Exadata systems configured with Exascale can use Exascale Direct Volumes (EDV) to store virtual machine (VM) guest image files for Exadata database server VMs.

This capability removes previous constraints caused by the limited local storage space on each Exadata database server. It can be used regardless of whether the databases running inside each VM use native Exascale storage or Oracle ASM.

Furthermore, VM images on Exascale are easily accessible from any VM host. This effectively decouples VM guests and hosts, providing the infrastructure to enable quick and easy migration of a VM guest to another host.

Decoupling VM guests and hosts also opens up additional possibilities for:

• Balancing database server VM workloads by separating busy VMs onto different hosts.

• Reducing the impact of scheduled VM host maintenance by proactively moving VMs to another host.

• Reducing the impact of unscheduled VM host downtime by reactively moving VMs to another host.