Re: Oracle on Digital Unix RAID

Uwe Schuerkamp wrote:
> We'll be receiving our HP 2CPU-K420 with a model 20 HP RAID arry +

Aaaahhh... Power..... :)

> extra cache controller in a couple of weeks. Someone here mentioned
> to "read the books" on how to configure oracle for best performance

moi.

> on such a system, so I checked "the books" (read: the oracle
> manuals"), but none of them even contained the phrase "RAID" or
> "mirroring" (except for redo logs) in the indices. Can anyone point
> me to a better source of information on this topic?

You don't need a better source, you need the right book... For configuring the actual RAID partition under HPUX, you'll need the HPUX RAID installation guides that come with the system. From the point where you've got a raw device under HPUX, you can look at the following references:

1. Oracle7 Server for (your operating system) Installation and Configuration Guide
2. Oracle7 Server for UNIX Administrator's Reference Guide
3. Any addendums that come with your version to the above

Look for RAID in the HPUX volumes and RAW in the Oracle volumes.

If you still can't figure it out, I speak German, love to travel, and fully realize it's almost Oktoberfest time.

Oh, there are no other manuals available. This is a "get it from the manufacturer, or don't get it" situation. Too low level for third party books. The most you'll get from them is definitions and suggestions to use or not use a technology.

If you purchased your HP from a quality distributor, you should have some HP geek out to set it all up. Just tell him what you want is one big partition for data (aside from any system disk for HPUX and Oracle binaries). On DEC's, we have a requirement to avoid the "a" partition, but you may not have that on your HPUX setup. The tech will know.

Once you've got the RAID setup as a single monster device, all you have to do is show Oracle the RAW partition when you install Oracle, and away you go.

Make sure you grasp backup's under RAW partitions, or you could get shocked. You can always cook the partition, but that's kind of like shooting your foot. You cache may alleviate that trouble though. *sigh* whatever happened to the good old days, when everything was proprietary and you didn't need to know any of this stuff.

• copyright note: the term "stuff" was used without permission from the Sensitive Sensibilities Commission.