How to Create a Virtual Database

Transcript: How to Create Virtual Database Copies with Delphix

In this demo, we'll take a look at how easy it is to create database copies with the Delphix data virtual platform In the Delphix interface, you see a sources group with the employee Oracle eleven gs database selected.

This d source is pointed at the production database for the HR application we just saw. In the middle of the screen, you can see the time flow with snapshots, which show the history of the data that Delphix has captured. From any of the snapshots, you can select the Log Sync icon for a more granular view of the history of the associated For example, you can see that in addition to the snapshot that I took at one thirty six, we also have information from that point in time up till just recently, three seventeen.

So we are constantly gathering data from the production database and recording those changes over time. When I'm ready to create a copy, I can select a very specific point in time. So in this example, I'll change the snapshot from one thirty six to two thirty PM. Then I'll launch the provision VDB icon to launch the provisioning wizard, which walks you through the steps to create a new Oracle database.

You don't need to be a database administrator or an Oracle expert to use the Delphix wizard. It's designed for anyone production database is running where the production database is running. Linux target is the only non production database server configured in this environment, So we'll choose that for provisioning. Then select the user on the operating system of the target environment and click next.

We'll enter the database unique name, database name, and SID to configure a new instance of the Oracle database.

Let's assume that we're creating a new database environment of the employee application for a software tester to QA, and we'll give all three the same name, QA DB.

Click next, and you'll see configuration options for naming the copy, which we refer to as a virtual database or VDB, as well for the target group, which we saw earlier on the left hand side, and for associating a masking job with this clone. On the next screen, we'll keep the default policy for when snapshots will be taken. Hooks are a powerful way for advanced users to automate information in Delphix. We won't use any for this example.

I'll review the summary screen and then click submit. Delphix takes over from here.

You can click on the action running at the top of the screen to see the status. There's a lot of powerful automation built into Delphix and provisioning the new virtual database happens very quickly, even with multi terabyte databases.

That's because when we provision it to a new environment, we're actually not moving anything around in terms of moving data across the network. And that's hugely powerful because without Delphix, it would take many hours. When the provisioning job finishes, it moves down here to recently completed. Now that we've provisioned the virtual database, I'll refresh the page for the QA environment to clear the error message, and we'll see the same data that we saw in the production database previously.

So that's an example of how easy it is to provision new database clones using Delphix. It can be done by just about anybody, and it can be done very quickly.