OnlineJFS for improving Oracle performance on 11.11

[Carl Houseman]

I've found an Oracle white paper that suggests that the vxfs mount options "mincache=direct" and "convosync=direct" can improve transaction throughput by about 100%. Those options, the man page tells me, are only available with OnlineJFS which I don't have.

Searching for info on OnlineJFS, I find there's a 3.3 version, a 3.5 version, and then my vendor tells me there's a 4.1 and something called "VFS 5.0" also available. One of the HP references suggested that customers should stay on the 3.3 version rather than upgrade to 3.5.

So...

1. What's the best / most-stable version of this software to run on 11.11 in order to enable the performance options noted?

2. Can this product be installed and mount options enabled with little or no risk?

3. Is this product available with a trial license key?

thanks all...

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

1)I've had good results with 3.3 and 3.5 3.3 is a little long in the toot in my opinion.
2) Yes, you can go slow and not add any mount options until you know it better.
3) Yes, I believe HP does grant 30 day trials but you'll need to talk to your rep.

Note that Oracle performance will be marginally improved by doing regular OnlineJFS defrags. We're talking a maximum of 5% if my results are typical.

SEP

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Carl:

1. You should be able to use either JFS 3.3 or 3.5 with 11.11. If you have 3.3 installed, add the Online JFS component to it. Similarly for 3.5 if you have that base component installed.

2. Yes, the mount options are just that --- mount options. Adding or deleting the ones cited carry no risks.

3. No, there is no trial license. You must purchase the Online component, but this is *well* worth the cost, both in performance gains you can potentially realize and of course in the ability to dynamically resize file system sizes without unmounting. Too, you have the ability to do JFS snapshots for backup purposes when you have Online JFS.

Regards!

...JRF...

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

Generally, any of the versions above 3.1 are fine and some of them are not available on 11.11. All of them will support the options that bypass the buffer cache. One of the gotcha's to consider is the case of creating a filesystem on a box running 4.x (for example) and then trying to export it and using it on a box that has 3.3 installed. That will not work. The filesystems are upwardly compatible but not downwardly so choose the highest level that is available for your OS release but keep in mind the limitations if you ever need to move this filesystem to another platform. There is also a vxupgrade command that will upwardly convert one format to another so if you install 3.3 today and want the benefits of a later version at some point, that is doable. It's rather nice to install a new server and use your existing disk array and also be able to upgrade to a newer format without having to restore from backup.

There is really no additional risk with OnlineJFS although you should look for any apply any filesystem, SCSI, and disk related patches after you install the product. Depending on how new your version of 11.11 is, you probably already have OnlineJFS installed; you aare simply not licensed. So a simple licensing is all that is required and no reboot is necessary. Versions 3.1 and below worked flawlessly with one notable exception: the fsadm -b command to reduce the size of a filesystem would often corrupt data; I've never seen a problem with the far more common use of fsadm -b to increase the size of a filesystem. It's also trivially easy to try your mopunt options; gather some metrics; and then remove your mount options and run the same tests. I would not be surprised if you see no significant benefits from these mount options although the gains were very noticable under HP-UX 10.20.


Whether or not you use the mount options you mention, you should purchase OnlineJFS. It is so useful that no HP-UX box should be without it. Being able to expand filesystems "on the fly" is probably the most useful feature. I don't think a Trial version is available.

[Carl Houseman]

Thanks everyone. This is good feedback. A couple questions raised by the feedback...

How can I tell if I already have OnlineJFS 3.3 installed and it only needs a licensing key? swlist|grep -i jfs comes back with:

PHKL_34805 1.0 JFS3.3 patch; mmap

and nothing else.

My vendor tells me the oldest version they can sell is 3.5. Assuming I have unlicensed 3.3 installed, could I use the 3.5 key against the 3.3 installation?

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again) Carl:

# swlist -l fileset|grep -i onlinejfs|

...will return:

# OnlineJFS B.11.11 Online features of the Vx
FS File System

...if you have Online JFS installed.

