RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-24 Thread Matthew Zito

EMC storage is very reliable, no question.  However, I have personally seen
terrible SAN disasters on many vendors' SANs, but most of them on EMC (since
I worked for them).  Without going into specifics, the SAN problems I've
seen were caused by (in rough order):

1) human error - changing SANs tends to be a heavily manual operations, with
a huge margin for error.  Plus the portion of the IT population that
understands the care and feeding of SANs is negligible.
2) Firmware bugs in hardware - there have been some truly horrific firmware
bugs in storage equipment, especially fibre channel switches.  
3) Operating system/driver bugs - there's a lot of crummy code out there in
general, I suppose

As an aside, this is also almost the identical list that I have for the
major reasons I've seen organizations instantiate Disaster Recovery
procedures - an actual disaster is almost never the reason.

The moral of the story is, while YMMV, I would always keep copies of truly
critical things like redo logs, control files, etc. elsewhere, ideally on
something completely disparate.  Of course, the more disparate the
"something" is, the harder it is to manage and while less prone to hardware
error, is more prone to human error.  So maybe the moral of the story is
that you can't win?

:)

Thanks,
Matt

--
Matthew Zito
GridApp Systems
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cell: 646-220-3551
Phone: 212-358-8211 x 359
http://www.gridapp.com

> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On 
> Behalf Of Mercadante, Thomas F
> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 8:45 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: RE: OFA and Shared Storage
> 
> 
> except that in the 5 years I have been using EMC SAN, we have 
> *never* experienced an outage.  never had to perform a 
> recovery because of SAN errors. never anything.
> 
> Tom Mercadante
> Oracle Certified Professional
> 
> 
> -Original Message-
> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 6:05 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> 
> 
> > EMC SAN disk has such an incredible uptime, that worrying 
> about losing 
> > things like control files are (almost) a thing of the past.
> 
> Uptime is only one thing, there are several other errors that 
> might occur, like IO controller errors, memory/CPU glitches 
> and file system corruptions like Matthew already said..
> 
> Tanel.
> 
> 
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RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-23 Thread Mercadante, Thomas F
except that in the 5 years I have been using EMC SAN, we have *never*
experienced an outage.  never had to perform a recovery because of SAN
errors. never anything.

Tom Mercadante
Oracle Certified Professional


-Original Message-
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 6:05 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


> EMC SAN disk has such an incredible uptime, that worrying about losing
> things like control files are (almost) a thing of the past.

Uptime is only one thing, there are several other errors that might occur,
like IO controller errors, memory/CPU glitches and file system corruptions
like Matthew already said..

Tanel.


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Re: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-23 Thread Mogens Nørgaard
I'm way beyond the simple RAID-F systems these days. I now want mirrored 
RAID-F systems! We could call them RAID-F1, and  they're unique. You 
might waste parity disks in the first place ... but then you mirror them.

Mladen Gogala wrote:

Files are kept safe simply by RAID-5 mechanism. RAID-5 protects against any
single disk failure (double disk failure can wipe it all out) and that is
precisely
why Mogens is such a zealous proponent of RAID-5 systems.
--
Mladen Gogala
Oracle DBA 



 

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On 
Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 2:05 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
Subject: OFA and Shared Storage

I read some posts on here with shared storage such as SAN and 
Network Appliances its no longer necessary to multiplex 
datafiles on different disks, since the storage array handles 
that for you. 

How do you ensure that control files and redo log files are 
kept safely apart so that no one disk failure in the shared 
storage can take them all out?

According to the OFA(well the abbreviated version I have in 
front of me) 4-5 disks is optimal for multiplexing. Does this 
no longer apply with shared storage? How do you ensure 
database available with shared storage? if your not 
multiplexing datafiles? 

I may have read some peoples posts incorrectly. Im just 
digging into backup and recovery. 

--
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RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-22 Thread Matthew Zito

Mmmm...I posted at some point with a description of EMC's write strategy -
here it is:

"Some arrays actually don't even give you the option of write-through cache
- on the symmetrix, for example, it is actually impossible for a write to go
directly to disk.  You have no choice but to cache writes.  This is called,
in EMC marketing parlance, a "Fast Write".  When the cache is under pressure
and the symm decides it needs to make more room in cache for an incoming
write, it holds the write at the host port, flushes an in-cache write to
disk, then places the incoming write in cache and acknowledges it to the
host.  This is a "Delayed Fast Write" - I love marketing talk. :)"

Whether or not a write will hit spindles directly depends on a couple of
factors:

-Do you have write-back or write-through enabled?  (write-back = cache
writes and write-through=only cache reads)
-How pressured is your cache?  Some naive arrays won't throttle back active
hosts and so if you're unfortunate enough to be sharing an array with a very
write-heavy box, your writes could end up bypassing cache
-how utilized are your disks?  Some arrays will write directly to disk when
the disks are very idle.

