Which is better ASM or file system storage

Hi all, I need a urgent help from all u gr8 DBAs.
I have to give justification to my client that which is better to use between file based option ASM and why??
So can anyone give me some write up in this line?

Ok, how about this
Today's large databases demand minimal scheduled downtime, and DBAs are often required to manage multiple databases with an increasing number of database files. Automatic Storage Management lets you be more productive by making some manual storage management tasks obsolete.
The Oracle Database provides a simplified management interface for storage resources. Automatic Storage Management eliminates the need for manual I/O performance tuning. It simplifies storage to a set of disk groups and provides redundancy options to enable a high level of protection. Automatic Storage Management facilitates non-intrusive storage allocations and provides automatic rebalancing. It spreads database files across all available storage to optimize performance and resource utilization. It also saves time by automating manual storage tasks, which thereby increases their ability to manage more and larger databases with increased efficiency. Different versions of the database can interoperate with different versions of Automatic Storage Management. That is, any combination of release 10.1.x.y and 10.2.x.y for either the Automatic Storage Management instance or the database instance interoperate transparently.
http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14220/mgmt_db.htm

Similar Messages

ASM Vs File System - Who is best, Why and How ..

How the ASM is better than traditional file system ..? What is the reason behind oracle recommends ASM when we can achieve the same performance in traditional file system ...? Can some one throw some lights on this to understand the purpose of ASM in a better ways when comparing traditional file system.

ASM is better for two basic reasons.
Management and administration. It allows the DBA far better control, with features not found, when using a cooked file system. For example - you need to move the database from an old drive to a newly installed drive on the server. With ASM you can do this while the database is up, running and in-use.
Performance. ASM disks are block devices that are accessed using direct I/O. This bypasses a lot of moving parts that you will typically find in a cooked file system. Raw/direct disk I/O is faster than doing I/O via a kernel file system driver (that may or may not write that data to file on disk).
The con is that ASM is another s/w layer that needs to be installed, and which needs server resources to run. On the modern server, that is not a problem. It's not like running on a couple of sub Ghz CPUs with only 4Gb of system RAM. PCs today have more resources and faster resources than servers of a decade ago.
So there is not much reason for not using ASM.
I'm using ASM on all my database servers. From very small (dual core standalone) to large (12 node RAC). ASM has numerous times saved the proverbial day when there was storage issues, and required storage changes. I would need a lot of sound and hard convincing not to use ASM by default for an Oracle database in today's environment.

Asmca has grayed out Volumes and ASM Cluster File Systems 11.2.0.3

I've got a two node cluster which is up and running with the latest 11.2.0.3 grid install on Oracle Linux 6.3
I need to get a shared storage location I can use for File I/O testing, ASM looks like the solution with an ASM Cluster File System.
When I run asmca I do not have the ability to create these volumes or file systems as they are Grayed out.
I found some instructions on how to get it to work, and they said to use acfsload to start up the required daemons:
[root@oracleA bin]# ./acfsload start -s
ACFS-9459: ADVM/ACFS is not supported on this OS version: '2.6.39-300.17.3.el6uek.x86_64'
I installed Patches: 13146560, 14596051 - Which I thought would fix the problem. Rebooted after successfully applying the patches, but asmca still shows them greyed out
and not supported on this OS error persists.
I see some posts online saying to edit osds_acfslib.pm and update it to allow for the supported ORACLE version
Right now it shows: ($release =~ /^oraclelinux-release/))) # Oracle Linux
under /etc it only has oracle-release - could that have something to do with it not passing the check?
uname -r
2.6.39-300.17.3.el6uek.x86_64
From what I can tell this kernal should support asm..
Any help in getting these shared storage asm disks setup would be very helpful, oracleasm creates them and sees them fine for databases. Thanks.

Turns out the Kernel version 2.6.39 does not have support for the ASM Drivers for the ACFS mounting.
I'm going to have to use Oracle Linux 6.2 (instead of Oracle Linux 6.3) and rebuild my RAC to get a supported version of the drivers -> Kernel version 2.6.32
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/install.112/e16763/oraclerestart.htm#BGBGEDGA

Which is better? store files in the database or directly on the O.S.?

