Oracle 10g Automatic

Storage Management

Overview of ASM as a Storage

Option for Oracle 10g
Objectives
At the end of this module the student will
understand the following tasks and concepts.
 Understand the role of ASM
 Understand ASM components
 Understand how ASM handles disk redundancy
 Understand ASM Disk Groups
 Understand ASM Directories and Files
 Understand the uses of the ASMCMD command
 Understand how OEM interfaces with ASM
Automatic Storage
Management
 ASM is a storage management system for
Oracle data
 ASM is designed to simplify DBA storage tasks
 Simply assign disks and walk away – no data
layout decisions
 Allows Oracle to manage thousands of files
automatically
 Organizes available disks into disk groups
ASM and Oracle Managed
Files
 ASM extends the power of Oracle
Managed Files
 Creates and manages files automatically
 Understands different Oracle file types
 Offers built-in data mirroring and striping
capabilities
 Automatically balances I/O load across disk
group(s)
 Functionally like an LVM (Logical Volume
Manager)
ASM Database
 When ASM is enabled, Oracle
automatically creates a small database
for storing ASM-related meta-data
 The default database name is “+ASM”
 The default RAC instances are “+ASMn”,
where n is the node number
 The ASM database may be managed with
srvctl commands
 Normally auto-managed by Oracle
ASM Components
 Disk Groups
 Oracle may provide disk mirroring (optional)
 Oracle will stripe files across all available disks
 Using ASM striping across a group of hardware striped
LUNs can be beneficial to performance
 Disks assigned to ASM Disk groups become ASM
Disks
 Files written on ASM disks become ASM files
 Files are named with an Oracle-defined format
 File name aliases may be defined for convenience
 A hierarchical directory structure may be defined for
file aliases
ASM Components
 Templates may be used to
associate file attributes such as
redundancy and striping with ASM
files
 ASM is implemented through an
ASM instance that runs as a
service on each node
ASM Disk Group
Redundancy
 ASM Disk Groups may be defined with
different levels of redundancy
 NORMAL redundancy indicates that Oracle
will create a software mirror for each disk
 HIGH redundancy indicates that Oracle will
create two mirror disks per data disk
 Disk mirrors may be segregated into different
locations by designating Failure Groups
 EXTERNAL redundancy indicates that Oracle
will not create any software mirrors.
Hardware mirrors (if any) will be used instead
 External redundancy is recommended for any
system with a highly available storage array
ASM Performance Tips
 ASM performance is sensitive to the
number of disk spindles utilized
 Just like traditional storage, the number of
IOs/second that can be sustained is directly
proportional to the number of disks in the disk
group
 Always use External Redundancy if you
are using RAID-capable storage hardware
 Multiple RAID 1 disks can be utilized in a Disk
Group
 ASM will provide the disk striping
 Another option is to use multiple four disk
RAID 10 groups as the building block for ASM
Disk Groups
 ASM will stripe on top of the hardware stripe,
creating a stripe “plaid”, very desirable for OLTP and
random I/O performance
Creating ASM Disk
Groups
ASM disk groups may be created as part of the
installation process
 Raw device files may be used though their file name
aliases
 As an alternative to raw files, ASMLIB may be used to
stamp raw device files
 Creates a name alias for the raw device files
 The “CREATE DISKGROUP” SQL statement may
be used to create disk groups:
 CREATE DISKGROUP dgroup_01 EXTERNAL
REDUNDANCY DISK ‘C:\ASM*';
 The disk group created in this example will be referred
to as “+dgroup_01”
ASM File Creation
 ASM files will be created automatically by
Oracle when a new object is created:
 ALTER SYSTEM SET DB_CREATE_FILE_DEST =
'+dgroup_01';
 CREATE TABLESPACE mytspace1;
 Note: ASM files are only visible to Oracle
through SQL, ASMCMD, Grid Control, or
OEM
 Not visible as an OS level file – looks like a raw
device to the OS
ASM File Formats
 ASM files have the following format:
+group/dbname/file_type/
file_type_tag.file.incarnation
Where:
 +group is the disk group name
 dbname is the DB_UNIQUE_NAME of the database
 file_type is the Oracle file type
 tag is a descriptor appropriate to the file type
 file.incarnation is the file/incarnation pair, used to
ensure uniqueness
 An example of a fully qualified ASM filename is:
+dgroup_01/oradb/controlfile/CF.248.1
Creating ASM Directories
 Before creating an alias for an ASM file,
you must first create a directory
hierarchy to contain the file:
 ALTER DISKGROUP dgroup_01 ADD
DIRECTORY '+dgroup_01/newdir';
ASM File Aliases
 An alias may be created in SQL for
an ASM file name:
 ALTER DISKGROUP dgroup_01 ADD
ALIAS
'+dgroup_011/newdir/control_2.dbf'
FOR
'+dgroup_01/oradb/controlfile/CF.248.2'
;
 Oracle Enterprise Manager may be
used to assign file aliases
 An SQL statement is still required to
create the directory (as of Oracle 10g
R1)
Creating a Tablespace with
ASM
 Creating a Tablespace in ASM:
Creating a Tablespace in ASM:
Example 1
 Let Automatic Storage Management create
and manage the tablespace datafile for you:
 Assume the following initialization parameter
setting:
 DB_CREATE_FILE_DEST = '+dgroup2'
 The following statement creates the
tablespace and its datafile:
 CREATE TABLESPACE tspace2;
Creating a Tablespace with
ASM
 Creating a Tablespace in ASM:
Example 2
 The following statements create a tablespace
that uses a user defined template to specify
the redundancy and striping attributes of the
datafile:
 SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET DB_CREATE_FILE_DEST =
'+dgroup1(my_template)';
 SQL> CREATE TABLESPACE tspace3;
Creating a Tablespace with
ASM
 Creating a Tablespace in ASM:
Example 3
 The following statement creates an
undo tablespace with a datafile that
has an alias name, and with attributes
that are set by the user defined
template my_undo_template (not
Oracle Managed Files).
 CREATE UNDO TABLESPACE myundo
DATAFILE
'+dgroup3(my_undo_template)/myfiles/my_
undo_ts' SIZE 200M;
ASMCMD
 ASMCMD is a command-line utility for
viewing and manipulating files and
directories within ASM disk groups.
 Can be used in interactive mode
 Commands can be placed in OS scripts
 Available with 10g R2
 ASMCMD can be used to:
 List the contents of disk groups
 Perform searches
 Create and remove directories and aliases
 Display space utilization
 And more.
ASMCMD Syntax
Command Description
 cd Changes the current directory to the specified
directory.
 du Displays the total disk space occupied by ASM
files in the specified ASM
directory and all its subdirectories,
recursively.
 exit Exits ASMCMD.
 find Lists the paths of all occurrences of the
specified name (with wildcards)
under the specified directory.
 help Displays the syntax and description of ASMCMD
commands.
 ls Lists the contents of an ASM directory, the
attributes of the specified file, or the names
and attributes of all disk groups.
 lsct Lists information about current ASM clients.
 lsdg Lists all disk groups and their attributes.
 mkalias Creates an alias for a system-generated filename.
 mkdir Creates ASM directories.
 pwd Displays the path of the current ASM directory.
 rm Deletes the specified ASM files or directories.
 rmalias Deletes the specified alias, retaining the file that
the alias points to.
ASMCMD Example
 In the following example, the rm command
operates on the file undotbs1.272.557429239,
which in this case is a relative path.
 ASMCMD prepends the current directory to the
command argument to obtain the absolute path
to the file

