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Re: To use RAW devices or not to use RAW devices.

From: MotoX <rat_at_tat.a-tat.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 10:00:19 +0100
Message-ID: <905763525.9840.0.nnrp-01.c2de712e@news.demon.co.uk>

lee-tin cheng wrote in message ...
>There are other ways to gain performance before considering the use of Raw
>device. There are many operational drawbacks associated with Raw device.
For
>example, the only backup command you can use to backup the raw device is
dd.

But, as I said, you don't have to use dd - their are a number of products that will backup raw partitions. And what exactly are those 'operational drawbacks'?..

>The Unix dd command is slow for backup and recovery. We have a 30 Gbytes
>database and the applications are using raw devices. The maintainence is
>nightmare and I am thinking to convert to use regular file system on the
>Raid 0+1 devices.

If your maintenance is a 'nightmare', then you have other problems. Don't blame them on raw devices. 30Gig is tiny for a db - I can't see why you have such problems. Please detail them and maybe we can help.

RAID 0+1 is a separate case. It doesn't change your choice about raw/non-raw.

We run 100's of Gigs on raw, without problem. And we do regular restores without problems. Maintenance is less hassle with raw than filesystem, as it cuts out half the work you have to do with your LVM.

>
>For mission critial critial system, please consider the following
>alternatives
>
>1. Raid devices with stripe and mirror. Striping is for performance and
>mirror is for safety
>2. Consider Cluster device with Oracle Parallel Server Option. Two or more
>machine can access your Oracle database to increase availablility.
>3. Consider a disaster site with data replication.

Again, these are additional items, not raw device issues.

MotoX. Received on Mon Sep 14 1998 - 04:00:19 CDT

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