Hewlett-Packard, in cooperation with Oracle Corporation, has successfully completed the Oracle Storage Compatibility Program testing for the HP NAS 8000 and Oracle 8i on UNIX Servers. The Storage Compatibility Program is designed to verify a NAS device’s ability to safely store the data files for an active Oracle database.
executive summary ........................2 for more information ........................2 hp solution overview ........................4 storage management and definition guide................5 defining NAS 8000 storage for Oracle databases ...............5 nfs guidelines (NAS 8000) ......................6 use of nis ..........................6 setting the number of nfsd daemons..................6 allowing ‘root’ access / trusted hosts ...................7 nfs mounting guidelines (Client side)..................7 hard mounting .........................7 soft mounting ...........................7...
hp solution overview Data integrity, reliability, scalability and high performance are top priorities in any database implementation. The use of Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices to store database data files has traditionally been discouraged because it was thought that network instability and perceived vulnerabilities of non-local storage posed too great of a potential risk to data integrity and would greatly reduce system performance.
database. Until recently, conventional wisdom had the database administrator placing different tablespaces/data files on different disk controllers/RAID arrays in an attempt to improve performance through the concurrency allowed by multiple disk interfaces. Multiple hard drives/controllers allowed multiple data pathways for ‘simultaneous’ access to data, as well as allowing multiple copies of critical files to be stored on separate hard drives to protect against some media failures.
single volume group. For example, it is possible to create two LUNs, one on each redundancy group and then create one volume group using both LUNs. If a hard drive was added to the array enclosure after storage had been defined, the space of the hard drive could be made available by creating a new LUN, and then adding that LUN to an existing volume group.
nfs: Server NASName OK While these errors are not catastrophic, they may signal the need to ‘tune’ the number of nfsd daemons. Changing the number of nfsd daemons will cause an nfs restart; however, this should not cause an interruption in nfs service. If an Oracle server has the NAS 8000 soft-mounted, be sure to check the values of the timeo and retrans nfs parameters (on the Oracle server);...
desirable in certain situations when the data is easily reproducible and/or connect-time charges are a limiting factor. useful mounting options (client) exec – allows execution of binaries from the mount intr – applies to hard mounts only. Allows the nfs client to interrupt an nfs request that is waiting. suid –...
address of the Oracle server. This will allow that Oracle server to correctly store and access files as the This step must be done prior to installing/storing the Oracle user ‘root’ on the Oracle server. executables on the NAS 8000 location of alert logs and trace files Log and trace files can be an excellent source of information for analyzing problems with a database.
choose the placement of the alert logs and trace files (see above), although the default location will place these files on the Oracle server. moving data files from already existing databases the link method to move data files It may be necessary/desirable to move existing Oracle database data files off of an Oracle server and onto the NAS 8000.
creating new database(s) A new database can be created either through the use of the Oracle Database Administration Assistant GUI (dbassist), or through the use of SQL scripts. The control files, redo logs, archived redo logs and data files can reside solely on the NAS 8000, or can reside on both the NAS 8000 and on the Oracle server. Mixing the location of the data files between the NAS 8000 and the Oracle server also means that other aspects of database performance and management can be taken into account when designing, implementing and tuning the database.
be implemented to increase data throughput, such as increasing the speed/bandwidth of the network by adding multiple/faster NIC cards, directly attaching the NAS 8000 to the Oracle server through one or more NIC cards with cross over cables, adding additional RAM or additional CPUs to the NAS 8000,etc. increasing available storage in the NAS 8000 Increasing the amount of storage available to a file volume can usually be accomplished without interrupting service.
adding a hard drive to a VA 7400 array If there are empty drive bays in either the VA 74000 disk enclosure or within a previously attached DS2400 enclosure, then storage can be added simply by inserting another hard drive. If the VA 7400 controller is configured to allow “Automatic inclusion”...
hot backups using NAS 8000 snapshots A hot backup (also known as an inconsistent backup) is usually performed by issuing an “alter tablespace” command and placing the tablespaces (all, or whatever the backup plan calls for) into “backup mode”. In this mode, changes to the tablespace are “logged”...
disks. Before the data is flushed from the write cache of the NAS 8000, there is a catastrophic failure that destroys all NVRAM in the NAS 8000. When the NAS 8000 is recovered and the database is restarted, the data will be in an inconsistent state because data located on the server from the transaction was modified, but data located on the NAS 8000 was not.
This Paper applies to the following NAS 8000 configurations: Date Date NAS 8000 Configuration | OSCP Testing Completed | Certified Oracle compatible NAS 8000 w/VA 7100 May 21, 2002 NAS 8000 w/VA 7400 May 21, 2002 storage diagram for VA 7100 This diagram depicts physical storage as a single redundancy group –...
storage diagram for VA 7400 (single volume group) Hard Drives in Hard Drives in Redundancy Group 1 Redundancy Group 2 This diagram depicts physical storage divided into two redundancy groups. Hard drives in the odd numbered drive bays are in redundancy group 1. Hard drives in the even numbered drive bays are in redundancy group 2.
storage diagram for VA 7400 (extra fault tolerance) Hard Drives in Hard Drives in Redundancy Group 1 Redundancy Group 2 This diagram depicts physical storage divided into two redundancy groups. Hard drives in the odd numbered drive bays are in redundancy group 1. Hard drives in the even numbered drive bays are in redundancy group 2.
glossary AutoRAID – Combination of RAID Levels 0, 1 and 5DP implemented by the firmware of the VA 7xxx controller to provide automatic data protection on VA 7xxx hard drives. CIFS/SMB – (Common Internet File System / Server Message Block). Protocols used to access non-local storage over a network.