Re: [suse-oracle] Oracle ASM driver for SLES 11

"Yann Neuhaus" <[email protected]> Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:21:05 +0100
Newsgroups gmane.linux.suse.oracle.general
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hi all,

Advantages of Asmlib
Limited number of RAW devices
Kernel 2.4 :-) 256 RAW devices - Kernel 2.6 :-) 8192 RAW devices
With AsmLib, no such limitation (or much higher)?
However, note that since 10.2 RAW devices are not really necessary anymore on Linux, since ASM disk groups can be created directly on block devices (directly on /dev/dX)
With ASMlib the disks are correctly released after having dropped a disk group (with block devices you must clean them (with dd))
RAW devices are part of the kernel / distribution, AsmLib is an addon from Oracle, not part of the kernel

Drawbacks :

Modules are kernel-dependent. After every kernel-upgrade, a new version of asmlib module must be installed
Without this module, it will be harder to access your data! (however it is still possible to “mount” the raw/block device in the Disk Group without ASMlib)
Before every kernel update, you have to download a suitable asmlib module from Oracle Technet. Maybe it is not yet available!

Best Regards

Yann

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-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] on behalf of Alexei_Roudnev
Sent: Mon 22/03/2010 20:49
To: Arturo Gutierrez
Cc: [email protected]; Arun Singh
Subject: Re: [suse-oracle] Oracle ASM driver for  SLES 11
 
Oracle supports ASM on normal disks since 10.2.0.4. So again, no one can 
explain me, why I need this piece of junk (ASMLib).

What I do is simple
- use aliases in 'multipath.conf'. SO disk1 always come as /dev/mapper/DISK1 
and so on.
- so we create files as /dev/mapper/DISK0 etc
- change disk search path to /dev.mapper/* and make sure (it may require 1 
change on older systesm) that ASM understand non-raw disks.
- make sure that oracle own these files
- use ASM over them.

Why I need one more leyer to do exactly the same?

Regarding CRS - yes, they suppoirt CRS on cluster file system (bad idea 
because OCFSv2 do nt share the master control with CRS / ASM) and on ASM,
so realistically ASM is the only option for it. I just created 2 disk ASM 
group for OCRFile and 3 disk ASM group for CSSFile when tested it.

PS> I am really tired of al this clueless changes in _what Oracle 
underastand and what do not_. Why could not they use normal block level 
disks for OCR and CSS (using ASM for cluster managemebt is, from any 
architecture point of view, a VERY BAD idea because you use higher layer to 
run lower layer - ASM is cluster file system, CRS is cluster manager, so it 
should not depend on any other clusterware).


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arturo Gutierrez" <[email protected]>
To: "Alexei_Roudnev" <[email protected]>
Cc: "Arun Singh" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2010 3:03 AM
Subject: Re: [suse-oracle] Oracle ASM driver for SLES 11


Thanks for the reply s.

Starting with 11g R2 , RAC installation offer only two options to store
OCR and Voting disks.
1. ASM Diskgroups
2.Supported clusters file systems.

Is not possible to specify raw or block devices directly in OUI screens.
Oracle has deprecated raw devices support as some Unix vendors.


Is true that ASMLIB is not mandatory and you can create ASM diskgroups
using a variate of devices types, including multi-path , raw partitions etc.
However, Oracle recommends install and configure ASMLIB. I think that
lun persist ency across different s changes at the storage level can
prevent bad functions in the drivers naming.

Best regards
Arturo

Alexei_Roudnev escribió:
> I really advise AGAINST ASMLib. IT is the piece of junk, technically 
> speaking, and Oracle works well on raw disks (10.2) or just normal disks 
> (11.1 and 11.2).
> But if someone prefer ASMLib it should be here in SLES11.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Arun Singh" <[email protected]>
> To: "Arturo Gutierrez" <[email protected]>; 
> <[email protected]>
> Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2010 10:37 AM
> Subject: Re: [suse-oracle] Oracle ASM driver for SLES 11
>
>
>>>>> On 3/6/2010 at 10:11 AM, Arturo Gutierrez
>>> Hello,
>>> I'm planning  a RAC instalation using Oracle RAC 11g R2 on SLE11 
>>> servers.
>>> I'like install ASMLIB to manage disks. However I read from Oracle web
>>> that the driver for SLES11 is built and distributed by Novell.
>>> Do you from where source can I download this driver?
>>
>> ASMLib driver is part of SLES11 distro i.e. no need to download, just put 
>> SLES11 DVD & select asmlib driver in YaST
>>
>> For supporting libs & tools are available at: 
>> http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/tech/linux/asmlib/sles11.html
>>
>> Best,
>> Arun
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> suse-oracle mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> http://listx.novell.com/mailman/listinfo/suse-oracle
>>
>


-- 




          Arturo Gutiérrez Gómez


          Formador/Consultor  Tecnologias Oracle

Oracle DBA Certified Professional OCP  [7.3-10g]
Oracle Real Application Clusters Certified profesional


          Movíl 61 64 70 190




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