Hi,
i´m developing an application to manager files. which is better? store files in the database or directly on the O.S.? If i decide to store on database, i will use the BLOB data type but i have a doubt...the BLOB data type occupies the same space on database regardless of file size? there is another data type better?
Tks,
Fernando.

http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:1011065100346196442
Ask Tom has a bit of info to share on the topic. Have a read of this. :)

Question about a file system storage option for RAC on 10g

Hello everyone,
I am in the beginning of connecting our storage and switches, and building RAC on them but there is a little argument between our specialists.
We have two database servers(10g with OEL 5) to be clustered and two visible disk groups to each of those nodes. So question is can we choose only one disk group as a shared storage leaving the rest one as the redundant copy during database a creation window while installing the database. Because some of us argue that oracle database has a built-in capability to decide on what level of RAID we store our data.
Thank you for your help.

"some of us argue that oracle database has a built-in capability to decide on what level of RAID we store our data".
That statement is not true. Oracle has optional multiplexing for control files, redo logs, and archive logs but this is not enabled by default and Oracle will not automatically enable it. If you want redundancy of tables, indexes, temp, and undo you must provide this because Oracle does not offer it standard or as an option. You can achieve redundancy with RAID at the array level, or host based mirroring (like ASM redundancy groups or Linux mdadm). This can also depend on your file system because, I think, OCFS2 does not support host based mirroring (so you cannot use mdadm or lvm to mirror the storage if you are using OCFS2).
Redundancy is not required, but it is recommended if you are using hard disks because they are prone to failures. You can configure RAID 10 across all disks in the array and present this as one big LUN to the database server. If you have two storage arrays and you want to mirror the data across the two arrays, then present all of the devices as JBOD and use Linux mdadm to create your RAID group.
RAC requires shared storage. Maybe you have a NAS or SAN device, and you will present LUNs to the Oracle database servers. That is no problem. The problem is making those LUNs usable by Oracle RAC. When I used Oracle 10g RAC, I used the Linux raw device facility to manage these LUNs and make them ready for Oracle RAC. However, raw has been desupported. Today I would use either ASM or OCFS2. This has nothing to do with redundancy, this is just because you are using RAC.

ASM Vs File system

1. With file system, we were able to set some threshold alerts at the OS mount point level. Is this possible with ASM since it is a raw device at the OS level?
2. The ASM directories are logical and is visible ONLY at the oracle ASM level. True?
3. Is cold backup an option with ASM?
4. Is RMAN the only solution with ASM disks?
5. Are there any suggested Hardware snap/clone available for ASM storage?
Thanks for your insight on this.

KR wrote:
1. With file system, we were able to set some threshold alerts at the OS mount point level. Is this possible with ASM since it is a raw device at the OS level?
2. The ASM directories are logical and is visible ONLY at the oracle ASM level. True?
3. Is cold backup an option with ASM?
4. Is RMAN the only solution with ASM disks?
5. Are there any suggested Hardware snap/clone available for ASM storage?1. Not possible from an OS point-of-view. See earlier reply for workaround;
2. Yep, or use asmcmd (from the ASM ORACLE_HOME) or ftp
3. If you use RMAN to cold-backup: yes. You cannot use a regular backup to back up your devices, unless you have designated files as 'disks' to ASM (But who would want that?). In this case you should shut down ASM and backup the file system where these files reside.
4. Yes, it is.
5. That depends on your hardware configuration. It is possible to run ASM on concurrent/shared, host based mirrored volume groups/volumes. If you use SAN technology, you can always verify whether these options are available from the storage manufacturer. However, I would be really careful with these, always taking things down before taking snapshots/flashcopies/clones/whatever you call them.
HTH.
Arnoud Roth

RMAN copies to ASM and file system

I am on 11g Rel 1 trying to do an RMAN backup with 2 copies of my backup. One copy should go to ASM storage and the other should go to a regular file system.
My RMAN script is:
run {
configure default device type to disk;
set backup copies 2;
configure device type disk parallelism 16 backup type to compressed backupset;
configure channel device type disk format = '+ASMDG2/backups/%d_%T_%U_dump0.bck, /orabackups/oracle/%d_%T_%U_dump0_offload.bck' MAXPIECESIZE 60G;
configure controlfile autobackup on;
backup incremental level=0 database plus archivelog;
delete noprompt obsolete redundancy 1;
exit;
When the backup runs I get:
RMAN-03009: failure of backup command ....etc.
ORA-15124: ASM file name '+ASMDG2/backups/%d_%T_%U_dump0.bck, /orabackups/oracle/%d_%T_%U_dump0_offload.bck' containd invalid alias name...
What is the correct syntax to get the copies to be able to go to ASM disk and regular disk locations?

