On July 20, 2022, Oracle announced the general availability of Oracle Database Service for Microsoft Azure (ODSA).
It Easily Allows Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s Database service to provision, access, and operate in Azure Cloud.
Overview
It is a Hybrid & Multi-cloud Strategy, that can run mission-critical workloads on Cloud Database
Oracle Database Service for Azure offers:
- Oracle Exadata Database
- Autonomous Database
- Base Database: Using ODSA, users can deploy Oracle Enterprise Edition or Oracle Standard Edition 2 databases on virtual machine DB systems, and also deploy single-node systems or 2-node RAC systems.
Quick Highlights!
- ODSA service is built on the OCI-Azure Interconnect foundation.
- With the introduction of the ODSA service, the OCI database can now be treated as an Azure resource
- The service will automatically configure everything required to link the two Oracle and Azure cloud environments
- Users can send metrics, logs, and events for the OCI databases
- ODSA uses Azure tooling for unified telemetry and monitoring in the Azure environment
- Deploys an Oracle Enterprise application in your Azure tenancy
- Users can create custom roles in the application and custom groups in their tenant’s Azure Active Directory
- ODSA service builds a private tunnel between your Azure and OCI tenants
- Configures DNS on both sides
- Enable bi-directional communication between Azure application & OCI Database.
Features
Now let’s look at what are the features that will help customers to consider the ODSA for their organizations’ workloads:
- Guided deployment: Users can easily set up automation streamlines to link cloud accounts, connect virtual networks, and federate identity across OCI and Azure.
- Database service management: A familiar portal like Azure simplifies the management of Oracle Database from the Azure platform.
- Metrics and events in Azure: All the databases can be monitored using a dashboard. The metrics obtained from the dashboard are streamed to Azure Application Insights, and the events are provided to Log Analytics.
- Zero-cost service: This service is offered at no extra cost as there are no charges for the Interconnect ports or data ingress/egress over the Interconnect service. The billing will normally be for the consumption of Oracle Database services, such as Autonomous Database.
- Direct, low-latency connectivity: Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure provides latency of fewer than two milliseconds with no intermediaries required.
How Oracle Database Service for Azure works
The ODSA portal provides a well-organized experience to set up a low latency OCI-Azure connectivity, virtual networks, and federated identity management. Through Interconnect, database queries and query results are made possible. Database logs and metrics from OCI are incorporated into Azure to simplify monitoring and management.
Source: Oracle
Check the official Oracle Database Service for Azure documentation to know more about how to set up the working environment and how the two clouds will integrate with each other.
Signing Up for ODSA Service
To signup for the ODSA service follow the below steps:
Step 1: Visit the signup website and log in to your Azure account with your Azure credentials.
Step 2: Consent to the permissions required to enable the account linking with Azure
Step 3: After successful login, you will be redirected to the welcome page. From this page, select the deployment path of your choice (automated configuration or guided account linking) and start working!
Read more about the deployment options for Oracle Database Service on Azure account.
ODSA Use Cases
Here we will discuss two widely used scenarios where we can ODSA:
1.) Split-stack Azure & OCI Deployment
Azure customers can move from self-managed Oracle Database products to fully manage services that are appropriate for their workloads, meets availability requirements, and includes built-in backups.
Source: Oracle
2.) On-premises to multicloud architecture
ODSA delivers low-latency database access and high database-to-application throughput for on-premises workloads migrated to multi-cloud environments built on Azure and OCI, wherein such an architecture Azure applications can take advantage of high availability features and performance optimizations otherwise only available on OCI.
Source: Oracle
Read more about these use cases in the official Oracle blog.
Oracle Interconnect for Azure
- Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure provides organizations with an easy migration path to a multicloud environment that consists of Oracle Database capabilities like Oracle Exadata Database Service, Autonomous Database, and MySQL Heatwave.
- This low-latency, private connection between the two leading cloud vendors conveys flexible innovation while maximizing return on investment.
- Its pricing is port-based and there are no additional charges for bandwidth consumed because of these features, it enables customers to innovate and experiment using the best of the two cloud providers with seamless interoperability.
Read more about Oracle Interconnect for Azure
I hope you got some idea of what this integration means and how it will benefit you and others working on the Oracle Database & Azure platform. Stay tuned for more such content!!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What is the cost of Oracle Database Service for Azure?
A: The ODSA service is offered at no extra cost as there are no charges for the Interconnect ports or data ingress/egress over the Interconnect service. The billing will normally be for the consumption of Oracle Database services, such as Autonomous Database.
Q2: How do the Azure applications access the Oracles Database(s) provisioned in Oracle Database Service for Azure?
A: It is similar to the way done in Azure. Each database resource created by ODSA service gets an Azure connection string which can be used to connect to the database from any Azure application.
When used, Oracle Database Service for Azure creates network connections between the cloud environments. During database provisioning, it defines the DNS entries and connection strings required to access the resource from Azure. Azure developers don’t require any prior knowledge about Oracle Database Service for Azure, they only require the connection string. Oracle users publish the connection string on the custom dashboard created for the database in Azure, so developers don’t have to leave the Azure portal to get what they need to access the database from their applications.
Q3: Are all the features of the underlying Oracle Database services exposed via Oracle Database Service for Azure?
A: No. To reduce complexity, ODSA exposes only the most frequently used capabilities through the ODSA portal. So in case you need a capability that’s not exposed through the portal, you can access the database resource in OCI (whose link will be provided) and use the needed capability there.
Related/References
- Oracle Database Service for Microsoft Azure: Oracle Announcement Blog
- ODSA – Oracle blog
- Oracle Official Documentation: ODSA
- 1Z0-1072-22 Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 2022 Architect Associate: All You Need To Know About
- Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104) Exam: All You Need To Know About
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