Re: RAID level suggestions

Tolson Smith wrote:
>
> I am in the process of setting up our new UNIX enviornment and I have a
> question about RAID levels and what people's suggestions are.
>
> Currently I have a Oracle database (7.1.6.2) on OpenVMS on a RAID drive level
> 0+1 that is approximately 4GB.
>
> Given that some RAID level will be run in our organization I am looking for
> recommendations of what level the actual data should be put on. I recognize
> that the RollBack segments, temporary space and the redo logs are write
> intensive and there for should not most likely be located on the same drive as
> the data. We currently are doing approximately 12 to 15 % write activity and
> the rest is reading.
>
> Please post here or email me, I check the system several times a day.
>
> Tolson Smith
> tsmith_at_cyberus.ca

Opinion Follows:

Oracle already mirrors the Redo Logs and Control files. It has its own Raid-1, so to speak.
The data files are highly recoverable from redo logs and archived redo logs. I'm not sure RAID is good for much. Maybe you should keep the redo log archives on RAID. That's about all I see it being good for.

Some say that "Striping" your tablespaces all over all available media gives good performance. You can't really do much tuning, but they say you don't need to. I've never tried this.

I have measure RAID performance penalties, and I think its only good for backing up an active Oracle database.

-- 
S. Lott
Consultant, NE Region
CTG
SLOTT_at_DELPHI.COM
S.LOTT_at_CTG.COM
800-992-5350 box 7053