Supported Storage Options for Oracle AI Database and Oracle Grid Infrastructure

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

Supported Storage Options for Oracle AI Database

Oracle AI Database supports Oracle ASM, Oracle ACFS, local file systems, NFS on NAS, and NVMe-oF for different file types. ASM and NVMe-oF support data and recovery files but not binaries, while ACFS, local file systems, and NFS support binaries; local file systems are not recommended for data or recovery files. Use dedicated ASM disks, avoid loopback, raw, and block devices, and select combinations that meet all storage requirements. ASM can also store Oracle Clusterware files.

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 starts components in the correct order, monitors their health, and recovers failed database instances, listeners, services, and ASM instances. It must be installed before using ASM unless installed and registered afterward, is limited to nonclustered environments, and cannot be used on cluster-member nodes; clustered systems require Grid Infrastructure for a Cluster.

Oracle ACFS and Oracle ADVM

Oracle ACFS extends ASM to provide general-purpose file-system support for single-instance and clustered environments, while Oracle ADVM supplies volume management and the device interface through which ACFS accesses ASM. ACFS and ADVM support specified Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server kernels, but not Linux Containers; kernel patches and appropriate SELinux configuration may be required. ACFS requires ASM, can store binaries and administrative files, and has restrictions on database-file encryption, replication, Clusterware files, Oracle Restart resources, and data files, particularly in standalone Oracle Restart configurations.

File System Options for Oracle AI Database

Oracle AI Database files can be created on physically attached disks, LVM or RAID volumes, or NFS mounted from NAS, with Direct NFS available to simplify administration and improve performance. Oracle recommends separating database storage from operating-system and Oracle software file systems, distributing files across disks when appropriate, and using SAME for striped and mirrored storage. Oracle Managed Files can further automate file naming and management by allowing database object names instead of explicit file names.

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

Database file systems should use storage dedicated to the database and may consist of one or multiple file systems. A single file system should preferably reside on RAID or a multi-device logical volume using SAME, while multiple file systems should use separate physical devices to distribute I/O, separate control files, and support OFA practices. Installation requires at least 2 GB of free space for a preconfigured database, with greater capacity planned for production, and the installation user must have write access to the selected paths.

About NFS Storage for Data Files

NFS on NAS provides shared file access suitable for both single-instance and Oracle RAC databases. Database performance depends heavily on the network and NAS infrastructure, so dedicated private connections using Gigabit Ethernet or faster are recommended. Before installation, all required NFS file systems must be correctly configured, mounted, and available to the relevant servers.

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 improve scalability for large or parallel NFS deployments. 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 support. dNFS searches configured mount files in a defined order, permits only one active NFS client implementation per instance, defaults to NFSv3 when unspecified, and maps unsupported NFSv4.2 requests to NFSv4.1.
Read More: About Direct NFS Client Mounts to NFS Storage Devices