Re: Raw Disk Partition vs. Unix File System (Oracle 6)

cds016_at_isadmin1.comm.mot.com (David Schmitt) writes:

>In article <1993Aug18.155644.348_at_exlog.com>,
>Lee Parsons <lparsons_at_exlog.com> wrote:
>>
>>And (to bring this thread back in line with the Subject line) a whole lot
>>of people are hearing things like "GO RAW" and thinking to themselves
>>"Gee a whole 15% increase in performance, for FREE"

Good point. 15% is a very subjective number, and as has been pointed out by others:

1. is a dubious number (at best)
2. requires associated administrative overhead (correct backup procedures etc.)
3. not always a win/win situation based on application dynamics

[ various portions of discussion deleted ]

>What do you want to bet that the poster in question uses EXPORT to backup
>his database (so that it isn't affected by going raw?) :-)

Which brings up a question on backup stratagies for raw-device based databases - see below -

>>>3) If you tune Oracle buffers correctly, you will always win over
>>> Oracle buffering overhead plus file system buffering overhead.
>>> Admittedly, the difference may be small, but there is still a difference.
>>

Another good point. Oracle (and any other database for that matter) requires applications profiling and the associated tuning. Oracle's default buffers allocations are (to say the least) very 'generic'.

[ more deletions ]

We have a development machine that has 10GB online spread across 5 tablespaces (raw, striped, mirrored). Up until recently, we have been shutting down the database nightly and performing off-line backups. Unfortunately, this is not going to be the case for much longer, as the system is almost ready for 'prime time'. (development will be moved off this machine and this one will go into production) The platform is a Sun 690MP running SunOS 4.1.3, Oracle 6.0.36.7.1.

After reviewing Oracle's strategy for on-line backups, I'd like to hear from others in this group about their 'real world' stratagies, war stories, views both pro/con on Oracle's strategy, scripts for performing automated on-line backups (I'm working on one already which I'll include in a repost if there is sufficient interest), comments, tips, etc. at the e-mail address below.

If there is sufficient interest, I'll compile this into a repost, and make it available here.

Thanks in advance,
Gerard.
ghynes_at_compsult.nf.ca <----- preferred ghynes_at_morgan.ucs.mun.ca <----- next best Received on Thu Aug 19 1993 - 15:33:51 CEST