disk layout san raid5

We are migrating an Oracle9i (9.2.0.7.0) database to an AIX 5300-04 LPAR which is allocated disk from a DS4500 which is setup into 2 RAID5 array groups. The disk is presented to AIX as 2 "LUN"s (or hdisks) with one from each RAID5 array group. We are upgrading the third party application so we have the opportunity to do a complete exp/imp and restucture the disk since a full test cycle will be performed. Currently there are a "maze" of tablespaces/datafiles for tables/indexes (about 65GB space usage). Oh, and all disk is allocated through Virtual I/O LPARs and with a SVC layer in front of the DS4500.

I am proposing to reduce the number of tablespaces (maybe even just 1) and use 2 datafiles for each tablespace with each datafile on a separate hdisk (ie LUN).

Question: is there any performance advantage to more and smaller tablespaces and/or datafiles even though they technically exist on the same physical disk?

Any comments would be appraciated. Thanks. Received on Wed Jul 05 2006 - 14:09:07 CDT