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I have a server with three directly attached disk controllers. Each of these can provide internal redundancy and IO-striping accross disks, but I'm wondering what is the best way to configure the whole system.

Would it be sensible to allocate three datafiles for each tablespace, each datafile being created in a mount provided by a single controller? Oracle seems to distribute data somewhat evenly accross datafiles when doing inserts, but would this be enough striping for queries?

We are mostly concerned about read performance for single aggregate queries (data warehouse) and want to read data in parallel from each controller.

One answer would be to use ASM or LVM to do the striping, Oracle would then see only one mount point where to store datafiles. We do have a configuration with ASM + number of JBOD-disks; it does perform reasonably well, but ASM has it's own issues and we are considering alternatives.

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  • Just to be clear - you already have redundancy across disks within each controller, but you want to add further redundancy across controllers? You understand this will create multiple copies of data that already has multiple copies? Apr 10, 2014 at 13:41
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    Also, what are the issues you are having with ASM that are putting you off using it? Apr 10, 2014 at 13:51
  • Redundancy accross controllers would protect data in a situation where a controller fails. Yes, I'm aware that this will create more copies and it's one factor we are considering.
    – sjk
    Apr 11, 2014 at 5:56
  • Main issue with ASM is that since 11g, ASM is part of the grid infrastruture and needs to be patched/upgraded every time databases are upgraded (ASM must not be lower version according to Oracle docs). We are not using RAC, so this feels like extra overhead.
    – sjk
    Apr 11, 2014 at 6:02

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Your plan of adding three datafiles on different mounts will not work well. Oracle doesn't stripe optimally within tablespaces. It just allocates extents in a reasonably efficient manner. The method you suggested is striped better than one disk, but it's not even close to optimal. Basically, you can't have really good striping without ASM or an external disk management system.

The other problem is that having three independently redundant arrays is either going to waste a lot of disk space or create three seperate points of failure. Think about it - if you are keeping one copy of each data block in each controller, then within that controller you will have multiple copies of the data again. You'll end up with 4, 6 or 9 copies of each block. That's a massive waste of resources. Conversely, without redundancy across controllers you are turning each controller into an SPOF (Single Point Of Failure).

Essentially you have two options:

  1. Let Oracle manage the RAID functionality entirely. Turn off redundancy in the three controllers, set up ASM with normal/high redundancy. Create your diskgroups using an equal number of disks from each controller. Create three failure groups, one for each controller. This will achieve the redundancy and striping that you want.

  2. Manage the redundancy entirely without Oracle. Use LVM or similar system to present a completely redundant, appropriately striped disk to Oracle. This will probably also involve turning off redundancy within each controller, and letting LVM manage the redundancy across controllers. The result is the same.

TL:DR - Your redundancy across disks within each controller is pointless when you have multiple controllers. Disable it and create redundancy across controllers instead.

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  • Most likely we continue to use ASM / LVM. You are right that trying to stripe across datafiles would not be optimal and not a good idea from redundacy perspective.
    – sjk
    Apr 14, 2014 at 9:16

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