage part still on, and there is no button for that part to turn the power off. You can only unplug the power socket!

We have been using the solution for two years.

We didn't encounter any stability issues.

There was a little scalability issue. We noticed that the storage dedicated to the system in one node was less than the other. We therefore needed to expand it. We needed Oracle support to do that for us but it was online and streamlined.

The technical support is very good, but not excellent.

I didn't use a previous solution.

The setup was straightforward but we had issues that needed Oracle support to fix for us.

Frankly I have no clue about pricing. The organization didn't have any issue about paying for the licenses.

There is one thing that you need to be aware of. When you buy this box, you buy licenses for a specific number of CPU cores. When you set up the box, you define how many cores you want to enable. If the number of cores that you enable is different from the number of cores that you have in your license, it will be so hard to fix it (according to the Oracle representative claim but I am not sure about that.)

We evaluated RAC servers from other vendors.

The biggest disadvantage of this server is its availability when you patch the whole machine, i.e. when you patch the entire ODA firmware, not the databases within it. When you do this kind of patching, you must restart the entire server and plan for downtime.

This box has a network subnetting IP address pre-configured in it for internal communication between the nodes.

If your network has the same network subnetting IP address, you must change it in your network. This box (as of x4-2 and I don't know about the new models) doesn't allow you to change its internal subnetting IP address.

In Turkey, there are some highway toll collection systems that use Oracle Database Appliance.

The most valuable feature of Oracle Database Appliance is the ease of management.

Oracle Database Appliance is stopping support for the standard edition and only continuing support for the RAC One Node. They did not inform us and we are having problems with our customers. We are not having to change our systems from standard to something else.

I have been using Oracle Database Appliance for approximately five years.

We did not have any stability issues with Oracle Database Appliance.

Oracle Database Appliance is scalable according to the license purchased. We didn't need any extra storage, but if we need storage we can add it.

We have many systems and toll collection systems using the solution. The call centers that use the solution have approximately 100 people using each environment.

The hardware support of Oracle Database Appliance was not good five years ago, but now it is.

The support is responsive and solves the issues. Most of the support is automated, and when we send the snapshot automation fails they are easily solved.

I rate the support from Oracle Database Appliance a five out of five.

Positive

I have not used another solution similar to Oracle Database Appliance.

The Oracle Database Appliance has an easy installation. It took approximately four to five hours. If we do not do a re-image it can be done in one to two hours.

We did the implementation of the solution in-house with one person.

I don’t know ODA and alternative system prices. But Oracle the database license is quite expensive and a lot of my customers plan to migrate to open source databases like PostgreSQL.

I rate the price of Oracle Database Appliance a four out of five.

I would recommend people to use this solution it is good.

I rate Oracle Database Appliance an eight out of ten.

The most valuable feature is the ability to use it as a virtualization platform. This is great because you can run the Oracle Database layer as ODA_BASE domain and use Oracle VM templates to build Oracle applications as VMs so you can also have the application layer in the same platform.

It is easy in terms of management of virtual infrastructure. With "oakcli" is the all-in-one CLI to manipulate the virtual environment of the ODA.

It had a lot of bugs, especially with the old patch bundles. There was no support for connecting it to an FC tape drive for backups.

The ODA X3-2 has been up and running since August 2013. This was the first model of the appliance.

We had issues with the virtual infrastructure. Sometimes the shared repositories go into status Unknown, VMs crashing etc. Also the automatic failover of the VMs sometimes failed.

We had no issues with scalability. It allows only two disk enclosures for storage space, and for servers you can upgrade the RAM.

I would rate the technical support at 8/10.

Our previous solutions were building a high availability environment for Oracle Database with blocks, server storage OS, network configuration, etc.

The setup was very easy. It is great to have a fully configured and tested HA environment for Oracle Database in two days. All the built-in automation scripts do it for you.

If you compare the pricing of ODA vs traditional architecture it can be a bit high but you get more value by minimizing the risk, a short implementation time, and all-in-one patching.

There are no solutions like ODA.

