Sun Cluster Support for Oracle Real Application Clusters enables you to use the storage management schemes for Oracle files that are listed in the following table. The table summarizes the types of Oracle files that each storage management scheme can store. Ensure that you choose a combination of storage management schemes that can store all types of Oracle files.
Table 1–2 Storage Management Schemes for Oracle Files
Oracle File Type |
Storage Management Scheme |
|||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster |
VxVM |
Hardware RAID |
Sun StorEdge QFS |
Network Appliance NAS Devices |
ASM |
Cluster File System |
Local Disks |
|
RDBMS binary files |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
CRS binary files |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Configuration files |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
System parameter file (SPFILE) |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Alert files |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Trace files |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Data files |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Control files |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Online redo log files |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Archived redo log files |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Flashback log files |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Recovery files |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
OCR files |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
CRS voting disk |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
Some types of files are not included in all releases of Oracle Real Application Clusters. For information about which types of file are included in the release that you are using, see your Oracle documentation.
You can use the following storage management schemes for the Oracle Real Application Clusters database:
Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster
Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster is supported only with Oracle Real Application Clusters. Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster with Oracle Parallel Server is not supported.
VERITAS Volume Manager (VxVM) with the cluster feature
VxVM is supported only on the SPARC platform.
Hardware redundant array of independent disks (RAID) support
Sun StorEdge QFS shared file system with hardware RAID support
Sun StorEdge QFS shared file system is supported only on the SPARC platform.
Network Appliance network-attached storage (NAS) devices
Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM)
You can install the Oracle binary files and Oracle configuration files on one of the following locations.
The local disks of each cluster node
A shared file system from the following list:
The Sun StorEdge QFS shared file system
The cluster file system
A file system on a Network Appliance NAS device
Placing the Oracle binary files and Oracle configuration files on the individual cluster nodes enables you to upgrade the Oracle application later without shutting down the data service.
The disadvantage is that you then have several copies of the Oracle application binary files and Oracle configuration files to maintain and administer.
To simplify the maintenance of your Oracle installation, you can install the Oracle binary files and Oracle configuration files on a shared file system. The following shared file systems are supported:
The Sun StorEdge QFS shared file system
The cluster file system
If you use the cluster file system, decide which volume manager to use:
Solaris Volume Manager
VxVM without the cluster feature
VxVM is supported only on the SPARC platform.
A file system on a Network Appliance NAS device
If you put the Oracle binary files and Oracle configuration files on a shared file system, you have only one copy to maintain and manage. However, you must shut down the data service in the entire cluster to upgrade the Oracle application. If a short period of downtime for upgrades is acceptable, place a single copy of the Oracle binary files and Oracle configuration files on a shared file system.
You can store all of the files that are associated with Oracle Real Application Clusters on the Sun StorEdge QFS shared file system.
For information about how to create a Sun StorEdge QFS shared file system, see the following documentation for Sun StorEdge QFS:
Sun StorEdge QFS and Sun StorEdge SAM-FS Software Installation and Configuration Guide
Sun StorEdge QFS and Sun StorEdge SAM-FS File System Administration Guide
Distribute these files among several file systems as explained in the subsections that follow.
For RDBMS binary files and related files, create one file system in the cluster to store the files.
The RDBMS binary files and related files are as follows:
Oracle relational database management system (RDBMS) binary files
Oracle configuration files (for example, init.ora, tnsnames.ora, listener.ora, and sqlnet.ora)
System parameter file (SPFILE)
Alert files (for example, alert_sid.log)
Trace files (*.trc)
Oracle Cluster Ready Services (CRS) binary files
For database files and related files, determine whether you require one file system for each database or multiple file systems for each database.
For simplicity of configuration and maintenance, create one file system to store these files for all Oracle Real Application Clusters instances of the database.
To facilitate future expansion, create multiple file systems to store these files for all Oracle Real Application Clusters instances of the database.
If you are adding storage for an existing database, you must create additional file systems for the storage that you are adding. In this situation, distribute the database files and related files among the file systems that you will use for the database.
Each file system that you create for database files and related files must have its own metadata server. For information about the resources that are required for the metadata servers, see SPARC: Resources for the Sun StorEdge QFS Shared File System.
The database files and related files are as follows:
Data files
Control files
Online redo log files
Archived redo log files
Flashback log files
Recovery files
Oracle cluster registry (OCR) files
Oracle CRS voting disk
You can store only these files that are associated with Oracle Real Application Clusters on the cluster file system:
Oracle RDBMS binary files
Oracle CRS binary files
Oracle configuration files (for example, init.ora, tnsnames.ora, listener.ora, and sqlnet.ora)
System parameter file (SPFILE)
Alert files (for example, alert_sid.log)
Trace files (*.trc)
Archived redo log files
Flashback log files
Oracle cluster registry (OCR) files
Oracle CRS voting disk
You must not store data files, control files, online redo log files, or Oracle recovery files on the cluster file system.
The input/output (I/O) performance during the writing of archived redo log files is affected by the location of the device group for archived redo log files. For optimum performance, ensure that the primary of the device group for archived redo log files is located on the same node as the Oracle Real Application Clusters database instance. This device group contains the file system that holds archived redo log files of the database instance.
If you are using the cluster file system with Sun Cluster 3.1, consider increasing the desired number of secondary nodes for device groups. By increasing the desired number of secondary nodes for device groups, you can improve the availability of your cluster. To increase the desired number of secondary nodes for device groups, change the numsecondaries property. For more information, see Multiported Disk Device Groups in Sun Cluster Concepts Guide for Solaris OS.
For information about how to create cluster file systems, see the following documentation: