Oracle ACFS Command-Line Tools for the AIX Environment

This topic provides a summary of the Oracle ACFS commands for the AIX operating system.

During the installation of Oracle ACFS and Oracle ADVM with Oracle Grid Infrastructure on AIX, several system security classes (authorizations) are created for Oracle ACFS and Oracle ADVM operations. These authorizations enable the following operations:

Configuration of Oracle ACFS and Oracle ADVM devices
Removal of Oracle ACFS and Oracle ADVM devices
Definition of Oracle ACFS and Oracle ADVM devices

These authorizations are collected in a role (oracle_devmgmt) which is assigned by default to the Oracle Grid Infrastructure user and Oracle ASM administrator. You can run the lsrole or rolelist command after installation to see this new role. These commands can be run at any time to ensure that the user has the proper authorization to manage Oracle ACFS and Oracle ADVM.

For example, run the following as the Oracle ASM administrator:

$ rolelist -e
 oracle_devmgmt

After the initial installation on an AIX operating system, the shell from which the root script was run does not inherit the new role. If the role is not present for the user, then the swrole command must be run before performing Oracle ACFS or Oracle ADVM operations.

For example, run the following as the Oracle ASM administrator:

$ swrole oracle_devmgmt

Alternatively, you can open a new shell to perform Oracle ACFS or Oracle ADVM operations.

During the removal of Oracle Grid Infrastructure, the oracle_devmgmt role and its associated authorizations are deleted from the system.

Command	Description
fsck	Checks and repairs an Oracle ACFS file system on AIX.
mkfs	Creates an Oracle ACFS file system on AIX.
mount	Mounts an Oracle ACFS file system on AIX.
umount/umountall	Dismounts an Oracle ACFS file system on AIX.

fsck

Purpose

Checks and repairs an Oracle ACFS file system on the AIX operating system.

Syntax and Description

fsck -V acfs [-n|-y] [-o options] volume_device

Table 16-12 contains the options available with the AIX fsck command.

Table 16-12 Options for the AIX fsck command

Option	Description
`-V` `acfs`	Specifies an Oracle ADVM volume on AIX. `acfs` designates the Oracle ACFS type.
`-n`	Answers no to any prompts.
`-y`	Answers yes to any prompts.
`-o` `options`	Specifies that options follow (a, f, v). Options are preceded with the `-o` flag and entered as a comma-delimited string. For example: `-o` `a,v` `a` Specifies to automatically fix the file system. `f` Forces the file system into mountable state without completing a file system check or fix. `v` Specifies verbose mode. The progress is displayed as the operation occurs. Running in verbose mode can impact performance.
`volume_device`	Specifies the primary Oracle ADVM volume device.

fsck checks and repairs an existing Oracle ACFS. This command can only be run on a dismounted file system. root privileges are required to run fsck. The Oracle ACFS driver must be loaded for fsck to work.

By default, fsck only checks for and reports any errors. The -a flag must be specified to instruct fsck to fix errors in the file system. Do not interrupt fsck during the repair operation.

In a few cases, fsck prompts for questions before proceeding to check a file system. These cases include:

If fsck detects that another fsck is in progress on the file system
If fsck detects that the Oracle ACFS driver is not loaded
If the file system does not appear to be Oracle ACFS

In checking mode, fsck also prompts if there are transaction logs that have not been processed completely due to an incomplete shutdown. To run in a non-interactive mode, include either the -y or -n options to answer yes or no to any questions.

fsck creates working files before it checks a file system. These working files are created in /usr/tmp if space is available. /tmp is used if /usr/tmp does not exist. If insufficient space is available in the tmp directory, fsck attempts to write to the current working directory. The files that fsck creates are roughly the size of the file system being checked divided by 32K. At most three such files are allocated. For example, a 2 GB file system being checked causes fsck to generate one to three 64K working files in the /usr/tmp directory. These files are deleted after fsck has finished.

In the event that fsck finds a file or directory in the file system for which it cannot determine its name or intended location (possibly due to a corruption in its parent directory), it places this object in the /lost+found directory when fsck is run in fix mode. For security reasons only the root user on Linux can read files in /lost+found. If the administrator can later determine the original name and location of the file based on its contents, the file can be moved or copied into its intended location.

The file names in the /lost+found directory are in the following formats:

parent.id.file.id.time-in-sec-since-1970
parent.id.dir.id.time-in-sec-since-1970

The id fields are the internal Oracle ACFS numeric identifiers for each file and directory in the file system.

You can use acfsutil info id id mount_point to attempt to determine the directory associated with parent.id. This directory is assumed to be where the deleted object originated. For information about acfsutil info, see "acfsutil info file".

