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Re: Oracle 9i RAC without Raw devices

 
Jim Krol
Advisor

Oracle 9i RAC without Raw devices

I need a straight answer on this question. Can you run oracle 9i RAC in a HPUX environment and NOT use raw devices? We have a test RAC cluster that uses raw devices so I know that runs. After several meetings with HP and Oracle they seem to be saying that I have to wait until the next version of veritas cluster file system is developed to run RAC. So the question remains, Can I TODAY run an oracle RAC cluster with cooked file systems. Is anyone doing it now? If so, how. What do I need? Can you get a straight answer from anyone at HP or Oracle? Sorry for the sarcasm, but I really just want a straight answer. Thanks in advance.

Jim Krol
james.krol@boeing.com
11 REPLIES 11
Steven E. Protter
Exalted Contributor

Re: Oracle 9i RAC without Raw devices

My understanding is that Oracle 9i the database, release two is raw device only.

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Mike Hassell
Respected Contributor

Re: Oracle 9i RAC without Raw devices

Jim,

From what I see in the oracle documentation, ONLY raw devices are supported with HP-UX and Oracle 9.2.0.1.0. You can find a chart that explicitly states this here:

http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/html/A97297_01/ch2_tun.htm#i23903

While someone else may know of a method of getting around this, it would not be supported (by Oracle) and therefor not recommended for a production environment.

What version of Veritas cluter filesystem are you running? It appears that the method you are after is supported on both AIX and Solaris.

Hope that helps.

-Mike
The network is the computer, yeah I stole it from Sun, so what?
A. Clay Stephenson
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: Oracle 9i RAC without Raw devices

The straight answer is no; this is a very difficult technical problem but the main sticking point involves buffer cache. The problem is that System A writes to a filesystem (actually to the buffer cache) but System B doesn't have a clue about A's buffer cache.

I think currently the only version of Veritas' clustered filesystem that works run on Solaris.

I am not a big fan of raw disk i/o for databases (mainly because it makes backup more difficult and less reliable) but in this case because the underlying technical difficulties are so great, I would trust raw/io over even Veritas's Clustered filesystem. It's difficult (and resource expensive) enough to coordinate database i/o among multiple boxes without imposing the adding difficulty and overhead of buffer-cache consistancy.




If it ain't broke, I can fix that.
Asghar
New Member

Re: Oracle 9i RAC without Raw devices

The simple answer is NO. You ahve to remember that with Oracle 9i RAC you will have more than one Oracle instances accessing the same data base at the same time.Since HP-UX does not provide any locking mechanism for simultaneous access to the shared disk space (that's what 9i RAC uses) then you have to rely on Oracle's locking mechanism and Oracle just supports RAW devices right now for 9i RAC.
Jim Krol
Advisor

Re: Oracle 9i RAC without Raw devices

Although, I did not get the answer I was hoping for, I appreciate the effort. There is a new version of Veritas cluster software coming out, but I don't want to wait. The new Veritas will be embraced by Oracle, but I want it NOW.

Thanks to all!

Jim Krol
james.krol@boeing.com
Alexander Tzal
New Member

Re: Oracle 9i RAC without Raw devices

Oracle 9i RAC without RAW devices possible to use on HP-UX 11i from November 2002 only with Veritas Database Edition v 3.5 for Oracle bundle product (www.veritas.com) or Veritas SANPoint Foundation Suite HA v 3.5. Every one from this bundle have VxFS package with (licenced !!!) Cluster File System. CFS supported on HP-UX by Veritas only from version 3.5m from November 2002.
Hein van den Heuvel
Honored Contributor

Re: Oracle 9i RAC without Raw devices

The straight forward answer is NO as others replied.

> Can I TODAY run an oracle RAC cluster with cooked file systems.

The answer to that specific question is YES, you on other HP operating systems, but not on hp-ux today.
Transparent, Clusterwide, Shareds, File Systems are avaible today on Tru64 (3+ years now) and OpenVMS (20+ years now). The Tru64 fucntionality is expected to become available in hp-ux 'real soon now', but is not there today.

fwiw,
Hein.
Bob Sobey
Advisor

Re: Oracle 9i RAC without Raw devices

Being February 2004; is the answer still the same? With Veritas, or CVM, or ??? can we use mounted CFS on hpux for RAC?
Thanks!
Bob Sobey
sobeyr@basf.com
Hein van den Heuvel
Honored Contributor

Re: Oracle 9i RAC without Raw devices


Not much changed. AdvFS is still a year out. CFD (True clusters) on HPUX a little more than that.
:-(.
Hein.