The Delphix Engine 4.0 provides a wealth of features, bug fixes, and performance improvements.
Support for PostgreSQL database virtualization is new in Delphix Engine 4.0. Existing Delphix workflows are supported, including Linking, VDB Provisioning, VDB Refresh, VDB Rewind, and V2P.
In this release, the Delphix Engine is able to convert Oracle Unix databases to the Linux platform. This feature automates Oracle's recommended procedures for platform conversion using Oracle's Transportable Tablespace feature. Converted Linux databases require only about 1% of the storage space that would be required on physical. See the Cross-Platform Provisioning of Oracle dSources: Overview for details on how to provision a Linux VDB from an Oracle Unix database.
This feature is only available in the Delphix Modernization Engine product. Contact sales@delphix.com for more information about licensing this product.
In the previous release, the Delphix Engine’s support of Oracle Enterprise Business Suite (EBS) was limited to virtualizing the database. Database virtualization significantly reduced the storage and time required to clone EBS, but left the cloning and configuration of the application binaries as separate, manual steps.
In this release, the Delphix Engine adds support for virtualizing the full EBS application stack including the application binaries, configuration files and database. Virtualizing EBS with the Delphix Engine means the entire cloning process can be managed through one appliance and the amount of time and storage required to provision a new application instance is minimized.
For more detailed information on how to virtualize the Oracle Enterprise Business Suite, see topics under Virtualizing Oracle Enterprise Business Suite.
In the previous release, the Delphix Engine allowed you to specify pre-/post- scripts to run as part of the virtual database provision process. You could customize and automate processes coupled with virtual database provisions.
In this release, the Delphix Engine augments this feature by introducing Hooks operations: ordered lists of operations which run with the virtual dataset refresh and provision processes. Hooks improve on pre-/post scripts functionality by giving you finer-grained control over when and how customized scripts execute during the provision and refresh processes.
For more detailed information on how to use Hook operations, see topics under Customizing Oracle and PostgreSQL VDB Management with Hook Operations.
In this release, the Delphix Engine expands its data management functionality beyond the database. Similar to how the Delphix Engine manages database data, you can now link an arbitrary directory of files on an UNIX environment and provision a virtual copy to a target environment. Each virtual copy uses almost no extra space on the Delphix Engine and requires minimal time to provision.
For more detailed information on how to use unstructured file virtualization, see topics under Managing Files Sources and Provisioning Virtual Files.
Oracle SnapSync has been rewritten to take advantage of the Delphix Session Protocol (DSP) which provides greater resiliency, configurability, and control over the SnapSync process. The redesign provides increased robustness and better supportability, improved throughput and reduced bandwidth usage through compression, enhanced security with session authentication and optional encryption, and resource management via user configurable bandwidth throttling.
For more detailed information see the knowledge base article Changes to Oracle SnapSync (login required) and the documentation topic Network Operations Using the Delphix Session Protocol.
Oracle V2P has been rewritten to take advantage of the Delphix Session Protocol (DSP) which provides greater resiliency, configurability, and control over the V2P process. As with SnapSync, the redesign provides increased robustness and better supportability, improved throughput and reduced bandwidth usage through compression, and enhanced security with session authentication and optional encryption.
For more detailed information see the documentation topic Network Operations Using the Delphix Session Protocol.
A new Performance Analytics screen is available under the Resources menu. This allows Delphix users to monitor and analyze the performance characteristics of the Delphix Engine, and includes graphs for CPU utilization, and I/O statistics for disk, network, NFS, and iSCSI. See the topic Working with Performance Analytics Graphs in the Graphical User Interface for details.
This screen replaces the content that was once available under the Performance screen.
The Delphix Engine upgrade process has been enhanced in 4.0 to include a workflow that automates tasks that were previously done manually. When applying an upgrade image that requires a reboot, enabled VDBs are now automatically disabled prior to shutdown, and automatically re-enabled upon booting to the new version. Other tasks are performed automatically as well, such as suspending running jobs, disabling replication specs, and ensuring that users are not logged in while upgrade is ongoing. See the Upgrading the Delphix Engine for additional details.