In this blog post series, we are looking at noteworthy enhancements to the Oracle Multitenant option of the Oracle Database in 12.1.0.2. In the previous post, we looked at the CREATE_FILE_DEST clause.
Database 12.1.0.2 also introduced the Database In-Memory option, and this is fully compatible with the Multi-tenant option. In fact, Database In-Memory works “better” with the Multi-tenant option. This is because if you consolidate multiple databases with Multi-tenant, then you free up server memory and CPU cycles. This can then be used by Database In-Memory.
Another new feature in Database 12.1.0.2 is called “Rapid Home Provisioning”. This allows Oracle homes to be deployed rapidly, based on gold images of pre-created homes that are stored in a catalog. The homes are called “Gold Images”, and can be database or middleware or application homes. A “working copy” can be made of the gold image, which can then be provisioned to any node in the cloud.
As a result, provisioning time of Oracle software can be reduced to a great extent. Homes can be updated simply by linkage. Internally, Oracle snapshot technology is used to reduce storage space and to improve the sharing of homes across clusters. Centralized management of Oracle Homes is the other benefit.
More details on Rapid Home Provisioning can be found in the documentation at this link, including the steps to set up a Rapid Home Provisioning Server and Client, adding Gold Images, and provisioning software.