GPFS support Oracle Tips

GPFS is IBM’s high-performance parallel, scalable file system for IBM UNIX clusters capable of supporting multi-terabytes of storage within a single file system.

GPFS is a shared-disk file system where every cluster node can have parallel, concurrent read/write access to the same file.It is designed to provide high-performance I/O by "striping" across multiple disks accessed from multiple servers.GPFS provides high availability through logging and replication, and can be configured for automatic failover from both disk and node malfunctions.

• GPFS can be used for components of an Oracle Database configuration including the shared Oracle Home, the Oracle data and log files.GPFS can also be used to complement the Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) feature in Oracle Database 10g; managing the shared Oracle Home.

• Oracle Clusterware binaries should not be placed on GPFS as this reduces cluster functionality while GPFS is recovering, and also limits the ability to perform. rolling upgrades of Oracle Clusterware.

• Oracle Clusterware voting disks and the Oracle Cluster Registry (OCR) should not be placed on GPFS as the I/O freeze during GPFS reconfiguration can lead to node eviction, or cluster management activities to fail.

• Oracle Database binaries are supported on GPFS. The system should be configured to support multiple ORACLE_HOME’s so as to maintain the ability to perform. rolling patch application.

• Oracle Database 10g database files (E.G. data files, trace files, and archive log files) are supported on GPFS.

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