If the parent directory is not known, the parent id field is set to UNKNOWN.

Note:

It is not possible to see the contents of the /lost+found directory from a snapshot.

Examples

The following example shows how to check and repair an Oracle ACFS file system.

Example 16-11 Using the fsck command

# /usr/sbin/fsck -V acfs -y -o a /dev/asm/volume1-123

mkfs

Purpose

Creates an Oracle ACFS file system on the AIX operating system.

Syntax and Description

mkfs -V acfs -o h /dev/null
mkfs -V acfs [-v name ] [-s size][-o options] volume_device 
     [-c release_version]

mkfs -V acfs -o h /dev/null displays usage text and exits.

Table 16-13 contains the options available with the AIX mkfs command.

Table 16-13 Options for the AIX mkfs command

Option	Description
`-V` `acfs`	Specifies the type of file system on AIX. `acfs` designates the Oracle ACFS type.
`-v` `name`	Specifies the name for the file system. A name can be a maximum of 64 characters. `acfsutil` `info` `fs` returns the name if one was specified.
`-s` `size`	Specifies the size of the file system in 512-byte units or in units of `K`\|`M`\|`G`\|`T`\|`P`. Units specified are in `K` (kilobytes), `M` (megabytes), `G` (gigabytes), `T` (terabytes), or `P` (petabytes).
`-o` `options`	Specifies that options follow (f, h, v). Options are preceded with the `-o` flag and entered as a comma-delimited string. For example: `-o` `f,v` `f` Specifies the force option. This action creates the file system even if there is an existing Oracle ACFS on the volume device, although only if the file system is dismounted. This option overwrites structures on the original file system. Use this option with caution. `h` Displays the usage text and exits. `i=512 \| i=4096` Specifies a file system with metadata block size of 512 or 4096 bytes. `v` Specifies verbose mode. The progress is displayed as the operation occurs.
`volume_device`	Specifies an Oracle ADVM device file that is to be formatted.
`-c` `release_version`	Creates an Oracle ACFS file system with Oracle ACFS release compatibility set to the value of release_version.

You can use mkfs to create the on disk structure needed for Oracle ACFS file system to be mounted. The mkfs command is the traditional Linux command used to build a file system. After mkfs runs successfully, the USAGE column in the V$ASM_VOLUME view displays ACFS. root privilege is not required. The ownership of the volume device file dictates who can run this command.

The value specified with the -c release_version option must be greater than or equal to the value of COMPATIBLE.ADVM for the disk group, and must be less than or equal to the running Oracle Grid infrastructure release version. If —c release_version is not specified, the value of COMPATIBLE.ADVM is used. After the compatibility is set, it cannot be downgraded. The —c release_version option can be used in situations where it is not possible, or desirable, to update COMPATIBLE.ADVM and COMPATIBLE.ASM for the disk group, but you want to use an Oracle ACFS feature that requires a compatibility increase. After the Oracle ACFS compatibility is updated, it is no longer possible to mount the file system with an older Oracle Grid infrastructure release. To change the compatibility of an existing file system, refer to “acfsutil compat set”. For information about Oracle ASM disk group compatibility attributes, see "Disk Group Compatibility".

The minimum file system size is 200 MB for the 512 byte metadata block size format and 512 MB for the 4 KB metadata block size format.

The Oracle ACFS driver must be loaded for mkfs to work.

4 KB Sector/Metadata

The following list summarizes the use of the -o i option and metadata block size based on the value of the COMPATIBLE.ADVM disk group attribute.

If COMPATIBLE.ADVM is set to 12.2 or greater, then the metadata block size is 4096 bytes by default.
If COMPATIBLE.ADVM is set to less than 12.2, then the block size is set to 512 bytes.
If COMPATIBLE.ADVM is set to less than 12.2 and the logical sector size is not 512 bytes, then the command fails.

User data IO continues to support transfers as small as 512 bytes for normal user IO requests. When the Oracle ADVM volume of the file system has a logical disk sector size of 4 K, user Direct IO requests should be aligned on 4 K file offsets and be a multiple of 4 KB lengths for the best performance. Note that only 4 K metadata block size formats support ADVM volumes with 4 K logical disk sectors.

The COMPATIBLE.ADVM value must be set to 12.2 or higher to format an Oracle ADVM volume whose logical disk size is 4096 or to use the -o i=4096 option to format an Oracle ADVM volume whose logical disk sector size is 512 bytes.

Examples

Before creating an Oracle ACFS file system, first determine which Oracle ADVM volume devices are available. You can use the ASMCMD volinfo command to display information about the volumes and volume devices.

ASMCMD [+] > volinfo -a
...
         Volume Name: VOLUME1
         Volume Device: /dev/asm/volume1-123
         State: ENABLED
...

