1. X10 Deployment and User’s Guide
  2. Managing Storage

9 Managing Storage

Understand the storage options and how to manage storage for your Oracle Database Appliance deployment.

About Managing Storage

Understand Oracle Database Appliance storage options.

Oracle Database Appliance uses raw storage to protect data in the following ways:

  • Fast Recovery Area (FRA) backup. FRA is a storage area (directory on disk or Oracle ASM diskgroup) that contains redo logs, control file, archived logs, backup pieces and copies, and flashback logs.

  • Mirroring. Double or triple mirroring provides protection against mechanical issues.

The amount of available storage is determined by the location of the FRA backup (external or internal) and if double or triple mirroring is used. External NFS storage is supported for online backups, data staging, or additional database files.

Oracle Database Appliance X10-L and X10-HA models provide storage expansion options from the base configuration. In addition, on Oracle Database Appliance X10-HA multi-node platforms, you can add an optional storage expansion shelf.

The redundancy level for FLASH is based on the DATA and RECO selection. If you choose High redundancy (triple mirroring), then FLASH is also High redundancy.

Note:

For this release of Oracle Database Appliance, you can only expand the storage on X10 at the time of initial deployment and not later.

Parent topic: Managing Storage

About Managing Oracle ASM Disks

Understand the Oracle ASM disk management features that Oracle Database Appliance supports.

Oracle Database Appliance enables you to manage your Oracle ASM disks.

Bringing Oracle ASM Disk Groups Online Automatically

Oracle Database Appliance periodically checks the status of Oracle ASM disks in disk groups. If any Oracle ASM disk is OFFLINE due to transient disk errors, then Oracle Database Appliance attempts to bring the disk ONLINE.

Optimizing Oracle ASM Disk Group Rebalance Operations

Oracle Database Appliance ensures rebalancing of Oracle ASM disks to complete as quickly as possible, without overloading the system and the disks at the same time. This ensures that the system is in a steady state running with the appropriate redundancy. There are default thresholds for the values for rebalancing operations, and you can also set the custom threshold values. For example:
odacli update-agentconfig-parameters -n ASMRM_CPU_RQ -v 50 -d "CPU RUN QUEUE THRESHOLD" -u
odacli update-agentconfig-parameters -n ASMRM_MAX_HDD_DISK_RQ -v 2 -d "HDD DISK QUEUE THRESHOLD" -u
odacli update-agentconfig-parameters -n ASMRM_MAX_SSD_DISK_RQ -v 32 -d "SSD DISK QUEUE THRESHOLD" -u
odacli update-agentconfig-parameters -n ASMRM_MAX_NVME_DISK_RQ -v 50 -d "NVME DISK QUEUE THRESHOLD" -u

The above command options set custom threshold limits for rebalance monitoring of Oracle ASM disks.

You can monitor rebalance operations using the odacli describe-schedule -i Schedule ID and odacli list-scheduled-executions commands.

Parent topic: Managing Storage

Managing Storage on Single-Node Systems

Understand the storage options for your Oracle Database Appliance X10-S and X10-L systems.

Note:

For this release of Oracle Database Appliance, you can only expand the storage on X10 at the time of initial deployment and not later.

Parent topic: Managing Storage

About Storage on Oracle Database Appliance X10-S and X10-L

Understand the storage for your Oracle Database Appliance single-node system.

Oracle Database Appliance X10-S has two 6.8TB NVMe disks that host DATA and RECO disk groups. There are ten partitions that you can divide between DATA and RECO for Oracle ASM storage information. By default, DATA has an eight partition configuration and RECO has a two partition configuration. The storage capacity is fixed and cannot be expanded.

Oracle Database Appliance X10-L has two form factor-based NVMe disks namely Small Form Factor (SFF) and AIC (Add-in-Card). Both form factor NVMe disks are of 6.8TB storage capacity. SFF is a single disk of 6.8TB capacity whereas AIC has two NVMe disks each of 3.4TB capacity, with a combined storage capacity of 6.8TB. The default configuration for Oracle Database Appliance X10-L is two 6.8TB NVMe disks that host DATA and RECO disk groups.

When you first deploy and configure X10-L in this release, you can set the storage on X10-L in multiple of 2 packs of NVMe and AIC drives, such as 2, 4, and 6 disks, up to a maximum of 8 disks.

Oracle Database Appliance X10-L supports four SFF NVMe disks and four AIC NVMe disks. You must populate all four SFF NVMe disks before you add AIC NVMe disks to the system.

The table describes the NVMe storage configurations with expansion memory and storage options for single-node systems.

Table 9-1 Storage Options for Oracle Database Appliance X10-S and X10-L

Configuration Oracle Database Appliance X10-S Oracle Database Appliance X10-L

Base Configuration

2 x 6.8 TB NVMe = 13.6 TB NVMe

2 x 6.8 TB NVMe = 13.6 TB NVMe

Storage addition options

None

6x6.8TB NVMe storage drives for total storage of 54.4TB NVMe.

You must populate all four SFF NVMe disks before you add AIC NVMe disks to the system.

For the additional two SFF NVMe, order the following:

Qty:1 - 7606150 (Two 6.8TB 2.5-inch NVMe PCIe SFF SSD with marlin bracket for Oracle Database Appliance X10-L)

For the additional four NVMe AIC SSDs (these are PCIe NVMe Flash Cards that require cover removal to install), order the following:

Qty:1 for two, Qty:2 for four:

Qty:1 - 7605325 (Two 6.8 TB NVMe PCIe Cards for Oracle Database Appliance X10-L)

Parent topic: Managing Storage on Single-Node Systems

Managing Storage on High-Availability Systems

Understand the storage for your Oracle Database Appliance X10-HA system.

