Oracle SuperCluster Reviews

• Software in Silicon

One of the clients has many applications with many Oracle standalone databases running on multiple traditional storage/server technologies. Those databases were integrated to fetch business data. Hence, there was database slowness; also, wasting storage and resources on some servers. The customer wanted to consolidate all his applications and databases into a single platform, i.e, Oracle SuperCluster. Upon migrating to OSC M7, the customer achieved significant performance, reduced cost for licensing and used the Exadata and SuperCluster features.

• Stability
• Optimization
• Sustainable overall performance
• Storage savings
• Additional M7 (Software in Silicon features)

I have used it for one year.

We encountered deployment issues with some initial configuration settings due to IP conflicts, lack of power capacity and required additional switches.

After migrating Oracle ERP and database, there was an issue with the printer drivers, and issues running some Arabic reports. After upgrading the firmware version for printers, and adding a workaround to avoid Arabic login and reports, all went smooth.

We faced issues with ZFS failover, due to misconfiguration. After correcting the settings, ZFS failover worked like expected.

I am fully satisfied with customer service; can relax for the next five years without any major upgrade to the environment.

There were three vendors involved. Overall, technical support was satisfactory.

The client was on traditional storage/server technologies; they switched because they wanted to have a complete Oracle consolidated solution.

Many teams' involvement was required for initial setup. It is a bit complex until the initial configuration and basic installation of the OSC M7 is done.

A vendor team implemented it; it was satisfactory.

There has been a significant reduction in the cost of licenses for software/hardware.

Oracle SuperCluster M7 is bit expensive. However, it comes with many sizes, so, a customer can choose the right size required for the business.

• Initial planning, such as network IP assignment (range), mandatory power/cooling/switch availability for a smooth installation

Our HR system uses this solution as do many of our staff. We currently have over 3,000 users within the company and the company has a total of 15,000 employees. We have a vendor that carries out the majority of our maintenance and one or two internal people also involved in maintenance. The solution is used on a daily basis in the company. We're customers of Oracle and I'm a service support specialist. 

The scalability and the technical support that you get from Oracle are very valuable to us. 

The solution is not very user friendly and that could be improved. 

I've been using this solution for five years. 

In terms of stability, the hardware of the solution is stable but on the software level we've had some problems. They deal with any issues very quickly. 

The initial setup was quite complex and we used a system integrator to implement. I believe deployment took about three months. We've been using the solution for about five years and we're now planning a hardware update. 

We pay an annual licensing fee but that's not my department. 

It's important to realize that this is a big system for enterprise companies and not suitable for small business.

I would rate this product an eight out of 10. 

Regarding the performance between our old system and the new system, previously we were running the system with IBM, the quarterbacking was running in IBM, then we moved to the Oracle SuperCluster. 

The quarterbacking is from Oracle, the hardware and the database is also running on Oracle. 

We have seen that there is an improvement in performance. For example, end of the year in IBM, we were running almost twelve and a half hours, but when we moved to Oracle SuperCluster, after the first year it was running for only four hours. It went from twelve and a half hours to four hours.

The performance is significantly improved, and the administration is easy because it is a single platform end-to-end.

The features of Oracle SuperCluster are more common based. If you want to make any additional configuration or changes to the virtualization layer, it is commonly based.

We are not able to upgrade our SuperClass to the latest version, because this solution is more compatible with Oracle. We are not able to run any .NET-based applications and they cannot install Windows. 

The Oracle SuperCluster is specific to Oracle products. They can set up a convergence infrastructure so that you can run both applications, such as Java, non-Java, .NET, and Windows.

The features are limited and we are not able to upgrade this solution. We are not able to integrate our current version with the new, upgraded version.

If they had an application that centralized the administration, not about the monitoring, but for the configuration, it would be better.

We have heard that after the M8 was introduced a couple of years ago, there will be no production.

This solution is stable.

This solution is scalable and performs well.

We can expand to our requirements because the storage can be expanded and also the computer with us can be expanded. It depends upon the free space available on the rack.

We can expand the rack to superclass a rack and populate what the requirements are regarding the compute, the storage, and we can connect between the two racks using the InfiniBand switches.

The technical support is the best with any hardware issues.

Previously we used X-Beta. Oracle created a specific product database and not the applications. As Oracle SuperCluster, we can run applications and databases in a single infrastructure.

The deployment model was on-premises.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Our primary use case is as a converged infrastructure for the core database.

It has encouraged a simple and systematic capacity upgrade.

A valuable feature is the Exadata Storage appliance, optimized for database queries.

I would like to see control domain and zone management via a management console, similar to that of OVM.

Our primary use case is for E-Business Suite applications, the applications for the government, and most of the applications that use an HCM.

I wouldn't say there is anything good about it because since it was deployed we have been having issues with the cluster.

It's not working as we expected. We thought it would be fast and reliable but we are not getting the reliability. It's not stable. It could be an issue with the network or configuration. 

I have been using SuperCluster for just over a year. 

It's partially scalable. We have less than 20 users using this solution.

Their support is 50/50. Neither good nor bad. 

We previously used IBM. We decided to switch because of our implementers. 

The setup was complex. 

We've also changed the network to Cisco. Maybe it's a problem with the compatibility. 

It took around six months to set up.

We used a consultant for the deployment. All of the maintenance is done by Oracle. 

It is very expensive. 

My advice to someone considering this solution is to do your homework before switching to this solution. Look at what the solution offers, look at the licensing because we might think that doing the Oracle SuperCluster would actually reduce the licensing. It is not like that. 

The staff should also know what kind of issues to expect so as to be able to actually work with them to be able to work with the SuperCluster. The staff should be trained to identify issues. 

I would rate SuperCluster a six out of ten.