Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

GFS, OCFS, and GPFS - Which Filesystem for Oracle?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the proper-care-and-feeding-of-a-high-octane-RDBMS dept.

amani asks: "My company has a Oracle 9i RAC database running on a Sun cluster. In 6 months we are looking to replace the cluster with either a Linux or an AIX solution that will involve SAN storage. I see that their are a variety of filesystems for Oracle and Linux. Sistina (Red Hat) has the GFS, Oracle has the OCFS, and IBM has GPFS. Does anyone know the pros and cons of each of these filesystems ,and which one would be better for a continuously growing database?"

5 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. VCS is the way to go by Androclese · · Score: 3, Informative

    Have you looked at a Veritas Cluster? (VCS) The company I work for uses it and we have found it to be very stable.

  2. Why bother... none of those are worth using. by danbeck · · Score: 1, Informative

    Until there is a high quality, well maintained, open source clustered file system along the professional level of reiserfs, I'd say nothing out there is worth using. They are all either 1) closed source and by definition poorly maintained and near non-usable with open source operating systems, 2) aren't *real* clustering file systems or 3) so ungodly expensive only fortune 500 companies can justify the expense.

    1. Re:Why bother... none of those are worth using. by zem_11 · · Score: 2, Informative

      What about Lustre (http://www.lustre.org)?

      BTW, implicitly, closed != bad. Yes, sometimes it does, but not always.

      Also, by what definition is a filesystem a "cluster filesystem". One in which the cluster nodes can (a) access, (b) provide or (c) access and provide the filesystem? Not every flavour of clustered filesystem falls in the same category.

      I do agree with the license comment on closed source systems - the per-node license fees are ridiculous.

  3. choose AIX/JFS/SSA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I run a 500 MB Oracle DB for SAP on top of AIX/JFS/SSA disks. It runs fine. Everything is very stable. Performance is good. SSA is a IBM SAN-like disk technology. SSA is pricey, however is very mature. With AIX 5.2 you can add/delete/move/remove FS/disks/SSA trays with all the applications running. Avoid JFS2, still not mature enough to be stable. Create Oracle datafiles up to 2 GB.

  4. ask us? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Um.. perhaps call your Oracle support people. If your company is at all sizable, they probably have support contracts with the companies that provide them their mission-critical software? And their professional services/technical engineering people would surely be the best people to ask.