This guide should answer your upgrade questions:

http://www.docs.hp.com/en/5187-1880/index.html

Regards!

...JRF...

[Carl Houseman]

Looks like I've got no base version nor any other thing related to OnlineJFS.

Thanks JRF...

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Carl:

You most certainly have a Base JFS --- probably 3.3 since that was the original default version for 11.11.

# what /stand/vmunix | grep libvxfs

...will return something like:

VxFS 3.5 for HP-UX 11.11 libvxfs35.a

...if your version is 3.5.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Carl Houseman]

Copied and pasted without editing:

root: /: what /stand/vmunix|grep libvxfs
$Revision: libvxfs.a: CUPI80_BL2000_1108_2 Wed Nov 8 10:59:22 PST 2000 $
root: /:

[Raj D.]

Carl,

You can try # fstyp -v /dev/vg00/lvol3 ,
and you can see the version info of vxfs.

hp-ux 11i supports vxfs version of 3.3 and disk layout version 2,3 and 4.

Also check this out:

http://docs.hp.com/en/B3929-90011/ch01s04.html


Cheers,
Raj.

[Steven E. Protter]

Second Question:

1) Best practices are to swremove the old version before swinstalling the new. There are many exceptions to the rule but if followed there is no "install against" to be talked about here.

2) The marketing of the product line creates confusion. VxVM contains elements of OnlineJFS, plus the filesystem format is called JFS, though HP designates it vxfs. Its likely that this confusion is why you thought you may have base OnlineJFS on the system, when you actually had the base version of JFS on it.


PHKL_34805 1.0 JFS3.3 patch; mmap

This means OnlineJFS, is not currently installed. The JFS 3.3 patch is for vxfs or is an install requirement of 3.5, 3.3 or both.

My vendor tells me the oldest version they can sell is 3.5. Assuming I have unlicensed 3.3 installed, could I use the 3.5 key against the 3.3 installation?

Probably not.

SEP

[Carl Houseman]

OK, I am still coming up to speed on all things JFS. It seems clear that I do not have even the base version installed.

And my only goal is to set the two mount options noted in my OP. I should be able to do that with the base version, correct?

(Although defrag and other features of the full version would be nice, they are not cheap and they are not what got me here.)

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Carl:

As I noted above, you most certainly have a Base JFS --- probably 3.3 since that was the original default version for 11.11.

# swlist -l fileset|grep -i JFS

...will show that.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Carl Houseman]

I know that I cannot set the mount options I need, and the only reference to "3.3" I see here is the previously mentioned patch. Does the following suggest to you that I have the base JFS 3.3 or 3.5 installed?

root: /: swlist -l fileset|grep -i JFS
# JFS B.11.11 The Base VxFS File System

JFS.JFS-ENG-A-MAN B.11.11 JFS-ENG-A-MAN
JFS.JFS-JPN-E-MAN B.11.11 JFS-JPN-E-MAN
JFS.JFS-JPN-S-MAN B.11.11 JFS-JPN-S-MAN
JFS.VXFS-BASE-KRN B.11.11 The Base VxFS File System
Kernel files
JFS.VXFS-BASE-RUN B.11.11 VXFS-BASE-RUN
JFS.VXFS-PRG B.11.11 Subproduct contains the n
ecessary header files for prog env
PHCO_26701.VXFS-BASE-RUN 1.0 JFS.VXFS-BASE-RUN
PHCO_28796.JFS-ENG-A-MAN 1.0 JFS.JFS-ENG-A-MAN
PHCO_28796.VXFS-BASE-RUN 1.0 JFS.VXFS-BASE-RUN
# PHKL_24026 1.0 JFS Filesystem swap corru
ption
PHKL_24026.VXFS-BASE-KRN 1.0 JFS.VXFS-BASE-KRN
PHKL_26104.VXFS-BASE-KRN 1.0 JFS.VXFS-BASE-KRN
PHKL_26552.VXFS-BASE-KRN 1.0 JFS.VXFS-BASE-KRN
PHKL_27734.VXFS-BASE-KRN 1.0 JFS.VXFS-BASE-KRN
PHKL_28185.VXFS-BASE-KRN 1.0 JFS.VXFS-BASE-KRN
# PHKL_28512 1.0 Fix for POSIX_AIO in JFS3
.3
PHKL_29045.VXFS-BASE-KRN 1.0 JFS.VXFS-BASE-KRN
# PHKL_34805 1.0 JFS3.3 patch; mmap
PHKL_34805.VXFS-BASE-KRN 1.0 JFS.VXFS-BASE-KRN

