Re: OLTP and RAID 5

Ora <ora_geek_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
>I have inherited an Oracle 8i OLTP Database on Compaq / NT server ,
>with 6 Disks of 18.5 GB Each , which has RAID 5 implemented at the
>Hardware Level.
>
>All my logfiles , control files and Datafiles are all seemingly in one
>location .
>
>With RAID 5 , is it true that I need not distribute the files on
>various disk to reduce IO contention - as the files are already
>striped on all the disks.

Yes. ish.

If you're seeing redo bottlenecks, it may help to move the data to seperate disks. Having all your control files in the one RAID-5 volume is somewhat high risk too.

>My basic doubt is can an OLTP system and RAID 5 a good combination.

There's no inherent reason why not. RAID-5 _does_ have a performance penalty on writes, but if its not the major system bottleneck, why worry? Tune real problems, not theories and dogma.

-- 
Andrew Mobbs - http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~andrewm/