Oracle Exadata DMA Job Description

Multiple time many readers has asked us that what can be the Exadata job description if any organization hiring Oracle Exadata DMA so thought to write one post on that in which almost everything we have included for Exadata JD.

No doubt skills can be different for each level of DMA position but we have tried to put everything which includes basic to expert level tasks.

You can also provide your valuable thought and input by mentioning in comment which will help our readers.

Exadata Skill

• Good understanding of Exadata Architecture
• Clear understanding of Exadata features like Flash cache, Storage Index, HCC and IORM
• Solid exposure of Exadata hardware
• Understanding of Luns, Cell Disk and Grid disk
• Implementation experience of exadata features
• Understanding of CELLCLI and DCLI
• Performance tuning of Exadata component
• Understanding of Cell Storage software
• Troubleshooting experience

Database and RAC Skill

Useful Files in Solaris

Message log:  /var/adm/messages

Tape driver configuration file:  /kernel/drv/st.conf

Disk driver configuration file:  /kernel/drv/sd.conf

File defining filesystems to mount:  /etc/vfstab

Kernel configuration parameters:  /etc/system

Names and IP addr of machines:  /etc/hosts

Default Port Numbers:  /etc/services

                                    Analyze Linux Server Performance

Useful Oracle Exadata Metalink Notes

Thought to list down some Exadata Document metalink which you can keep as a reference for lifetime.

Doc ID	Document Description
888828.1	Exadata Database Machine and Exadata Storage Server Supported Versions
1270094.1	Exadata Critical Issues
1353073.1	Exadata Diagnostics Collection Guide
1187674.1	Master Note for Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exadata Stororage Server
1483344.1	Exadata Platinum Customer Outage Classifications and Restoration Action Plans
1571965.1	Maximizing Availability with Engineered Systems - Exadata
1262380.1	Exadata Testing Practices and Patching Explained
1306814.1	Oracle Software Patching with OPLAN
1110675.1	Oracle Exadata Database Machine Monitoring
1070954.1	Database Machine Healthcheck (Exachk)
1094934.1	Best Practices for Data Warehousing on the Database Machine
1269706.1	Best Practices for OLTP Applications on the Database Machine
1071221.1	Oracle Sun Database Machine Backup and Recovery Best Practices
1054431.1	Configuring DBFS on Oracle Exadata Database Machine
1084360.1	Bare Metal Restore Procedure for Compute Nodes on an Exadata Environment (Linux)
1339769.1	Master Note for Oracle Database Resource Manager
960510.1	Data Guard Transport Considerations on Oracle Database Machine
1551288.1	Understanding ASM Capacity and Reservation of Free Space in Exadata
401749.1	Shell Script to Calculate Values Recommended Linux HugePages / HugeTLB Configuration
1009715.1	Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) CLI Quick Reference
1070954.1	Oracle Exadata Database Machine exachk or HealthCheck
1317159.1	Changing IP addresses on Exadata Database Machine
1244344.1	Exadata Starter Kit
1537407.1	Requirements and restrictions when using Oracle Database 12c on Exadata Database Machine
1551288.1	Understanding ASM Capacity and Reservation of Free Space in Exadata
1459611.1	How to Calculate Usable_FILE_MB / REQUIRED_MIRROR_FREE_MB
361468.1	HugePages on Oracle Linux 64-bit
761868.1	Oracle Exadata Diagnostic Information required for Disk Failures and some other Hardware issues
10386736	Documentation for Exadata 11.2 & 12.1

You can follow  our   Exadata Certification Question   to   achieve   maximum success in your Exadata exam.

Exadata DMA Roles and Responsibility

Exadata administration can be done by single Exadata DMA (Database Machine Administration). There is no requirement of team for each domain.Only one specialist (DMA) is required to manage the Exadata.

Based on our experience we have given following list of tasks which need to be performed by DMA. We can add many tasks in this list but we have just covered most common tasks specially from Exadata perspective.

Roles and Responsibility of DMA

Hardware installation and maintenance: A database machine required periodic maintenance like firmware upgrade or replace any failure component of machine.

Network Administration: Exadata comes with CISCO ethernet switch for Management and ILOM network, infiniband swithces for cell and DB Node node connectivity so management of network is also includes in DMA's task. General knowledge of netwrok topology required to manage Infiniband switches.

Operating System Administration: Linux or Solaris OS administration. Also manage server availability during patching with high availability management. Setting up users,  applying patches, managing disk space, NFS mount, 

Exadata Storage Administration: Important component of Exadata. In depth knowledge is required to manage the cell servers as this is the main component of Exadata which also configured with Exadata Storage Software. It include monitoring of celldisk, griddisk, cell flash cache, flash disks, OS administration, infiniband connectivity  administration. Maintain storage availability during patching.

Grid Infrastructure Administration: Inlcudes clusterware, ASM disk group, mirrored cell group as Exadata managed mirroring on ASM level not cell level.

Database Administration: Includes single instance, single instance on ASM, one or more RAC node database. Exadata specific parameters.

Here DMA does not need to know full scale Linux , storage or network. Only few relevant concepts are required to manage the Exadata. 

Overall required skill for component wise in percentage as follows.

• 60% Database Administration
• 20% Cell Storage Administration
• 15% Linux Administration 
• 5% Miscellaneous (Infiniband, network, etc.)

You can follow our Exadata Certification Question Bank to achieve maximum success in your Exadata certification exam.