OK, I see that in the documentation this time. I'll try that for tonights backup and let you know how it works. I'm a bit concerned still because it looks like it wrote fine to the +ASMDG2 location. I would have thought the whole backup would fail but I guess it was able to read the first path...

Advantages of Oracle ASM Cluster File Systems (ACFS)

Hi
configured 11g Rel 2 Grid Infr , ASM instance and the database on linux x86_64 bit
when I started asmca, i noticed that there are no volumes configured
Need to know what are the advantages of configuring volumes,
[root@vmorarac2 init.d]# lsmod
Module Size Used by
oracleacfs 1613902 0
oracleadvm 220326 0
oracleoks 279693 2 oracleacfs,oracleadvm
oracleasm 48660 1
thanks

Need to know what are the advantages of configuring volumes,ACFS files system will available once you'll configure volume.
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e18951/asmfs_util002.htm#CACGFHAA

Asm vs Fil system

Hi all
i saw this has been discussed here already,
well I think I will try and go for the Asm,
the machine is linux OS red hat.
my question is:
does asm uses async io ? - or do I need to use file system in order to use async io?
do I need on 10g to relink oracle to get async io as was in 9i ?
Thanks
Sahar

ASM uses asyncIO if your OS supports async (most do). ASM is far superior to filesystem with respect to manageability.
Use ASM !

Why would anyone want to use ASM Clustered File system?

DB Version: 11gR2
OS : Solaris, AIX, HP-UX
I've read about the new feature ACFS.
http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/11g/ACFS_11gR2.php
But why would anyone want to store database binaries in a separate Filesystem created by Oracle?

Hi Vitamind,
how do these binaries interact with the CPU when they want something to be done?
ACFS should work with Local OS (Solaris) to communicate with the CPU . Isn't this kind of double work?ACFS dont work with .... but provide filesystem to Local S.O
There may be extra work, but that's because there are more resources that a common filesystem.
Oracle ACFS executes on operating system platforms as a native file system technology supporting native operating system file system application programming interfaces (APIs).
ACFS is a general purpose POSIX compliant cluster file system. Being POSIX compliant, all operating system utilities we use with ext3 and other file systems can also be used with Oracle ACFS given it belongs to the same family of related standards.
ACFS Driver Model
An Oracle ACFS file system is installed as a dynamically loadable vendor operating system (OS) file system driver and tool set that is developed for each supported operating system platform. The driver is implemented as a Virtual File System (VFS) and processes all file and directory operations directed to a specific file system.
It makes sense you use the ACFS if you use some of the features below:
• Oracle RAC / RAC ONE NODE
• Oracle ACFS Snapshots
• Oracle ASM Dynamic Volume Manager
• Cluster Filesystem for regular files
ACFS Use Cases
• Shared Oracle DB home
• Other “file system” data
• External tables, data loads, data extracts
• BFILES and other data customer chooses not to store in db
• Log files (consolidates access)
• Test environments
• Copy back a previous snapshot after testing
• Backups
• Snapshot file system for point-intime backups
• General purpose local or cluster file system
• Leverage ASM manageability
Note : Oracle ACFS file systems cannot be used for an Oracle base directory or an Oracle grid infrastructure home that contains the software for Oracle Clusterware, Oracle ASM, Oracle ACFS, and Oracle ADVM components.
Regards,
Levi Pereira

