B Storage on Oracle Database Appliance

Review this section to understand Oracle Database Appliance storage architecture and options and how to determine usable storage.

Topics:

About Oracle Database Appliance Storage

Use Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) or Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (Oracle ACFS) for database files storage.

Database file systems are used exclusively for storing database files, and they include a DATA file system for database data files and a RECO file system for storing archive files and backups. Oracle Database Appliance supports Oracle ACFS and Oracle ASM database file storage. You determine the type of database storage when you create the database.

About Oracle ASM Database Storage

Use Oracle ASM with Oracle Database 12c release 1 (12.1.0.2).

With Oracle ASM, database datafiles are stored in DATA diskgroup. Redo and archive files are in RECO diskgroup.

About Oracle ACFS Database Storage

Use Oracle ACFS with Oracle Database 12c release 1 (12.1.0.2) or Oracle Database 11g release 2 (11.2.0.4).

With Oracle ACFS, an Oracle ACFS file system is created from DATA diskgroup for each database to store datafiles, and an Oracle ACFS file system is created from RECO diskgroup for redo and fast recovery area for all databases.

Oracle ACFS Mount Points and Storage Space

Review Oracle ASM Cluster file system (ACFS) mount points for Oracle Database Appliance.

If you select Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) for database storage when you create a database, then an Oracle ASM Cluster file system (ACFS) is not created. All files are in an Oracle ASM diskgroup.

If you select Oracle ACFS for database storage, then each database has its own Oracle ACFS mount point:

  • DATA diskgroup: /u02/app/oracleuser/oradata/db_name

  • RECO diskgroup: /u03/app/oracleuser.

With Oracle ACFS, the following are created:

  • A 100G ACFS is created from +DATA diskgroup for each database. This Oracle ACFS automatically extends the space on demand.

  • A common Oracle ACFS with 25% of +RECO diskgroup is created with auto extension on. This file system is used for fast recovery area and redo logs for all databases.


Table B-1 Oracle ACFS Mount Points and Related Oracle ASM Disk Groups and Volume Information

File System Oracle ASM Disk Group Oracle ASM Dynamic Volume Mount Point

DATA

+DATA

/dev/asm/datdbname-nnn

For example: /dev/asm/datodacn-123

/u02/app/oracleuser/oradata/dbname

For example: /u02/app/example/oradata/odacn

RECO

+RECO

/dev/asm/reco-nn

/u03/app/oracleuser

This mount point is shared by all databases for fast_recovery_area and redo logs.

For fast_recovery_area, the path is: /u03/app/oracleuser/fast_recovery_area/db_name

For redo logs, the path is: /u03/app/oracleuser/redo/db_name


Example B-1 Oracle ACFS Storage Space

When the Oracle ACFS file systems are created, they do not initially consume all of the storage in the appliance. Space is preserved for additional repositories, or in some cases, database files stored directly in Oracle ASM. You can check for available storage space in your file systems by running the operating system command df -k as shown in the following example.

# df -k 
Filesystem                            1K-blocks   Used         Available  Use%   Mounted on 
/dev/mapper/VolGroupSys-LogVolRoot    30963708    14203568     15187276   49%     / 
tmpfs                                 65952292      647800     65304492    1%     /dev/shm 
/dev/sda1                               495844       43872       426372   10%     /boot 
/dev/mapper/VolGroupSys-LogVolOpt     61927420    18594420     40187272   32%     /opt 
/dev/mapper/VolGroupSys-LogVolU01    103212320    49621560     48347880   51%     /u01 
/dev/asm/reco-62                      76546048     1469676     75076372    2%     /u03/app/oracle
/dev/asm/datrdb2-268                 104857600     3872368    100985232    4%     /u02/app/oracle/oradata/rdb2
/dev/asm/datndb11-268                104857600      247160    104610440    1%     /u02/app/oracle/oradata/ndb11
/dev/asm/datndb12-268                104857600      247160    104610440    1%     /u02/app/oracle/oradata/ndb12

Displaying Mounted Disk Details

Use the Oracle Automatic Storage Management lsdg command to display mounted disk groups and their information for Oracle Database Appliance.

To display information about a specific disk group, specify the disk group in the command.
  1. Log in as a grid user.
  2. Run the Oracle Automatic Storage Management lsdg command.

Example B-2 Determining Storage on the DATA Disk Group

ASMCMD [+] > lsdg data

State    Type    Rebal  Sector  Block       AU  Total_MB  Free_MB  Req_mir_free_MB  Usable_file_MB
MOUNTED  NORMAL  N         512   4096  4194304     12288     8835             1117            3859

(continued)
Offline_disks  Voting_files  Name
            0             N  DATA

Determining Usable Storage for Oracle Database Appliance X6-2-HA

Review the usable disk capacity available for Oracle Database Appliance X6-2-HA and how capacity is derived.

Oracle Database Appliance X6-2-HA use 1.6TB raw Solid-State Drives, formatted to 1.2TB for performance. The usable data capacity varies because it is derived by converting disk hardware terabytes (based on 1 kilobyte equals 1,000 bytes) into software storage terabytes (based on 1 kilobyte equals 1,024 bytes) and splitting the usable capacity into ASM disk groups.

Each of the SSD usable storage is approximately 1.1TB. This is calculated by the storage usable capacity of the drive converted to TB (1.2 TB divided by 1.0244= 1.1TB.)

The following tables provide the approximate amount of usable space for the Oracle Database Appliance X6-2-HA for the DATA and RECO disk groups.

