Mounting Storage ... NFS?
Pat
So ... we're getting a new SAN in one of our data centers (a netapp
3040). If you're not familiar with netapps, one of their big things is
that you don't have to buy another head unit to expose storage as NFS
(as opposed to fiber channel). This is one of those features which
struck me as only moderately interesting from a database perspective,
since I just kind of assumed we'd link everything up via fiber channel
anyway.
That is until we had the netapp rep on the phone and he blithely
suggested we mount the primary storage on our database servers as NFS.
After I finished coughing up a lung (since my instinct is never, ever,
ever put operation storage on NFS for latency and stability reasons),
he went on to assure us that this is an Oracle recommended
configuration and, in fact, the Oracle On Demand grid uses precisely
this approach.
Is anybody actually doing this? I'm assuming with fast ethernet
(10GBS) and low collision rates, I could get good throughput
relatively to a 4GBS fiber channel card, but there's be inevitable
latency issues added wouldn't there?
Is my instinct to run screaming from any kind of NFS storage archaic,
or is the netapp guy just spouting a load of hooey?
DA Morgan
You really need to go out and have a scotch ... on the rocks ... toss
it back ... because your instincts are terrible.
Oracle, internally, uses NFS. I have used NFS to set up some very
substantial systems, and it is as stable and almost as fast as Fibre.
NFS today is not the NFS of yesterday any more than Oracle 10gR2 is
Oracle 7.0.12.
The NetApp guy was right on the money. You owe him a drink.
--
Daniel A. Morgan
Oracle Ace Director & Instructor
University of Washington
damo...@x.washington.edu (replace x with u to respond)
Puget Sound Oracle Users Group
www.psoug.org
Mladen Gogala
> Is anybody actually doing this? I'm assuming with fast ethernet (10GBS)
> and low collision rates, I could get good throughput relatively to a
> 4GBS fiber channel card, but there's be inevitable latency issues added
> wouldn't there?
The company that I used to work for was using that, with more then
satisfactory throughput. NetApp also has a gread snapshot backup which
works fine with Oracle. At the time when I worked for them, they were
having a DSS database with storage attached through NFS.
>
> Is my instinct to run screaming from any kind of NFS storage archaic, or
> is the netapp guy just spouting a load of hooey?
Yes, it is an archaic fear. Kevin Closson, along with K. Gopalakrishnan,
the foremost authority on all thins RAC and storage has a great blog in
which he explains many misconceptions about NFS:
http://kevinclosson.wordpress.com/
Kevin was the principal architect of the Polyserve cluster file system,
later bought by HP and now works for Oracle Corp.
The posts that I would especially recommend are:
http://kevinclosson.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/mount-options-for-oracle-
over-nfs-its-all-about-the-port/
http://kevinclosson.wordpress.com/2007/06/14/manly-men-deploy-oracle-with-
fibre-channel-only-oracle-over-nfs-is-weird/
Essentially, Oracle supports NFS. Of course, it cannot be just any
Linux server, although I will admit trying precisely that, with some
degree of success, the only supported way is using a commercial NAS,
like NetApp. Please, look into the Note:359515.1 for details.
Having said that, you should still ask Network Appliance for references
and check those references. As a general rule, you want your references
as close as possible and, if possible, from the same industry as the
company you are working for. Every salesman worth his salt has a list of
references for all major types of Oracle installation. NetApp is in
business for a long time and they expect questions like that.
Connor McDonald
We're running 10g and 11g RAC clusters on Netapp (FAS 6040) and its just
peachy...
--
Connor McDonald
Co-author: "Mastering Oracle PL/SQL - Practical Solutions"
Co-author: "Oracle Insight - Tales of the OakTable"
web: http://www.oracledba.co.uk
web: http://www.oaktable.net
email: connor_...@yahoo.com
"Semper in excremento, sole profundum qui variat."
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