Supported Storage Options for Oracle Database and Oracle Grid Infrastructure

Review supported storage options as part of your installation planning process.

Supported Storage Options for Oracle Database

Oracle Database supports Oracle ASM, Oracle ACFS, local file systems, NVMe over Fabrics, NFS on NAS, and Oracle Memory Speed with varying support for binaries, data files, and recovery files. Oracle ASM is recommended on dedicated disks and can store database and recovery files plus Clusterware files, while raw or block devices cannot be used directly. ACFS on IBM AIX is deprecated in Oracle Database 19c, and local file systems are supported for data and recovery files but not recommended.

About Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a Standalone Server

Oracle Grid Infrastructure for a standalone server combines Oracle Restart and Oracle ASM for single-instance databases, providing volume management, file-system services, monitoring, and automatic restart. Oracle Restart manages database instances, listeners, services, and ASM, restarting failed components in the correct order and monitoring their health. It must be installed before using ASM unless the database is later registered manually, is limited to nonclustered environments, and cannot be installed on or added to an Oracle Grid Infrastructure cluster node.

Oracle ACFS and Oracle ADVM

Oracle ACFS extends ASM to provide a general-purpose file system for application and database files in single-instance and clustered environments, while Oracle ADVM supplies volume management and the device-driver interface through which ACFS accesses ASM. ACFS and ADVM are supported on specified Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server kernels, but not Linux Containers; ACFS on IBM AIX is deprecated in Oracle Database 19c and unsupported on AIX WPARs. ACFS requires ASM, supports database homes and files subject to configuration restrictions, does not support encryption or replication for several database file types, and has limitations in Oracle Restart and Clusterware configurations.

File System Options for Oracle Database

Oracle Database files can be stored on file systems located on physically attached disks, LVM or RAID volumes, or NFS-mounted NAS devices, with Direct NFS Client available to simplify administration and improve performance. Oracle recommends separating database file systems from operating system and Oracle software file systems, distributing storage according to OFA or SAME practices, and using Oracle Managed Files when automatic file naming and management are desired. These options support both standard installations and advanced configurations using one or multiple file systems.

Guidelines for Placing Oracle Database Files On a File System or Logical Volume

Database file systems should use storage dedicated to the database, preferably RAID or logical volumes spanning multiple physical devices with a stripe-and-mirror-everything policy. A single file system simplifies deployment, while multiple file systems can distribute I/O, separate control files, improve reliability, and support OFA practices. Installation-created databases require at least 2 GB of free space, production capacity must be estimated from expected usage, and the Oracle installation user must have write access to the selected paths.

About NFS Storage for Data Files

NFS enables database files to reside on shared NAS storage and supports both single-instance and Oracle RAC databases. Performance depends heavily on the network connection, so dedicated private connections using Gigabit Ethernet or faster are recommended. Before installation, all required NFS file systems must be mounted and available on the database servers, with configuration completed according to the storage vendor’s guidance.

About Direct NFS Client Mounts to NFS Storage Devices

Direct NFS Client integrates NFS access into Oracle software to optimize database I/O, supports NFSv3, NFSv4, NFSv4.1, and pNFS, and can use a dispatcher to reduce TCP connections and improve scalability. NFS servers require a write size of at least 32768, and mount points must be available to both the operating-system NFS client and dNFS for fallback capability. dNFS searches for configuration in the Oracle home, system oranfstab, and mtab locations, permits only one active NFS client implementation per instance, and selects protocol versions according to configuration, using NFSv4.1 when NFSv4.2 is specified.
Read More: About Direct NFS Client Mounts to NFS Storage Devices