It's been a while since I've been an admin guy but let me try... Every file, directory, etc... on a file system is represented by an inode on the file system. Think of an inode (in a simple term) as another file or a pointer if you will. It contains information on that structure (rights, who owns it, the time stamp for the file, and so on...) The data block addresses that are assigned to the file are contained in the inode. The OS then uses the inode to locate the file or directory and to store information on the file or directory.
It is possible for that inode to become corrupted (e.g. system crash) and I've seen 2 cases of it in the 15 years I've been doing this (both on SCO Unix). File systems that journal seem to be safer, and I've never seen it happen on such a file system but that doesn't mean it can't happen!. I've read cases of OS bugs on earlier AIX versions that could cause Inode corruption in specific cases, but I've never experienced the problem in AIX or SUN. Corruption of an inode can lead to loss of directories or data files, and therefore I like to limit the size of directories based on a number of factors, such as MTTR one directory, the SLA that I have with the customer and so on. So, by keeping my redo, control files and datafiles in separate dirs under /u0x, I reduce the likelihood of inode corruption a bit, but it is still there in the form of /u0x or the other directories falling below it. HTH RF Robert G. Freeman - Oracle8i OCP Oracle DBA Technical Lead CSX Midtier Database Administration The Cigarette Smoking Man: Anyone who can appease a man's conscience can take his freedom away from him. -----Original Message----- Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 1:18 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Robert, Tell me a little more about potential for inode corruption and how this helps? Never heard of that one before. I stick it all in /x/oradata/$ORACLE_SID and distinguish my files by .dbf, .ctl, .arc and .rdo. Also are yall mostly Oracle or are you running anything else? - Ethan -----Original Message----- Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 9:58 AM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L This is hogwash. OFA perfectly helps to separate the datafiles from different database instances. We run well over 300+ Oracle databases here and the ONLY extension we have to OFA is that I add a /data /control and /redo directory to the file systems for just a little extra protection from possible inode corruption. RF Robert G. Freeman - Oracle8i OCP Oracle DBA Technical Lead CSX Midtier Database Administration The Cigarette Smoking Man: Anyone who can appease a man's conscience can take his freedom away from him. -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Post, Ethan INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Freeman, Robert INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
