Re: Unix File System vs. Raw Devices

From: Joel Garry <joelga_at_pebble.ml.org>
Date: 5 May 1998 17:42:39 -0700
Message-ID: <6ioblv$hrb$1@pebble.ml.org>

In article <01bd7868$bdd3d3f0$d4000080_at_ccu09>, Scott Cairns <sdcairns_at_mindspring.com> wrote:
>I'm a Sybase DBA by training but am preparing to transition our company to
>Oracle under Sun/Solaris.
>
>In Sybase on Unix, you always did all of your device/database creation on
>raw devices because the Unix FS buffers its writes thereby eliminating any
>guarantee that your log writes actually made it to disk. What's the story
>with Oracle 8 in this context? From the training that I've gone through
>for Oracle, everything seems to be so file/pathname oriented, that it
>doesn't seem like raw devices are even an option although I'm told they
>are.
>
>Advice from the real world???

Raw devices can give some performance, but it varies by platform. I'd say don't bother for solaris - perhaps check out Veritas. Some configurations require raw, however.

Oracle is complicated enough, don't make it more complicated to start.

--
These opinions are my own and not necessarily those of Information Quest

jgarry@eiq.com                           http://www.informationquest.com

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/joel_garry "See your DBA?" I AM the @#%*& DBA! Received on Tue May 05 1998 - 19:42:39 CDT