ASM and file system combination

Hi everyone -
OK, this may sound a bit crazy, but it's the situation I'm facing and I really need your help and opinion before I do something stupid.
I am using ASM on a SAN to manage my DATA tablespace (contains all the user data, including BLOBs). The ASM takes up all the disk space on the SAN except for what's left over from the disks allocated for the SAN OS. Basically, I have 941GB free space on the disks allocated the the SAN OS. Now, I need more space for my DATA tablespace, but can't afford to buy more disks at the moment (spent all my money on this SAN). I want to use the 941GB of unused disk space from the SAN OS disks for my DATA tablespace. But these disks are obviously not using ASM, and my current DATA tablespace is completely inside ASM.
So the 6 million dollar question is . . . Can I add a "filesystem" datafile to an existing ASM tablespace? For example:
Tablespace DATA is currently managed by ASM. Can I do
SQL> alter tablespace DATA add datafile '/ora1/oradata/orcl/DATA_FS_01.DBF' size 1024M;
So essentially I'll have part of the tablespace managed by ASM and another part residing on a traditional file system datafile.
What do you think? Is this possible? Advisable? The worst thing I could do? Ok to do?
Thanks in advance
a

OK, I see that in the documentation this time. I'll try that for tonights backup and let you know how it works. I'm a bit concerned still because it looks like it wrote fine to the +ASMDG2 location. I would have thought the whole backup would fail but I guess it was able to read the first path...

ASM Cluster File System

Hi Xperts
I have a two nodes RAC and I need to create a Shared filesystem between the nodes, so I think in using ACFS, the problem is when I open ASMCA the ACFS tab is disable and I´m not able to start the ACFS driver. So I want to be sure that I won´t be able to use ACFS or if I am missing something.
I execute this:
[root@MPE66 bin]# ./acfsload start -s
ACFS-9459: ADVM/ACFS is not supported on this OS version: '2.6.39-300.26.1.el5uek'
[root@MPE66 bin]#
[root@MPE66 bin]# ./acfsdriverstate -orahome /u01/app/11.2.0.3/grid installed
ACFS-9204: false
[root@MPE66 bin]#
My configuration:
[root@ MPE66 bin]# cat /etc/*-release
Enterprise Linux Enterprise Linux Server release 5.9 (Carthage)
Oracle Linux Server release 5.9
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.9 (Tikanga)
[root@ MPE66 bin]#
[root@ MPE66 bin]# uname -a
Linux MPE66.xxxxx.net 2.6.39-300.26.1.el5uek #1 SMP Thu Jan 3 18:31:38 PST 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@ MPE66 bin]#
Grid and RDBMS= 11.2.0.3
Regards

Hi
I read the metalink Note but I still have the same problem:
[root@MPE66bin]#
[root@MPE66bin]# ./acfsroot install
ACFS-9459: ADVM/ACFS is not supported on this OS version: '2.6.39-300.26.1.el5uek'
[root@MPE66bin]# ./acfsroot enable
ACFS-9459: ADVM/ACFS is not supported on this OS version: '2.6.39-300.26.1.el5uek'
[root@MPE66bin]#
I think I am going to install and configure OCFS
Regards

DNFS with ASM over dNFS with file system - advantages and disadvantages.