See Managing Oracle ADVM with ASMCMD .

Next create an Oracle ACFS file system on the volume device file.

Example 16-12 Using the mkfs command

$ /usr/sbin/mkfs -V acfs /dev/asm/volume1-123

mount

Purpose

Mounts an Oracle ACFS file system on the AIX operating system.

Syntax and Description

mount -V acfs -o h /dev/null /xxx
mount -v acfs [-o options] volume_device mount_point

mount -V acfs -o h /dev/null /xxx displays usage text and exits.

Table 16-14 contains the options available with the mount command.

Table 16-14 Options for the AIX mount command

Option	Description
`-v` `acfs`	Specifies the type of file system on AIX. `acfs` designates the Oracle ACFS type.
`-o` `options`	Specifies that options follow. Options are preceded with the `-o` flag followed by a comma-delimited string of options. For example: `-o` `all,ro,v` The following options are available: `all` Reads the Oracle ACFS managed file systems in the Oracle Clusterware namespace, mounting all file systems with the `AUTO_START=always`. The `-o` `all` option requires two placeholders to satisfy the command arguments: a dummy argument for the volume device and directory. When the `-o` `all` option is specified, other `-o` options are ignored. To specify mount options for a registry entry, include those options with the `acfsutil` `registry` command when you add the entry to the registry. `h` Displays the usage help text and exits. `nosuid` Specifies that the execution of `setuid` and `setgid` programs by way of this mount is not allowed. `nodev` Specifies that you cannot open devices from this mount. `norootsuid` Fails the execution of binaries by non-root users whose permissions allow set user Id execution, and are owned by root. An attempt to run these executables as a non-root user fails with a permission denied error. `rootsuid` Allows the execution of binaries by non-root users of set user Id files owned by root. This is the default action. `ro` Mounts the file system in read-only mode. `rw` Mounts the file system in read-write mode. `v` Specifies verbose mode. The progress is displayed as the operation occurs.
`volume_device`	Specifies an Oracle ADVM volume device file that has been formatted by `mkfs`. `device` is required but can be a dummy value.
`mount_point`	Specifies the directory where the file system is mounted. This directory must exist before you run the `mount` command.

mount attaches a file system to the Oracle ACFS hierarchy at the mount point that is the name of a directory. The mount happens on the node where the mount command was issued. The mount command returns an error if the file system is not in a dismounted state on this node.

It is not always possible to return the cause of a mount failure to the mount command. When this happens Oracle ACFS writes the cause of the failure to the system console and associated system log file.

After mount runs successfully, the MOUNTPATH field in the V$ASM_VOLUME view displays the directory name on which the file system is now mounted.

An Oracle ACFS file system should only be mounted on one mount point. The same mount point name should be used on all cluster members.

root privilege is required to run mount.

Examples

The first example shows how to mount volume1-123 on the mount point /acfsmounts/acfs1. The second example shows how to mount all the registered Oracle ACFS file systems. The dummy names (none) have been entered as placeholders for the device and directory as these arguments are required, but not used, when the all option is specified.

Example 16-13 Using the mount command

# /usr/sbin/mount -v acfs /dev/asm/volume1-123 /acfsmounts/acfs1

# /usr/sbin/mount -v acfs -o all none none

umount/umountall

Purpose

Dismounts an Oracle ACFS file system on the AIX operating system.

Syntax and Description

umount [mount_point | volume_device]
umountall -F acfs

unmountall -F acfs dismounts all Oracle ACFS file systems.

Table 16-15 contains the options available with the umount command.

Table 16-15 Options for the AIX umount command

Option	Description
`mount_point`	Specifies the directory where the file system is mounted. Valid only with `umount`.
`volume_device`	Specifies the Oracle ADVM volume device name associated with the file system. Valid only with `umount`.
`-F` `acfs`	Specifies the type of file system on AIX. `acfs` designates the Oracle ACFS type. Valid only with `umountall`.

umount and umountall detach an Oracle ACFS from the file system hierarchy on the current node.

The umount and umountall commands do not return control back to the operating system prompt until the file system has been completely unmounted.

If a file system is busy, umount and umountall fail.

root privileges are required to run the umount and umountall commands.

Examples

The following examples show how to dismount an Oracle ACFS file system. The first example specifies the mount point of the file system to dismount. The second example specifies the volume device associated with the file system to dismount. The third example dismounts all Oracle ACFS file systems.

Example 16-14 Using the umount command

# /usr/sbin/umount /dev/asm/volume1-123

# /usr/sbin/umount /acfsmounts/acfs1

# /usr/sbin/umountall -F acfs