The end result being, of course, it is completely dependent on your array.  

A quibbling little point - SAN is no different, from a what-is-cached
standpoint, than NAS or direct-attached.  It just happens that high-end
arrays tend to have more intelligence internally and those tend to be the
arrays that get hooked into SANs.

As far as RAID-5 goes, some arrays are better than others.  EMC happens to
be particularly bad (at least on their last gen arrays - they claim huge
performance increases on the new frames - ymmv), Hitachi tends to be pretty
good.  The bigger your write cache, the less the quality of the RAID-5
implementation matters.  If you aren't pushing a whole lot of throughput,
you'll never notice the difference between different RAID-5 implementations.

Thanks,
Matt

--
Matthew Zito
GridApp Systems
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cell: 646-220-3551
Phone: 212-358-8211 x 359
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> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On 
> Behalf Of Craig Munday
> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 6:40 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: RE: OFA and Shared Storage
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I've tended to have performance problems with RAID-5 (slow write 
> times).  Does SAN make this any better, ie. with large disk 
> caches etc?
> 
> With SAN, do the redo logs still hit the spindles when a 
> commit is issued 
> (for example)?  I seem to recall that the EMC Symmetrix 
> considers the write 
> to be done when the write request is in its cache and not 
> necessarily on 
> the disk.
> 
> Cheers,
> Craig.
> 
> 
> 
> At 10:54 AM 22/09/2003 -0800, Mladen Gogala wrote:
> >Files are kept safe simply by RAID-5 mechanism. RAID-5 
> protects against 
> >any single disk failure (double disk failure can wipe it all 
> out) and 
> >that is precisely why Mogens is such a zealous proponent of RAID-5 
> >systems.
> >
> >--
> >Mladen Gogala
> >Oracle DBA
> >
> >
> >
> > > -Original Message-
> > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf 
> > > Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 2:05 PM
> > > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> > > Subject: OFA and Shared Storage
> > >
> > >
> > > I read some posts on here with shared storage such as SAN and 
> > > Network Appliances its no longer necessary to multiplex 
> datafiles on 
> > > different disks, since the storage array handles that for you.
> > >
> > > How do you ensure that control files and redo log files are kept 
> > > safely apart so that no one disk failure in the shared 
> storage can 
> > > take them all out?
> > >
> > > According to the OFA(well the abbreviated version I have 
> in front of 
> > > me) 4-5 disks is optimal for multiplexing. Does this no 
> longer apply 
> > > with shared storage? How do you ensure database available with 
> > > shared storage? if your not multiplexing datafiles?
> > >
> > > I may have read some peoples posts incorrectly. Im just 
> digging into 
> > > backup and recovery.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
> > > --
> > > Author: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >   INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >
> > > Fat City Network Services-- 858-538-5051 
> http://www.fatcity.com
&g

RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-22 Thread Craig Munday
Hi,

I've tended to have performance problems with RAID-5 (slow write 
times).  Does SAN make this any better, ie. with large disk caches etc?

With SAN, do the redo logs still hit the spindles when a commit is issued 
(for example)?  I seem to recall that the EMC Symmetrix considers the write 
to be done when the write request is in its cache and not necessarily on 
the disk.

Cheers,
Craig.


At 10:54 AM 22/09/2003 -0800, Mladen Gogala wrote:
Files are kept safe simply by RAID-5 mechanism. RAID-5 protects against any
single disk failure (double disk failure can wipe it all out) and that is
precisely
why Mogens is such a zealous proponent of RAID-5 systems.
--
Mladen Gogala
Oracle DBA


> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 2:05 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: OFA and Shared Storage
>
>
> I read some posts on here with shared storage such as SAN and
> Network Appliances its no longer necessary to multiplex
> datafiles on different disks, since the storage array handles
> that for you.
>
> How do you ensure that control files and redo log files are
> kept safely apart so that no one disk failure in the shared
> storage can take them all out?
>
> According to the OFA(well the abbreviated version I have in
> front of me) 4-5 disks is optimal for multiplexing. Does this
> no longer apply with shared storage? How do you ensure
> database available with shared storage? if your not
> multiplexing datafiles?
>
> I may have read some peoples posts incorrectly. Im just
> digging into backup and recovery.
>
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
> --
> Author: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>   INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Fat City Network Services-- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
> San Diego, California-- Mailing list and web hosting services
> -
> 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).
>


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Re: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-22 Thread Tanel Poder
> EMC SAN disk has such an incredible uptime, that worrying about losing
> things like control files are (almost) a thing of the past.

