New to Oracle 12c is the feature of multitenant databases or CBD/PDB implementation to add a form of Virtualization to the Oracle RDBMS world.    This new feature is designed to reduce the number of physical server machines currently required to house normal database suites.    It is fairly common to have a large number of small data stores in an organization to server various system needs and though the resource requirements of these data stores is relatively low, they still exist on a single VM or physical server.   CDB and PDB technology looks to resolve this issue by combining these databases into a single instance which appears to be stand-alone to the outside world.   This article lists and describes the benefits of a CDB/PDB implementation.

 

1. Database Consolidation – Multitenant Databases implementations can consolidate several small databases on separate servers into a CDB using one server. Allowing the organization to minimize the number of physical or virtual servers being used without reducing the number of application data stores being accessed.

 

2. Reduced Cost – Reduction in the number of physical and virtual machines in use saves money in hardware, labor costs, floor space, and a multitude of other ways.

 

 

3. Rapid Implementation – Implementation of a new data store or the movement of existing database is significantly reduced both in complexity and resource requirements. New PDB can be created on the fly to test various applications and removed when no longer needed.

 

4. Simplified Management – Reduced number of servers and database instances easies the burden placed on administrators and management to ensure proper operations of a data center. Thus allowing of an increased level of performance to end users.

 

5. Separation of administrative duties – Administration of the CDB and PDB are branched along resource lines where CDB control memory and processes and allocate them to various PDBs based on needs. CDB administration consists of managing performance related to OS and internal processes.  PDB administration is focused on performance related to application using the data store.   Thus creating a well-defined separation of administrative duties between CDB and PDB.   DBA responsible for CDB administration are focused on system/processes performance improvements and DBA responsible for individual PDB are focused on application implementation performance.

 

6. Simplified Patching – Patching/upgrade single CDB database which contains multiple PDBs and not multiple separate databases.

 

 

Larry Catt

OCP