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# Preface

This guide describes Oracle Big Data Appliance, which is used for acquiring, organizing, and analyzing very large data sets. It includes information about hardware operations, site planning and configuration, and physical, electrical, and environmental specifications.

This preface contains the following topics:

- Audience

- Related Documentation

- Conventions

- Backus-Naur Form Syntax

## Audience

This guide is intended for Oracle Big Data Appliance customers and those responsible for data center site planning, installation, configuration, and maintenance of Oracle Big Data Appliance.

## Related Documentation

Oracle Big Data Appliance Documentation Library

In the `Big Data Documentation Portal` of the Oracle Help Center, you can find a link to the complete Oracle Big Data Appliance library for your release of the product. The library includes the following core documents as well as documents for products that are used in conjunction with Oracle Big Data Appliance:

- Oracle Big Data Appliance Owner’s Guide (this guide)

- Oracle Big Data Appliance Software User’s Guide

- Oracle Big Data Connectors User’s Guide

- Oracle Big Data Appliance Safety and Compliance Guide

- Oracle Big Data Appliance Licensing Information User Manual

Note:

The Oracle Big Data Appliance Licensing Information User Manual is the consolidated reference for licensing information for Oracle and third-party software included in the Oracle Big Data Appliance product. Refer to this manual or contact Oracle Support if you have questions about licensing.

Documentation for Affiliated Products

The following Oracle libraries contain hardware information for Oracle Big Data Appliance. Links to these libraries are available through the Big Data Documentation Portal at

`https://docs.oracle.com/en/bigdata/`

- Oracle Server X5-2L library:

  `http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E41033_01/`

- Sun Rack II 1042 and 1242 library:

  `http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19844-01/`

- Sun Network QDR InfiniBand Gateway Switch library:

- `http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E26699_01/index.html`

- Sun Datacenter InfiniBand Switch 36 library:

  `http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E26698_01/index.html`

- Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager (ILOM) 3.1 library:

  `http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24707_01/index.html`

## Conventions

The following text conventions are used in this document:

Convention | Meaning
--- | ---
boldface | Boldface type indicates graphical user interface elements associated with an action, or terms defined in text or the glossary.
italic | Italic type indicates book titles, emphasis, or placeholder variables for which you supply particular values.
`monospace` | Monospace type indicates commands within a paragraph, URLs, code in examples, text that appears on the screen, or text that you enter.
`#` prompt | The pound (`#`) prompt indicates a command that is run as the Linux `root` user.

## Backus-Naur Form Syntax

The syntax in this reference is presented in a simple variation of Backus-Naur Form (BNF) that uses the following symbols and conventions:

Symbol or Convention | Description
--- | ---
[ ] | Brackets enclose optional items.
{ } | Braces enclose a choice of items, only one of which is required.
| | A vertical bar separates alternatives within brackets or braces.
... | Ellipses indicate that the preceding syntactic element can be repeated.
delimiters | Delimiters other than brackets, braces, and vertical bars must be entered as shown.
boldface | Words appearing in boldface are keywords. They must be typed as shown. (Keywords are case-sensitive in some, but not all, operating systems.) Words that are not in boldface are placeholders for which you must substitute a name or value.