Create an ExaCS in OCI using the OCI CLI

I recently got the opportunity to create an Exadata Cloud Service (ExaCS) instance in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Im not going to go into the details of the network requirements or how to set up the OCI CLI. Details on both of these can be found in the OCI doco

• ExaCS Network requirements – https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Database/Tasks/exanetwork.htm
• OCI CLI Setup – https://docs.cloud.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/API/SDKDocs/cliinstall.htm

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Once you have the above done, you can then proceed to create an ExaCS. You could do this through the Web Console, but when I was presented with what I assume is a bug in the console, I decided to give the CLI a try.

Before executing the CLI, you need to create two (2) files:

• A JSON formatted file that has the create_db_system payload
• a file referenced in the main file that contains the SSH public key pair(s) you want to associate with the ExaCS instance

An example (based off the file I used) and explanation follows – you can get the json file from here:

(You can also get a possibly easier to read version of the below at https://gist.github.com/alexblyth/acb4d088c480e603646629bb4c4fbedc)

	Parameter	Example Value	Explaination
	adminPassword	Complex#$@Password123	Admin password for both the database
	availabilityDomain	rMTbAP-MELBOURNE-1-AD-1	Availability Domain for the ExaCS. I happen to be using Melbourne AU
	autoBackupEnabled	true	Automatic backups enabled?
	backupSubnetId	ocid1.subnet.oc1.ap-melbourne-1.aaaaaaaasgzvm5bpgch44qtplg52cpseyg2r4ziaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaerdsq	ExaCS needs a separate backup network. Enter the OCID for this network here
	clusterName	clustername1	The name of the RAC cluster
	compartmentId	ocid1.compartment.oc1..aaaaaaaasl3uge72u5xemtqwrpzo2t3tfjawv4k33haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaja	Compartment OCID that you wan the ExaCS in
	cpuCoreCount	8	Initial OCPUs allocated across the ExaCS nodes
	databaseEdition	ENTERPRISE_EDITION_EXTREME_PERFORMANCE	ENTERPRISE_EDITION_EXTREME_PERFORMANCE is the only option if you're creating an ExaCS
	dbName	dbname	Database name for initial DB
	dbVersion	LATEST	Database (and therefore ASM/GI) version. I suggest you go with latest. You can then create new DB homes of earlier versions (back to 11.2). This gives you the greatest flexibility.
	dbWorkload	OLTP	Is the DB an OLTP or DSS geared DB?
	diskRedundancy	HIGH	HIGH ASM disk redundnacy is the only option for ExaCS
	displayName	console_display_name	OCI Console Display Name
	domain	client_subnet_domain	The domain name for the ExaCS Client network. Used to fully qualify host and SCAN addresses
	hostname	hostname_prefix	Hostname prefix – ie 1-8 will be appended depending on the ExaCS Shape
	licenseModel	BRING_YOUR_OWN_LICENSE	Are you using existing licenses or are you going LICENSE_INCLUDED?
	nodeCount	0	For ExaCS this will be 0 – the number of nodes is determined by the shape.
	pdbName	pdb1	The initial PDB name
	shape	Exadata.Base.48	This is the ExaCS Shape – eg Exadata.Full3.400 or Exadata.Quarter2.92
	sparseDiskgroup	true	Do you want to allocate some space to create/use sparse clones?
	sshAuthorizedKeysFile	./keys.txt	Reference to a file with the SSH Public keys you want added to the compute nodes
	storageManagement	ASM	ASM is the only option for ExaCS
	subnetId	ocid1.subnet.oc1.ap-melbourne-1.aaaaaaaacrvjzuook7wdxqv5bvfnfbr2ksp7aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanlmcuxcq	This is the client network – ie where actual DB client connections will be coming to
	timeZone	Australia/Melbourne	Finally, the timezone you want the ExaCS instance to be created with – My ExaCS is in Melbourne AU hence Austraia/Melbourne

view raw create_exacs_json_explainer.tsv hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Once you’ve updated the json file, and created a file for your ssh keys, you can run the following from your OS command line

oci db system launch --from-json file://create_exacs_ocicli.json

ExaCS will take a while to create – its doing a fair amount of work – so at this point, grab a coffee (or dinner & a movie depending on the time of day) and keep an eye on the progress through the OCI Console.