Roving Edge Infrastructure FAQ

The key component of Oracle Roving Edge Infrastructure is the Roving Edge Device (RED)—a high-powered and portable server node that physically brings core IaaS services to the edge.

Each RED:

• Is encased in a military-grade, ruggedized case that provides electromagnetic protections to limit emanations and interference.
• Comes in a 3U form factor and weighs 84 lbs.
• Contains 40 OCPUs, includes an embedded graphics processing unit (GPU), and provides more than 60 TB of raw NVMe storage.

A RED Cluster is 5 to 15 nodes networked together via a layer 2 switch and provided as part of the Roving Edge Cluster Kit. Clusters provide increased capacity and durability.

To be eligible for Oracle Roving Edge Infrastructure, you must have a Universal Credits agreement with an Annual Commitment or Funded Allocation. Your account must be in good standing and have at least 120 days remaining on the contract, and you (or someone authorized in your institution) must have agreed to the Terms and Conditions as part of your ordering document.

Users with policies that allow access to edge resources will be able to request and configure RED nodes and clusters via a workflow in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console. Using the console, you can select custom virtual machine (VM) images and object storage buckets of data from your tenancy to have loaded onto your RED node or cluster. You may build custom VMs with applications by using existing licenses for apps such as Oracle Database or Oracle Analytics . The Oracle Roving Edge Infrastructure cloud service verifies your selected configuration to ensure it can fit onto the node or cluster.

When you submit the request for approval, Oracle validates your eligibility to receive the RED(s), provisions them with your workloads and then either ships to the address you specified when creating the request or makes it available for pickup from the Oracle data center by a courier service of your choice. You can track the status of your request using either the Console or CLI.

When you receive your node or cluster, you simply power the device(s) up, configure the network settings, and connect to your local network. After basic configuration you can run your workloads on the RED. With Roving Edge Infrastructure, you can also synchronize object storage data between your RED nodes and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure tenancy when a bidirectional network connection is available.

Consider using Roving Edge Infrastructure where cloud capabilities are required in remote locations that are completely disconnected or have intermittent or latent WAN connections.

When deployed in clusters with sufficient storage and compute capacity to perform cloud processing locally and without network dependencies, Roving Edge Infrastructure can act as a semi-permanent, long-lived cloud installation in remote locations such as command and control centers.

You can use Roving Edge Devices to locally process large amounts of streaming data due to time sensitivity requirements and inherently latent WAN connections. You can deploy cloud compute capabilities at the edge to process the data locally, virtually eliminating latency.

The Roving Edge Device is also useful at locations where data generated by equipment and sensors needs to be processed quickly to detect events or anomalies. You can deploy individual nodes to run near real-time analysis on location, periodically synchronizing some or all data with your Oracle Cloud Infrastructure tenancy. This is highly relevant in intelligence (air reconnaissance), medical imaging (mobile CT scanning), oil and gas surveys, and output quality control.

With Roving Edge Infrastructure, you can develop, deploy, and maintain your applications and data in the cloud and then deploy them to the edge as needed.

Roving Edge Infrastructure service is supported in US-Gov-Ashburn-1 (RIC), US-Gov-Phoenix-1 (TUS), US-Langley-1 (LFI), US-Luke-1 (LUK), with plans to roll into other regions over the coming months.

Oracle Roving Edge Infrastructure is priced per day of possession of a RED node or cluster, with a minimum lease term of 30 days possession. While in your possession, you have unlimited use of the on-box services and resources.

Rover is a subscription service billed under the Funded Allocation Model (FAM). Billing will be metered per day of possession of equipment.

1.  Roving Edge Device (RED)–single node, priced at $160 per node per day.

2.  Roving Edge Cluster Kit–for clusters: in addition to the nodes the kit will include a network switch and cabling priced at $40 per kit per day.

You may keep the REDs for as long as you have an eligible account and sufficient Funded Allocation or Universal Credits to pay for the lease of the device(s). The minimum possession is 30 days.

The time it takes to provision depends on the amount of data and the number of objects being transferred, and the availability of RED nodes. The number of Roving Edge Infrastructure devices in queue for processing can also impact how quickly your workloads are provisioned.

Please refer to the Command Line Interface Requirements.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure compatible images from your cloud tenancy can be loaded onto your RED. Both Linux (Oracle Linux, Ubuntu, and CentOS) and Windows images are supported. Solaris images are not supported.

To import custom images you first create the Roving Edge Device node or cluster and then use the add workloads option. This also is how buckets of objects are imported to your device.

Each RED includes object storage and block storage. Object storage is recommended for unstructured data. Block storage is recommended for high performance, transactional applications such as Oracle Enterprise Edition, Oracle GoldenGate, and Oracle Analytics Server. Each node has more than 60 TB of raw NVMe capacity.

Boundaries allow you to limit the set of objects you wish to select from the cloud bucket to provision onto RED(s). The following parameters are available to limit data included:

prefix - The string to use for matching against the start of object names in a list query
start - Object names returned by a list query must be greater or equal to this parameter
end - Object names returned by a list query must be strictly less than this parameter

These parameters are same as the Object API ListObjects parameters.

Data Synchronization is the bidirectional (upload/download) synchronization of your data to and from your tenancy when connectivity is available to your home region. From the Roving Edge Device Console, you create a Data Sync Task and select the compartment and buckets you wish to sync and in which direction. The Data Sync Tasks you create can be started automatically or on demand and remain available to reuse from the RED console.

To prevent accidental object overwrite, we recommend that you enable object versioning for each bucket in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure you are data syncing to.

If an object is being data synced into a bucket and the bucket already has an object of the same name, the object fails to sync, and the existing object remains intact. The sync failure status of the object is logged in the summary report.

Yes. Oracle rigorously maintains the state change of the Roving Edge Device as it moves through the provisioning workflow. You can review the status using the Console or the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure CLI.

Each RED is shipped in its ruggedized case and special packaging designed to provide sufficient protection against the demands of traditional transportation.

In the unlikely event of a RED being lost in transit, all data stored on the Roving Edge Infrastructure is always fully encrypted and the device is shipped in a locked state which requires a special code to unlock and operate.

Yes, you can request either a single node or a cluster of 5 to 15 nodes. You can only request one node or one cluster of nodes at a time.

Files up to 5 TiB can be provisioned onto a RED. Files larger than 5 TiB are skipped in the import process.

Roving Edge supports file names up to 1024 characters for upload into the Object Storage bucket.

Once the device is returned, Oracle will perform a secure wipe process. After each use, the RED is securely wiped using industry-standard processes before the appliance is returned to usable inventory. The secure wipe erasure process follows the NIST 800-88 standards.

All data stored on the RED is fully encrypted using AES-256 encryption and the nodes are shipped in a locked state. You may also elect to have a designated courier of your choice pick up your Roving Edge Device(s) from the Oracle data center.

Oracle pays to ship the Roving Edge Devices to you within the continental USA. You are responsible for the shipping costs back to Oracle.

If you believe that your Roving Edge Infrastructure appliance is lost in transit, immediately file an Oracle Service Request.