ASMCMD [+] > cd +dgroup1

ASMCMD [+DGROUP1] > cd sample/datafile
ASMCMD [+DGROUP1/SAMPLE/DATAFILE] > ls
EXAMPLE.269.555342243
SYSAUX.257.555341961
SYSTEM.256.555341961
UNDOTBS1.258.555341963
UNDOTBS1.272.557429239
USERS.259.555341963
ASMCMD [+DGROUP1/SAMPLE/DATAFILE] > rm
undotbs1.272.557429239
OEM (Grid Control) ASM Home
Page
 In Grid Control
or Database
Control (OEM)
you can log
into an ASM
instance target
(usually
+ASMn)
 Check overall
Disk Group
health
 Specific tabs
for:
 Performance
OEM (Grid Control) ASM
Performance Page
 Performance
Graphs for Disk
Group metrics:
 Disk Group I/O
response Time
 Disk Group I/O
Operations
 Disk Group I/O
Throughput
OEM (Grid Control) ASM
Administration Page
 Provides
administrative
access to disk
groups
 Mount Disk
Groups
 Dismount Disk
Groups
 Create Disk
Groups
 Drill down to
more detail
OEM (Grid Control) ASM
Configuration Page
 Configure
parameters for
Disk Groups
 Data Discovery
Path – path for
discovering Disk
Groups
 Auto Mount Disk
Groups – list of
Disk Groups to
mount
automatically at
startup
 Rebalance Power –
affects speed of
Disk Group
rebalancing. High
numbers are
Review
 Should you use normal redundancy
for a RAC system on a SAN?
 What ASM component associates
redundancy and file striping
attributes with a file type?
 Do you have to create a file name
for each new Oracle object?
 List the format of a fully qualified
ASM file
 Give an example of an ASCMD
command.
Summary
 ASM provides an easy-to-administer option for
allocating storage
 ASM extends the concept of Oracle Managed
Files
 ASM can provide both disk striping and disk
redundancy
 ASM components include Disk Groups, ASM
Disks, Templates and ASM instances
 ASM Directories, Files and File Aliases may be
optionally created
 ASMCMD may be used to simulate a traditional
file system command line interface
 Grid Control (OEM) provides several useful
ASm oriented screens