Hello Experts,
We are creating a 2-node RAC. There will be 3-4 DBs whose instances will be across these nodes.
For storage we have 2 options - dNFS with ASM and dNFS without ASM.
The advantages of ASM are well known --
1. Easier administration for DBA, as using this 'layer', we know the storage very well.
2. automatic re-balancing and dynamic reconfiguration.
3. Stripping and mirroring (though we are not using this option in our env, external redundancy is provided at storage level).
4. Less (or no) dependency on storage admin for DB file related tasks.
5. Oracle also recommends to use ASM rather than file system storage.
Advantages of DNFS(Direct Network File System) ---
1. Oracle bypasses the OS layer, directly connects to storage.
2. Better performance as user's data need not to be loaded in OS's kernel.
3. It load balances across multiple network interfaces in a similar fashion to how ASM operates in SAN environments.
Now if we combine these 2 options , how will be that configuration in terms of administration/manageability/performance/downtime in future in case of migration.
I have collected some points.
In favor of 'NOT' HAVING ASM--
1. ASM is an extra layer on top of storage so if using dNFS ,this layer should be removed as there are no performance benefits.
2. store the data in file system rather than ASM.
3. Stripping will be provided at storage level (not very much sure about this).
4. External redundancy is being used at storage level so its better to remove ASM.
points for 'HAVING' ASM with dNFS --
1. If we remove ASM then DBA has no or very less control over storage. He can't even see how much is the free space left as physical level.
2. Stripping option is there to gain performance benefits
3. Multiplexing has benefits over mirroring when it comes to recovery.
(e.g, suppose a database is created with only 1 controlfile as external mirroring is in place at storage level , and another database is created with 2 copies (multiplexed within Oracle level), and an rm command was issued to remove that file then definitely there will be a time difference between restoring the file back.)
4. Now familiar and comfortable with ASM.
I have checked MOS also but could not come to any conclusion, Oracle says --
"Please also note that ASM is not required for using Direct NFS and NAS. ASM can be used if customers feel that ASM functionality is a value-add in their environment. " ------How to configure ASM on top of dNFS disks in 11gR2 (Doc ID 1570073.1)
Kindly advise which one I should go with. I would love to go with ASM but If this turned out to be a wrong design in future, I want to make sure it is corrected in the first place itself.
Regards,
Hemant

I agree, having ASM on NFS is going to give little benefit whilst adding complexity. NAS will carrying out mirroring and stripping through hardware where as ASM using software.
I would recommend DNFS only if NFS performance isn't acceptable as DNFS introduce an additional layer with potential bugs! When I first used DNFS in 11gR1, I came across lots of bugs and worked with Oracle Support to have them all resolved. I recommend having read of this metalink note:
Required Diagnostic for Direct NFS Issues and Recommended Patches for 11.1.0.7 Version (Doc ID 840059.1)
Most of the fixes have been rolled into 11gR2 and I'm not sure what the state of play is on 12c.
Hope this helps
ZedDBA

ASM RMAN backup to File System

Hi all,
I have a rman backup (datafile and controlfile) which was took in an ASM instance (not a RAC) ORACLE 11.2.0.2 in a Linux server, now I want restore the backup in a new database in windows/Linux OS using general File System storage (single instance rdbms) instead of ASM.
Is this possible?
Can I restrore an ASM rman backup in a file system storage mechanisim in a new server?
Kindly clarify my question.
Thanks in Advance..
Nonuday

