Oracle RAC Storage Installation

Oracle RAC 10.2 storage options on Linux Blog Category:

• Oracle

Oraclelinux Project Management configuration Management

Oracle clusters require storage of software and data

Project	Content	Minimum disk space
Clusterware Software	Cluster software	500M (does not change after installation is complete)
Voting disk (voting disks)	Logging cluster node information	20M
OCR (Oracle cluster registration)	Storage Cluster configuration information	100M
Oracle database Software	Database software	1.3G (does not change after installation is complete)
RAC Database	Store all database files	1.2G (continuous increase during use)
Recovery file (recover files)	Recover data quickly	2G

storage mechanisms for parts of the Oracle cluster (non-third-party clustered file systems)

Project	Storage System	Storage location
Clusterware Software	NFS (requires NAS device), Ext2, ext3 and other local file systems	Local disk, network disk (NFS)
Voting disk	OCFS2, Raw device, NFS	Shared disk, network disk (NFS)
Ocr	OCFS2, Raw device, NFS	Shared disk, network disk (NFS)
Database software	OCFS2 (Shared), NFS (Network), Ext2, ext3 and other local file systems	Local disk, network disk (NFS), shared disk (OCFS2)
RAC Database	OCFS2, ASM, Raw device, NFS	Shared disk, network disk (NFS)
Recover files	OCFS2, ASM, NFS	Shared disk, network disk (NFS)

As you can see from the storage location, all of the content can use a network disk, but the network disk requires a NAS device. If you do not use a NAS device, other data must be stored on the shared disk in addition to the software. For Oracle database software, if you want to store on a shared disk (all servers share an Oracle Home), you need to use the OCFS2 file system.

Clusterware and Oracle Database storage options

Storage options	Supported file types
Clusterware	Database	Recover files
Asm	Whether	Is	Is
OCFS2	Is	Is	Is
Raw Device	Is	Is	Whether
Nfs	Is	Is	Is

As you can see from the table above, to use a single file system, you must use the OCFS2 or NFS file system. However, Oracle 10g provides a very handy storage management system ASM, so in most cases it is recommended to use OCFS2 to store clusterware data and Oracle database software, using ASM to store database files.

To summarize, installing an Oracle cluster on Linux (x86) is recommended for one of the following strategies:

(1) Install the Oracle database software on a local disk (a copy per node), use a bare device to store the Clusterware , and use ASM to store the database and recover files.

Project	Storage System	Storage location
Clusterware Software	Ext2, ext3	Local Disk
Voting disk	Raw Device	Shared disk
Ocr	Raw Device	Shared disk
Database software	Ext2, ext3	Local Disk
RAC Database	Asm	Shared disk
Recover files	Asm	Shared disk

(2) All data is stored using OCFS2 and the Oracle database software is installed on OCFS2 (all nodes share one Oracle Home)

Project	Storage System	Storage location
Clusterware Software	Ext2, ext3	Local Disk
Voting disk	OCFS2	Shared disk
Ocr	OCFS2	Shared disk
Database software	OCFS2	Shared disk
RAC Database	OCFS2	Shared disk
Recover files	OCFS2	Shared disk

(3) Install the Oracle database software on the shared disk (all nodes share an Oracle Home) and use ASM storage to recover files and databases.

Project	Storage System	Storage location
Clusterware Software	Ext2, ext3	Local Disk
Voting disk	OCFS2	Shared disk
Ocr	OCFS2	Shared disk
Database software	OCFS2	Shared disk
RAC Database	Asm	Shared disk
Recover files	Asm	Shared disk

In most cases, the use of a third strategy is better for managing and scaling and I/O load balancing.