Usable Disk Capacity on Oracle Database Appliance X6-2-HA

The following table provides the approximate amount of usable space for the Oracle Database Appliance X6-2-HA.


Table B-2 Usable Disk Capacity on Oracle Database Appliance X6-2-HA

Description Sizing for X6-2-HA with 10 SSD Drives Sizing for X6-2-HA with 20 SSD Drives Sizing for X6-2-HA with 40 SSD Drives
Number of SSD Drives

10

20

40

Total usable Space

10.9TB

22TB

44TB

Reserved Space Normal Redundancy

1.1TB

1.1TB

1.1TB

Total Usable Normal (Double Mirror) Oracle ASM Redundancy

4.9TB

10.5TB

21.5TB

DATA Disk Group Normal Redundancy, External Backup (80% usable)

3.9TB

8.4TB

17.2TB

RECO Disk Group Normal Redundancy, External Backup (20% usable)

1.0TB

2.1TB

4.3TB

DATA Disk Group Normal Redundancy, Internal Backup(40% Usable)

2.0TB

4.2TB

8.6TB

RECO Disk Group Normal Redundancy, Internal Backup(60% usable)

2.9TB

6.3TB

12.9TB

Reserved Space High Redundancy

2.2TB

2.2TB

2.2TB

Total usable High (Triple Mirror) Oracle ASM Redundancy

2.9TB

6.6TB

13.9TB

DATA Disk Group High Redundancy, External Backup(80% usable)

2.3TB

5.3TB

11.1TB

RECO Disk Group High Redundancy, External Backup (20% usable)

0.6TB

1.3TB

2.8TB

DATA Disk Group High Redundancy, Internal Backup(40% usable)

1.2TB

2.6TB

5.6TB

RECO Disk Group (10% usable)

1.7TB

4.0TB

8.3TB


The Reserved Space values represent the amount of storage required to maintain full redundancy in case of disk failure.

The REDO disk group uses 800 GB raw Solid-State Drives or 0.8TB total usable space. The REDO disk group uses high redundancy that provides approximately 0.3TB usable space for database redo logs.

Note:

For non-CDB databases, the REDO disk group has 50% free disk space.

For CDB databases, an Oracle ACFS mount point is created per CDB database, based on the template log file size. If this is a Single Instance (SI) database, then multiply by 3. If the is an Oracle RAC database, then multiply by 4.

Oracle ASM Calculations

When Oracle ASM calculates Usable Free Space, it determines the amount of space to reserve in the case of a disk failure. When you query Oracle ASM or Oracle Database Appliance commands to view the amount of storage available, the usable_File_MB value may report a negative number.


Table B-3 Oracle ASM Calculations

Number of Drives Redundancy Total_MB Free_MB Req_mir_free_MB Usable_file_MB Name

2

NORMAL

4894016

4893372

2441888

1220644

DATA/

4

NORMAL

1231176

1230996

610468

305150

RECO/


Note:

Note: 1TB = MB divided by 10242

The following table describes how capacity terms are defined by Oracle ASM and Oracle Database Appliance.


Table B-4 Definition of Terminology

Term Oracle ASM Definition Oracle Database Appliance Definition
Total_MB

Size of the disk group in MB

Total usable storage. For example, for 2 NVMe drives, total usable storage is 5.8TB.

Free_MB

Free space in the disk group in MB, without regard to redundancy.

Total usable storage after formatting to Oracle ASM disk groups. For example, for 2 NVMe drives, total usable storage is 5.8TB.

Req_mir_free_MB

Amount of space that must be available in the disk group to restore full redundancy after the worst failure that can be tolerated by the disk group.

Usable space required to restore full redundancy. When storage is consumed higher than the usable_file_MB value, this number will report a negative value.

Usable_file_MB

Amount of free space, adjusted for mirroring, that is available for new files.

Total usable space taking into consideration the mirroring level. Oracle ASM also calculates the amount of space required


Oracle ACFS Space Management

The Oracle ACFS file systems are automatically created when you create a database on Oracle Database Appliance.

When you use Oracle ACFS for database storage, the following is created:

  • A 100G ACFS is created from +DATA diskgroup for each database. This Oracle ACFS automatically extends the space on demand.

  • A common Oracle ACFS with 25% of +RECO diskgroup is created with auto extension on. This file system is used for fast recovery area and redo logs for all databases.

When the Oracle ACFS file systems are created, they do not initially consume all of the storage in the appliance. Space is preserved for additional repositories, or in some cases, database files stored directly in Oracle ASM. You can check for available storage space in your file systems by running the operating system command df -k as shown in the following example.

# df -k 
Filesystem                            1K-blocks   Used         Available  Use%   Mounted on 
/dev/mapper/VolGroupSys-LogVolRoot    30963708    14203568     15187276   49%     / 
tmpfs                                 65952292      647800     65304492    1%     /dev/shm 
/dev/sda1                               495844       43872       426372   10%     /boot 
/dev/mapper/VolGroupSys-LogVolOpt     61927420    18594420     40187272   32%     /opt 
/dev/mapper/VolGroupSys-LogVolU01    103212320    49621560     48347880   51%     /u01 
/dev/asm/reco-62                      76546048     1469676     75076372    2%     /u03/app/oracle
/dev/asm/datrdb2-268                 104857600     3872368    100985232    4%     /u02/app/oracle/oradata/rdb2
/dev/asm/datndb11-268                104857600      247160    104610440    1%     /u02/app/oracle/oradata/ndb11
/dev/asm/datndb12-268                104857600      247160    104610440    1%     /u02/app/oracle/oradata/ndb12