The first time I examined the Oracle Database 12c architecture, I wasn’t quite sure what
I thought about the Container Database (CDB). In the current release of the
Oracle RDBMS, the administrator now has a choice of whether or not to employ a
CDB.
Bundling Databases Inside One Container
In today’s IT industry, consolidation is a common challenge.
With potentially hundreds of databases to manage and maintain, an administrator
will require a great deal of time and resources to upgrade and patch software. Why
not consider deploying a container database to streamline this activity? By “bundling” several databases together
inside one container, in the form of a pluggable database, we can save on
overhead process resources and CPU time. Furthermore, we can reduce the human effort required for
periodically patching and maintaining the software.
Minimizing Storage
Most IT professionals understand the concept of storage, as
in solid state or non-rotating. Let’s take
one-to-many databases and “plug” them into ONE designated container database. We can minimize many redundant pieces that
would otherwise require separate storage and architecture, as was the case in
previous releases of the Oracle RDBMS. The data dictionary can be housed and
shared in one CDB, with individual metadata content for each pluggable
database. We also won’t need as many
background processes either, thus reducing the overhead cost of the CPU
resource.
Improve Security Levels within Each Pluggable Database
We can now segregate the CDB-administrator role from that
of the pluggable-database administrator as well, achieving improved security
levels within each pluggable database and within the CDB. And if the administrator chooses to use the
non-CDB architecture, everything is backwards compatible, too.
The bottom line: it's a good idea to at least consider using a CDB.
-Christopher Andrews, Senior Principal Instructor,
Oracle University