Uptime is only one thing, there are several other errors that might occur,
like IO controller errors, memory/CPU glitches and file system corruptions
like Matthew already said..

Tanel.


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RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-22 Thread Odland, Brad
Rich

There is a security guard putting empty boxes in your cube...


 
:>P 


-Original Message-
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 3:00 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


One "Lesson Learned" here is to keep at least one copy of the control files
off of the SAN.  OK, so ours is currently just an icky AutoRAID subsystem,
but it has a separate power cord which can be accidentally kicked out of the
locking socket, even when you're working on a completely different set of
systems.

Rich

Rich Jesse   System/Database Administrator
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  Quad/Tech Inc, Sussex, WI USA


> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 1:05 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: OFA and Shared Storage
> 
> 
> I read some posts on here with shared storage such as SAN and 
> Network Appliances its no longer necessary to multiplex 
> datafiles on different disks, since the storage array handles 
> that for you. 
> 
> How do you ensure that control files and redo log files are 
> kept safely apart so that no one disk failure in the shared 
> storage can take them all out?
> 
> According to the OFA(well the abbreviated version I have in 
> front of me) 4-5 disks is optimal for multiplexing. Does this 
> no longer apply with shared storage? How do you ensure 
> database available with shared storage? if your not 
> multiplexing datafiles? 
> 
> I may have read some peoples posts incorrectly. Im just 
> digging into backup and recovery. 
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Jesse, Rich
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RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-22 Thread Jesse, Rich
One "Lesson Learned" here is to keep at least one copy of the control files
off of the SAN.  OK, so ours is currently just an icky AutoRAID subsystem,
but it has a separate power cord which can be accidentally kicked out of the
locking socket, even when you're working on a completely different set of
systems.

Rich

Rich Jesse   System/Database Administrator
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  Quad/Tech Inc, Sussex, WI USA


> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 1:05 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: OFA and Shared Storage
> 
> 
> I read some posts on here with shared storage such as SAN and 
> Network Appliances its no longer necessary to multiplex 
> datafiles on different disks, since the storage array handles 
> that for you. 
> 
> How do you ensure that control files and redo log files are 
> kept safely apart so that no one disk failure in the shared 
> storage can take them all out?
> 
> According to the OFA(well the abbreviated version I have in 
> front of me) 4-5 disks is optimal for multiplexing. Does this 
> no longer apply with shared storage? How do you ensure 
> database available with shared storage? if your not 
> multiplexing datafiles? 
> 
> I may have read some peoples posts incorrectly. Im just 
> digging into backup and recovery. 
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Jesse, Rich
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-22 Thread Matthew Zito


Well, you don't want to configure it such that all files are striped across
all disks.  Every array has a "Sweet spot" in terms of spindles-per-raid
group, and most arrays start to degrade significantly beyond that point.

The notion of striping at an array level is a little questionable to begin
with - hardware striping is usually less flexible than software striping,
though the usual disclaimers about cpu utilization on your host applies.  

It's funny you mention EMC as an example - the Symmetrix does not inherently
stripe well.  The only reason striped volumes on the Symm were created is
because windows boxes could only see a maximum of 26 volumes over fibre
channel (think about it...).  With the emc "hypervolume" model where each
volume was a mirrored copy of a chunk of disk (so was generally around 9GB),
the only way to get larger disks was to combine hypervolumes to get
metavolumes.  Most UNIX customers were using software RAID to get larger
volumes for management benefits and continue to do so today.  As always, the
clariion is a totally different critter - sorry if that's what you were
referencing.

