Sunday, August 4, 2013

Oracle Database Preinstallation – Part 12

Dear Readers,

My name is Franz Devantier, creator of this blog.  I am an Oracle Certified Professional (OCP DBA 11g) Security DBA.  I will be sharing with you the basic duties of an Oracle DBA, and also some of the undocumented, and not so well known tasks. 

I will make a deal with you:  If you refer me to a company that needs database support, from a few hours per week to full time, and I am able to sign a contract with them.
Then I will give you 10% of the monthly contract or deal price every month.  When the contract ends, and we re-sign the contract, I will again give you 10% of the monthly contract price.  This will go on until the company no longer employs or contracts me or my agents to look after their databases.
I can do this, because that 10% is my marketing budget.  When we re-sign the contract, in the future, it may depend on you giving the thumbs up again, and that is worth 10% of the monthly contract price, to be given to you as commission.

Oracle Database Preinstallation – Part 12
Choosing a Storage Option for Oracle Database and Recovery Files
The database files include data files, control files, redo log files, server parameter file (spfile), and the password file.  If you are going to enable automated backups during the installation, then you should also choose the storage option for the recovery files.  The recovery files will be in the fast recovery area.  You can use different storage options for each file type.  The good news in 11.2 is that database files and recovery files are supported on file systems and Oracle ASM.  This means that we can go all for ASM or file systems, or a combination of the two.

Guidelines for choosing your storage options.
=> You can implement on any combination of the supported storage options, for each file type.
=> Decide whether you want to store your database files, or your recovery files on Oracle ASM, or if you want to store both of them on ASM.

Creating Directories for Oracle Database or Recovery Files
Guidelines for Placing Oracle Database Files on a File System
If you have chosen to put your database files on a file system.
=> The default path that Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) will suggest is a subdirectory of the Oracle Base Directory.
=> You can choose to store your database files on a single file system, or on multiple file systems.
If you decide to go with a single file system, then you should choose a file system on a physical device that is dedicated to the database.  For best performance and reliability you should choose a RAID device, or you should choose a logical volume that is housed on more than one physical device and implement the stripe-and-mirror-everything (SAME) methodology.

If you decide to use more than one file system, then choose file systems on separate physical devices that are dedicated to the database.  Doing this allows you to distribute input-output operations and create separate control files on different physical devices for increased reliability.  This arrangement also allows you to fully implement the OFA guidelines.  To implement this method, you can choose the advanced database creation option.

=> If you are going to create a preconfigured database during the installation, then the file system or file systems that you choose, must have a minimum of 2GB of free disk space.  For a production database, you must estimate the disk space requirement depending on how the database is to be used.

=> For optimum performance, the file systems that you choose must be on physical devices that are used only by the database, no compromise on this one.

=> The oracle user must have write permissions to create the files in the path that you specify.

It is always good to create directories for the Oracle database or recovery files on separate file systems from the Oracle base directory.
=> determine the free disk space on each mounted file system
$ df –h
Examine the output to determine which are the best file-systems to use.

Database files: Choose either a single file system, or multiple files systems.
Recovery files: Choose a file system with at least 2.4 GB of free disk space

If you are going to be using one file system for all the different file types, then you must add the disk space requirements together for all of them, so that you can determine the total disk space required.

Make a note of the names of the mount point directories for the file systems that you identified.  Then you will need to create the recommended subdirectories in each of the mount point directories, and set the owner, group, and permissions on them.
Database file directory
$ mkdir /<mount_point>/oradata
$ chown oracle:oinstall /<mount_point>/oradata
$ chmod 775 /<mount_point>/oradata
We have now moved the database file directories away from the default file location which is $ORACLE_BASE/oradata

Recovery file directory (fast recovery area)
$ mkdir /<mount_point>/fast_recovery_area
$ chown oracle:oinstall /<mount_point>/fast_recovery_area
$ chmod 775 /<mount_point>/fast_recovery_area
We have now moved the recovery file directory away from the default of $ORACLE_BASE/fast_recovery_area.  Having the recovery file directory and the datafile directory on separate physical devices or disks, enables you to use the recovery area, if something has gone wrong with the database file storage area.

You can also use Oracle ASM for storage.

Franz Devantier,
Need a database health check?
devantierf@gmail.com

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