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Carl:

Based upon everything you have posted (including the 'grep'ed output from 'what /stand/vmunix' you have JFS 3.3.

You can upgrade to JFS 3.5 for free and *then* purchase an OnlineJFS license:

http://h20293.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=BASEVXFS

http://h20293.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=B3929CA

Regards!

...JRF...

[Carl Houseman]

OK... so what I'm hearing is that, even if install the Base 3.5 JFS that I just downloaded, I will still not have the mount options I need, correct?

OnlineJFS 3.5 is a $20K purchase for our config and there's no trial available according to vendor so I need to be very sure about this.

thanks...

[James R. Ferguson]

HI Carl:

> OK... so what I'm hearing is that, even if install the Base 3.5 JFS that I just downloaded, I will still not have the mount options I need, correct?

Yes, that is correct.

> OnlineJFS 3.5 is a $20K purchase for our config and there's no trial available according to vendor so I need to be very sure about this.

Yes, OnlineJFS does cost. It pays for itself, though in the performance and high-availablity it offers.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Raj D.]

Carl,

Also , if you buy the OS , hp-ux MCOE ( Mission Critical Operating Environment) product , the Online JFS comes bundled with it, and no additional cost.

http://h20338.www2.hp.com/hpux11i/cache/324915-0-0-0-121.html

Enjoy , Have fun!!,
Raj.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom again Carl.

My comments inline:

OK... so what I'm hearing is that, even if install the Base 3.5 JFS that I just downloaded, I will still not have the mount options I need, correct?


Yes, that is correct.


OnlineJFS 3.5 is a $20K purchase for our config and there's no trial available according to vendor so I need to be very sure about this.

thanks...

OnlineJFs 3.5 is licensed by the CPU. Ihave seen evidence in the license files that a trial is available but have no idea how to get it.

Your cost is $20,000, which doesn't mean its a bad investment.

Summary:
Primary benefits:

1) Being able to extend a filesystem without umount this avoids downtime. As A. Clay says, thats a feature I'd want on any system. I agree. I work with customers that want systems up 24/7. To meet that criteria, they need high availability ServiceGuard and OnlineJFS, because filesystems need to grow at the most inconvenient time.

2) Defragmenting filesystems. It does help performance and is worth it.

3) Mount options.

How much did the systems cost? The point has been belabored to a great degree in this thread. Based on what you say, I think you need the product. A trial version merely permits you to demonstrate the benefits to management.

Time to go for it in my opinion.

SEP

[Steven E. Protter]

I'm sorry, I forgot to mention an important feature.

OnlineJFS has the ability to get cold backups of databases with a downtime of around 1 minute.

What you do is create a snapshot of the logical volume that has the database. A new logical volume is created to contain all the writes to the database while the snapshot is frozen. Great tool.

Scenario:

bring down the database,
create the snapshot and its logical volume for all writes to the database. Normally 20% of the size of the database is required for this, sometimes much less.
Bring up the database
Start the cold backup.
At close of backup, close the snapshot, all writes go to the original logical volume.

You get a cold backup of the database because nothing is being written to it while the snapshot exists.

This is a great feature since bouncing the database normally takes less than a minute.

SEP