Also, I have seen every major storage vendor have arrays burst into flames
and lose data - so keep those backups handy

Thanks,
Matt


--
Matthew Zito
GridApp Systems
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cell: 646-220-3551
Phone: 212-358-8211 x 359
http://www.gridapp.com

> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On 
> Behalf Of Mercadante, Thomas F
> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 2:45 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: RE: OFA and Shared Storage
> 
> 
> In my opinion, SAN storage begs the question about whether 
> OFA makes sense anymore.  If you can configurte the SAN 
> storage so that all files are striped across all disk, then 
> everything is spread.  And if the SAN is mirrored, then just 
> why are we working so hard?
> 
> EMC SAN disk has such an incredible uptime, that worrying 
> about losing things like control files are (almost) a thing 
> of the past.
> 
> Tom Mercadante
> Oracle Certified Professional
> 

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RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-22 Thread Matthew Zito

Well, its beyond no "need" to multiplex - it rolls right into "might not be
possible" (though that's an extreme case).  Basically, since today's large
arrays have several layers of abstraction between the storage consumer and
the physical spindles, it can be difficult to determine what physical
spindles data is living on.

>From a reliability standpoint, its always worthwhile to have extra copies of
things you need floating around, though in the case of a large array a fault
that is severe enough to cause data loss at an array level is probably
catastrophic enough to cause data loss on the copy(ies) as well.  The more
likely scenario is filesystem corruption when a server goes down.

Ask your storage administrator to work with you to put redolog copies on
different RAID sets.  If they look at you like you're crazy, get another
storage administrator :)  Or set up a meeting with your Large Storage Vendor
- they have people on staff to help with things like that.

Thanks,
Matt


--
Matthew Zito
GridApp Systems
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cell: 646-220-3551
Phone: 212-358-8211 x 359
http://www.gridapp.com

> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On 
> Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 2:05 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: OFA and Shared Storage
> 
> 
> I read some posts on here with shared storage such as SAN and 
> Network Appliances its no longer necessary to multiplex 
> datafiles on different disks, since the storage array handles 
> that for you. 
> 
> How do you ensure that control files and redo log files are 
> kept safely apart so that no one disk failure in the shared 
> storage can take them all out?
> 
> According to the OFA(well the abbreviated version I have in 
> front of me) 4-5 disks is optimal for multiplexing. Does this 
> no longer apply with shared storage? How do you ensure 
> database available with shared storage? if your not 
> multiplexing datafiles? 
> 
> I may have read some peoples posts incorrectly. Im just 
> digging into backup and recovery. 
> 
> -- 
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
> -- 
> Author: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>   INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
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RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-22 Thread Mercadante, Thomas F
Title: RE: OFA and Shared Storage



Greg,
 
I 
agree that OFA is a great concept for basing your standards on.  At least 
DBA's who manage several servers can find stuff without spending time querying 
the database to find stuff.
 
But I 
worry less and less about spreading and balancing files across disk 
systems.
 
Tom Mercadante Oracle Certified Professional 

  -Original Message-From: Loughmiller, Greg 
  [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]Sent: Monday, September 22, 
  2003 3:00 PMTo: Multiple recipients of list 
  ORACLE-LSubject: RE: OFA and Shared Storage
  we use a single/double file system.. The LUN is made up of 
  multiple physical disks, striped/mirrored across the multiple spindles based 
  on the storage requirements.
  The disk technology has come a long way. Plus there have been 
  several bench marks/white papers similar to this topic... 
  But we still use the OFA file structure to maintain the 
  consistency across the many systems and databases... greg 
  -Original Message- From: 
  Mercadante, Thomas F [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] 
  Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 2:45 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Subject: RE: OFA and Shared Storage 
  In my opinion, SAN storage begs the question about whether OFA 
  makes sense anymore.  If you can configurte the 
  SAN storage so that all files are striped across all 
  disk, then everything is spread.  And if the SAN is mirrored, then just why are we working so hard? 
  EMC SAN disk has such an incredible uptime, that worrying 
  about losing things like control files are (almost) a 
  thing of the past. 
  Tom Mercadante Oracle Certified 
  Professional 
  -Original Message- Sent: 
  Monday, September 22, 2003 2:05 PM To: Multiple 
  recipients of list ORACLE-L 
  I read some posts on here with shared storage such as SAN and 
  Network Appliances its no longer necessary to 
  multiplex datafiles on different disks, since the 
  storage array handles that for you. 
  How do you ensure that control files and redo log files are 
  kept safely apart so that no one disk failure in the 
  shared storage can take them all out? 
  According to the OFA(well the abbreviated version I have in 
  front of me) 4-5 disks is optimal for multiplexing. 
  Does this no longer apply with shared storage? How do 
  you ensure database available with shared storage? if your not multiplexing datafiles? 
  I may have read some peoples posts incorrectly. Im just 
  digging into backup and recovery. 
  -- Please see the official ORACLE-L 
  FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: <[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
    INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
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  send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). 
  -- Please see the official ORACLE-L 
  FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: Mercadante, Thomas F 
    INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
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  send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). 



RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-22 Thread Mladen Gogala
Files are kept safe simply by RAID-5 mechanism. RAID-5 protects against any
single disk failure (double disk failure can wipe it all out) and that is
precisely
why Mogens is such a zealous proponent of RAID-5 systems.

--
Mladen Gogala
Oracle DBA 



> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On 
> Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 2:05 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
> Subject: OFA and Shared Storage
> 
> 
> I read some posts on here with shared storage such as SAN and 
> Network Appliances its no longer necessary to multiplex 
> datafiles on different disks, since the storage array handles 
> that for you. 
> 
> How do you ensure that control files and redo log files are 
> kept safely apart so that no one disk failure in the shared 
> storage can take them all out?
> 
> According to the OFA(well the abbreviated version I have in 
> front of me) 4-5 disks is optimal for multiplexing. Does this 
> no longer apply with shared storage? How do you ensure 
> database available with shared storage? if your not 
> multiplexing datafiles? 
> 
> I may have read some peoples posts incorrectly. Im just 
> digging into backup and recovery. 
> 
> -- 
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
> -- 
> Author: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>   INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> Fat City Network Services-- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com
> San Diego, California-- Mailing list and web hosting services
> -
> 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).
> 




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RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-22 Thread Loughmiller, Greg
Title: RE: OFA and Shared Storage





we use a single/double file system.. The LUN is made up of multiple physical disks, striped/mirrored across the multiple spindles based on the storage requirements.

The disk technology has come a long way. Plus there have been several bench marks/white papers similar to this topic...


But we still use the OFA file structure to maintain the consistency across the many systems and databases...
greg


-Original Message-
From: Mercadante, Thomas F [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 2:45 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
Subject: RE: OFA and Shared Storage



In my opinion, SAN storage begs the question about whether OFA makes sense
anymore.  If you can configurte the SAN storage so that all files are
striped across all disk, then everything is spread.  And if the SAN is
mirrored, then just why are we working so hard?


EMC SAN disk has such an incredible uptime, that worrying about losing
things like control files are (almost) a thing of the past.


Tom Mercadante
Oracle Certified Professional



-Original Message-
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 2:05 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L



I read some posts on here with shared storage such as SAN and Network
Appliances its no longer necessary to multiplex datafiles on different
disks, since the storage array handles that for you. 


How do you ensure that control files and redo log files are kept safely
apart so that no one disk failure in the shared storage can take them all
out?


According to the OFA(well the abbreviated version I have in front of me) 4-5
disks is optimal for multiplexing. Does this no longer apply with shared
storage? How do you ensure database available with shared storage? if your
not multiplexing datafiles? 


I may have read some peoples posts incorrectly. Im just digging into backup
and recovery. 


-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]


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also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Mercadante, Thomas F
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]


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RE: OFA and Shared Storage

2003-09-22 Thread Mercadante, Thomas F
In my opinion, SAN storage begs the question about whether OFA makes sense
anymore.  If you can configurte the SAN storage so that all files are
striped across all disk, then everything is spread.  And if the SAN is
mirrored, then just why are we working so hard?

EMC SAN disk has such an incredible uptime, that worrying about losing
things like control files are (almost) a thing of the past.

Tom Mercadante
Oracle Certified Professional


-Original Message-
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 2:05 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


I read some posts on here with shared storage such as SAN and Network
Appliances its no longer necessary to multiplex datafiles on different
disks, since the storage array handles that for you. 

How do you ensure that control files and redo log files are kept safely
apart so that no one disk failure in the shared storage can take them all
out?

According to the OFA(well the abbreviated version I have in front of me) 4-5
disks is optimal for multiplexing. Does this no longer apply with shared
storage? How do you ensure database available with shared storage? if your
not multiplexing datafiles? 

I may have read some peoples posts incorrectly. Im just digging into backup
and recovery. 

-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Mercadante, Thomas F
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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