Note:

For this release of Oracle Database Appliance, you can only expand the storage on X10 at the time of initial deployment and not later.

Parent topic: Managing Storage

About Storage Options for Oracle Database Appliance X10-HA

Oracle Database Appliance High-Availability systems have options for high performance and high capacity storage configurations.

The base configuration of Oracle Database Appliance X10-HA hardware model has six slots (slots 0-5) with 7.68 TB drives of SSD raw storage. If you choose to order and deploy the full storage capacity, then you can fill the remaining 18 slots (slots 6-23) with either SSD or HDD drives. For even more storage, you can add a storage expansion shelf to double the storage capacity of your appliance.

In all configurations, the base storage and the storage expansion shelf each have six SSDs for DATA/RECO in the SSD option or FLASH in the HDD option.

Oracle Database Appliance X10-HA does not allocate dedicated SSD drives for REDO disk groups. Instead, the space for REDO logs is allocated on SSD drives as required.

For Oracle ASM storage, the REDO logs are stored in the available disk group space during database creation, based on the database shape selected. For Oracle ACFS storage, the space for REDO logs is allocated during the database storage creation assuming the minimum db shape (odb1s). If you create the database storage without database, then the space allocated for REDO logs is 4 GB, assuming the minimum db shape (odb1s). Subsequently, when you create a database with your required database shape on the existing database storage, the REDO logs space is extended based on shape of the database.

On Oracle Database Appliance X10-HA High Performance configurations, with only SSD drives, the DATA and RECO disk groups use all the SSD drives whether 6, 12, 18, 24, or 48 with storage expansion shelf. REDO logs are stored in the RECO disk group.

On Oracle Database Appliance X10-HA High Capacity configurations, with both HDD and SSD drives, the DATA and RECO disk groups use the HDD drives, and the SSD drives store the FLASH disk group. REDO logs are stored in the FLASH disk group.

On both High Performance and High Capacity configurations, REDO logs are always created on SSD drives, similar to earlier Oracle Database Appliance hardware models. REDO logs are always created with high redundancy irrespective of the redundancy level of the disk group, whether RECO or FLASH.

High Performance

A high performance configuration uses solid state drives (SSDs) for DATA and RECO storage. The base configuration has six disks, each with 7.68 TB SSD raw storage for DATA and RECO.

You can add up to three (3) 6-Pack SSDs on the base configuration, for a total of 184.32 TB SSD raw storage. If you need more storage, you can double the capacity by adding an expansion shelf of SSD drives. The expansion shelf provides an additional 24 SSDs, each with 7.68TB raw storage for DATA and RECO, for a total of another 184.32 TB SSD raw storage.

Adding an expansion shelf requires that the base storage shelf and expansion shelf are fully populated with SSD drives. When you expand the storage, there is no downtime.

A system fully configured for high performance has 368.64 TB SSD raw storage for DATA and RECO.

High Capacity

A high capacity configuration uses a combination of SSD and HDD drives.

The base configuration has six disks, each with 7.68 TB SSD raw storage for FLASH.

The following expansion options are available:

  • Base shelf: additional 396 TB HDD raw storage for DATA and RECO (18 HDDs, each with 22 TB storage)

  • Expansion Storage shelf: additional shelf storage configuration must be identical to the storage configuration of the base shelf.

A system fully configured for high capacity has a total of 884.16 TB raw storage for DATA, RECO, and FLASH, with 92.16 TB SSD and 792 TB HDD.

Table 9-2 Storage Options for Oracle Database Appliance X10-HA

Configuration Oracle Database Appliance X10-HA SSD-Only Configuration for High Performance Oracle Database Appliance X10-HA SSD and HDD Configuration for High Capacity
Base configuration

Base storage shelf contains 6 SSDs of 7.68 TB.

  • 6 x 7.68 TB SSD = 46 TB SSD

Base storage shelf is fully populated with 6-pack SSDs of 7.68 TB and 18-drives of HDDs with 22 TB.

  • 6 x 7.68 TB SSD = 46 TB SSD

  • 18 x 22TB HDD = 396 TB HDD

  • Total storage on the first JBOD = 442 TB, with 46 TB SSD and 396 TB HDD
Storage addition options

Base shelf contains 6 SSDs. Additional 18 SSDs must be added in packs of 6.

  • Base system: 6 x 7.68 TB SSD = 46 TB SSD

  • Adding 6 SSDs: 12x 7.68 TB SSD = 92 TB SSD

  • Adding 12 SSDs: 18 x 7.68 TB SSD = 138 TB SSD
  • Adding 18 SSDs: 24 x 7.68 TB SSD = 184 TB SSD (full shelf)

Not applicable. Base storage shelf is fully populated.
Storage shelf expansion options

Note: For this release of Oracle Database Appliance, you can only expand the storage on X10 at the time of initial deployment.

  • The optional expansion storage shelf can only be installed after the base storage shelf is fully populated, and it must have the same configuration as the base storage shelf.
  • Total storage on the base storage shelf = 184 TB SSD
  • Storage on the expansion shelf = 24 x 7.68 TB SSD = 184 TB SSD
  • Total storage including both JBODs = 368.6 TB SSD
  • The optional expansion storage shelf can only be installed after the base storage shelf is fully populated, and it must have the same configuration as the base storage shelf.
  • Total storage on the base storage shelf = 442 TB, with 46 TB SSD and 396 TB HDD
  • Total storage including both JBODs = 884 TB, with 92 TB SSD and 792 TB HDD

Parent topic: Managing Storage on High-Availability Systems