Using Oracle ASM

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Use Oracle ASM with one storage management scheme from the following list:

Hardware RAID. For more information, see How to Use Oracle ASM With Hardware RAID.
Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster. For more information, see How to Create a Multi-Owner Disk Set in Solaris Volume Manager for Sun Cluster for the Oracle RAC Database.

Note - If you use Oracle ASM in a global cluster as well as in a zone cluster configured in that global cluster, you must ensure that, in each particular cluster, Oracle ASM can see only those devices that are intended for its use, whether in the global zone or in a zone cluster. If Oracle ASM can see devices that are used by Oracle ASM in a different cluster, this can cause start problems for Oracle Clusterware or Oracle Grid Infrastructure, because Oracle ASM sees the devices as already mounted elsewhere.

For information about the types of Oracle Database files that you can store by using Oracle ASM, see Storage Management Requirements.

Note - When a Support for Oracle RAC installation in a zone cluster uses Oracle ASM, you must configure all the devices needed by that Support for Oracle RAC installation into that zone cluster by using the clzonecluster command. When Oracle ASM runs inside a zone cluster, the administration of Oracle ASM occurs entirely within the same zone cluster.

How to Use Oracle ASM With Hardware RAID

On a cluster member, assume the root role.

Determine the identities of device identity (DID) devices that correspond to shared disks that are available in the cluster.

Use the cldevice (1CL) command for this purpose.

The following example shows an extract from output from the cldevice list -v command.

# cldevice list -v
DID Device          Full Device Path
----------          ----------------
…
d5                  phys-schost-3:/dev/rdsk/c3t216000C0FF084E77d0
d5                  phys-schost-1:/dev/rdsk/c5t216000C0FF084E77d0
d5                  phys-schost-2:/dev/rdsk/c4t216000C0FF084E77d0
d5                  phys-schost-4:/dev/rdsk/c2t216000C0FF084E77d0
d6                  phys-schost-3:/dev/rdsk/c4t216000C0FF284E44d0
d6                  phys-schost-1:/dev/rdsk/c6t216000C0FF284E44d0
d6                  phys-schost-2:/dev/rdsk/c5t216000C0FF284E44d0
d6                  phys-schost-4:/dev/rdsk/c3t216000C0FF284E44d0
…

In this example, DID devices d5 and d6 correspond to shared disks that are available in the cluster.

Obtain the full DID device name for each DID device that you are using for the Oracle ASM disk group.

The following example shows the output from the cldevice show for the DID devices that were identified in the example in Step 2. The command is run from node phys-schost-1.

# cldevice show d5 d6

=== DID Device Instances ===

DID Device Name:                         /dev/did/rdsk/d5
Full Device Path:                      phys-schost-1:/dev/rdsk/c5t216000C0FF084E77d0
Replication:                                none
default_fencing:                          global

DID Device Name:                          /dev/did/rdsk/d6
Full Device Path:                       phys-schost-1:/dev/rdsk/c6t216000C0FF284E44d0
Replication:                                none
default_fencing:                            global

If you are using a zone cluster, configure the DID devices into the zone cluster. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.
For information about configuring DID devices in a zone cluster, see How to Add a Global Storage Device to a Zone Cluster (clsetup) in Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.3 Software Installation Guide or How to Add a DID Device to a Zone Cluster (CLI) in Oracle Solaris Cluster 4.3 Software Installation Guide .

Create or modify a slice on each DID device to contain the disk-space allocation for the Oracle ASM disk group.
Use the format (1M) command, fmthard (1M) command, or prtvtoc (1M) for this purpose. Specify the full device path from the node where you are running the command to create or modify the slice.

For example, if you choose to use slice s0 for the Oracle ASM disk group, you might choose to allocate 100 Gbytes of disk space in slice s0.
Prepare the raw devices that you are using for Oracle ASM.
1. Change the ownership and permissions of each raw device that you are using for Oracle ASM, to allow access by Oracle ASM to these devices.
  Note - If Oracle ASM on hardware RAID is configured for a zone cluster, perform this step in that zone cluster.
  
  To specify the raw device, append sX to the DID device name that you obtained in Step 3, where X is the slice number.
```
# chown oraasm:oinstall /dev/did/rdsk/dNsX
# chmod 660 /dev/disk/rdsk/dNsX
# ls -lhL /dev/did/rdsk/dNsX
crw-rw----  1 oraasm  oinstall  239, 128 Jun 15 04:38 /dev/did/rdsk/dNsX
```
  For more information about changing the ownership and permissions of raw devices for use by Oracle ASM, see your Oracle ASM documentation.
2. Clean out the disk headers for each raw device that you are using for Oracle ASM.
```
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/did/rdsk/dNsX bs=1024k count=200
2000+0 records in
2000+0 records out
```
Modify the ASM_DISKSTRING Oracle ASM instance-initialization parameter to specify the devices that you are using for the Oracle ASM disk group.
For example, to use the /dev/did/ path for the Oracle ASM disk group, add the value /dev/did/rdsk/d* to the ASM_DISKSTRING parameter. If you are modifying this parameter by editing the Oracle initialization parameter file, edit the parameter as follows:
```
ASM_DISKSTRING = '/dev/did/rdsk/*'
```
For more information, see your Oracle ASM documentation.

Next Steps

Ensure that all other storage management schemes that you are using for Oracle Database files are installed. After all storage management schemes that you are using for Oracle Database files are installed, go to Chapter 3, Registering and Configuring the Resource Groups.