Requirement

Migrate 100+ Oracle databases from X7 Exadata's to Australia's first X10M Exadata. At the same time, cater for change in network restrictions, change of Oracle Linux version, cater for the new Commvault backup processes and right the wrongs of the past by fixing poor and incorrect configurations.

Why did they engage Corvus IT ?

There were 2 primary reasons why the client, a Federal Agency chose Corvus IT to perform this work. Firstly, the commercial model. Our commercial models reflect the trust that clients place in Corvus IT. This is achieved through transparency. Our experience over the past 7 years reveals that Fixed Price projects give a false hope of budget certainty for clients, and instead we work with flexible engagement models that allows clients to budget, forecast and deal with unexpected discoveries. However, these models only work with the 2nd key reason that the client trusted us with this engagement. Expertise. We demonstrated in a short period of time the ability to understand the client's current challenges and started delivering improvements to the current environment. It is not about knowing everything. You don't need to be an Oracle ACE to deliver a new Exadata. It is the process of listening and learning how to work with different people of a client and engaging in an effective manner that brings joint success. We also strive for an enjoyable work environment for both the client and our own people.

The Engagement

The project commenced before the new Exadata's were even ordered, therefore we got the opportunity to provide our input on the BoM and worked closely with the client on what the new world would look like. The current environment was memory and storage constrained and the new environment was to deliver big improvements. This just does not land in your lap, it is a result of due diligence and work that unfortunately can be left too late in infrastructure migration projects. We place Importance on software inventories and what changes will take place.

In the case of this engagement, we designed and built automation to establish the key configurations of the multiple databases across the Exadata's. This saved the client in excess of 30 of days of manual effort and resulted in consistent creation of installations that were documented in a simple manner therefore eliminating mistakes. Not only does this deliver accuracy, but it also delivers satisfaction to our people, avoiding the mundane repetition of establishing environments over and over is something worth avoiding. This also allowed a smaller project team, so knowledge was concentrated and this led to incredible efficiency.

An important piece to success was strong engagement with the network teams and application stakeholders. Whilst it is not possible to meet everyone's needs, we established strong lines of communication throughout test migrations and production cutovers.

Through strong engagement with both business and IT stakeholders, we were able to identify improvements for a lot of systems and made deployments more uniform thus delivering a more predictable support experience.

The Outcomes

The Project was delivered over-time due to constraints of the project start being before XMas and delays in business availability for performing particular tasks; however the project was 10% under budget from the original estimates. The client now has much more headroom in performance and storage capacity whilst we also delivered improvements such as:

• Environment placement consistency - the prior layout had a mixture of non-replicated productions, and a spread of non-production instances across the Exadata's. We ensured that the final design was consistent and optimised.
• Configuration consistency
• Deployment of Commvault and other software agents
• Implementation of Oracle Enterprise Manager Agents in a secured VM layout subject to network isolation. Easier said than done.
• Oracle Linux 7 to Oracle Linux 8
• Oracle OVM (Xen based virtualisation) to KVM based virtualisation.

Not only did the Project deliver a tremendous amount of faith in our own abilities and effectiveness, but it lifted the business's faith in the capability of the internal IT business to deliver strategic outcomes to the client. The end result is the client has an optimised new set of infrastructure that will serve them on the next 5 years of growth and initiatives. If you are migrating to a new Exadata or from an Exadata to another platform including any cloud, Contact us to learn how we can help you avoid the pitfalls and complexities of Exadata and supplement your teams to achieve strategic outcomes.

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