Overall it is a great product for consolidating Oracle Databases.

With the newer models there are a lot of optimizations both in hardware and software. For example the cluster interconnect card went from 10GbE in ODA X3-2 to InfiniBand QDR in ODA X5-2. The "oakcli" has added features with the new patch bundles.

Oracle Database Appliance could improve by having better integration.

I have been using Oracle Database Appliance for approximately 25 years. 

Oracle Database Appliance is a stable solution. We have clients that have been running it for 10 years.

Database Appliance is highly scalable.

I have contacted the support from Oracle Database Appliance. Their services are no longer up to my expectation.

I rate the support from Oracle Database Appliance a three out of five.

We have seen a return on investment with Oracle Database Appliance. This is why we still support them today.

The price of the solution should be less expensive. However, they will increase the price more.

I would advise others to look for a company that has their own experience, that is local. This will allow them to have a local understanding of what requirements are needed. Sometimes the international companies may not be aware of the local requirements. One of the reasons that we are very still supporting Oracle Database Appliance is because we feel that Oracle has a lot of customers and a lot of implementers that are local. That's one of the key points that we're still with Oracle.

I rate Oracle Database Appliance ten out of ten.

Oracle Database Appliance is the best.

Valuable features include an easy installation, good performance, and stability.

The physical installation is easy. They have single mode and high availability, depending on the budget. It has all-in-one features in it.

I would like to see some improvement in the capacity.

We have been supporting this solution for customers for three years. We are an Oracle gold partner company.

It is stable and there have not been any crashes.

Everybody can use it. It is scalable.

We opened a support ticket for the installation.

We have a customer who is using IBM or HPE. They are going to buy an Oracle database appliance for the scalability, installation, performance, and high available options. I think this is the reason they want to switch now. Scalability, high availability, easy installation, and good performance are the reasons to switch.

You can install all of your visual information on the Oracle database appliance. All of your software is on this virtual machine. Another option is to install your database on an older Oracle database appliance, which is recommended and has the best performance.

I don't know anything about license or prices.

Actually, we always focus on the Oracle products because we are Oracle partners. We didn't compare anything else. Based on the budget, Exadata systems are now in the new Oracle database appliances. There are three options: small, medium, and high availability. It depends on the customer's budget.

The physical installation is easy. They have single mode and high available mode options, depending on the budget. So it has all-in-one features in it.

It has an easy installation, good performance, and it is stable.

I picked Database Appliance because it's quick and easy to deploy and configure.

I've been using this solution for three to four months.

Oracle's technical support is very helpful, with very knowledgeable teams.

The initial setup was straightforward and quick - I was able to configure everything within an hour.

The license cost could be cheaper, especially for long-term contracts.

I would rate Database Appliance as eight out of ten.

The databases run smoothly all night without any administrative hassles. If the database goes down on one of the servers, the load is automatically shifted to another server. You can troubleshoot the one that is down without affecting uptime.

Virtualization needs improvement. It's not easy to back up the virtual machines in the Oracle VM architecture. I would also like to see native support for Veeam Backup Software.

I've been using Oracle Database Appliance for about two years.

Oracle's support is not very good.

Setup was easy. Everything is step by step from the first to the last stage.

A company installed it for us but we were with them during implementation.

The price should be lower.

I would rate Oracle Database Appliance six out of 10.

It has many valuable features, including High Availability and failover. This means you can have an all-ERP solution in one box, so you can use your database with your application server together.

My clients like the failover feature, which is included for free.

It takes too long to implement and Oracle should do something about it. They also need to perform more R&D on new releases before releasing it into the marketplace.

I've performed many deployments of it over the last two years.

There were a lot of issues during delivery, but once it was fully implemented, there were only minor deployment issues.

There were a lot of issues during delivery, but once it was fully implemented, there were only minor stability issues.

There were a lot of issues during delivery but once it was fully implemented, there were only minor scalability issues.

The initial setup was straightforward.

I am part of a vendor team that does the implementations for our clients.

It's so complex that you will need an expert to implement it.