Re: 2 GB myth

zeb wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Can I use safely datafile larger than 2 GB ?
> I know it is a file system limitation not oracle limitation,
> now on recent filesystem there is no such limitation.
>
> Is this a "psychologic" limitation ?
> Is there any known bugs ?
> perfomance pb ?
> management ?
>
> Can I go safely with this ??
>
> oracle 8i, 9i
> AIX 4, 5
> HP-UX 11.0

My own experience, trying to create a backup archive of RHEL3, is that the 2GB file limit is not a myth. I was attempting to creating an archive on a remote VFAT partition, which had a 2GB files size limit and received a message saying "Standard Input Closed. Value too large for defined data type", or something similar (I'm having a hard time deciphering my notes :)

After investigating I discovered that the file size limitation is a kernel issue, and if it needs to be increased one has make the changes "LARGE_FILESIZE" (IIRC), and recompile the kernel. But, recompiling the kernel in RHEL3 would break the support contract. More recent kernels have the file size limit set much higher.

Other items that RHEL3 did not support:
"generic" Linux
supported versions that have modified and/or recompiled kernels loading of binary modules within a kernel loading of any unsupported kernel modules loading non OpenSource drivers
3rd party software
unsupported linux versions.

The RHEL3 documentation specifically recommended against dump or restore, and suggested tar or cpio. When I archived to a remote Linux partition the 4.3GB archive file saved, and could be restored, without problems.

--
GreyGeek