Nonuday wrote:
Hi Levi,
Thanks for your invaluable script and blog.
can you clarify me on this query:
I have a RMAN backup taken from ASM and the backup is database and controlf file backup which contains datafiles and controlfiles.
Now I need to restore this on my system and here I dont use ASM or archive log, I use single instance in no archive log mode database.
I have restored the control file from the RMAN controfile backup.
Before restoring the control file I have checked the orginal pfile of the backup database which had parameters like
'db_create_file_dest',
'db_create_online_log_dest',
'db_recovery_file_dest_size',
'db_recovery_dest',
'log_archive_dest'.
Since I am not gng to create a DB in no archive log mode, I didnt use any of the above parameters and created a database.
Now my question is:
If i restore the database and the datafile will get restored and after renaming all the logfiles, database will be opened.
I want to know whether this method is correct or wrong and will the database work as it was working previously. Or do i need create the db_file_recovery and other parameters also for this database.About Parameter:
All these parameters should reflect your current environment any reference to the old environment must be modified.
About Filesystem used:
Does not matter what Filesystem you are using the File (datafile/redolog/controlfile/archivelog/backuppiece) are created on Binary Format which depend on Platform only. So, The same binary file ( e.g datafile) have same format and content on raw device, ASM, ext3, ext2, and so on. So, to database it's only a location where file are stored, but the file are the same. ASM has a different architecture from Regular Filesystem and need be managed in a different manner (i.e using RMAN).
About Database:
Since your database files are the same even using different filesystem what you need is rename your datafiles/redofiles on controlfile during restore, the redo files will be recreated.
So, does not matter if you database are noarchivelog or archivelog, the same way which you will do a restore on ASM is the same way to restore on Regular Filesystem. (it's only about renaming database file on controlfile during restore)
On blog the post "How Migrate All Files on ASM to Non-ASM (Unix/Linux)" is about move the file from filesystem to another. But you can modify the script used to restore purposes;
## set newname tell to RMAN where file will be restored and keep this files location on memory buffer
RMAN> set newname for datafile 1 to <location>;
### swich get list of files from memory buffer (rman) and rename on controlfile the files already restored.
RMAN>switch datafile/tempfile all ;With database mounted use this script below:
I just commented three lines that are unnecessary in your case.
SET serveroutput ON;
DECLARE
vcount NUMBER:=0;
vfname VARCHAR2(1024);
CURSOR df
IS
    SELECT file#,
      rtrim(REPLACE(name,'+DG_DATA/drop/datafile/','/u01/app/oracle/oradata/drop/'),'.0123456789') AS name
    FROM v$datafile;
CURSOR tp
IS
    SELECT file#,
      rtrim(REPLACE(name,'+DG_DATA/drop/tempfile/','/u01/app/oracle/oradata/drop/'),'.0123456789') AS name
    FROM v$tempfile;
BEGIN
-- dbms_output.put_line('CONFIGURE CONTROLFILE AUTOBACKUP ON;'); ### commented
FOR dfrec IN df
LOOP
    IF dfrec.name != vfname THEN
      vcount      :=1;
      vfname     := dfrec.name;
    ELSE
      vcount := vcount+1;
      vfname:= dfrec.name;
    END IF;
-- dbms_output.put_line('backup as copy datafile ' || dfrec.file# ||' format "'||dfrec.name ||vcount||'.dbf";'); ### commented
END LOOP;
dbms_output.put_line('run');
dbms_output.put_line('{');
FOR dfrec IN df
LOOP
    IF dfrec.name != vfname THEN
      vcount      :=1;
      vfname     := dfrec.name;
    ELSE
      vcount := vcount+1;
      vfname:= dfrec.name;
    END IF;
    dbms_output.put_line('set newname for datafile ' || dfrec.file# ||' to '''||dfrec.name ||vcount||'.dbf'' ;');
END LOOP;
FOR tprec IN tp
LOOP
    IF tprec.name != vfname THEN
      vcount      :=1;
      vfname     := tprec.name;
    ELSE
      vcount := vcount+1;
      vfname:= tprec.name;
    END IF;
    dbms_output.put_line('set newname for tempfile ' || tprec.file# ||' to '''||tprec.name ||vcount||'.dbf'' ;');
    END LOOP;
      dbms_output.put_line('restore database;');
    dbms_output.put_line('switch tempfile all;');
    dbms_output.put_line('switch datafile all;');
    dbms_output.put_line('recover database;');
    dbms_output.put_line('}');
---   dbms_output.put_line('alter database open;'); ### comented because you need rename your redologs on controlfile before open database
    dbms_output.put_line('exit');
END;
/After restore you must rename your redologs on controlfile from old location to new location:
e.g
## use this query to get current location of redolog
SQL> select group#,member from v$logfile order by 1;
## and change from <old_location> to <new_location>
SQL > ALTER DATABASE
RENAME FILE '+DG_TSM_DATA/tsm/onlinelog/group_3.263.720532229'
           TO '/u01/app/oracle/oradata/logs/log3a.rdo' When you change all redolog on controlfile issue command below:
SQL> alter database open resetlogs;PS: Always track database in real time using alert log file of database.
HTH,
Levi Pereira

How to converrt files on RAW devices in ASM to non ASM file system.

Hi all,
I have on problem .
Is that possible to migrate ASM raw files system to non ASM file .
If possible plzz describe them.
If not also please tell y not?
Thanks in addvance
Regards
Krishna

Hi,
I totally agree with Mahir. And I just want to share one thing:
Use %U to generate guaranteed unique names :
For backupsets, %U means: %u_%p_%c
For an image copy of a datafile, %U means: data-D-%d_id-%I_TS-%N_FNO-%f_%u
For an image copy of an archived redolog, %U means: arch-D_%d-id-%I_S-%e_T-%h_A-%a_%u
For an image copy of a control file, %U means: cf-D_%d-id-%I_%u
Thank you

Which is better ASM or file system storage

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