| Oracle FAQ | Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid | |
 |
 | |||
| Oracle FAQ | Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid | |
|
| |||
Home -> Community -> Usenet -> c.d.o.server -> Re: switch from file system to raw device
Servus Hans,
> In many organizations I've seen or about which I've read, the DBA's role and
> the SysAdmin's (SA's) role are clearly separated and the DBA is really only
In my case there is a separation between "the dirty work" and the "white
collar work", let's put it this way. I am senior sysadmin but junior dba,
as it is my responsibility to (besides the sysadmin stuff, like install
hw+OS, create spaces etc) create new dbs (with parameters discussed
with the dba, all right), maintaining disk space (tablespace growth) and
then of course backup/recovery procedure. Which implies creating,
maintaining and testing the backup and recovery software - on the other
hand the dba might not have access or further understanding of the backup
software/destination (TSM in my case). On the other hand the dba creates
and maintains the logical structures, supports development and so on.
> taught file manipulation using traditional file system tools (cp, ls, tar,
> etc.) So a typical backup/recovery of raw files would require coordinated
> effort between 2 individuals. In addition, using raw devices has meant
> creating, maintaining and testing the backup and recovery 'software'.
How you see, is not my case, but the consideration about clear division
between sysadmin and dba is surely true in many large companies.
> That has changed a lot with RMAN and certainly seems not true in your
> case.
We thought about EBU in the first place, later RMAN but considered it to
be an additional complexity and of course, who will backup RMAN's
database? Another RMAN? We (me and the dba) in fact have seen RMAN in
class course but never used or tested it intensively at home. We are very
comfortable with the bash shell script backup/recovery "software". In fact
we test recovery procedure once in a while with dba and operator.
> Another part of the effort is the monitoring and sizing of the
> tablespaces. With raw, such conveniences as autoextend are challenged.
This is talking about Oracle 8 or further. Oracle 8 came into this company
later, we started off with 7.3.4 where, as far as I recall, no autoextend
capability is offered. But at last, even autoextend has to be monitored
and sized, right? One day even autoextend will come to the end of the
disk, won't it?
> In a world of ever-increasing point-and-click administration, a la
> Windows, reading about your experience is refreshing. And a reminder to
> me that not everyone wants the easy way out.
As I said, I don't find it more complicated dealing raw devices as I am
doing nothing else for several years now. But you're right, I am near at
frustration having clicked a button, and things work, but have not really
understood what happened. In a situation of malfunction many of those
"point-and-click admins" seem not to be able to turn things around and fix
problems (I know someone like this). };-)
> experience with raw devices, and are not familiar with RMAN, replacing
> individuals (or letting the experienced ones go on vacation) is more
> difficult.
Sorry, I did not understand: What does "go on vacation" mean? ;-))
But seriously, yeah, you are right, of course.
>> By the way, we use raw devices on small Linux systems, too.
> And then there is the question of getting enough raw devices when the
> entire system can be handled by one 146GB SCSI drive. And the 400GB
> SATA drive is causing some serious rethinking ... who would have thought
> that 3 disk drives for under USD$1500 (eg. www.dirtcheapdrives.com)
> could provide over a TB of storage.
This is, when your company support this kind of choices.
But, returning to the technical issue, I am doing some tests today, to get things going. I will sure post my experience, just give me some time ...
Have a nice day and thank you very much for your contribute. Best regards, Igor Received on Thu Sep 16 2004 - 06:39:48 CDT
 |
 |